Nick and I were at LAX International Airport on route to Tokyo, Japan when I received an email on my BlackBerry (which I'm typing on currently) from Dragon Gate's American booker OJI, who works out of Houston, Texas. He told us the plans to run a company that will hold events every two months in the states, and wanted to see if we would be interested. He already had a date and building, July 25th at the famous building originally known as the ECW Arena in Philadelphia. Of course we were thrilled.
A few days later, Dragon Gate announced this new company known as Dragon Gate USA to the public. Nick and I nearly walked into the press conference that was taking place that day at the Korakuen Hall. We were coming from downstairs where the locker room is located and noticed how quiet the area where the ring is. We loudly made our way towards this area and then saw Cima, Yoshino, Doi and most of the Dragon Gate office sitting at a long table. Several members of the media stood in front of the boys with flashing cameras. Without hesitation, Nick and I hurried back downstairs because we didn't want to interrupt. We soon realized that this new company might be a big deal when DGUSA was all over the next weekly wrestling magazine. Eventually Gabe Sapolsky who was appointed Vice President, sent us an e-mail saying he was excited to work with us and came across as a very genuine human being. Nick and I had always dreamt of one day working with Gabe, as we are long time ROH followers. The debut show was scheduled, but was over three months away. Nick and I were SO anxious to say the least. We didn't want to wait THAT long!
July 25th would finally come. Most of the crew hung in the back right before showtime. I stood by one of my true best friends in this business, Doi, my brother Nick and the awesome heel, Yamato. We all looked up at the big screen and watched along with the fans (little did they know), as a countdown occured. As the number got lower, the roars got louder and the anticipation grew stronger amongst the fans in attendance, along with all of the boys in the back. The number would eventually reach 3, than 2 and finally 1... Then the place erupted! I don't think I've ever heard anything like it. Excitedly, Doi grabbed me by my shoulders and started to shake me. He looked at me with big eyes, a smile from ear to ear and said, "Matt! You hear!?" I responded, "Hei! Crazy crowd!" I looked around, and the rest of the boys were sharing the same enthusiasm.
In 2001, I was a 16 year old kid who wanted to be a professional wrestler one day. I was so very disappointed that very year when Extreme Championship Wrestling had just closed down. I used to watch and be mesmerized by how loud, excited and passionate ECW's fans were. These people truly loved professional wrestling and knew what good wrestling was. I was bummed because I knew my chance of working in front of a crowd like that, in an environment like that, were pretty slim - either way, it wouldn't be ECW.
Working for Paul Heyman's assistant in the very building they ran, in front of many of the same fans: It doesn't get much closer. Although DGUSA is much different that ECW in many ways, it's also very similar. DGUSA had an ECW-like crowd. A crowd that knows what they like. A crowd that knows what they want: Good wrestling. And I believe Gabe when he states that DGUSA is "your wrestling haven." Dragon Gate has produced what I believe to be the greatest wrestlers in the world. Bringing Dragon Gate up close and personal to America along with a mixture of the top independent wrestlers in this country is ground breaking. The Young Buck's are fully behind this new company.
All in all the experience was tremendous. The show was awesome, the fans were hot, and the boys had a wonderful time. It was so great to see the Dragon Gate guys and to grab dinner afterward. Cima is an absolute animal, ordering more food than anyone. "Everytime I come to America, 5 extra pounds!" Lol.
Oh and one more thing. People have to realize that the boys are the biggest fans of them all. We ACTUALLY liked wrestling so much, we decided to get into the business! The only difference between us and you is, we watch the show from the back while we stand in our tights.
Nick said that our match against Susumu and Cima was our best of the year. We were both very proud of our performance and will be holding a DGUSA ppv party on September 4th when its released on demand! Lol. Speaking of Nick, today is his birthday so wish him a happy one! www.myspace.com/hrwslick
Dana (who I fall in love with a little more every day) and I will be heading up the hill to celebrate his 20th birthday with him and the family later tonight. In my opinion Nick is the best 20 year old wrestler on the planet. It's just crazy to think of all that he has accomplished at such a young age.
We will return to Philadelphia at The Arena on August 14th and 15th for ROH on HDNet television tapings that we are very excited for. Working for ROH has been incredible so far and we are only 6 matches deep thus far! Other then those August dates that I just talked about, we'll also be appearing for ROH on September 18th in Ohio, September 19th in Illinois, September 25th in Boston and September 26th in New York City. Check www.rohwrestling.com for more info!
We'll also be appearing in Chicago for AAW on September 5th and then DGUSA "Open The Untouchable Gate" will be held the following day in Chicago as well. Please check www.dgusa.tv for more info!
And tweet me @mattjackson13 !
-Matt Buck
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
The Tale of the Haunted Smoke Detector.
One night at our apartment, Dana and I had a terrible time trying to get a good nights rest. Why? Because of a certain beeping or chirping noise that came about through the apartment every 30 seconds or so. I honestly had no clue what this sound was coming from until morning came and Dana figured it out. I remember thinking during the night that maybe it was a cricket that snuck into the apartment or even a bird that was near the window or something. The noise is SO distracting, it's sure to keep even the best of sleepers awake with their eyes wide open. After Danas discovery that the chirping was coming from the smoke detector because of a low battery, we took the battery out and the problem was solved. After talking to the people in the leasing office, they assured us that they'd replace the old battery with a new one as soon as possible. Of course "as soon as possible" took longer than they said it would, but eventually we would come home to a fully fuctional chirpless smoke detector and slept like babies on that particular night!
A few days later, Dana and I packed our bags. We we're headed to Vegas! For those who don't know us, we work very hard and have been looking forward to a vacation SO bad. We cruised on over to Las Vegas without even stopping once. Dana who was driving, was on a mission. Three hours later (which is usually four), we walked into a gorgeous room at Homewood Suites. We both gave our selves our own tour and were shouting out lines to each other from across the suite about the cool features. "Check out the flat-screen babe!" "Look at the view!" "The bed is huge!" "Lovin' the kitchen!" I was the one talking about the view and the one talking about the kitchen by the way.
We then grabbed a bite to eat at Chipotle (my new favorite place to dine), saw the town a little bit and decided to go back to the room and crash. All in all, we were just happy to get away. It's so nice to spend some quality time together. Our heads hit the pillow and we are soon off to Snooze-Ville, Population: Dana and Matt... Until, Dana and I are woken by a familiar noise coming from above. At first, we were both in denial. We both layed there in the dark on our backs, with our eyes wide open. I remember thinking, "I'm just hearing something. Afterall, we're in Vegas! City that never sleeps, right!? Someone or something outside made that noise!" As soon as I thought that last thought, another annoying chirp happened, turning my optimism into disbelief. Dana quickly turned to me and said, "are you joking me?" A few minutes later I found my self in my boxers, on top of a table, on my tip-toes trying to reach for the smoke detector which obviously had a low battery that needed to be changed. After a few minutes of being involved in a balancing act that would make many circus performers proud and scaring Dana almost to death, I grabbed onto the smoke detector with a strong grip. With my tongue out (helps me concentrate like Michael Jordan), I turned the top off. And then the fire alarm went off! I scrambled to put the lid back on and saw Dana jump across the giant bed to get to the phone to probably call front desk. Within a few seconds, I had the lid back on and the alarm turned off. "Phewww... hopefully we didn't wake anyone up," I thought to my self. It was well passed 3 in the morning at this point. Dana put the phone down and was now a little more at ease. Then another chirp rang throughout the room. "Ugh! please call front desk! They need to send maintenance up here to fix this!" Said Dana as she picked the phone back up and handed it to me. I explained the problem to some guy down stairs but of course he said that the maintenance guy wouldn't be back at the hotel for a half hour. Dana and I waited, and waited and waited. We sat in silence as more than a half hour passed and the chirping continued. So much for "getting away," and "getting rest," we thought to our selves. More than an hour passed, so we called back and demanded a new room. This was getting ridiculous. In a hurry, we grabbed our bags and headed to the front, where a new key was waiting for us. Eventually, we found our selves in a different room, back in bed, but without the chirping noise! I looked at the clock and it was 5:30am. "Okay, it's late, but time to get a little sleep at least." I then remembered that I left my cell phone charger in the old room and almost shed a tear. I sat up in bed and told Dana the unfortunate news. I ran to the front, grabbed the old key from the guy working the desk, ran to the old room, grabbed my charger, ran back to the front desk with the old key, and finally back to the new room with my charger in hand. I jumped into bed red faced but excited nevertheless, to finally get a couple hours of silence. Dana and I slept for a 3 hours in peace until it was time to get our day started.
After drinking some coffee from Dunkin' Donuts (my favorite coffee on planet Earth) and walking around the Mall, Dana and I grabbed a shuttle to the airport. We had a flight to catch going to Montana only 2 hours away! Or so we thought.. After standing in line to check in our bags, we heard that a few unlucky strangers standing next to us just had their flights canceled. "What a bummer!" I thought to my self." "What would we do if that happened to us?" I said to Dana. After cruising through security, we were feeling a little better about our trip, both of us kind of anxious to go see our nieces! Then we looked at the departing monitor and saw that our flight was delayed two hours. "Ugh! Two hours!? Lame!" I thought. Dana and I both agreed that it could have been worse though. Afterall, those guys behind us just found out that their flight was canceled all together. We headed to our gate to confirm with our airlines that our flight was indeed delayed by a couple of hours. Turns out, our flight wasn't delayed by two hours. It was delayed by 4 hrs and 45 minutes. Great. Now, we're going to have to spend the entire day at the airport. Dana and I were soon in way less of a hurry as we walked in slow motion around the terminals trying to kill time. We spent our $8 dollar food vouchers within minutes of receiving them and had plenty of time to kill. Hours passed as we sat patiently, both feeling groggy from the little sleep on the night before. Finally around 9:00pm we were on a plane and headed to Montana. We arrived a little after midnight and did the 15 minute drive to Danas sisters empty (only for the night) house. Dana and I entered the house, turned the lights on, put our bags down and both breathed a huge sigh of relief. It felt good to FINALLY be here! Our vacation is about to begin. Danas nieces will be dropped off first thing in the morning. Awesome! But then I heard something. A noise that had been haunting Dana and I for the last several days. I thought to my self, "okay, this time I'm definitely hearing things." But then, I heard it again. "NO freaken WAY!" I said to a big eyed Dana who also heard the chirp. We both sprinted around the home, looking for a beeping smoke alarm but couldn't find anything. Finally, we opened the door to the guest room. The very room we would be sleeping in. Sure enough, as soon as that door swung wide open, we heard a chirp. Dana pointed up at the ceiling and spotted the faulty smoke alarm. What are the chances of this?! I grabbed a chair from the kitchen and ran it back into the guest room, peeling off the lid and agreesively taking out the old battery, tossing it onto the floor. But, like in any good horror movie, the monster would not die! It kept chirping away! I was now pissed. Dana and I began a wide spread search throughout the entire home for a new battery. Dana and I attacked every drawer and sight. I'd open one up, find nothing, hear a chirp in the background and slam the door out of anger. We were dead-set on not letting this evil piece of equipment ruin one more night of sleep! Finally, like spotting gold in a tray, I opened up a drawer with one single battery left and screamed the simple word, "Yes!" Dana snatched the battery from the drawer and sprinted it back into the guest room. She climbed the chair and stuffed the battery into the smoke detector like it was a bottle being fed to a crying baby. And... The chirping STOPPED! Miracoulously, it was all over. We had finally defeated the evil smoke detector!
Needless to say, Dana and I slept great that night. But the next night we were woken up several times by a crying baby.
Matt
Matt
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Young Bucks 1hr long shoot interview!
Nick and I conducted an interview via Skype with UK based internet wrestling radio show, "Dropkick Radio" this past Friday. To say that we had a blast would be an understatement. We covered everything in our careers from training, our debut, HRW, NWA, PWG, DG, and ROH plus more. This is a shoot style interview that lasts for a little over an hour. I def recommend checking it out! Go to www.dropkickradio.com - our interview begins at the 1hr37mins phase of the show. Feedback is appreciated!
Matt
Matt
Friday, June 26, 2009
ROH thoughts(3 wks later!) celebrity deaths,zeek,diet,vacation
Where has my motivation for blogging gone? I dunno. I have just been extremely busy living life and not wanting to do anything but sit down when I have those rare opportunities of having free time. In fact, I am so unmotivated, I am tempted to Ctrl + A + Delete these four sentences and walk away. Let's see if I can get a little fire lit under my butt.
Much has happened since my last entry, yet I cannot recall a single event at the moment other than the obvious. Well, you will take the obvious, right? We did a double shot weekend in Manassas, Virginia and in New York City for Ring of Honor a couple of weekends ago. This was a MUCH better experience for us than the last time we worked for ROH. We had an extremely good match against El Generico and Kevin Steen in Manassas that many are saying was the best match of the show. Being a part of a match that many are considering the best match of the night is a huge compliment to us because there are so many talented wrestlers on the ROH roster. The fans in Virginia were super friendly and respectful. It's always fun wrestling somewhere for the first time, not to mention wrestling two of the best wrestlers on the planet, in my humble opinion.
The next night was very special to us. As soon as we got out of the van and saw the big buildings surrounding us and the busy streets full of business suit wearing individuals, you could feel a buzz. New York City has an energy that is simply contagious. Tired from the limited amount of sleep and long 6 hours of travel from Manassas, Nick and I were soon full of life again. We dropped our bags off and Cary (ROH owner) walked us to the corner of the street that the Hammerstein Ballroom is located. As we got closer, I recognized the building and smiled, watching my brother Nicks eyes light up. Enthusiastically, Cary says to us, "The very building that the Stones have played in!" Gets a little louder. "The Beatles have played here!" Gets even louder. "Elvis was here!' Pauses for a second and looks at both of us. "Boys, this is Madison Square Garden!" We both popped. I love this guy. We thanked him for showing us around and excused our selves. We wanted to take a closer look. We got to the front of the building and I began visualizing how I'd one day wrestle in this very building. After marking out and taking plenty of photos, we did a little bit of exploring and soon headed back to the Hammerstein Ballroom which is a sight to see in it self. It's MASSIVE with balconies surrounding it and has such a unique architectural design. They sure don't make things like they used to. Being in the building had a certain electricity. "This just feels big time,' I thought to myself, as my head turned from left to right, examining the very place I would soon be wrestling in. A few hours later, we made our entrance through the curtain and I took a second to acknowledge what was happening. We stood at the top of the ramp and I put my fingers together and shielded the light from my eyes, looking out at the people. "Another milestone. Our first time workin' the Big Apple!' I thought to myself. We ran into the ring which felt more like a sauna from the hot lights and body heat from the fans.
Then, we wrestled Kenny King and Rhett Titus in what I think was a perfect opening match. I won't go into too much detail because I hate reading play by play - and I am sure you do too. The crowd was great and responsive for everything. Later on the phone with my wife I said, "Baby, I think I found my new favorite place to wrestle!"All in all, we had a terrific weekend and are looking forward to coming back to Ring of Honor. It's been nothing but a fun experience for us thus far.
After those two shows on the road, we came back home in worked some local indies. It's been pretty laid back the last couple of weekends in terms of wrestling shows. I actually have to be in Covina in an hour for an Empire Wrestling Federation show. Nick and I will be wrestling the Cutler Brothers which is basically a night off. SO FUN AND EASY!
Yesterday was a sad day. As you all know, Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett passed on the same day. I remember watching Farah on the Jimmy Kimmel show a few years back and she looked so good. But, Michael Jacksons death just came out of no where. The first thing I think of when I hear the name Michael Jackson is the old Disneyland 3-D ride. I loved that thing and came close to shedding a tear when I heard they turned it into "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience!" How lame is that? My heart goes out to all of the surviving members of both families.
Bad timing for a certain someone to have to celebrate his first birthday. Mine and Danas cat Zeek had his very first b-day yesterday. Hey, at least his birthday won't be easy to forget! Dana shot a couple of cute photos with the birthday boy - full party hat and all!
