I’ll spare you my bad travel issues.

Thursday

Stardom – I try to take in shows that I won’t get to see otherwise and when else am I going to get to see Japanese women’s wrestling?  I didn’t exactly know much about most of the names but I caught on fast enough and the matches were fun.  Toni Storm showed up in a great bonus moment near the end.  Fun show, but it was really short at only about an hour and forty minutes.

WrestleCon Supershow – It was a very fun show with some great action, but unfortunately I had a bad case of vertigo kick in about ten minutes before the show started and it only started clearing up about halfway through the next to last match of the night.  I could barely focus on the show, so this is going to need a heck of a rewatch.

Now that being said, the big ending was the Sandman making his full entrance, complete with Enter Sandman in the ECW Arena.  I’m far from an ECW fan but the Sandman was the coolest thing ever when I was a kid.  Seeing him getting to do that entrance in that building was one of the coolest moments I’ve ever seen at any show and it was absolutely special.

Related note: I went to Denny’s for supper after the show and a group of CMLL wrestlers were sat next to me.  They were unmasked and wouldn’t say who they were, but Barbero Cavernario was there and confirmed it was in fact them (Mistico was at another show so I definitely didn’t meet him).

Friday

WrestleCon – As usual, this is an insane amount of people in one place but thankfully they were spread out over multiple rooms.  The lines were long, but I did pick up a new book about the early 80s WWF and a gift for the wife.  It was cool to see the bigger names, but I didn’t really talk to any wrestlers due to the amount of fans there.  Granted it also doesn’t help when I’ve met most of them before anyway.

WWE World (Axxess) – Nope.  I’ve been to more WWE events than I can count and I do not remember being more disappointed than this.  It was badly lit, they only had some of the always cool pay per view banners hanging down, the lines were WAY too long to stand in and most of it was just for photo ops.  I actually spent more time walking (20 minutes) from WrestleCon to this than I spent at the event (15 minutes).  This was horrible and if Fanatics is running it again next year, it’s absolutely being dropped from the itinerary.

Progress – I got to this a bit late and knew almost no one on the card, but they pulled me in with everything they did.  This was a very entertaining show with some good action and some absolutely hilarious matches (even Bussy won me over, which I didn’t think was possible).  Fun stuff here and maybe the best mixture of quality and comedy I’ve seen at an indy show in a good while.  Also met a reader (Muffin Top Merkley) which is always fun to see.

Joey Janela’s Spring Break 8 – I don’t follow GCW but I knew enough of the people on this show.  It was the usual rowdy crowd (save for the main event oddly enough) and it worked well enough.  The show was long (as it tends to be) but it went well, with the biggest problem being the seating.  I got a sixth row seat with nothing specified on the ticket other than “sixth row”.  I sat in a seat but was told I had my own seat with my literal name on it, as they were apparently set up alphbetically.  This wound up being true, and I was stuck sitting between two good sized people, to the point where I couldn’t put my arms down for most of the show.  So if a buddy of mine and I buy tickets separately and have different last names, we can’t sit together?  That’s not a great plan.

Overall, good stuff so far, but we get to the big stuff tomorrow.

KB

I’m heading back to Dallas for this year’s Wrestlemania and I’ve got a pretty packed scheduled. As a result, I won’t have anything up immediately after any shows until next week, but I’ll try to get up some quick thoughts on each show that I take in. I’m flying this year so things should be back to normal on Tuesday, when I’ll start knocking down everything that I’ve missed over the weekend, plus all kinds of shows from outside the major companies.  I should have some downtime on Sunday and Monday so I’ll try to squeeze in what I can (hotel wi-fi permitting).

I’d like to thank all of you for being so supportive over the years. I get to go on these trips to shows because you stick with me and it has absolutely changed my life in so many ways. This is what I get to do for a living and you have no idea how thankful I am to all of you who read my babbling about wrestling every day. Thank you all so very much.

KB

As in the Royal Rumble, and I’ll be in the stadium for the show.  As a result, the review will probably be up tomorrow, as we have a 250 mile trip home tomorrow so I’ll probably be getting some rest when we get back to the hotel.  I’ll pop in with some live thoughts/reactions though.

If you’re at the show and see a guy in a University of Kentucky hoodie/Superman shirt with glasses who needs to lose some weight with a rather pretty brunette, please say hi.

KB

The wife and I got some rather bad news earlier this week and work hasn’t exactly been on my mind.  I’m not sure when I’ll be back to normal but I should have the regular shows up.  As for the more minor ones (including Impact, which a few people felt the need to complain about being late), it’s one of the lowest viewed things on the site.  I know there are some people who like to read it, but there are only so many hours in the day and Impact is pretty low on my priorities list at the best of times.  I’ll try to pick up the pace a bit but it’s been a rough week.

KB

To say 2019 had a lot going on is an understatement.  It was all over the place, both in the ring and for me as well.  The amount of stuff that I’ve been doing for Wrestlingrumors.net went through the roof but it has allowed me to do a lot of things that I had always wanted to do both professionally and financially and that has been a huge game changer.

