binghamton

Hacksaw entertains with his one-man show

February 18, 2016

Hooooooooo!

With that ever-popular catchphrase, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan can excite a wrestling crowd, even still as he has reached his 60s.

Originally from Glens Falls in upstate New York, Hacksaw played college football and was in the NFL before turning to the world of professional wrestling.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan laughs as he talks about his career at his one-man show in Binghamton.

A favorite among many fans, he’s colorful, candid, and entertaining. He’s patriotic and will get a crowd chanting “USA USA USA!” without issues. And, he does it all with his trusty 2×4 by his side (or over his shoulder).

He stills gets in the ring occasionally, usually to throw a few punches or tag up, but he’s still out there entertaining people. If you follow him on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll get an inside look at the WWE Hall of Famer’s life as he travels all over to different types of wrestling shows, conventions or just a glimpse at life.

I’ve written about Hacksaw on the blog before, such as when he was doing a fundraiser for shoulder surgery, or just looking back at Hacksaw when he came to my hometown for an independent card. I’ve had in in various other posts when talking about professional wrestling as he’s one of my all-time favorites.

Recently, it was announced Hacksaw was doing a one-man show. The 2×4 Show is a way for people to get a glimpse behind the curtain, so to speak, and see Hacksaw in a different way. He’s on a stage talking wrestling, telling stories, and taking questions, which gives fans a true look at his remarkable career. He doesn’t hold back any punches, either.

Hacksaw keeps the crowd entertained with tales from the road.

I saw he had an upstate New York tour set, and was trying to plot where I could get to one. With five spots close enough to see this show, I knew I’d hit one. It turned out to be the closest – Binghamton.

One thing’s for sure – I definitely don’t regret going to this show.

The setting for the Binghamton show was at the Relief Pitcher, in a downstairs conference room. It was a nice and relaxed setting for the show. After a local opening comedian, Hacksaw took the stage and took the crowd of more than 50 through his career. The stories ranged from growing up in Glens Falls, to his football days, to becoming a wrestler.

His stories were candid, open, funny and genuine. He told the crowd about how he went from Big Jim Duggan to the Convict (in a mask) to Hacksaw, and how Bruiser Brody told him he needed something to carry to the ring, which led to his trademark 2×4. .

Originally a heel in the ring, he made his biggest stamp as a patriotic wrestler, leading crowds in the chants of USA. He fought the evil wrestlers, such as the Iron Sheik (no love lost between those two, which Duggan pointed out), and enjoyed success as one who battled Andre The Giant so many times.

Signing a 2×4 after the show!

He didn’t hide from the past, either. He was honest when a fan asked about the situation with he and the Iron Sheik riding together and getting pulled over. Duggan admitted to having some “doobies” under his seat and then it turned out the Sheik had cocaine in the car.

This was before the days where “the truth” of wrestling was known, so it was bigger news. It cost Duggan big time, but he would rebound.

One could tell how much Duggan enjoyed being with fans and talking stories and telling his tale. His well-placed “Hoooo” chants always kept the crowd into what was going on.

He also breaks the molds of some wrestlers as he’s been married to his wife for more than 30 years. She was with him at the show, at one point bringing him some water. He spoke amazingly highly of his family and how important they were to him.

Duggan also spoke about some of his closest friends in the business and how many of them are no longer with us.

The biggest thing I took away from this was how personable Hacksaw is. He took time to answer questions and didn’t shy away from things. He told about life on the road and in the ring. And following the show and Q&A session, he went to a table in the back where his wife was handling the sales of merchandise.

They worked so well as a team, too. She would get the name he was signing on items and make sure he knew what to sign, and even switching markers and such. That allowed Duggan to do what he is so good at – talking with fans and being personable to give each person in line a true intimate setting to talk with Hacksaw for a few moments.

My brother, Hacksaw and me after Duggan’s one-man show.

She also took the photos for people, with their cameras. It wasn’t like some independent shows where it’s one photo and gone. She made sure the photos came out well and Hacksaw would insist on a couple of different poses. The line might not have moved as swiftly as some may want, but it gave people their money’s worth, that’s for sure.

One final funny story from that night, and being in line. I wanted to get a photo, so it was going to be me, my brother, and Hacksaw. As I noted, his wife was taking the photos. So I set up my DSLR and was like “Now this isn’t like a phone, it’s big equipment.”

Yes, I was trying to be funny.

She responded “Don’t worry, I can handle big equipment.”

Yes, very funny.

To which (can’t make this up), Hacksaw laughs and says … yes she can, she’s a “HOOOOOOOOO!”

Laugh out loud funny! I can see why they have been married for (I think he said) 35 years.

I hope this tour and this show continue. If you have the chance to see the show, take advantage of it and go watch. Even for non-wrestling fans, it’s a cool experience and a lot of fun. It’s well worth the couple of hours.