I'm currently doing a low-carb, low-sugar, low-everything that tastes good in this world diet. It's KILLING me. On top of torturing myself with healthy food, I am also doing so in the gym. Now, I've never done cardio in my life, so 20-30 minutes on an elliptical machine is simply unheard of. Why am I doing this? I want to look good on pay per view. www.dgusa.tv for more details. (Cheaper than the cheapest plug, ever.)
Sunday, Dana and I will be beginning day one of a week long vacation. We are headed to Las Vegas and then flying out to Montana to visit family and kid-sit. Vegas is obviously further than LAX, but the deals at that airport for this particular flight are unreal. This is a much deserved trip for the both of us, as we've been going a million miles a minute - Dana especially. She has practically ran the office for her parents business for the last 3 months. She really needs the time off.
If you haven't done so already, please follow me on the most addictive social network site created, Twitter. My name is MattJackson13.
Also, I will be posting an hour long interview here that Nick and I did for Dropkick Radio last night in the coming days. We had a ton of fun (maybe too much) and I'm hoping it comes off well. It's a shoot style interview, so if you are into that, you just might enjoy it. We covered our training, debut, HRW years, PWG, NWA, ROH, Dragon Gate you name it.
Well, that's it! It wasn't that bad right? Hopefully I will be a little more inspired to write again now that I got the creative juices flowing. Everybody, have a fantastic weekend. I'll see you when I see you.
God bless,
Matt Buck
Much has happened since my last entry, yet I cannot recall a single event at the moment other than the obvious. Well, you will take the obvious, right? We did a double shot weekend in Manassas, Virginia and in New York City for Ring of Honor a couple of weekends ago. This was a MUCH better experience for us than the last time we worked for ROH. We had an extremely good match against El Generico and Kevin Steen in Manassas that many are saying was the best match of the show. Being a part of a match that many are considering the best match of the night is a huge compliment to us because there are so many talented wrestlers on the ROH roster. The fans in Virginia were super friendly and respectful. It's always fun wrestling somewhere for the first time, not to mention wrestling two of the best wrestlers on the planet, in my humble opinion.
The next night was very special to us. As soon as we got out of the van and saw the big buildings surrounding us and the busy streets full of business suit wearing individuals, you could feel a buzz. New York City has an energy that is simply contagious. Tired from the limited amount of sleep and long 6 hours of travel from Manassas, Nick and I were soon full of life again. We dropped our bags off and Cary (ROH owner) walked us to the corner of the street that the Hammerstein Ballroom is located. As we got closer, I recognized the building and smiled, watching my brother Nicks eyes light up. Enthusiastically, Cary says to us, "The very building that the Stones have played in!" Gets a little louder. "The Beatles have played here!" Gets even louder. "Elvis was here!' Pauses for a second and looks at both of us. "Boys, this is Madison Square Garden!" We both popped. I love this guy. We thanked him for showing us around and excused our selves. We wanted to take a closer look. We got to the front of the building and I began visualizing how I'd one day wrestle in this very building. After marking out and taking plenty of photos, we did a little bit of exploring and soon headed back to the Hammerstein Ballroom which is a sight to see in it self. It's MASSIVE with balconies surrounding it and has such a unique architectural design. They sure don't make things like they used to. Being in the building had a certain electricity. "This just feels big time,' I thought to myself, as my head turned from left to right, examining the very place I would soon be wrestling in. A few hours later, we made our entrance through the curtain and I took a second to acknowledge what was happening. We stood at the top of the ramp and I put my fingers together and shielded the light from my eyes, looking out at the people. "Another milestone. Our first time workin' the Big Apple!' I thought to myself. We ran into the ring which felt more like a sauna from the hot lights and body heat from the fans.
Then, we wrestled Kenny King and Rhett Titus in what I think was a perfect opening match. I won't go into too much detail because I hate reading play by play - and I am sure you do too. The crowd was great and responsive for everything. Later on the phone with my wife I said, "Baby, I think I found my new favorite place to wrestle!"All in all, we had a terrific weekend and are looking forward to coming back to Ring of Honor. It's been nothing but a fun experience for us thus far.
After those two shows on the road, we came back home in worked some local indies. It's been pretty laid back the last couple of weekends in terms of wrestling shows. I actually have to be in Covina in an hour for an Empire Wrestling Federation show. Nick and I will be wrestling the Cutler Brothers which is basically a night off. SO FUN AND EASY!
Yesterday was a sad day. As you all know, Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett passed on the same day. I remember watching Farah on the Jimmy Kimmel show a few years back and she looked so good. But, Michael Jacksons death just came out of no where. The first thing I think of when I hear the name Michael Jackson is the old Disneyland 3-D ride. I loved that thing and came close to shedding a tear when I heard they turned it into "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience!" How lame is that? My heart goes out to all of the surviving members of both families.
Bad timing for a certain someone to have to celebrate his first birthday. Mine and Danas cat Zeek had his very first b-day yesterday. Hey, at least his birthday won't be easy to forget! Dana shot a couple of cute photos with the birthday boy - full party hat and all!
I'm currently doing a low-carb, low-sugar, low-everything that tastes good in this world diet. It's KILLING me. On top of torturing myself with healthy food, I am also doing so in the gym. Now, I've never done cardio in my life, so 20-30 minutes on an elliptical machine is simply unheard of. Why am I doing this? I want to look good on pay per view. www.dgusa.tv for more details. (Cheaper than the cheapest plug, ever.)
Sunday, Dana and I will be beginning day one of a week long vacation. We are headed to Las Vegas and then flying out to Montana to visit family and kid-sit. Vegas is obviously further than LAX, but the deals at that airport for this particular flight are unreal. This is a much deserved trip for the both of us, as we've been going a million miles a minute - Dana especially. She has practically ran the office for her parents business for the last 3 months. She really needs the time off.
If you haven't done so already, please follow me on the most addictive social network site created, Twitter. My name is MattJackson13.
Also, I will be posting an hour long interview here that Nick and I did for Dropkick Radio last night in the coming days. We had a ton of fun (maybe too much) and I'm hoping it comes off well. It's a shoot style interview, so if you are into that, you just might enjoy it. We covered our training, debut, HRW years, PWG, NWA, ROH, Dragon Gate you name it.
Well, that's it! It wasn't that bad right? Hopefully I will be a little more inspired to write again now that I got the creative juices flowing. Everybody, have a fantastic weekend. I'll see you when I see you.
God bless,
Matt Buck
Friday, June 5, 2009
ROH, e-z wkend, twitter!
One week ago today we caught a 6:45 am flight out of LAX to Philadelphia for the Ring of Honor on HDNet television tapings at "The Arena." We'd been to the old ECW arena once before for the Chikara King of Trios three night event back in late March, so we were familiar with the building, and atmosphere. Nick says that the fans who come to the arena are "easy." An "easy crowd" is a crowd that is usually hot and pops easy - every wrestlers dream. It was kind of surreal and fun stretching out in the ring before the show and staring out at all of the empty chairs and ROH banners. We'd talked about wrestling for ROH one day as it's always been a goal of ours. This was just another reminder to us to keep on pursuing our dream - good things happen to those who are hungry and dedicated. And I'll tell you what, we're still starving. We had two easy and fun television matches over the weekend and called it a good experience overall. We were very prepared for these types of matches because we now have over three years of experience working in front of the camera, mostly for the NWA. The guys were all very humble and embracing. Adam has a wonderful locker room out there.
A week from today we will board another plane headed toward Virginia for another ROH show. Nick and I are thrilled to be working with El Generico and Kevin Steen for the first time in a staright up tag team match. This could easily end up as a personal favorite. The following day, we will travel to New York City to work a building with a ton of wrestling history, the Hammerstein Ballroom. We will be wrestling Rhett Titus and Kenny King. This should also be a very fun match as I've seen some of their stuff and was very impressed. Nick's extremely psyched to see NYC as he's never been there except for the time we passed through on the way to a show in New Jersey a while back. I went there with my wife (girlfriend at the time) for my 21st birthday and have been dying to go back. It's such a fast paced city where you'd better walk fast or you'll be trampled over by a bunch of business suit wearing men and women who are on their way to a meeting. How do I know about the meeting? Because they're talking about it aloud on their cell phones as they step passed you because your moving to slow.
This weekend is looking to be very relaxing and easy going. Dana and I don't have a whole lot planned and I've only got one small local indy show to do on Sunday. Sounds good to me, as Nick and I have been going a million miles a minute. We deserve a break.
One thing that I got started on this past week is Twitter. I was one of those "I'll never get a Twitter because it's a status updating waste of time" type of guys. But now my wife has me addicted! It's like a little window into everybodies lives. I sometimes sit and wonder, "I wonder what so and so is doing?" Now I know! It's seriously like mass texting messaging on a public forum. What is cooler then that? Besides, I godda keep with the times. I don't want to become one of those adults who teenagers chuckle at. I want to be hip! I understand that one day we will have to be called simply "The Bucks." But for now I want to embrace the first word in our tag teams name! Sooo, if you haven't already, follow me on Twitter! My name is mattjackson13.
Please enjoy your weekend everybody. Hopefully this weather gets better. C'mon man, it's suppose to be summer time here in Cali. What's the deal? I envy Dustin Cutler who is in Laughlin right now with his girlfriend Mary Beth. He text messaged me just to inform me that it's a "perfect lookin' 95 degree day." Jerk.
God bless you. Talk to you soon.
-Matt Buck
A week from today we will board another plane headed toward Virginia for another ROH show. Nick and I are thrilled to be working with El Generico and Kevin Steen for the first time in a staright up tag team match. This could easily end up as a personal favorite. The following day, we will travel to New York City to work a building with a ton of wrestling history, the Hammerstein Ballroom. We will be wrestling Rhett Titus and Kenny King. This should also be a very fun match as I've seen some of their stuff and was very impressed. Nick's extremely psyched to see NYC as he's never been there except for the time we passed through on the way to a show in New Jersey a while back. I went there with my wife (girlfriend at the time) for my 21st birthday and have been dying to go back. It's such a fast paced city where you'd better walk fast or you'll be trampled over by a bunch of business suit wearing men and women who are on their way to a meeting. How do I know about the meeting? Because they're talking about it aloud on their cell phones as they step passed you because your moving to slow.
This weekend is looking to be very relaxing and easy going. Dana and I don't have a whole lot planned and I've only got one small local indy show to do on Sunday. Sounds good to me, as Nick and I have been going a million miles a minute. We deserve a break.
One thing that I got started on this past week is Twitter. I was one of those "I'll never get a Twitter because it's a status updating waste of time" type of guys. But now my wife has me addicted! It's like a little window into everybodies lives. I sometimes sit and wonder, "I wonder what so and so is doing?" Now I know! It's seriously like mass texting messaging on a public forum. What is cooler then that? Besides, I godda keep with the times. I don't want to become one of those adults who teenagers chuckle at. I want to be hip! I understand that one day we will have to be called simply "The Bucks." But for now I want to embrace the first word in our tag teams name! Sooo, if you haven't already, follow me on Twitter! My name is mattjackson13.
Please enjoy your weekend everybody. Hopefully this weather gets better. C'mon man, it's suppose to be summer time here in Cali. What's the deal? I envy Dustin Cutler who is in Laughlin right now with his girlfriend Mary Beth. He text messaged me just to inform me that it's a "perfect lookin' 95 degree day." Jerk.
God bless you. Talk to you soon.
-Matt Buck
Monday, May 25, 2009
essentials of blogging, busy wkend, Malachi Jackson, ddt4/vegas
I was about to begin writing this blog without coffee but then realized that it is absolutely essential and critical for the whole blogging process. For some reason, whenever I think about writing/typing, I vision myself on a keyboard with a steaming cup of coffee sitting nearby. We're out of Splenda, so I guess regular sugar will have to do.
It's Monday morning/almost afternoon, and the wife is still in bed. I just got done watching about 2 hrs of "Locked-up RAW" on MSNBC which was interesting to say the least. Dana and I are both thrilled to have the day off due to it being Memorial Day. Of course on the long weekend that we were blessed with, weather in Rancho Cucamonga is terrible. Well, okay, terrible might be overdoing it. However, it's a cool 61 degrees which is not exactly 'hanging out by the pool on our day off' type of weather.
Ahh, much better. I just poured myself a cup of my personal liquid cocaine and snatched my second chocolate chip cookie of the morning that Dana surprised me with last night. I love being married. Anyhow, its was quite a busy weekend. Friday night was the PWG DDT4 show, Saturday was Ellen's (Nicks girlfriend) college graduation party and yesterday was a turnaround trip to Vegas. Needless to say that I don't think I will be doing ANYTHING today, besides playing with my trash digging, bathtub diving cat Zeek and chilling with my better half.
Friday was tough. Because of card changes, the show was reshuffled so many times. We literally didn't know who we were working until we got to the venue. Nothing was really concrete. We had our first match against our great friends the Cutler Brothers who are proving themselves to everybody in SoCal that they are truly the next big team in the works. Because of a certain issue that I won't go into, we didn't get to really DO what we know that we can DO. Nevertheless, we were very proud of that match and feel like it was our best title defense of the three that we've had against Dustin and Brandon.
After the match, Nick and I had the honor of introducing our youngest brother Mal to his debut match at PWG. I was so proud to watch him come down that aisle. It's always been a dream to wrestle for a company that booked myself, my best friends and my two brothers -the whole clique! For those who don't know, Malachi was ran down by a car when he was younger while crossing the street on a bicycle. The car dragged Mal several feet and shattered his leg. His right tibia bone had a terrible compound fracture. He was bed ridden for a very long time and had to wear a giant external fixator to realign the bones in his leg. After months and months of infections, it looked like he would never be the same or even possibly lose his leg if the infection got any worse. We prayed hard and the infections eventually went away. Mal learned how to walk again after months of recovery in a wheel chair and on a walker. Nobody expected Mal to ever be the same. But now, at the age of only 18 years old, he's stunning crowds all around southern California and finally got to make his debut for the biggest company on the west coast. We are so proud of him. The scars on his leg impress me far more than the gig marks on the older wrestlers foreheads. He is a survivor and a miracle kid. Expect big things from our baby brother.
Our second match was against Chuck Taylor and Kenny Omega. These were two guys that we've been wanting to wrestle for a very long time. We knew that we would work well with Kenny because he comes from a similar background as us, and Chucky is very athletic, so we knew we could tear the house down for sure with these two. We'd love a re-match anytime. Our last match was against Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong. It was actually more like a fight, than a match. The fans seemed to love the violence and drama while my wife couldn't disagree any more as she sat in the crowd in absolute horror. =( We ended up winning the whole tournament which didn't seem to please the crowd on this particular night, but hey, you can't win em' all. Actually, in this case, you can! Because, we did win them all!
The next day, we spent at Ellen's parents place, celebrating her big grad day. Along with Dana, we met my parents, Nick and Ellen's friends and family and had a good time. Nick and I recounted the glory from the previous nights event and ate pizza while everyone tried to stay warm on what was a very chilly day.
Yesterday morning after a lovely McDonalds breakfast with the wife, I met the guys up in Victorville as we had a show to catch in Las Vegas. Hours later, we found our selves at an indoor swap meet. It felt like 5 years ago, and we were all back in Anaheim wrestling for WPW! It was a debut event for a new company called Future Stars of Wrestling. Although the building was scorching hot, we had a great time. Malachi wrestled Kenny King and Mike Modest while the Young Bucks/Cutler Brother Tour 2009 continued. Brandon had to be extra careful as he was cut at the eyebrow 2 nights prior at PWG. Nick did a moonsault dive to the outside and connected a hard right fist which busted Brandon open hard-way. Brandon was cut deep and needed 8 stitches to close the wound. We did a good job of not re-opening that cut. After a quick stop for dinner at Buffalo Bills at the state-line of California and Nevada, we were on our way home. I saw my wife at about 12:00 am at the door of our apartment who met me with a kiss. We hadn't been away from each other for very long but already missed each other dearly. My mom said it best in a text message after I told her that Dana and I already missed each other shortly after I walked out the door earlier that day, "How sweet. Nothing greater in life than the love of your life." It's so true.
