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.