HOOOOOOOOOOO!

For more photos from the event, visit my Flickr album.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please Like HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Summer of Baseball: A game in Binghamton is a nice night

June 23, 2014

It’s almost crazy to think of a minor league baseball stadium built in 1992 as being old, but as the years go by – it becomes older.

To think that 1992 was more than 20 years ago will age a park, especially at the Double-A level. When NYSEG Stadium, in Binghamton, was built in 1992, it was quite the stadium. And over the years, it’s been used for other things, including high school football.

Home of the B-Mets.

But, in the landscape of baseball, it’s an older stadium. Though one thing is certain – it’s still a pretty nice stadium.

I usually make a few trips to Binghamton per season as it’s an easy trip, never a problem to park and there are no issues getting tickets. There isn’t a bad seat in the house and, unless you go on a few uber-popular days, you can usually lounge a little more when there. I’ve sat on both sides of this field, as well as in the “upper deck,” which came on this trip. The third-base line is better if you want to avoid the sun.

You really are pretty close to the action, which is always a bonus. There’s a train yard out over the left-field wall, so sometimes you may get a train going through. That’s kind of a cool thing, though. The fences are average or so in length, which gives you the opportunity to see some homers.

The day’s lineup.

There aren’t a ton of bells and whistles with this stadium. They do quite a few games and such and there’s a kids area down the first-base line. The food selection is decent and the prices are OK, but not stellar. Case in point – I purchase two hot dogs and a soda. The soda cost about as much as the two dogs and if I had wanted French fries, they would have cost more than $4. A little steep when consider the hot dogs were $1.75 each, if I remember right.

As a hot dog nut, I wouldn’t classify those served in Binghamton as the best I’ve ever had a game and it’s not even close. But, I did enjoy them as they were cooked right and tasted just fine. I’d go above average on the hot dogs, say a 3.5 out of 5 or a 7 out of 10.

Keeping book, as always, on my Eephus League Halfliner.

If you are looking to watch a baseball game, this is a good spot. The seats are pretty decent and you have a good amount of room. But if you are looking for a lot of extras, this might not be a place for you.

In recent years, there have been rumors about the Double-A team leaving Binghamton, which possibly could open the stadium up to be a Single-A team. This stadium, actually, would be really top-notch for that level (especially in the short-season Single-A New York-Penn League), though drawing fans might take a hit in that regard. Still, even with the rumors, Double-A ball remains in Binghamton and, hopefully, it will stay that way.

Park Notes:

NYSEG Stadium
Binghamton, New York
Home of the Binghamton Mets (AA affiliate of the New York Mets)
Visited on: Monday, May 26
Opponent: New Britain Rock Cats (AA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins)

Ratings (out of 10):

Stadium: 7
Concessions: 6
Parking: 8
Ambiance: 7
Friendliness: 9

I am embarking on a summer of baseball with the plan to hit a minimum of 10 stadiums this summer. Hopefully, there will be more than that. I will report on each park that I hit on the blog.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Rising to the top: Dreams come true in the zany wrestling world

January 14, 2014

IB Green on top of the Xcite Wrestling world.

Imagine, if you will, fulfilling your dream.

Maybe it’s not to the level you had one envisioned. But it’s your dream. You are doing something you always believed you were destined to do, even if at a smaller level.

See, when people dream or set goals, it’s often at different levels. For those who dream in the world of professional wrestling, it’s often the WWE — which is the highest level one can go. For others, reality sets the tone.

Rob Cook (IB Green) battles with Joe Gacy during the Xcite Wrestling championship match Jan. 4.

Take, for example, Rob Cook.

If one was to look at Cook — otherwise known as I.B. Green in the independent wrestling world — they’d see an average Joe. He’s all of 5-foot-6 and weighs 180 pounds, or so he’s announced at. He might have been wearing his boots and gear when he stepped on the scales.

His size might also be why he never obtained other goals, such as playing shortstop for the New York Yankees or being a surfer (well, the lack of water near Elmira, New York may have played a part in that one, too).

But professional wrestling…

If you passed Cook on the street, it’s a near guarantee you wouldn’t confuse him as a professional wrestler. Behind that small-sized person, however, is a pretty well-known independent wrestler, especially in the Upstate New York/Northeast Pennsylvania area. He’s wrestled for many federations, worked with some top-name talent and had a pretty good run.

Joe Gacy was standing in IB Green’s way in the quest for the title.

Heck, he’s even held some championships, but often times, these are used more as props. When a federation throws championships around, it can be for numerous reasons. A lot of times, they aren’t even custom belts, rather ones that are “tweaked” to look like they are. Then there are federations who take the time to create these custom titles, which aren’t cheap, and then make them actually mean something.