I've got four days of regular living, and then Friday Nick and I will be headed back onto an airplane headed to Philadelphia for our debut at Ring of Honor.
Happy Memorial Day!
It's Monday morning/almost afternoon, and the wife is still in bed. I just got done watching about 2 hrs of "Locked-up RAW" on MSNBC which was interesting to say the least. Dana and I are both thrilled to have the day off due to it being Memorial Day. Of course on the long weekend that we were blessed with, weather in Rancho Cucamonga is terrible. Well, okay, terrible might be overdoing it. However, it's a cool 61 degrees which is not exactly 'hanging out by the pool on our day off' type of weather.
Ahh, much better. I just poured myself a cup of my personal liquid cocaine and snatched my second chocolate chip cookie of the morning that Dana surprised me with last night. I love being married. Anyhow, its was quite a busy weekend. Friday night was the PWG DDT4 show, Saturday was Ellen's (Nicks girlfriend) college graduation party and yesterday was a turnaround trip to Vegas. Needless to say that I don't think I will be doing ANYTHING today, besides playing with my trash digging, bathtub diving cat Zeek and chilling with my better half.
Friday was tough. Because of card changes, the show was reshuffled so many times. We literally didn't know who we were working until we got to the venue. Nothing was really concrete. We had our first match against our great friends the Cutler Brothers who are proving themselves to everybody in SoCal that they are truly the next big team in the works. Because of a certain issue that I won't go into, we didn't get to really DO what we know that we can DO. Nevertheless, we were very proud of that match and feel like it was our best title defense of the three that we've had against Dustin and Brandon.
After the match, Nick and I had the honor of introducing our youngest brother Mal to his debut match at PWG. I was so proud to watch him come down that aisle. It's always been a dream to wrestle for a company that booked myself, my best friends and my two brothers -the whole clique! For those who don't know, Malachi was ran down by a car when he was younger while crossing the street on a bicycle. The car dragged Mal several feet and shattered his leg. His right tibia bone had a terrible compound fracture. He was bed ridden for a very long time and had to wear a giant external fixator to realign the bones in his leg. After months and months of infections, it looked like he would never be the same or even possibly lose his leg if the infection got any worse. We prayed hard and the infections eventually went away. Mal learned how to walk again after months of recovery in a wheel chair and on a walker. Nobody expected Mal to ever be the same. But now, at the age of only 18 years old, he's stunning crowds all around southern California and finally got to make his debut for the biggest company on the west coast. We are so proud of him. The scars on his leg impress me far more than the gig marks on the older wrestlers foreheads. He is a survivor and a miracle kid. Expect big things from our baby brother.
Our second match was against Chuck Taylor and Kenny Omega. These were two guys that we've been wanting to wrestle for a very long time. We knew that we would work well with Kenny because he comes from a similar background as us, and Chucky is very athletic, so we knew we could tear the house down for sure with these two. We'd love a re-match anytime. Our last match was against Bryan Danielson and Roderick Strong. It was actually more like a fight, than a match. The fans seemed to love the violence and drama while my wife couldn't disagree any more as she sat in the crowd in absolute horror. =( We ended up winning the whole tournament which didn't seem to please the crowd on this particular night, but hey, you can't win em' all. Actually, in this case, you can! Because, we did win them all!
The next day, we spent at Ellen's parents place, celebrating her big grad day. Along with Dana, we met my parents, Nick and Ellen's friends and family and had a good time. Nick and I recounted the glory from the previous nights event and ate pizza while everyone tried to stay warm on what was a very chilly day.
Yesterday morning after a lovely McDonalds breakfast with the wife, I met the guys up in Victorville as we had a show to catch in Las Vegas. Hours later, we found our selves at an indoor swap meet. It felt like 5 years ago, and we were all back in Anaheim wrestling for WPW! It was a debut event for a new company called Future Stars of Wrestling. Although the building was scorching hot, we had a great time. Malachi wrestled Kenny King and Mike Modest while the Young Bucks/Cutler Brother Tour 2009 continued. Brandon had to be extra careful as he was cut at the eyebrow 2 nights prior at PWG. Nick did a moonsault dive to the outside and connected a hard right fist which busted Brandon open hard-way. Brandon was cut deep and needed 8 stitches to close the wound. We did a good job of not re-opening that cut. After a quick stop for dinner at Buffalo Bills at the state-line of California and Nevada, we were on our way home. I saw my wife at about 12:00 am at the door of our apartment who met me with a kiss. We hadn't been away from each other for very long but already missed each other dearly. My mom said it best in a text message after I told her that Dana and I already missed each other shortly after I walked out the door earlier that day, "How sweet. Nothing greater in life than the love of your life." It's so true.
I've got four days of regular living, and then Friday Nick and I will be headed back onto an airplane headed to Philadelphia for our debut at Ring of Honor.
Happy Memorial Day!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
interview with www.wearewrestling.net about DDT4
Here is an interview I did today courtesy of www.wearewrestling.net
Hope you like!
Hello Nick and Hello Matt, thanks a lot for your kindness and welcome to WeAreWrestling!
1-Can you introduce yourselves to our wrestling fans, and tell us the very beginning of the story of The Young Bucks?
My name is Matt and I will be speaking on behalf of my brother Nick also. I am 24 years old and my brother Nick is 19 years old. We'd been fans of professional wrestling since we were kids. I had my first pro-ring in my backyard at the age of 16, so I've been taking bumps for quite a while now. Finally, when I was around 18-19 years old, I decided to go to the Revolution Pro Wrestling School called Rudos Dojo near Los Angeles. I trained there for about two years under American Wild Child, Disco Machine, and Super Dragon among others. I trained with my good friend Dustin Cutler. Right after training, we would come home and show our brothers and other friends just what we learned in our very own ring. Eventually, my brother Nick came along for a few sessions, and before we knew it, we were wrestling at small non-wrestling events like veterans day parades, street fairs, etc. Soon after, we worked a few shows under masks and silly gimmicks for Revolution Pro. We liked being a part of these indy shows so much, we started our own company called High Risk Wrestling.... Sort of like our version of OMEGA. This is where we really learned our craft, as we ran at least twice a month. The Young Bucks were born soon after.
2-Why you two young brothers choose to enter in this business? And who is or who are the wrestlers who inspired you and your style?
It captured our imaginaion. All we ever did as kids was somehow included with wrestling whether we were watching it, talking about it, impersonating it with toys, sleeping with it (literally.... I had a WWF bed spread) or doing it our selves in the living room, (One time when I was about 12 years old, I hit a leg drop off the couch and fractured my youngest brothers arm) or the backyard. It was our lives. Right off the bat, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Bret Hart and The Rockers were our biggest inspirations. And then later on in life, probably the Hardys, RVD and Chris Jericho. The Rockers, and Hardys have probably inspired our style in the ring the most though.
3-Your roots are in Southern California but now you spend a lot of time all around the world: when you start to move the first steps in your career, what are your expectations as a Tag Team?
We want to always put on the most exciting match of the night, love us or hate us. Our biggest expectations for our selves is giving the fans a show. No matter who else is on the card and no matter what else has happened on the show, we hope our stuff is remembered at the end of the night. One other expectation of ours is to stay healthy but to remain spectacular.
4-During the last few weeks we have seen you wrestle in Dragon Gate retaining the PWG World Tag Team Titles against Shingo Takagi & Akira Tozawa: how hard is the Japanese style? Was that your most difficult defense?
The Japanese style was very tough to adjust to at first. But we are now very used to it and actually prefer it over any other stlye that we have done - at this point. It can be very intimidating to wrestle the Dragon Gate guys because of how precise and quick they are... However, it makes you sooo much better being in the ring with guys like that. We owe so much to that group of men. Shingo and Tozawa were incredibly challenging, and were def one of our toughest defenses. I would rank it up there with our defense against the Motor City Machine Guns.
5-Talking about Dragon Gate and his USA new project, both of you are in the DG USA roster and the debut is set to 25th July in Philadelphia, one of the most charming city for wrestling. What are your feelings about this great promotion and his huge evolution?
We are just thrilled to be on board with such an amazing company. This is a huge opportunity for us, and we just feel blessed to be a part of this huge entity. I see big things for DGUSA which is only good for my brother and I!
6-All Star Weekend 6 was remembered well also for your great match against Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino: now in Dragon Gate with them in your same roster, there is a possibility for a rematch. How much The Bucks desire to revenge that defeat.
We feel like we've had sooo many better matches than the match we had with them at ASW 6. Nick and I were so nervous and were just exposed to Doi and Yoshinos style. Believe me, we tore down the house with those two MANY times in Japan. In my eyes, they're the best tag team on the planet. We would be absolutely honored to get into the ring with them again. Bucks vs Doi and Yoshino is always something to remember,
7-In the United States The Young Bucks has wrestled a lot of match, but I read about a recent bout against Scorpio Sky & Brandon Gatson that you love over the others: can you tell us something about it?
I wouldn't necessary say that I loved it more than anything we've ever done in the states, but I'd def rank that match up there pretty high. We were all just ON that night and we had the crowd when and where we wanted them. I think I enjoyed the match so much also because we were wrestling a very close friend in Scorpio Sky (which seems to be rare) and we were happy to be back wrestling on US soil. Maybe thats why I was so enthusiastic about that match? Nevertheless, it was a really good match-up that I am looking forward to watching and then hating it. (That's what happens every time I watch a match!) =(
8-Recently, you also fight in Chikara during the King of Trios teaming with El Generico, one of the most enthusiastic performer in this business: how is wrestle with him? And against him, like during the All Star Weekend 7?
Generico brings out the best in everyone. Nick and I told him at King of Trios that we believe that he is the best "spotty" (or what other term that should properly be used here) wrestler in North America. Many promoters called him their "guranteed match of the night." So, obviously working with him is a joy. We have a certain chemistry that we have with him that came out within minutes of working with him. Our styles just mesh well. All Star Weekend 7 is still one of our favorite matches ever. Despite the fact that Pac was sick that day and was literally puking his brains out underneath the ring apron the entire match, it still came out awesome!
9-To wrestle in one of the most important show in the independent scene like the Chikara KOT 2K9 is another big step for the Bucks, but the biggest event for you is near to come: the Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Titles Tournament 2009! Can you explain your feelings when only 4 days divide us to the DDT4?
KOT was a joy to be a part of and has really opened up several doors for us. PWG DDT4 is arguably the biggest tag team tournament in independent wrestling, so we are obviously extremely excited to be a part of this. Oddly enough, this is finally our very FIRST time partcipating, so Nick and I both have butterflies. We also have a giant task ahead of us as we will be defending the PWG Tag Team belts throughout the whole tournament. Talk about pressure!! =/
10-In the First Round you will face Brandon & Dustin Cutler, two of your best friends outside the ring: in the last two bouts against the Cutler Bros, The Bucks reached two great Titles defense. Now things becomes harder, what are your expectations for this match?
We always put on something special with the Cutlers. We haven't wrestled anyone in the world as much as we have wrestled these two brothers. As I mentioned earlier, Dustin and I started training together the very first day I stepped foot in a wrestling school, so we've been through it all. And Brandon is one of the guys that we taught. The four of us have traveled together, trained together, dined together, wrestled together and slept togeth--- wait a minute! Anyhow, this match shall def be a 10-12 minute highlight reel. (With all of the Cutlers moves edited out of course)
11-The other First Round match in your side of this One Night Tournament involving Chuck Taylor, the Most Outstanding Wrestler in Chikara KOT 2009: what do you think about him and his style? Can he with Kenny Omega be the underdog in the tournament or Los Luchas can advance due to their experience?
We've got our eyes on Chuck and Omega. I think they might be the dark horses in this one. Los Luchas are a very experienced team but for some reason, I've got a gut feeling that we'll be moving on to the second round and wrestling Mr. Taylor and Mr. Omega. I think that these two have very unique styles. Taylor likes to use invisible grenades, while Omega impersonates Ryu from Street Fighter. That's a very weird team now that I am thinking about it. Bring on the Luchas.
12-The other side involve the recently born Hybrid Dolphins of Paul London & Bryan Danielson, against an evergreen like The Dinasty of Scott Lost & Joey Ryan. Also, we are going to see Motor City Machine Guns against Roderick Strong & the PWG World Champion Chris Hero. Can you make for us a preview of these two bouts?
These two matches shall be very exciting and will probably be a little different than our match with the Cutlers and OMEGA and Taylors match with the Luchas. We're personally going to wait for the DVD to come out to watch the MCMG and Hero and Roddy. That match sounds like fun... Maybe because Nick and my favorite team in the world right now, the Guns are in it! No matter who comes out on this side, Nick and I are going to have our hands full... Especially if we end up having to wrestle the Dolphins! I might have a hard time keeping a straight face. Have you seen that promo on Youtube! Of course you have! You probably ordered the shirt you mark!
13-Reading the participants of DDT4 2009, you already beat 4 of them(retaining titles against the Guns and the Cutler Brothers, and in non-title matches against Los Luchas and The Dinasty). For you, this one day walkway to success can be great like the past 8 months since you gain the PWG World Tag Team Titles beating The Age of the Fall?
It's going to be a tough night to say the least. We've obviously got bulls-eye targets on our chests. Everyones going to be a lot hungrier when they're in the ring with us because of the simple fact that the belts are on the line throughout the tournament. Nick said it best when he said, "if we come out of this thing alive, and with the belts, we might be called the greatest PWG Tag Team champs of all time."
14-One more thing about the DDT4: on May 22nd you reach 264 days of reign, only 9 fewer than The Arrogance who retain the Titles for 273 days in 2004. The final achievement for The Bucks is to climb the highest stair of PWG Tag Team Division? And what do you think about a dream showdown against Scott Lost & Photogenic Chris Bosh in the very near future, to determine the most dominant Tag Team in the history of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla?
We've kept count on the number of days that we've held the belts - so it's always on our minds. When we first won the belts we stated in a post match promo that our goal was to become the greatest PWG champs of all time. I think, if we pass the record that Arrogance holds, we will gain just that. Our debuting match in PWG was against Arrogance, which we lost. We'd love to avenge that initial defeat someday.
15-In Italy we say “there is no 2 without 3”, so how high are the possibilities to see the third European Vacation? And there is a chance to see finally Pro Wrestling Guerrilla in Italy, maybe my biggest dream?
Unfortunately, it is unlikely for PWG to come back to Europe because of past issues from the second trip. As for Italy, I haven't heard anything in the works. However, keep your eyes open, as the Young Bucks just might be headed to Europe... soon actually!
16-The last question: what can you tell us about Malachi Jackson?
He's the future of wrestling. I believe that we have the potential to be one of the next great families in this business. I like to think of us as the new Von Erichs, hopefully without all of the tradegy.
Thanks a lot Matt & Nick, I know that I ask you a lot of things, and you must know that maybe I could go on more and more! We're very proud to read your words here on WeAreWrestling and I hope to know your beliefs on the last days of July after the debut in Dragon Gate USA! See you soon guys, hopefully in Italy!
No problem. Thanks for all of the support. God bless
Hope you like!
Hello Nick and Hello Matt, thanks a lot for your kindness and welcome to WeAreWrestling!
1-Can you introduce yourselves to our wrestling fans, and tell us the very beginning of the story of The Young Bucks?
My name is Matt and I will be speaking on behalf of my brother Nick also. I am 24 years old and my brother Nick is 19 years old. We'd been fans of professional wrestling since we were kids. I had my first pro-ring in my backyard at the age of 16, so I've been taking bumps for quite a while now. Finally, when I was around 18-19 years old, I decided to go to the Revolution Pro Wrestling School called Rudos Dojo near Los Angeles. I trained there for about two years under American Wild Child, Disco Machine, and Super Dragon among others. I trained with my good friend Dustin Cutler. Right after training, we would come home and show our brothers and other friends just what we learned in our very own ring. Eventually, my brother Nick came along for a few sessions, and before we knew it, we were wrestling at small non-wrestling events like veterans day parades, street fairs, etc. Soon after, we worked a few shows under masks and silly gimmicks for Revolution Pro. We liked being a part of these indy shows so much, we started our own company called High Risk Wrestling.... Sort of like our version of OMEGA. This is where we really learned our craft, as we ran at least twice a month. The Young Bucks were born soon after.