The part that bothers me though is how much time it has taken away from me being able to do my reviews, especially getting them up as fast as I usually do.  The last few weeks have been especially bad in this area as I was in Chicago for Survivor Series weekend, caught bronchitis while I was there and wound up with pneumonia when I came back.  Then there were the holidays and my in-laws surprised my wife by coming in from England for a few days.  I’m trying to get caught up on everything but it’s been a bit of a challenge as I’ve been spending as much time as I can with them.  Hopefully I’ll be caught up by Monday and then everything should be back to normal going forward.

As always, thank you all so much for everything you do for me.  I absolutely could not do any of this without you as this place gives me a reason to keep going with what I’m doing.  It has opened doors for me that I never would have thought possible before and changed my life in ways I still don’t believe.  2019 was awesome and if it never gets any better than that, I’d be more than fine with it.  Maybe 2020 can be better and I’m certainly down to try for it.  Thank you all for being here with me and I’ll be around as long as you are.

Happy New Year everyone.

KB

This is a special day for a lot of people, including me (as you can see).  Regardless of your how you feel about the religious side of the day, Christmas is about spending time with your friends and loved ones, whether it’s a little while or all day.  So take the day off (as you should be allowed to do and I’m sorry if you can’t) and just enjoy yourself with someone who means something to you.  Watch a Christmas movie, play some games, just chill in front of a nice fire and talk all day or whatever else you want to do.  Just spend some time together and if you can, think about what they mean to you because you don’t know when your last Christmas together might be.  It’s my first Christmas without my grandmother and I never would have guessed that last year.  Enjoy the time while you can, because this is a day you get once a year.

I’ll probably be taking the day off but if I don’t do anything new, I’ll throw up something from the vault.

Merry Christmas to all, and too all a good morning, afternoon and night,

KB

This site launched nine years ago.  It started off as a hobby because I had way too much going on over at WrestleZone and needed a place to store all of these things.  It was hardly financially successful to start but now it has turned into something that lets me provide for my family while also watching a ton of wrestling.  I’ll be around as long as you all want me to be plus probably a bit longer so thank you all for sticking around and checking me out over the years.  I know it’s a bit of a cliche to say this but it really has changed my life for the much better and I don’t know what I did to deserve all of the great things that it and you all have brought me over the years.

KB

Or whatever you call it (possibly Thursday).

I’m rather thankful (and confused) that so many people come here every day and see what I think about shows.  The site has reached a point I never would have imagined to the point where I can do a lot of things I never thought I’d be able to do.  It’s an amazing feeling to have it actually work this long and I don’t know what to say about the whole thing.  It blows my mind more every day that this is what I do for a living and I thank you all for every bit of it every same day.

Have a good one and spend some time with your family.  Preferably while watching wrestling of course.

KB

I made the flight up here for the four Survivor Series weekend shows and since it’s a twelve minute walk from the hotel, I should be back pretty fast every night.  The WiFi here is pretty spotty at best though so I’m not sure how fast I’ll be able to put things up.  Please bare with me though as I’ll be back home Tuesday afternoon and things will be back to normal.

KB

There were four wrestlers present: Brian Pillman Jr. (remember that this is about 15 minutes south of Cincinnati), Billy Gunn, Jim Cornette and Jim Ross. Marty Jannetty had to cancel due to a family emergency.

The ballpark is rather small so there wasn’t much to be seen. I was walking around a bit before the game and saw Gunn and Pillman walking towards an office. A kid asked Gunn for his autograph and he said you can get them during the third inning. Then he took a step, turned around and signed the kid’s ball. That was a nice touch, as my previous interaction with Gunn hadn’t been the best in the world.

The line for the autographs was rather long, though they kept things moving fairly well. You could get any item signed so I grabbed a Freedom baseball and mini bat while in the line (smart move to sell them there) so Gunn/Pillman could sign the ball and Cornette could sign the bat (Cornette with an item that can be used to beat people senselessly seemed appropriate).

As you can see, I got JR to sign a bottle of his chipolte ketchup (signature on top, WWE HOF on the bottom), which is rather tasty. The annoying part there though was the Freedom attendant started talking to JR about barbecue sauce while I was just left standing there as he signed. Kind of defeats the purpose no?

All four were rather nice with Gunn being more approachable than I was expecting. Cornette was his usual chatty self and was telling stories in between fans coming up. Pillman was incredibly nice and asked every fan’s name. I mentioned meeting him before at WrestleCon and he looked straight at me and was clearly listening while I talked. You don’t get that a lot of the time.

JR was the big one here as I’ve never gotten to meet him before. He was appreciative that I said I liked his AEW performance and that he was the first voice I remember in wrestling (Clash of the Champions XII when Sting was confronted by the REAL Black Scorpion). That got a smile out of him and he told me to keep listening.

Other highlights included JR explaining the territory system to a young fan, Billy Gunn demonstrating the Rockabilly dance, some funny New Age Outlaw stories, Cornette on why WWE won the war (hint: it has to do with WCW being stupid), Gunn and Cornette (politely) going at it over the Double Or Nothing battle royal and Cornette offering Gunn money to beat up Joey Ryan during their upcoming match.

The best of all though was a question Cornette got about whether he would save Joey Ryan or Vince Russo if they were both drowning and he only had one life preserver.

Cornette: “I’d wear both of them myself, stand on their heads and make sure they drowned. Then I’d give Russo mouth to mouth so he could come back to life and I could do it again.”

All in all, a rather fun night for $70 total. I had a good time and got to meet some stars, one of which I’ve been trying to meet for years.