2-Why you two young brothers choose to enter in this business? And who is or who are the wrestlers who inspired you and your style?
It captured our imaginaion. All we ever did as kids was somehow included with wrestling whether we were watching it, talking about it, impersonating it with toys, sleeping with it (literally.... I had a WWF bed spread) or doing it our selves in the living room, (One time when I was about 12 years old, I hit a leg drop off the couch and fractured my youngest brothers arm) or the backyard. It was our lives. Right off the bat, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Bret Hart and The Rockers were our biggest inspirations. And then later on in life, probably the Hardys, RVD and Chris Jericho. The Rockers, and Hardys have probably inspired our style in the ring the most though.
3-Your roots are in Southern California but now you spend a lot of time all around the world: when you start to move the first steps in your career, what are your expectations as a Tag Team?
We want to always put on the most exciting match of the night, love us or hate us. Our biggest expectations for our selves is giving the fans a show. No matter who else is on the card and no matter what else has happened on the show, we hope our stuff is remembered at the end of the night. One other expectation of ours is to stay healthy but to remain spectacular.
4-During the last few weeks we have seen you wrestle in Dragon Gate retaining the PWG World Tag Team Titles against Shingo Takagi & Akira Tozawa: how hard is the Japanese style? Was that your most difficult defense?
The Japanese style was very tough to adjust to at first. But we are now very used to it and actually prefer it over any other stlye that we have done - at this point. It can be very intimidating to wrestle the Dragon Gate guys because of how precise and quick they are... However, it makes you sooo much better being in the ring with guys like that. We owe so much to that group of men. Shingo and Tozawa were incredibly challenging, and were def one of our toughest defenses. I would rank it up there with our defense against the Motor City Machine Guns.
5-Talking about Dragon Gate and his USA new project, both of you are in the DG USA roster and the debut is set to 25th July in Philadelphia, one of the most charming city for wrestling. What are your feelings about this great promotion and his huge evolution?
We are just thrilled to be on board with such an amazing company. This is a huge opportunity for us, and we just feel blessed to be a part of this huge entity. I see big things for DGUSA which is only good for my brother and I!
6-All Star Weekend 6 was remembered well also for your great match against Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino: now in Dragon Gate with them in your same roster, there is a possibility for a rematch. How much The Bucks desire to revenge that defeat.
We feel like we've had sooo many better matches than the match we had with them at ASW 6. Nick and I were so nervous and were just exposed to Doi and Yoshinos style. Believe me, we tore down the house with those two MANY times in Japan. In my eyes, they're the best tag team on the planet. We would be absolutely honored to get into the ring with them again. Bucks vs Doi and Yoshino is always something to remember,
7-In the United States The Young Bucks has wrestled a lot of match, but I read about a recent bout against Scorpio Sky & Brandon Gatson that you love over the others: can you tell us something about it?
I wouldn't necessary say that I loved it more than anything we've ever done in the states, but I'd def rank that match up there pretty high. We were all just ON that night and we had the crowd when and where we wanted them. I think I enjoyed the match so much also because we were wrestling a very close friend in Scorpio Sky (which seems to be rare) and we were happy to be back wrestling on US soil. Maybe thats why I was so enthusiastic about that match? Nevertheless, it was a really good match-up that I am looking forward to watching and then hating it. (That's what happens every time I watch a match!) =(
8-Recently, you also fight in Chikara during the King of Trios teaming with El Generico, one of the most enthusiastic performer in this business: how is wrestle with him? And against him, like during the All Star Weekend 7?
Generico brings out the best in everyone. Nick and I told him at King of Trios that we believe that he is the best "spotty" (or what other term that should properly be used here) wrestler in North America. Many promoters called him their "guranteed match of the night." So, obviously working with him is a joy. We have a certain chemistry that we have with him that came out within minutes of working with him. Our styles just mesh well. All Star Weekend 7 is still one of our favorite matches ever. Despite the fact that Pac was sick that day and was literally puking his brains out underneath the ring apron the entire match, it still came out awesome!
9-To wrestle in one of the most important show in the independent scene like the Chikara KOT 2K9 is another big step for the Bucks, but the biggest event for you is near to come: the Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Titles Tournament 2009! Can you explain your feelings when only 4 days divide us to the DDT4?
KOT was a joy to be a part of and has really opened up several doors for us. PWG DDT4 is arguably the biggest tag team tournament in independent wrestling, so we are obviously extremely excited to be a part of this. Oddly enough, this is finally our very FIRST time partcipating, so Nick and I both have butterflies. We also have a giant task ahead of us as we will be defending the PWG Tag Team belts throughout the whole tournament. Talk about pressure!! =/
10-In the First Round you will face Brandon & Dustin Cutler, two of your best friends outside the ring: in the last two bouts against the Cutler Bros, The Bucks reached two great Titles defense. Now things becomes harder, what are your expectations for this match?
We always put on something special with the Cutlers. We haven't wrestled anyone in the world as much as we have wrestled these two brothers. As I mentioned earlier, Dustin and I started training together the very first day I stepped foot in a wrestling school, so we've been through it all. And Brandon is one of the guys that we taught. The four of us have traveled together, trained together, dined together, wrestled together and slept togeth--- wait a minute! Anyhow, this match shall def be a 10-12 minute highlight reel. (With all of the Cutlers moves edited out of course)
11-The other First Round match in your side of this One Night Tournament involving Chuck Taylor, the Most Outstanding Wrestler in Chikara KOT 2009: what do you think about him and his style? Can he with Kenny Omega be the underdog in the tournament or Los Luchas can advance due to their experience?
We've got our eyes on Chuck and Omega. I think they might be the dark horses in this one. Los Luchas are a very experienced team but for some reason, I've got a gut feeling that we'll be moving on to the second round and wrestling Mr. Taylor and Mr. Omega. I think that these two have very unique styles. Taylor likes to use invisible grenades, while Omega impersonates Ryu from Street Fighter. That's a very weird team now that I am thinking about it. Bring on the Luchas.
12-The other side involve the recently born Hybrid Dolphins of Paul London & Bryan Danielson, against an evergreen like The Dinasty of Scott Lost & Joey Ryan. Also, we are going to see Motor City Machine Guns against Roderick Strong & the PWG World Champion Chris Hero. Can you make for us a preview of these two bouts?
These two matches shall be very exciting and will probably be a little different than our match with the Cutlers and OMEGA and Taylors match with the Luchas. We're personally going to wait for the DVD to come out to watch the MCMG and Hero and Roddy. That match sounds like fun... Maybe because Nick and my favorite team in the world right now, the Guns are in it! No matter who comes out on this side, Nick and I are going to have our hands full... Especially if we end up having to wrestle the Dolphins! I might have a hard time keeping a straight face. Have you seen that promo on Youtube! Of course you have! You probably ordered the shirt you mark!
13-Reading the participants of DDT4 2009, you already beat 4 of them(retaining titles against the Guns and the Cutler Brothers, and in non-title matches against Los Luchas and The Dinasty). For you, this one day walkway to success can be great like the past 8 months since you gain the PWG World Tag Team Titles beating The Age of the Fall?
It's going to be a tough night to say the least. We've obviously got bulls-eye targets on our chests. Everyones going to be a lot hungrier when they're in the ring with us because of the simple fact that the belts are on the line throughout the tournament. Nick said it best when he said, "if we come out of this thing alive, and with the belts, we might be called the greatest PWG Tag Team champs of all time."
14-One more thing about the DDT4: on May 22nd you reach 264 days of reign, only 9 fewer than The Arrogance who retain the Titles for 273 days in 2004. The final achievement for The Bucks is to climb the highest stair of PWG Tag Team Division? And what do you think about a dream showdown against Scott Lost & Photogenic Chris Bosh in the very near future, to determine the most dominant Tag Team in the history of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla?
We've kept count on the number of days that we've held the belts - so it's always on our minds. When we first won the belts we stated in a post match promo that our goal was to become the greatest PWG champs of all time. I think, if we pass the record that Arrogance holds, we will gain just that. Our debuting match in PWG was against Arrogance, which we lost. We'd love to avenge that initial defeat someday.
15-In Italy we say “there is no 2 without 3”, so how high are the possibilities to see the third European Vacation? And there is a chance to see finally Pro Wrestling Guerrilla in Italy, maybe my biggest dream?
Unfortunately, it is unlikely for PWG to come back to Europe because of past issues from the second trip. As for Italy, I haven't heard anything in the works. However, keep your eyes open, as the Young Bucks just might be headed to Europe... soon actually!
16-The last question: what can you tell us about Malachi Jackson?
He's the future of wrestling. I believe that we have the potential to be one of the next great families in this business. I like to think of us as the new Von Erichs, hopefully without all of the tradegy.
Thanks a lot Matt & Nick, I know that I ask you a lot of things, and you must know that maybe I could go on more and more! We're very proud to read your words here on WeAreWrestling and I hope to know your beliefs on the last days of July after the debut in Dragon Gate USA! See you soon guys, hopefully in Italy!
No problem. Thanks for all of the support. God bless
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Back in town, funeral speech, ewf, scorpio sky
I've been home now for little over a week. I can say that I am back on US time finally! It is very hard to adjust back to normal, once you've been living somewhere else for nearly a month. You know what? It feels good to be home! I missed friends, family and especially my wifey so badly that it hurt.
I didn't come home during the best of circumstances as I had a funeral to attend two days after I landed. I was asked to speak a day later at the actual ceremony in front of everyone to represent the grand kids. It was a huge honor to be asked to do this, however I was extremely nervous. I was never much of a public speaker. Soon after my mother in law asked me and I agreed, I had flash backs of myself standing in front of the class room back at Alta Loma High School in Ms. Mirra's class with sweaty hands and a shaky voice. Not only was I semi-terrified to speak in a normal setting, but this was a funeral. I really cared for and loved this person that I was going to be talking about. Would I choke up? Or better yet, would I cry? I decided that I wouldn't worry about it and would attempt to do my best. Now, I know a lot of you are thinking, "Matt, you do this for a living. You wrestle in front of hundreds, sometimes thousands and cut promos and interviews on a weekly basis." This is all true. My wife made the same plea. However, when I do such things, I am in full character. I described it to Dana best when I told her that when I am in character, it's like I have a mask on. I am someone else. Matt Jackson will not be speaking in front of almost 100 grieving friends, family and others who I'd never actually met. Matt Massie will be. So morning came, and as soon as I knew, it was time for me to go up. I was sweating bullets (as my wife described to my mom when she later re-told this story) as I walked up the two steps onto the stage. I looked into the crowd of loved ones, cleared my voice and then said, "The last time I was in front of a large group of people, I was wearing spandex and baby oil." Huge pop. I smiled and told everyone that I was referring to the last match I had in Japan. The same match that I had dedicated to Grandma Dana. Many people read the blog that I wrote about Grandma Dana and loved it. I felt it would be in good taste to share it with everyone, so I read it aloud. As I read, I was brought back to the very day I wrote the blog. I was so vulernable and alone. My wife and family were going through such a difficult time, but I was stuck somewhere else. I tried to speed through the blog because I can feel my self getting close to tears. I don't know if it was my nerves, or looking out at my beautiful wife who was sitting in front of me with wet eyes? Maybe it was a combination of both. I shared the same scripture that I wrote in a past blog and then thanked Grandman Dana on behalf of all of the grand kids. I sat back down and felt proud and relieved. After the ceremony, people came up to me chuckling. "Matt, you do realize that you were a little vague about the whole wrestling thing right?" I thought about it and realized that I never actually explained that I was a professional wrestler. I just mentioned that I wore spandex and baby oil and happened to be touring Japan, having matches. There were several people in the audience that were puzzled by what exactly I was talking about. Many of the people were elderly, so the information that I gave could of meant really anything to them. I found this quite funny. I was told by Dana and many others that I did a great job which meant more to me than any review online about one of my matches. So, all in all, it was an emotional day. But, a very good day as we all talked and shared memories of a lovely lady that will never be forgotten.
Last night in Covina at a long running little indy company called EWF, Nick and I wrestled in our first match back in the states. We had so much fun being in the ring with one of our best friends, Scorpio Sky who is even more talented than I knew. He REALLY impressed me last night. Sky can wrestle anywhere in the world and be successful. I truly believe this. His partner, Brandon Gatson also did a wonderful job in his role. The four of us tore the house down last night and had one of my favorite matches that has taken place in the states. It's weird that Sky was the one to teach me how to do a proper lock-up so many years ago at my first day of training, yet we wrestled in only our SECOND match last night. I really hope that we get to work with him more in the future. Speaking of Sky, he was one of the only nice guys that sort of took me under his wing when I began training in Revolution Pro (pre-PWG SoCal company). Everyone else stiffed me, trash talked me and didn't want anything to do with me (I probably deserved all of these things) because I was a cocky kid who did flips in his backyard. I'll never forget him for sitting with the new lonesome kid at the lunch table in the cafeteria.
Anyhow, next week is PWG DDT4 and a small trip to Las Vegas for a debuting company. I have to say that the only thing I miss about being in Japan, besides the nice people, is the hectic wrestling schedule. I love wrestling! However, nothing is better than laying out by the pool with the love of my life in beautiful, sunny California. Time to get my tan back!
Later days!
Matt
I didn't come home during the best of circumstances as I had a funeral to attend two days after I landed. I was asked to speak a day later at the actual ceremony in front of everyone to represent the grand kids. It was a huge honor to be asked to do this, however I was extremely nervous. I was never much of a public speaker. Soon after my mother in law asked me and I agreed, I had flash backs of myself standing in front of the class room back at Alta Loma High School in Ms. Mirra's class with sweaty hands and a shaky voice. Not only was I semi-terrified to speak in a normal setting, but this was a funeral. I really cared for and loved this person that I was going to be talking about. Would I choke up? Or better yet, would I cry? I decided that I wouldn't worry about it and would attempt to do my best. Now, I know a lot of you are thinking, "Matt, you do this for a living. You wrestle in front of hundreds, sometimes thousands and cut promos and interviews on a weekly basis." This is all true. My wife made the same plea. However, when I do such things, I am in full character. I described it to Dana best when I told her that when I am in character, it's like I have a mask on. I am someone else. Matt Jackson will not be speaking in front of almost 100 grieving friends, family and others who I'd never actually met. Matt Massie will be. So morning came, and as soon as I knew, it was time for me to go up. I was sweating bullets (as my wife described to my mom when she later re-told this story) as I walked up the two steps onto the stage. I looked into the crowd of loved ones, cleared my voice and then said, "The last time I was in front of a large group of people, I was wearing spandex and baby oil." Huge pop. I smiled and told everyone that I was referring to the last match I had in Japan. The same match that I had dedicated to Grandma Dana. Many people read the blog that I wrote about Grandma Dana and loved it. I felt it would be in good taste to share it with everyone, so I read it aloud. As I read, I was brought back to the very day I wrote the blog. I was so vulernable and alone. My wife and family were going through such a difficult time, but I was stuck somewhere else. I tried to speed through the blog because I can feel my self getting close to tears. I don't know if it was my nerves, or looking out at my beautiful wife who was sitting in front of me with wet eyes? Maybe it was a combination of both. I shared the same scripture that I wrote in a past blog and then thanked Grandman Dana on behalf of all of the grand kids. I sat back down and felt proud and relieved. After the ceremony, people came up to me chuckling. "Matt, you do realize that you were a little vague about the whole wrestling thing right?" I thought about it and realized that I never actually explained that I was a professional wrestler. I just mentioned that I wore spandex and baby oil and happened to be touring Japan, having matches. There were several people in the audience that were puzzled by what exactly I was talking about. Many of the people were elderly, so the information that I gave could of meant really anything to them. I found this quite funny. I was told by Dana and many others that I did a great job which meant more to me than any review online about one of my matches. So, all in all, it was an emotional day. But, a very good day as we all talked and shared memories of a lovely lady that will never be forgotten.
Last night in Covina at a long running little indy company called EWF, Nick and I wrestled in our first match back in the states. We had so much fun being in the ring with one of our best friends, Scorpio Sky who is even more talented than I knew. He REALLY impressed me last night. Sky can wrestle anywhere in the world and be successful. I truly believe this. His partner, Brandon Gatson also did a wonderful job in his role. The four of us tore the house down last night and had one of my favorite matches that has taken place in the states. It's weird that Sky was the one to teach me how to do a proper lock-up so many years ago at my first day of training, yet we wrestled in only our SECOND match last night. I really hope that we get to work with him more in the future. Speaking of Sky, he was one of the only nice guys that sort of took me under his wing when I began training in Revolution Pro (pre-PWG SoCal company). Everyone else stiffed me, trash talked me and didn't want anything to do with me (I probably deserved all of these things) because I was a cocky kid who did flips in his backyard. I'll never forget him for sitting with the new lonesome kid at the lunch table in the cafeteria.
Anyhow, next week is PWG DDT4 and a small trip to Las Vegas for a debuting company. I have to say that the only thing I miss about being in Japan, besides the nice people, is the hectic wrestling schedule. I love wrestling! However, nothing is better than laying out by the pool with the love of my life in beautiful, sunny California. Time to get my tan back!
Later days!
Matt
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
end of the tour, from the start, last suppa
Phewww... We just wrapped this thing up. Twenty four days and sixteen matches later, Nick and I are spending our final night in Japan. We will be boarding a plane tomorrow morning with a third successful tour under our belt. After our very athletic opening match in which we teamed with a young wrestler by the name of Ryoma who I believe is the future of Dragon Gate, we sat in the cheap seats and watched the rest of the pay per view. Nick and I talked about how excited we were, being a part of a huge show like this in Japan. It's surreal sometimes to think about how far we have come. Eight years ago, my dad built me my first wrestling ring in my backyard. I dreamed of one day becoming a professional wrestler and traveling the world, competing just like all of my childhood heroes did. Truth be told, I taught my self how to wrestle. Obviously, I've learned along the way from different trainers and from the experience that you get from wrestling so many different people. But, the hours I spent watching videos and emulating what I saw in my own ring starting at the age of 16 years old for hours on end is the reason I believe I have reached the success that I have. I was absolutely obsessed with professional wrestling and was going to do it no matter what. I will always be in debt to my parents who saw the potential in me. They handed me the very first canvas for me to paint all of my ideas on. If I didn't have a supportive mom and dad, this whole story might be a little different.
We were just taken out by a sponsor to grab a bite to eat after the show. He took us, Susumu Yokozuka and Kagetora along with 12 other friends/family to an EXPENSIVE Italian joint. We ate salad, pizza, pasta, Kobe beef, and chicken wings for about 3 hours straight. We signed a couple of magazines and even a plate that the sponsor bought from the restaurant, took some group photos and headed back to the hotel. I have to say, we ended the tour on a very strong note. It was probably our most fun night out.
We ate, slept, traveled, trained, set up rings, tore down rings and wrestled with this wonderful group of people who I consider my fraternity brothers. No matter what happens, I will never forget my stay(s) in this unbelievable country. Dragon Gate has helped Nick and I mature in wrestling and become better at what we do in and out of the ring. There really isn't a promotion out there that fits the Young Bucks better than Dragon Gate.
I get to see my family and my beautiful wife in about 24 hours! I am so thrilled that words cannot express my excitement. We've got an hour drive to the Nagoya airport, a 90 minute flight to Narita Tokyo, a 2 hour lay over there, and then a 12 hour flight to LAX.. It's going to be an intense day of travel. We get in around 10:00 am on Wednesday - in which I will be headed straight back to my other job.
I'm not sure if I will keep this blog going... I do know that I really enjoy writing and I would absolutely love to keep it up for the sake of memory. (One day I plan to write a book). This blog has made this trip fly by. Stay tuned for more... hopefully!
Thanks for coming on this ride with me!
God bless!
Matt
We were just taken out by a sponsor to grab a bite to eat after the show. He took us, Susumu Yokozuka and Kagetora along with 12 other friends/family to an EXPENSIVE Italian joint. We ate salad, pizza, pasta, Kobe beef, and chicken wings for about 3 hours straight. We signed a couple of magazines and even a plate that the sponsor bought from the restaurant, took some group photos and headed back to the hotel. I have to say, we ended the tour on a very strong note. It was probably our most fun night out.
We ate, slept, traveled, trained, set up rings, tore down rings and wrestled with this wonderful group of people who I consider my fraternity brothers. No matter what happens, I will never forget my stay(s) in this unbelievable country. Dragon Gate has helped Nick and I mature in wrestling and become better at what we do in and out of the ring. There really isn't a promotion out there that fits the Young Bucks better than Dragon Gate.
I get to see my family and my beautiful wife in about 24 hours! I am so thrilled that words cannot express my excitement. We've got an hour drive to the Nagoya airport, a 90 minute flight to Narita Tokyo, a 2 hour lay over there, and then a 12 hour flight to LAX.. It's going to be an intense day of travel. We get in around 10:00 am on Wednesday - in which I will be headed straight back to my other job.
I'm not sure if I will keep this blog going... I do know that I really enjoy writing and I would absolutely love to keep it up for the sake of memory. (One day I plan to write a book). This blog has made this trip fly by. Stay tuned for more... hopefully!
Thanks for coming on this ride with me!
God bless!
Matt
Sunday, May 3, 2009
setting bus records, dinner, a pleasant scene
OMG! I just spent 11 hours on a bus today. That's godda be some kind of record or something! My legs feel like jello, but it's absolutely fine, because I am on an absolute high right now! Nick and I defended the PWG Tag Team Championship belts successfully tonight against Tazawa and Shingo in what was easily our best match of the tour. We stole the show tonight. We have so much chemistry with these guys. We told them that we'd love to wrestle them again in Los Angeles for PWG. Then after the show, we stopped at what we thought would be the usual 24 hr mall/convenie... but then we saw the golden arches. Oh, God was looking out for us on this day. A big mac, 2 hamburgers and a hot apple pie later, and I was on cloud nine on that bus.... even if it was for 11 hours.
Two days prior, Yoshino took us out to eat at a fantastic Japanese restaurant. Eating in Japan is like an all day thing. Food just kept coming and coming. The cook who is a huge Dragon Gate fan, worked his magic right in front of us on the table stove. We scarfed down noodles, Kobe beef, eggs and ice candy for desert. Japanese ice candy are these little colorful balls that look like jaw breakers that are frozen and come in different flavors. It melts in your mouth like ice cream. Nick raved over it. Unfortunately during the dinner I got the call from Dana that I was dreading all trip. Our loving Grandma Danas story had finally come to a close. My heart sank instantly, like I was being thrown into the ocean with cemet pillars tied to my ankles. I won't go into too much detail, but I will be home for the funeral which I feel extremely lucky about. I've been doing a lot of praying and decided to dedicate my first PPV match on Tuesday to my Grandma Dana.
My knees a little banged up after a top rope moonsault tonight and Nicks sternum is a little sore from a 450 splash or as they call it in Japan, a "Fire Bird." Other then that, we are feeling pretty good physically. Oh! Before I forget. We had a surprise show yesterday that we were not aware of. We were thinking we had the day off but soon found out that we would be wrestling. So, at the end of this trip, we will have wrestled 16 times. That's pretty impressive if you ask me. Nick and I felt so robbed of our day, so we felt a little burnt out yesterday. Regardless, I think both of these Jacksons are ready to come home. I told my wife that we are going out for a steak dinner the very night I get home. Outback Steakhouse sounds tremendous right now.
I experienced a pleasant scene today on the bus. I watched two of the wrestlers sharing videos of their family off of their phones to each other. One wrestler proudly held his phone with a huge smile on his face as his baby boy giggled and played. The other wrestlers phone lit up with his wife and small infant laughing and talking. I didn't understand the dialogue because it was obviously Japanese. The wrestlers were so thrilled to share this with each other. I was thinking about what these guys were like in their real life roles. When we go on tour with these guys, we spend every waking second with them. A few of the Dragon Gate guys have actually become some of my closest friends in this business. That's a strange thing if you consider the fact that we don't even speak the same language. But, if you think about it... I don't really know these guys. I just know what they're like as wrestlers. Not human beings. Professional wrestlers are truly a unique breed. We are not normal, thats for sure. However, seeing that little scene on the bus made me realize that maybe we're a little more normal then I thought. We're all actually pretty diverse people with many different interests. If you think about it, the only thing that we all have in common is our love for this business.
I joke all of the time when people ask me what I do for a living. "I perform in exaggerated fight scenes that only have one take." "Is it real?" they ask. "Yeah. Real fake," I fire back.
I'm in a weird mood.. And its 3:32am, so forgive me for the stupidiy that was this blog.
Two days prior, Yoshino took us out to eat at a fantastic Japanese restaurant. Eating in Japan is like an all day thing. Food just kept coming and coming. The cook who is a huge Dragon Gate fan, worked his magic right in front of us on the table stove. We scarfed down noodles, Kobe beef, eggs and ice candy for desert. Japanese ice candy are these little colorful balls that look like jaw breakers that are frozen and come in different flavors. It melts in your mouth like ice cream. Nick raved over it. Unfortunately during the dinner I got the call from Dana that I was dreading all trip. Our loving Grandma Danas story had finally come to a close. My heart sank instantly, like I was being thrown into the ocean with cemet pillars tied to my ankles. I won't go into too much detail, but I will be home for the funeral which I feel extremely lucky about. I've been doing a lot of praying and decided to dedicate my first PPV match on Tuesday to my Grandma Dana.
My knees a little banged up after a top rope moonsault tonight and Nicks sternum is a little sore from a 450 splash or as they call it in Japan, a "Fire Bird." Other then that, we are feeling pretty good physically. Oh! Before I forget. We had a surprise show yesterday that we were not aware of. We were thinking we had the day off but soon found out that we would be wrestling. So, at the end of this trip, we will have wrestled 16 times. That's pretty impressive if you ask me. Nick and I felt so robbed of our day, so we felt a little burnt out yesterday. Regardless, I think both of these Jacksons are ready to come home. I told my wife that we are going out for a steak dinner the very night I get home. Outback Steakhouse sounds tremendous right now.
I experienced a pleasant scene today on the bus. I watched two of the wrestlers sharing videos of their family off of their phones to each other. One wrestler proudly held his phone with a huge smile on his face as his baby boy giggled and played. The other wrestlers phone lit up with his wife and small infant laughing and talking. I didn't understand the dialogue because it was obviously Japanese. The wrestlers were so thrilled to share this with each other. I was thinking about what these guys were like in their real life roles. When we go on tour with these guys, we spend every waking second with them. A few of the Dragon Gate guys have actually become some of my closest friends in this business. That's a strange thing if you consider the fact that we don't even speak the same language. But, if you think about it... I don't really know these guys. I just know what they're like as wrestlers. Not human beings. Professional wrestlers are truly a unique breed. We are not normal, thats for sure. However, seeing that little scene on the bus made me realize that maybe we're a little more normal then I thought. We're all actually pretty diverse people with many different interests. If you think about it, the only thing that we all have in common is our love for this business.
I joke all of the time when people ask me what I do for a living. "I perform in exaggerated fight scenes that only have one take." "Is it real?" they ask. "Yeah. Real fake," I fire back.
I'm in a weird mood.. And its 3:32am, so forgive me for the stupidiy that was this blog.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Pizza, roh/dgusa, saying good bye
There's nothing quite like a good, hot meal to satisfy your stomach and pick up your morale. After our match in Kobe last night we spotted a Dominos Pizza! God might as well could of opened up the gates of heaven and invited us in to dine with him at a long, golden table. We ordered a large pepperoni and cheese pizza for take out and the next thing we saw was an empty pizza box, stained with grease marks with not even a single piece of crust left behind. It was our finest meal ever.
In case you haven't heard yet.. That "big news" that I was hinting at in the previous blog has been announced. The Young Bucks will be making their debut for Ring of Honor in Philadelphia, PA at The Arena on May 29th and 30th for the HDNET television tapings. We have also been added to the Virgina and New York City shows on June 12th and 13th. We are very psyched to finally work for Ring of Honor. Right now is a very exciting time for us, as we'll again be returning to The Arena in Philly for the DGUSA debut show this summer on July 25th! That show is shaping up to being something special. We are very blessed to have so many opportunities.
We will be defending the PWG belts on May 3rd and will be wrestling on our very first pay per view titled, "Dead or Alive" in Nagoya on May 5th. They are estimating at least 8,000 people to come watch Akebono and Doi go at it in the main event. My personal main event will be on the following day, May 6th, when I get to come home to MY Dana. =D
As great as my wrestling career is right now, I am saddened by news that someone I love is near the end of her long, prosperous, youthful, fun, loving life. I am some 5,000 miles away and a full day ahead of all of my loved ones. I feel hopeless and depressed that I cannot be there physically but am there in spirit. EVERYONE is on my mind and in my prayers. She was there for the birth of my wife, and now my wife is there for her passing. This has to be truly a moving experience - something that I can't even grasp, as I don't feel I've ever lost someone I was close to. My wife sent me the lyrics to a song which I later youtubed to hear for my self. She said, one night after she was done visting, this song came on and blew her away.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Disciple - "Things Left Unsaid"
It's just a matter of
time a few days ago
I saw you, you were fine
Remembering what you said
About the book you read
The one I got you
The Beginning of the End
Oh how we'd talk
For hours upon end
What I would give
Just to do it again
But you're lying there
In this hospital bed
Won't you open you eyes
And let's talk once again
[Chorus:]
If you fly away tonight
I want to tell you
that I love you
I hope that you can hear me
I hope that you can feel me
If you fly away tonight
I want to tell you
that I'm sorry
That I never told you
When we were face to face
Well I've been here all night
And I'm watching you
Breathe in and breathe out
Is it really you
Or just a machine
That's giving you life
And making it seem
That there could be hope
I could say to your face
If it were not for you
That there would be no grace
That has covered my life
You took the time
To speak into my mind
And my heart
Words of life
________________________________________________________________________________________
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Grandma Dana believes.
We love you.
In case you haven't heard yet.. That "big news" that I was hinting at in the previous blog has been announced. The Young Bucks will be making their debut for Ring of Honor in Philadelphia, PA at The Arena on May 29th and 30th for the HDNET television tapings. We have also been added to the Virgina and New York City shows on June 12th and 13th. We are very psyched to finally work for Ring of Honor. Right now is a very exciting time for us, as we'll again be returning to The Arena in Philly for the DGUSA debut show this summer on July 25th! That show is shaping up to being something special. We are very blessed to have so many opportunities.
We will be defending the PWG belts on May 3rd and will be wrestling on our very first pay per view titled, "Dead or Alive" in Nagoya on May 5th. They are estimating at least 8,000 people to come watch Akebono and Doi go at it in the main event. My personal main event will be on the following day, May 6th, when I get to come home to MY Dana. =D
As great as my wrestling career is right now, I am saddened by news that someone I love is near the end of her long, prosperous, youthful, fun, loving life. I am some 5,000 miles away and a full day ahead of all of my loved ones. I feel hopeless and depressed that I cannot be there physically but am there in spirit. EVERYONE is on my mind and in my prayers. She was there for the birth of my wife, and now my wife is there for her passing. This has to be truly a moving experience - something that I can't even grasp, as I don't feel I've ever lost someone I was close to. My wife sent me the lyrics to a song which I later youtubed to hear for my self. She said, one night after she was done visting, this song came on and blew her away.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Disciple - "Things Left Unsaid"
It's just a matter of
time a few days ago
I saw you, you were fine
Remembering what you said
About the book you read
The one I got you
The Beginning of the End
Oh how we'd talk
For hours upon end
What I would give
Just to do it again
But you're lying there
In this hospital bed
Won't you open you eyes
And let's talk once again
[Chorus:]
If you fly away tonight
I want to tell you
that I love you
I hope that you can hear me
I hope that you can feel me
If you fly away tonight
I want to tell you
that I'm sorry
That I never told you
When we were face to face
Well I've been here all night
And I'm watching you
Breathe in and breathe out
Is it really you
Or just a machine
That's giving you life
And making it seem
That there could be hope
I could say to your face
If it were not for you
That there would be no grace
That has covered my life
You took the time
To speak into my mind
And my heart
Words of life
________________________________________________________________________________________
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Grandma Dana believes.
We love you.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Akebono, magz, danas voice
We've done a few more shows since I last blogged. Last night was fun, as we got to meet the famous Japanese Sumo wrestler Akebono who is truly one of the few real life giants that still walks the earth. He's huge by all means, but especially in Japan where the average citizen is no more than 5'5. He was a very pleasant guy who has star appeal written all over him. We watched in amazement along with 1,500 other fans as he dropped elbows, and effortlessly press slammed members of World-1. The fans LOVED him.
We picked up this weeks wrestling magazine and were happy to see a couple of photos of us delivering offensive manuevers to members of the Dragon Gate roster. We did the ultimate "mark-out" moment as we showed the clerk who was running the cash register at the Lawson station the page in which we were featured. The clerk looked down at the magazine that we were about to purchase along with some very unhealthy goodies and said, "Oooh!" And then stuck his hand out, so he could shake both of ours. We had a laugh and realized how much more fun people are in Japan. If we did this back at home the dude working the register would of told me to get lost. People are so friendly and easily amused out here, as oppossed to us Americans who have seen and done everything. We're so spoiled!
We got to talk to the parents and Malachi today. Nick had his usual argument with every member of the family, and I got to catch up with everyone. They'll all be enjoying Disneyland tomorrow and to say that I am envious would be an understatement. After talking to my wife following the prior conversation with them, I realized that I am EXTREMELY ready to get home. I miss her so much, its unbelievable. The other night I left my computer on with the Skype program running in case she needed to get ahold of me while I slept. Early in the morning I was woken up to the sound of my gorgeous wifes voice, "Matt, Matt, Matt, baby, wake up!" I was in such a deep sleep and was startled to say the least. I quickly rolled over to my right side in anticipation to see my wife who was probably waking me up for work or from a nap. I was dissapointed to see my laptop, and quickly realized she was calling me from Skype. It was still great to hear her voice, but for a second I thought I was back at home in sunny California! As of now, I only have 4 shows left and six full days in the land of the rising sun.
This ones going to be short and sweet as I got to sleep last night/early this morning at 5:00 am and need to get ready for another show. Our ride will be here in 20 minutes.
Also, expect big things considering the Young Bucks in the coming days. You'll know what I mean when the news hits.
God bless!
Matt
We picked up this weeks wrestling magazine and were happy to see a couple of photos of us delivering offensive manuevers to members of the Dragon Gate roster. We did the ultimate "mark-out" moment as we showed the clerk who was running the cash register at the Lawson station the page in which we were featured. The clerk looked down at the magazine that we were about to purchase along with some very unhealthy goodies and said, "Oooh!" And then stuck his hand out, so he could shake both of ours. We had a laugh and realized how much more fun people are in Japan. If we did this back at home the dude working the register would of told me to get lost. People are so friendly and easily amused out here, as oppossed to us Americans who have seen and done everything. We're so spoiled!
We got to talk to the parents and Malachi today. Nick had his usual argument with every member of the family, and I got to catch up with everyone. They'll all be enjoying Disneyland tomorrow and to say that I am envious would be an understatement. After talking to my wife following the prior conversation with them, I realized that I am EXTREMELY ready to get home. I miss her so much, its unbelievable. The other night I left my computer on with the Skype program running in case she needed to get ahold of me while I slept. Early in the morning I was woken up to the sound of my gorgeous wifes voice, "Matt, Matt, Matt, baby, wake up!" I was in such a deep sleep and was startled to say the least. I quickly rolled over to my right side in anticipation to see my wife who was probably waking me up for work or from a nap. I was dissapointed to see my laptop, and quickly realized she was calling me from Skype. It was still great to hear her voice, but for a second I thought I was back at home in sunny California! As of now, I only have 4 shows left and six full days in the land of the rising sun.
This ones going to be short and sweet as I got to sleep last night/early this morning at 5:00 am and need to get ready for another show. Our ride will be here in 20 minutes.
Also, expect big things considering the Young Bucks in the coming days. You'll know what I mean when the news hits.
God bless!
Matt
Sunday, April 26, 2009
bad internet, museums, dream matches, small updates.
Not really sure when exactly this blog will end up being posted as Nick and I were cursed with a hotel that has terrible internet connection. We'll be staying here for the next couple of days which is pretty lame considering the fact that Skyping with Dana is my highlight. It literally took me 45 minutes to leave a comment on a myspace page which shows either my dedication to Toms famous social networking website or stupidiy on my behalf for spending 45 minutes on leaving a comment.
Yesterday, after we completed setting up the carnival, Shingo (as he promised) along with Tazawa decided to take us to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, along with the very area the actual bomb was dropped. An original brick building with a dome looking top still stands as a landmark, so people can see what Hiroshima truly looked like after the bomb. The brick and ceramics on the building are burnt to a crisp, broken rock and brick are propped around the building and the squares that used to hold windows are completely empty. You examine this one building the way that it is and then visualize the rest of the city when it was in ruins, and it just blows you away. Shingo and Tazawa demonstrated a prayer that Japanese people do at this famous site. The prayer is suppossed to keep peace and prevent war. I went along with my two friends. I bowed my head, clapped my hands together two times, put my hands together against my heart and said a quick prayer. It was something that I'll never forget. The actual museum was unreal. It contained pictures of Hiroshima before and after the bomb. There were items on display such as junior highschool kids burnt clothing, destroyed yen, and old glass soda bottles that were completely melted. Playing on video screens were testimonials from some of the survivors. It was just a really interesting place that Nick and I really enjoyed visiting. They said that Hiroshima would not be able to grow a single plant for at least 40 years from the damage and radiation, but the city proved the skeptics wrong and is now completely restored again.
We walked back to the venue which was literally across the street from ground zero and realized that if we were wrestling back in 1947 on the very day that the worlds first atomic bomb dropped, we'd SO be dead. We wrestled in a personal dream match of mine that night which consisted of The Young Bucks and Cima vs Doi, Yoshino and BxB Hulk. We had a simple match, but fun nonetheless. I believe that NO ONE can compare to Doi and Yoshino as a team... They're the best duel in the world. Speaking of dream matches, I felt like I was having another one today as I entered the ring tired and groggy. Sleeping for only 3 hours the night before made it seem like a complete dream. The 1,500 fans packed on the second floor of the Star Lanes bowling alley helped wake me up fast, like a shot in the arm of pure adrenaline. Nick and I were wrestling Doi and Tanisaki in the opening match of a big tv taping. Genki warned us earlier that, "theez crowd is cray-ze!" Boy, he wasn't kidding. We rocked the house and had our best match of the tour. I'm still actually kind of on a high, which explains my blogging and NOT sleeping.
My knee is pretty banged up from everything, and I had to walk with a limp for the first time in a couple of weeks as we crossed the street to AMPM to grab our favorite dinner before the Dragon Gate tour bus headed back to the hotel. Somehow, I'm going to find a little time to just heal. I don't know when. But, sometime.
We've sold out of shirts completely and are on our way to do the same thing with our photos. We're more than half way through this tour now, and I'm extremely anxious to get home to my wife. She is going through heck right now, and unfortunately I am in another country. I'm so proud of her for being so strong. She really is the toughest person that I know... and she wouldn't give her self the credit if you told her so.
Someone asked if Nick and I will be putting up another YBTV episode from this tour and unfortunately the answer is no. We don't have any plans for the show right now because of our hectic lives... But maybe someday it will make a return! Tomorrow is an off day and then we'll be back at it for the next several days. Also, were excited for the big PWG DDT4 tournament coming up late in May. Furthermore, look for updates as we defend the PWG titles in the coming week here in Japan. Sorry for the blog being extra long this time.... I had a lot to say!
Night.
Yesterday, after we completed setting up the carnival, Shingo (as he promised) along with Tazawa decided to take us to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, along with the very area the actual bomb was dropped. An original brick building with a dome looking top still stands as a landmark, so people can see what Hiroshima truly looked like after the bomb. The brick and ceramics on the building are burnt to a crisp, broken rock and brick are propped around the building and the squares that used to hold windows are completely empty. You examine this one building the way that it is and then visualize the rest of the city when it was in ruins, and it just blows you away. Shingo and Tazawa demonstrated a prayer that Japanese people do at this famous site. The prayer is suppossed to keep peace and prevent war. I went along with my two friends. I bowed my head, clapped my hands together two times, put my hands together against my heart and said a quick prayer. It was something that I'll never forget. The actual museum was unreal. It contained pictures of Hiroshima before and after the bomb. There were items on display such as junior highschool kids burnt clothing, destroyed yen, and old glass soda bottles that were completely melted. Playing on video screens were testimonials from some of the survivors. It was just a really interesting place that Nick and I really enjoyed visiting. They said that Hiroshima would not be able to grow a single plant for at least 40 years from the damage and radiation, but the city proved the skeptics wrong and is now completely restored again.
We walked back to the venue which was literally across the street from ground zero and realized that if we were wrestling back in 1947 on the very day that the worlds first atomic bomb dropped, we'd SO be dead. We wrestled in a personal dream match of mine that night which consisted of The Young Bucks and Cima vs Doi, Yoshino and BxB Hulk. We had a simple match, but fun nonetheless. I believe that NO ONE can compare to Doi and Yoshino as a team... They're the best duel in the world. Speaking of dream matches, I felt like I was having another one today as I entered the ring tired and groggy. Sleeping for only 3 hours the night before made it seem like a complete dream. The 1,500 fans packed on the second floor of the Star Lanes bowling alley helped wake me up fast, like a shot in the arm of pure adrenaline. Nick and I were wrestling Doi and Tanisaki in the opening match of a big tv taping. Genki warned us earlier that, "theez crowd is cray-ze!" Boy, he wasn't kidding. We rocked the house and had our best match of the tour. I'm still actually kind of on a high, which explains my blogging and NOT sleeping.
My knee is pretty banged up from everything, and I had to walk with a limp for the first time in a couple of weeks as we crossed the street to AMPM to grab our favorite dinner before the Dragon Gate tour bus headed back to the hotel. Somehow, I'm going to find a little time to just heal. I don't know when. But, sometime.
We've sold out of shirts completely and are on our way to do the same thing with our photos. We're more than half way through this tour now, and I'm extremely anxious to get home to my wife. She is going through heck right now, and unfortunately I am in another country. I'm so proud of her for being so strong. She really is the toughest person that I know... and she wouldn't give her self the credit if you told her so.
Someone asked if Nick and I will be putting up another YBTV episode from this tour and unfortunately the answer is no. We don't have any plans for the show right now because of our hectic lives... But maybe someday it will make a return! Tomorrow is an off day and then we'll be back at it for the next several days. Also, were excited for the big PWG DDT4 tournament coming up late in May. Furthermore, look for updates as we defend the PWG titles in the coming week here in Japan. Sorry for the blog being extra long this time.... I had a lot to say!
Night.
Friday, April 24, 2009
dg NEX, Mcdonalds, marking out for our selves, Hiroshima.
You know what's fun? Wrestling in your living room. Well, that's actually what it kinda felt like today at least. We put our tights, tassles and boots on in our quiet bedrooms and walked down two flights of stairs, stepped through a curtain to be exposed to an over sized closet, packed with 90-100 screaming fans that stood surrounding a 14 x 14 wrestling ring. We were about to main event a Dragon Gate NEX show which is a showcase event for their students. "Wow, this is weird," I thought out loud. "These guys can run a random show in a tiny building, with a tiny ring and still out draw most SoCal shows," I said to Nicks agreement. (At least lately thats the way it seems). We had a fun little six man tag team match that seemed very easy compared to most matches we've had while out here which was a nice change of pace.
After the match, we took quick showers and headed out to grab some Mickey D's. We then finished signing some autographs outside of the building on these big cardboard frames, shook a couple dozen hands, and were soon on our way. I made sure to make a quick stop at the 7 and holdings (7/11 convenience store) to purchase a telephone card. Nick, myself and the rest of the Dragon Gate crew will be on the road for the next several days and I need to be certain I have a way of getting ahold of Dana if our hotels don't have wireless internet. After a horrible performance by me of my best 'Broken English' and small amount of Japanese that I have picked up, I could now rest a little easier knowing that I now possessed a 1,000 yen NTT Docomo telephone card. As I picked up my Pacari Sweat (Japans version of Gatorade) out of one of the 9 vending machines available in front of me, I heard someone come up to Nick with excitement in his voice. "Neek!" I turned toward the stranger and started twisting the cap off of my bottle of goodness. "Matto!" He along with a friend of his came up to us and began bowing repeatedly and speaking very fast. Turns out, they just saw us wrestle last week in Kyota on night 2 of the tag team tournament and were huge fans of the Young Bucks. We stood and talked to these nice fellows for several minutes and found out that they will be attending the May 5th PPV in Nagoya that we will be participating in. I don't know who was more excited. Them for seeing two wrestlers that they enjoy watching? Or Nick and I for marking out for our selves about getting spotted on the street? I'd go with the latter.
About seven minutes later I looked down at my McDonalds tray that had three bunched up hamburger wrappers and an empty apple pie cover that once held Americas favorite pastry. I glanced over to Nicks equally impressive display of slobness and realized that McDonalds is simply amazing. But hey, Nick and I have been doing better as of late. We found a Yoshinoya that totally rocks our socks. The beef bowl is to die for. I've even tried a little bit of fish at a couple of the sponsored dinners we've been on..... to no avail. I still can't handle it. The other day, Nick and I even force fed our selves a certain type of stew, which only close friends and family know of its contents. We're trying our hardest to be respectful of the culture and to be open minded, but when there is a MacDonald-do walking distance, it must be visited and conquered.
Man, I am reading through some of this blog... I'm totally rambling. Oh well, I look down at my counter and it reads "50"... So, I'm obviously only boring 7 of you. The other 43 hits are from me refreshing the page to see if I got any more hits.
Tomorrow, we will be wrestling in Hiroshima. Shingo promised us that he will take us to the ground zero sight where the atomic bomb was dropped so we can take photos. This is something that I've always wanted to do since I studied about it in high school. A funny note: recently during our matches, Cima accompanies us down ringside and has been starting U.S.A chants during our matches and it has gotten over quite well with the audience. For some reason, I don't think that particular chant is going to be as successful tomorrow night.
Alrighty. I'm going to start packing the bags. Tomorrows a heavy day of travel and the start of a sprint. We've got 8 shows in the next 11 days.
Good morning to American and good night to Japan!
Matt
p.s. Okay. Of the small amount of people that read this, one of them is my mom and the other is my beautiful wife.. my two favorite girls on the planet. I love you guys and miss you. Dana, I can't wait for England. =D
After the match, we took quick showers and headed out to grab some Mickey D's. We then finished signing some autographs outside of the building on these big cardboard frames, shook a couple dozen hands, and were soon on our way. I made sure to make a quick stop at the 7 and holdings (7/11 convenience store) to purchase a telephone card. Nick, myself and the rest of the Dragon Gate crew will be on the road for the next several days and I need to be certain I have a way of getting ahold of Dana if our hotels don't have wireless internet. After a horrible performance by me of my best 'Broken English' and small amount of Japanese that I have picked up, I could now rest a little easier knowing that I now possessed a 1,000 yen NTT Docomo telephone card. As I picked up my Pacari Sweat (Japans version of Gatorade) out of one of the 9 vending machines available in front of me, I heard someone come up to Nick with excitement in his voice. "Neek!" I turned toward the stranger and started twisting the cap off of my bottle of goodness. "Matto!" He along with a friend of his came up to us and began bowing repeatedly and speaking very fast. Turns out, they just saw us wrestle last week in Kyota on night 2 of the tag team tournament and were huge fans of the Young Bucks. We stood and talked to these nice fellows for several minutes and found out that they will be attending the May 5th PPV in Nagoya that we will be participating in. I don't know who was more excited. Them for seeing two wrestlers that they enjoy watching? Or Nick and I for marking out for our selves about getting spotted on the street? I'd go with the latter.
About seven minutes later I looked down at my McDonalds tray that had three bunched up hamburger wrappers and an empty apple pie cover that once held Americas favorite pastry. I glanced over to Nicks equally impressive display of slobness and realized that McDonalds is simply amazing. But hey, Nick and I have been doing better as of late. We found a Yoshinoya that totally rocks our socks. The beef bowl is to die for. I've even tried a little bit of fish at a couple of the sponsored dinners we've been on..... to no avail. I still can't handle it. The other day, Nick and I even force fed our selves a certain type of stew, which only close friends and family know of its contents. We're trying our hardest to be respectful of the culture and to be open minded, but when there is a MacDonald-do walking distance, it must be visited and conquered.
Man, I am reading through some of this blog... I'm totally rambling. Oh well, I look down at my counter and it reads "50"... So, I'm obviously only boring 7 of you. The other 43 hits are from me refreshing the page to see if I got any more hits.
Tomorrow, we will be wrestling in Hiroshima. Shingo promised us that he will take us to the ground zero sight where the atomic bomb was dropped so we can take photos. This is something that I've always wanted to do since I studied about it in high school. A funny note: recently during our matches, Cima accompanies us down ringside and has been starting U.S.A chants during our matches and it has gotten over quite well with the audience. For some reason, I don't think that particular chant is going to be as successful tomorrow night.
Alrighty. I'm going to start packing the bags. Tomorrows a heavy day of travel and the start of a sprint. We've got 8 shows in the next 11 days.
Good morning to American and good night to Japan!
Matt
p.s. Okay. Of the small amount of people that read this, one of them is my mom and the other is my beautiful wife.. my two favorite girls on the planet. I love you guys and miss you. Dana, I can't wait for England. =D
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
wrestling magz, gma dana, my buff wife
I am a spoiled brat. I just refused to buy a wrestling magazine because the pictures of the Young Bucks were so small that I felt it wasn't even worth purchasing. Obviously, after I am done being a diva and putting up this little fight, a wrestling magazine will later rest on my night stand, waiting to be opened. Besides, it's not every day that you have the opportunity to mark out for your self in a major foreign publication.
There really is no right way to transition into this next bit, so bare with me..
As I grew up, I've never felt like I'd had grandparents. This is in no way to be taken as a shot at my real grandparents or my parents. I don't want to offend anyone. I just have never had a close bond or relationship with my real grandparents - a bond that all of my friends seemed to have with their own. These friends would always share stories about legendary dishes that their grandmas cooked, special places their grandpas took them, etc. It's actually quite unfortunate that things are this way. Anyhow, after being with Dana for as long as we've been together, I kind of got that opportunity to feel what it is like to have a grandma. "Grandma Dana," the very person my wife is so proudly named after is such a wonderful, and caring human being. It seems like in the six years that I've known her, she's always been cheerful and happy to see me. A huge smile followed by a big hug and a kiss right on the cheek is always waiting for me, every time I see her. "So Matt, how's your wrestling doing?" She always asks despite the fact that she probably thinks what I do for a living is silly. Of course my eyes light up in excitement because I was given the invitation to talk about one of my passions in life. I am always mesmerized about how youthful and full of life she is. I NEVER believed Dana when she told me her true age and NEVER will. She will always be in her early 30's in my eyes. Grandma Dana gave (and continues to give) me the opportunity to feel like one of my friends from the past, as I now find myself bragging to friends and family about a wonderful dish that she has passed down to the very person that her name was passed down to. We love you, and are praying for you.
I am currently watching Dana play "Wii Fit" via Skype. She looks so adorable doing her little yoga moves and strecthing in place. I told her that I'm going to come home to a wife that is more tone that I am! Zeek is lying right next to her feet, with a confused but curious look on his face. I love my little family. LOL.
That's it for now. God bless.
p.s I just added a counter to the page.
Matt
There really is no right way to transition into this next bit, so bare with me..
As I grew up, I've never felt like I'd had grandparents. This is in no way to be taken as a shot at my real grandparents or my parents. I don't want to offend anyone. I just have never had a close bond or relationship with my real grandparents - a bond that all of my friends seemed to have with their own. These friends would always share stories about legendary dishes that their grandmas cooked, special places their grandpas took them, etc. It's actually quite unfortunate that things are this way. Anyhow, after being with Dana for as long as we've been together, I kind of got that opportunity to feel what it is like to have a grandma. "Grandma Dana," the very person my wife is so proudly named after is such a wonderful, and caring human being. It seems like in the six years that I've known her, she's always been cheerful and happy to see me. A huge smile followed by a big hug and a kiss right on the cheek is always waiting for me, every time I see her. "So Matt, how's your wrestling doing?" She always asks despite the fact that she probably thinks what I do for a living is silly. Of course my eyes light up in excitement because I was given the invitation to talk about one of my passions in life. I am always mesmerized about how youthful and full of life she is. I NEVER believed Dana when she told me her true age and NEVER will. She will always be in her early 30's in my eyes. Grandma Dana gave (and continues to give) me the opportunity to feel like one of my friends from the past, as I now find myself bragging to friends and family about a wonderful dish that she has passed down to the very person that her name was passed down to. We love you, and are praying for you.
I am currently watching Dana play "Wii Fit" via Skype. She looks so adorable doing her little yoga moves and strecthing in place. I told her that I'm going to come home to a wife that is more tone that I am! Zeek is lying right next to her feet, with a confused but curious look on his face. I love my little family. LOL.
That's it for now. God bless.
p.s I just added a counter to the page.
Matt
Monday, April 20, 2009
the tour, precious moments, sight seeing
Nick and I have been going non stop as we completed our 5th show of the tour last night in Kyota. We wrestled a hard hitting, intense match against Yoshino and BxB Hulk that was probably the best of the five matches we've had thus far. Yoshino can be intimidating to be in the ring with at times because of his quickness, but our styles mesh so well with him. And Hulk has such an impressive offensive arsenal, it would be difficult to have a bad match against him.
We tried to catch up on sleep as we've only been averaging 4-5 hours a night because of the crazy schedule that Dragon Gate has. We've said it once, and we'll say it again, we don't know how these guys condition them selves to have such a demanding life style. We get the honor of stepping into their shoes and kind of living their lives for only a few weeks and the burn out comes quick, trust me.
Today, we just tried to relax, eat some good food and be tourist. People talk about taking time to acknowledge those precious times in life. "Enjoy the little moments," is something your often told by people that are older and wiser than you. That is exactly what I found my self doing for at least a few minutes today. On top of the roof, I lyed down with my shirt off, and head phones in my ears listening to the new Blue October album "Approaching Normal." I was trying to absorb as much sun-light as possible considering the fact that my wife just told me that it is in the 90's back at home. As I lay there, listening to both the sounds of my favorite band in the world mixed with the sounds of a noisy train and busy streets in Kobe, I stopped and thought of just how good I had it. "I'm young, healthy, have a great family, married to the girl I love and currently wrestling in Japan, and getting paid for it," I thought to my self. With my eyes tightly shut because of the bright sun beating down at me, I felt my face tighten. I was smiling from ear to ear. Every wrestler in the world dreams about wrestling where my younger brother and I are at right now. We're so blessed to have this opportunity.
Later in the day we did a bunch of walking/sight seeing. We ate at one of our favorite fast food joints that Pac introduced us to which is called "Lotteria." We scarfed down 7 burgers between the two of us in a hurry and soon found our selves walking through Harbor Land which is an area in Kobe where the capital stands along with a mall, movie theatre and amusement park. It's like THE place to be if your in Kobe.
Anyhow, Nick keeps pacing back and forth because he's hungry and antsy. I sure know how to drive him nuts sometimes. I'm waiting on a load of laundry that I just threw into the washing machine. Fingers crossed that I pressed the right bottons! Off to AMPM we go for some Pizza-Pasta.
'till next time...
Matt
p.s Two hours until I get to call and wake up my wife! Yay!
We tried to catch up on sleep as we've only been averaging 4-5 hours a night because of the crazy schedule that Dragon Gate has. We've said it once, and we'll say it again, we don't know how these guys condition them selves to have such a demanding life style. We get the honor of stepping into their shoes and kind of living their lives for only a few weeks and the burn out comes quick, trust me.
Today, we just tried to relax, eat some good food and be tourist. People talk about taking time to acknowledge those precious times in life. "Enjoy the little moments," is something your often told by people that are older and wiser than you. That is exactly what I found my self doing for at least a few minutes today. On top of the roof, I lyed down with my shirt off, and head phones in my ears listening to the new Blue October album "Approaching Normal." I was trying to absorb as much sun-light as possible considering the fact that my wife just told me that it is in the 90's back at home. As I lay there, listening to both the sounds of my favorite band in the world mixed with the sounds of a noisy train and busy streets in Kobe, I stopped and thought of just how good I had it. "I'm young, healthy, have a great family, married to the girl I love and currently wrestling in Japan, and getting paid for it," I thought to my self. With my eyes tightly shut because of the bright sun beating down at me, I felt my face tighten. I was smiling from ear to ear. Every wrestler in the world dreams about wrestling where my younger brother and I are at right now. We're so blessed to have this opportunity.
Later in the day we did a bunch of walking/sight seeing. We ate at one of our favorite fast food joints that Pac introduced us to which is called "Lotteria." We scarfed down 7 burgers between the two of us in a hurry and soon found our selves walking through Harbor Land which is an area in Kobe where the capital stands along with a mall, movie theatre and amusement park. It's like THE place to be if your in Kobe.
Anyhow, Nick keeps pacing back and forth because he's hungry and antsy. I sure know how to drive him nuts sometimes. I'm waiting on a load of laundry that I just threw into the washing machine. Fingers crossed that I pressed the right bottons! Off to AMPM we go for some Pizza-Pasta.
'till next time...
Matt
p.s Two hours until I get to call and wake up my wife! Yay!
Friday, April 17, 2009
b-fast, kobe, warriors-5, dana.
I just had an unbelievable breakfast. Now, this combination of food might sound a bit weird to those back home, however it is completely acceptable considering our situation. So, what is this hearty meal that I've learned to enjoy in replacement of a more traditional breakfast? AMPM pasta, apple yogurt and a bottled caffe latte. Ahhh, what a delight.
Nick and I are going on 4 hours of sleep, as we had over 8 hrs of travel yesterday so we are a bit groggy. Speaking of Nick, he is busy watching "Botchamania" on youtube, so every time I finish punching in a key, I hear a loud chuckle. Unfortunately for him, I forced him to sleep on the top bunk because of my knee injury that I suffered a month back at the NWA Showcase tapings. We are currently staying in Kobe at a building that is dubbed the "Sanctuary." Why is it called this? I have no clue. It is a 4 story building where an upstairs padded room is located at the very top, one of the Dragon Gate offices are located on the second floor, the third floor is the apartment/living space (where we stay) and the first floor is the NEX arena. The NEX arena is a very tiny room with a 14 x 14 ring where Dragon Gate holds student showcase events.
A few nights ago we had the honor of teaming up with Gamma and Cima in an 8 man tag against their rivals "Real Hazard." Last tour, we were aligned with Doi and Yoshino and learned soooo much in terms of spots and false finishes. This time, I can tell, we are going to learn more about ring psychology. Gamma and Cima are two of the best. Cima knows how to tell a story with simple body language and facial expressions while Gamma has almost perfect timing in terms of crowd interaction.
I just got to Skype with my beautiful wife, Dana. In this business, people talk about how difficult it is to have an understanding wife that is willing to put up with this particular life style. People also talk about how being away from your loved ones is the most difficult part of being a wrestler. Boy, were they right - about both things. I couldn't of asked for a more supportive partner in life, than my unbelievable wife. I had a little problem with my laptop yesterday and began throwing a temper tantrum - totally acting like a diva. Dana calmed me down in a matter of seconds. She is the one with A LOT more on her plate right now back at home, but here I am acting like an immature child. I really am puzzled how some workers can leave town without having a supporting cast back at home.
In other news, my youngest brother Malachi got his license which is a very big deal. He's growing up so fast! The Cutlers had their breakout performance at PWG last Sunday against us. Nick and I are so very proud of them. They have the potential of being something big. My niece Rebecca just celebrated her 2nd birthday the other day! Happy b-day Beck!
Anyhow, I've got an 11 am call time, so I've gotta get my bags packed. Talk to you soon!
Matt
Nick and I are going on 4 hours of sleep, as we had over 8 hrs of travel yesterday so we are a bit groggy. Speaking of Nick, he is busy watching "Botchamania" on youtube, so every time I finish punching in a key, I hear a loud chuckle. Unfortunately for him, I forced him to sleep on the top bunk because of my knee injury that I suffered a month back at the NWA Showcase tapings. We are currently staying in Kobe at a building that is dubbed the "Sanctuary." Why is it called this? I have no clue. It is a 4 story building where an upstairs padded room is located at the very top, one of the Dragon Gate offices are located on the second floor, the third floor is the apartment/living space (where we stay) and the first floor is the NEX arena. The NEX arena is a very tiny room with a 14 x 14 ring where Dragon Gate holds student showcase events.
A few nights ago we had the honor of teaming up with Gamma and Cima in an 8 man tag against their rivals "Real Hazard." Last tour, we were aligned with Doi and Yoshino and learned soooo much in terms of spots and false finishes. This time, I can tell, we are going to learn more about ring psychology. Gamma and Cima are two of the best. Cima knows how to tell a story with simple body language and facial expressions while Gamma has almost perfect timing in terms of crowd interaction.
I just got to Skype with my beautiful wife, Dana. In this business, people talk about how difficult it is to have an understanding wife that is willing to put up with this particular life style. People also talk about how being away from your loved ones is the most difficult part of being a wrestler. Boy, were they right - about both things. I couldn't of asked for a more supportive partner in life, than my unbelievable wife. I had a little problem with my laptop yesterday and began throwing a temper tantrum - totally acting like a diva. Dana calmed me down in a matter of seconds. She is the one with A LOT more on her plate right now back at home, but here I am acting like an immature child. I really am puzzled how some workers can leave town without having a supporting cast back at home.
In other news, my youngest brother Malachi got his license which is a very big deal. He's growing up so fast! The Cutlers had their breakout performance at PWG last Sunday against us. Nick and I are so very proud of them. They have the potential of being something big. My niece Rebecca just celebrated her 2nd birthday the other day! Happy b-day Beck!
Anyhow, I've got an 11 am call time, so I've gotta get my bags packed. Talk to you soon!
Matt
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Mickie D's, K-Hall, my wife and cat, DGUSA!
Greetings!
I just got done chowing down on my McDonalds breakfast which included 2 sausage muffins, 1 hot apple pie and a cup of coffee which I just had to refill downstairs in the lobby because the size of this thing is so ridiculously small. We've been here three days and we've already tallied up three trips to the golden arches! Along with breakfast, I am Skyping with my wife who just got off work. She just put my cat Zeek on the webcam which makes me miss home! =/Every time I shower back at home, the little guy WILL NOT leave me alone. He attempts to get into the tub multiple times because of this weird fascination he has with water. He claws the curtain and walks alongside the tub every time I am in there, so it was kind of sad last night when I was showering here at the room and opened the curtain looking for my favorite pet but shortly realized after that I was in a different country then my aqua-kitty!
Anyhow, last night was the first match of a 14 show tour. We arrived at the Korakuen Hall around 3:00 pm, set up the ring and got ready for the show. Words can not describe how it feels to be in this building. This is a wrestling building that has such a rich history. The history is literally written on the wall. Every time Nick and I work the Korakuen Hall (and I believe this was our 5th time) we take a few minutes to read all of the signatures of wrestlers that have wrestled in this building that signed the wall. Alongside some of the greats lies a big bold black signature that reads, "THE YOUNG BUCKS - MATT JACKSON NICK JACKSON 5/14/08." That was the very first time we wrestled not only at the Korakuen Hall, but in Japan. It seems sooo long ago, but it was only 11 months ago! We just feel like we've learned so much since then, and are virtually completely different wrestlers both in and out of the ring. Wrestling in Japan is simply the best teaching lesson that you can have as a professional wrestler. Now back to the show.. .We start the show with the new group Warriors-5 coming down to ringside stating that they have two new members of their unit. It turns out to be two guys known as The Young Bucks! We were well received and are now apart of the biggest group in Dragon Gate which is headed by Cima. Later on in the night, Gamma and Cima accompained us ringside in long haired wigs! It was a sight to see, watching two of Japans best, smiling from ear to ear and clapping to the beat of MMMBOP. I'll never forget it. We had a really good match against Doi and McKz in front of at least 2,500 people.
Tonight, we will be wrestling in our very first main event at a Dragon Gate show as we team with Cima and Gamma. To say that we are psyched would be an understatement. Also, word has finally came out about Dragon Gate USA. Dragon Gate is fastly becoming a world wide phenomenon and we're just happy to be on board! Look for details very soon!
Until next time!
Matt
I just got done chowing down on my McDonalds breakfast which included 2 sausage muffins, 1 hot apple pie and a cup of coffee which I just had to refill downstairs in the lobby because the size of this thing is so ridiculously small. We've been here three days and we've already tallied up three trips to the golden arches! Along with breakfast, I am Skyping with my wife who just got off work. She just put my cat Zeek on the webcam which makes me miss home! =/Every time I shower back at home, the little guy WILL NOT leave me alone. He attempts to get into the tub multiple times because of this weird fascination he has with water. He claws the curtain and walks alongside the tub every time I am in there, so it was kind of sad last night when I was showering here at the room and opened the curtain looking for my favorite pet but shortly realized after that I was in a different country then my aqua-kitty!
Anyhow, last night was the first match of a 14 show tour. We arrived at the Korakuen Hall around 3:00 pm, set up the ring and got ready for the show. Words can not describe how it feels to be in this building. This is a wrestling building that has such a rich history. The history is literally written on the wall. Every time Nick and I work the Korakuen Hall (and I believe this was our 5th time) we take a few minutes to read all of the signatures of wrestlers that have wrestled in this building that signed the wall. Alongside some of the greats lies a big bold black signature that reads, "THE YOUNG BUCKS - MATT JACKSON NICK JACKSON 5/14/08." That was the very first time we wrestled not only at the Korakuen Hall, but in Japan. It seems sooo long ago, but it was only 11 months ago! We just feel like we've learned so much since then, and are virtually completely different wrestlers both in and out of the ring. Wrestling in Japan is simply the best teaching lesson that you can have as a professional wrestler. Now back to the show.. .We start the show with the new group Warriors-5 coming down to ringside stating that they have two new members of their unit. It turns out to be two guys known as The Young Bucks! We were well received and are now apart of the biggest group in Dragon Gate which is headed by Cima. Later on in the night, Gamma and Cima accompained us ringside in long haired wigs! It was a sight to see, watching two of Japans best, smiling from ear to ear and clapping to the beat of MMMBOP. I'll never forget it. We had a really good match against Doi and McKz in front of at least 2,500 people.
Tonight, we will be wrestling in our very first main event at a Dragon Gate show as we team with Cima and Gamma. To say that we are psyched would be an understatement. Also, word has finally came out about Dragon Gate USA. Dragon Gate is fastly becoming a world wide phenomenon and we're just happy to be on board! Look for details very soon!
Until next time!
Matt
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Back to Japan!
Wow. Yesterday was a long day of travel. We were scheduled for a 12 hour flight from LAX to Narita, but then our plane had maintenace issues. We waited on board for 2 hours and 15 minutes before the plane even left the floor! So, our 12 hour flight was now a 14 hour and 15 minute flight. We then ran straight through immigration, baggage claim and customs and found our good friend Tanisaki waiting with a smile. Dragon Gate wrestlers are just too polite. After another 90 minutes of driving from Narita to Tokyo we finally arrived at the New Star Hotel.
Of course before any of this travel began, we had to say goodbye to our loved ones. Saying goodbye is easily the worse thing in the world, or at least in the top three. I thought that this particular time would be the easiest because I've done this rodeo a couple of times before. However, this time was easily the toughest - especially with my wife Dana.. Maybe because Dana and I haven't been apart for more than 4 days since we got married in November? We wake up together, drink coffee together, commute together, work together, live together and sleep together. We truly are living the great life. =) These next several weeks are going to be rough, but I know we will get through them. These Dragon Gate tours are mine and Nicks bread and butter and the reason we've gotten so much notoriety this past year.
Our first match is tonight at the legendary Korakuen Hall against Doi and McKz - two guys that we've wrested many times in the past. It should be a very fun, athletic match to say the least. After tonights show, we've got four straight shows in three different cities. Feel free to check out which cities we'll be hitting on our MySpace page schedule.
Anyhow, I'm going to try to update this regularly so you can follow us on our tour. I think this can be fun and interesting! Hit me up with questions, comments, etc and I'll try to answer them on here.
Be safe, and God bless!
Matt
Of course before any of this travel began, we had to say goodbye to our loved ones. Saying goodbye is easily the worse thing in the world, or at least in the top three. I thought that this particular time would be the easiest because I've done this rodeo a couple of times before. However, this time was easily the toughest - especially with my wife Dana.. Maybe because Dana and I haven't been apart for more than 4 days since we got married in November? We wake up together, drink coffee together, commute together, work together, live together and sleep together. We truly are living the great life. =) These next several weeks are going to be rough, but I know we will get through them. These Dragon Gate tours are mine and Nicks bread and butter and the reason we've gotten so much notoriety this past year.
Our first match is tonight at the legendary Korakuen Hall against Doi and McKz - two guys that we've wrested many times in the past. It should be a very fun, athletic match to say the least. After tonights show, we've got four straight shows in three different cities. Feel free to check out which cities we'll be hitting on our MySpace page schedule.
Anyhow, I'm going to try to update this regularly so you can follow us on our tour. I think this can be fun and interesting! Hit me up with questions, comments, etc and I'll try to answer them on here.
Be safe, and God bless!
Matt
Sunday, April 5, 2009
1st Post
I'm starting this blog so I can write about my career as a professional wrestler. More to come later!
-Matt
-Matt
Thursday, January 1, 2009
TWO THOUSAND EIGHT
The year 2008 may not have been the greatest year for the rest of the world, but it sure has been good to me. For as long as I live, the year 2008 will never be forgotten. Why do I say this? HA! Like you don't already know! It's not like I haven't plastered bulletins and pictures all year long on myspace, bragging about all of the great things that has happened in the last 365 days, right? So... just in case I haven't gotten you to hate me yet from my year long self promotion, here is a list of my accomplishments that occured in the year 2008. Hey, it has kind of become a tradition and it's good for memory sakes! Oh and before I forget... I am sorry if you lost your job, your house was foreclosed, your credit card limit went down, the stock market failed you or if you were like Oprah and put on 50 extra pounds! Ouch! This is my year in review for a year so special, it couldn't be forgotten by me even if I end up with Alzhiemer's Disease in my 70's!
First and foremost: I got married! I sit here on the beautiful hardwood floor inside our cozy mansion, watching Dana bunched up near the fire place with a sheep skin blanket wrapped around her body. I sip from the warm, steamy mug that rests in my left hand, reflecting on all of the financial success that I have had all year long as I type this.... Ok, ok ok.. There isn't really a mansion... or a sheep skin blanket.. or financial success.. But, we do have a hardwood floor! Well, its laminated hardwood. I may not have all of those things (yet) but I did marry the love of my life, Dana! We have our own little one bedroom, one bath palace that we are so proud of. I never thought I could love someone, the way I love Dana. It feels so good to now have the ability to call her my wife! On November 1st, 2008 we had a perfect wedding (yes, they are possible!) and then had an amazing eight day honeymoon in the most beautiful place I've ever been to. We had a near flawless honeymoon in Maui until the "snorkling trip from hell" which occured on our final day of the trip. Lets just say that my new wife was feeding the fish the whole way back to shore and we both nearly drowned as we attempted to snorkle in "Perfect Storm" type weather. Nevertheless, the entire experience of the proposal/planning/wedding day/honeymoon has been something that I will never forget. I love you Dana! (Dana is currently trying to peak over my shoulder and get a spoiler of this which I am not too happy about.) =P
Nick and I have really gelled as a team this year. I really feel like we have found our niche and are only going to get better. We currently hold the tag team titles for the second biggest independent wrestling company in America known as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and have had some amazing matches that many have ranked as the best of the year in professional wrestling. No crowd in the world is like a PWG crowd. We had the honor of being able to tour all over Japan with the promotion Dragon Gate. Dragon Gate is world known and has the greatest wrestlers in the world on their roster. Competing with a company like this is not a small feat and is something that Nick and I are extremely proud of. We completely sold out of t-shirts and photos on our second tour which was awesome! (I believe a whopping total of 3 men purchased a t-shirt.) We were also more then thrilled to perform in Los Angeles for the Dragon Gate USA debut show. This was a huge night for us as it was very special to show our unbelievable fans and loving family what we've been sneaking off and doing for months over seas. That may have been our finest match.
Nick and I were fortunate enough to work with the WWE throughout the year. I got to wrestle Chuck Palumbo on Smackdown in February, The Big Show in October on Smackdown and then got to dress up as Triple H alongside Nick who played Shawn Michaels on ECW in the "Dirtsheet" segment with Morrison and The Miz which was also in October. Hunter came up to me, looked at my giant fake nose and said to one of the boys, "everytime they make fun of me that f***n' thing gets bigger and bigger." HAHA! WWE is a great place to work and is number one on my "dream job" list.
I've gotten to wrestle in nearly 100 matches this year which is great by indy standards. I can honestly say that I have given it my all and tried to steal the show in 80 of those matches. (The other 20 matches, I wrestled the Ballard Brothers.) HAHA. Just kidding guys! But anyways, I feel like this has def been the best year of my professional wrestling career. People actually know who Nick and I are! Imagine that! Some Rockers, Hardy Boys, and Rock N' Roll Express rip offs are actually gaining some attention!? Who would of thunk? We are so very blessed for the opportunity.
I just wanted to thank everyone for the love and support: My soul mate and best friend in life.. my "WIFEY 4 LIFEY" Dana. My unbelievable parents have been so supportive for years. Thanks for believing in me when I was 16 years old and had a bowl cut. You guys are my rock. My brothers Nick and Mal who are so talented and fearless. Nick is only 19 years old and has traveled the world with me. Mal is a survivor and is the bravest kid I know.. and he's rich. (That's a shoot.) My big sis D.J who is so loving and has more energy then anyone I know. My brother in law Paul who is such a family man.. (Who would of known!) My beautiful nieces Makayla and Beckers! ("No numbers!") My in-laws Sue and Dave who I love and have bonded with more then I would ever have imagined, my brother in law Scott who is headed to the Navy, Janie and Derek along with their three beautiful daughters (Kristen, Madyson & Brynnlea), my best friends in this business "The Cutler Brothers" who will be the next big thing in indy wrestling, the "Ballard Brothers" who are both old enough to be my father but I love them like brothers. Sky whom I've always looked up to, Scott for being the life of the locker room and everyone else I didn't mention because its 3 AM and I am tired! Oh yeah, and Joey Ryan. (Thought I'd forget bro?) I gotta go, Dana and her sheep skin blanket is waiting for me. Happy New Year! (Bill Bogle voice)
First and foremost: I got married! I sit here on the beautiful hardwood floor inside our cozy mansion, watching Dana bunched up near the fire place with a sheep skin blanket wrapped around her body. I sip from the warm, steamy mug that rests in my left hand, reflecting on all of the financial success that I have had all year long as I type this.... Ok, ok ok.. There isn't really a mansion... or a sheep skin blanket.. or financial success.. But, we do have a hardwood floor! Well, its laminated hardwood. I may not have all of those things (yet) but I did marry the love of my life, Dana! We have our own little one bedroom, one bath palace that we are so proud of. I never thought I could love someone, the way I love Dana. It feels so good to now have the ability to call her my wife! On November 1st, 2008 we had a perfect wedding (yes, they are possible!) and then had an amazing eight day honeymoon in the most beautiful place I've ever been to. We had a near flawless honeymoon in Maui until the "snorkling trip from hell" which occured on our final day of the trip. Lets just say that my new wife was feeding the fish the whole way back to shore and we both nearly drowned as we attempted to snorkle in "Perfect Storm" type weather. Nevertheless, the entire experience of the proposal/planning/wedding day/honeymoon has been something that I will never forget. I love you Dana! (Dana is currently trying to peak over my shoulder and get a spoiler of this which I am not too happy about.) =P
Nick and I have really gelled as a team this year. I really feel like we have found our niche and are only going to get better. We currently hold the tag team titles for the second biggest independent wrestling company in America known as Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and have had some amazing matches that many have ranked as the best of the year in professional wrestling. No crowd in the world is like a PWG crowd. We had the honor of being able to tour all over Japan with the promotion Dragon Gate. Dragon Gate is world known and has the greatest wrestlers in the world on their roster. Competing with a company like this is not a small feat and is something that Nick and I are extremely proud of. We completely sold out of t-shirts and photos on our second tour which was awesome! (I believe a whopping total of 3 men purchased a t-shirt.) We were also more then thrilled to perform in Los Angeles for the Dragon Gate USA debut show. This was a huge night for us as it was very special to show our unbelievable fans and loving family what we've been sneaking off and doing for months over seas. That may have been our finest match.
Nick and I were fortunate enough to work with the WWE throughout the year. I got to wrestle Chuck Palumbo on Smackdown in February, The Big Show in October on Smackdown and then got to dress up as Triple H alongside Nick who played Shawn Michaels on ECW in the "Dirtsheet" segment with Morrison and The Miz which was also in October. Hunter came up to me, looked at my giant fake nose and said to one of the boys, "everytime they make fun of me that f***n' thing gets bigger and bigger." HAHA! WWE is a great place to work and is number one on my "dream job" list.
I've gotten to wrestle in nearly 100 matches this year which is great by indy standards. I can honestly say that I have given it my all and tried to steal the show in 80 of those matches. (The other 20 matches, I wrestled the Ballard Brothers.) HAHA. Just kidding guys! But anyways, I feel like this has def been the best year of my professional wrestling career. People actually know who Nick and I are! Imagine that! Some Rockers, Hardy Boys, and Rock N' Roll Express rip offs are actually gaining some attention!? Who would of thunk? We are so very blessed for the opportunity.
I just wanted to thank everyone for the love and support: My soul mate and best friend in life.. my "WIFEY 4 LIFEY" Dana. My unbelievable parents have been so supportive for years. Thanks for believing in me when I was 16 years old and had a bowl cut. You guys are my rock. My brothers Nick and Mal who are so talented and fearless. Nick is only 19 years old and has traveled the world with me. Mal is a survivor and is the bravest kid I know.. and he's rich. (That's a shoot.) My big sis D.J who is so loving and has more energy then anyone I know. My brother in law Paul who is such a family man.. (Who would of known!) My beautiful nieces Makayla and Beckers! ("No numbers!") My in-laws Sue and Dave who I love and have bonded with more then I would ever have imagined, my brother in law Scott who is headed to the Navy, Janie and Derek along with their three beautiful daughters (Kristen, Madyson & Brynnlea), my best friends in this business "The Cutler Brothers" who will be the next big thing in indy wrestling, the "Ballard Brothers" who are both old enough to be my father but I love them like brothers. Sky whom I've always looked up to, Scott for being the life of the locker room and everyone else I didn't mention because its 3 AM and I am tired! Oh yeah, and Joey Ryan. (Thought I'd forget bro?) I gotta go, Dana and her sheep skin blanket is waiting for me. Happy New Year! (Bill Bogle voice)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