Cook is, by no means, a perfect person. He’d even likely be tell you that, if he wasn’t in “heel” wrestler mode. I’ve had the chance to get to know him over the past few years and he’s got his share of stories, but deep down you can tell he cares about the business, especially at the lower and independent levels. I’ve seen Cook wrestle a dozen or two times since I’ve gotten to know him and I can count the number of times I’ve seen him win without filling one hand.

But that’s not always what it’s about.

A codebreaker for the win.

He entertains. He does what he has to do to help things along. You can tell — whether he’s the good guy or bad guy — that he has a bunch of fun when he does it, which is good.

And let’s not kid anybody here — Vince McMahon and the WWE isn’t knocking down the door for a 5-foot-6 guy. Heck, most places won’t be. And Cook knows that. He says he knew WWE wouldn’t be reality because he’s too small.

But he’s still had the chance to reach some career goals.

He wanted to be famous and accepted. He wanted to work with his boyhood idols, such as Tommy Dreamer and Tony Atlas. He also wanted to wrestle in the ECW Arena, but that never happened. But the other things?

They’re coming along nicely.

#IBelieve

One thing, too, is he never wanted to be a guy that crapped on up-and-comers. When he was starting (Cook got started in February 1999), he said he went to wrestling school, got hurt and didn’t go back. Guys he trained with called him a mark (basically somebody who believes in wrestling beyond reality, or believes he is his or her character) and kind of took jabs at him. He swore he would never be “that guy.”

The journey for Cook, who has had countless numbers of cool moments in the professional wrestling world, took a turn on Jan. 4. That’s when he was slated for a heavyweight title match for Xcite Wrestling, a federation based out of Binghamton. Cook had been a big part of the federation since it started (Xcite’s first card was March 16, 2012), despite rarely being on the good end of the win/loss column.

So he got his shot against “Chainsaw” Joe Gacy (readers of the blog may remember his name as I blogged about him in a post about a bloody match in CZW). Gacy had been the federation’s only champion, to this point.

Until this point.

The new champ.

Xcite played it up, too. Hashtagging this match with #IBelieve, and even doing a pretty cool promo package for the crowd with that as well — as wrestlers (including Tommy Dreamer and Steve Corino) and fans talked about how they believed in Rob Cook.

The crowd ate it up.

Cook told me he had always wanted to be the good guy, but worked better as a bad guy. Looks like he does OK as the good guy, too. The crowd was definitely behind him in his quest to overcome the odds and win the championship.

In a pretty solid match, Cook overcame Gacy’s offensive attack, hitting a codebreaker on Gacy as he came off the top turnbuckle. A strong crowd was in attendance and gave Cook a much-deserved ovation as he was handed the Xcite Wrestling championship belt.

Cook’s won titles before, but this one, well, it’s special. It’s a federation he’s helped build. It’s in a place he’s wrestled many, many times. And, well, he’s the top guy now.

Not too shabby for a 5-foot-6 guy who once just wanted to accepted. In the end, it looks like he got what he had wanted all along.

See below for a video of the match, as well as some post-match comments from Cook and Gacy (as shot and edited by Eric Scheer):

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Foto Friday: Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk

October 11, 2013

Zhin-Li was born at Ross Park Zoo on June 18, 2013. The day of the WWPW was the first day Zhin-Li had come outside with his mother, Mei-Li.

Each year, well-known photographer Scott Kelby organizes a worldwide photo walk. It’s the sixth year this event has been held and it has grown each year. Though I’ve known about it for a few years, last year was my first official walk. I traveled to Schenectady to hit a smaller event and it was quite a bit of fun.

This year, I chose to head to Binghamton, where a walk was being held at the Ross Park Zoo.

An Amur Leopard.

What is the photo walk, you may want to know? Basically, people organize photo walks around the world and register them on the site. Other photographers can search and join a walk. The groups meet at the time and spot chosen by the walk leader and then head out to take photos. When done, some will go have a bite to eat and talk some photography.

The site explains the walk as this:

It’s a social photography event where photographers get together (usually in a downtown area or trendy section of town) to walk around, shoot photos, and generally have fun with other photographers.

From there, each photographer can (if they choose) upload a photo to their walk page. The leader chooses a winning photo, which is entered into the worldwide contest. The winner of that walks away with an amazing prize pack, as do some finalists.

Each of the two events I’ve gone to have been smaller, so a little more loose. I’m not sure if I’d want to go to one of the events where it’s filled (50 people) as I think that could get crazy. But who knows, maybe it would be kind of cool.

This arctic fox was gorgeous.

Anyway, I had never been to Ross Park Zoo, so this was exciting. The zoo is small, but has quite a few cool things.

Especially on this day.

See, three months ago, a red panda was born in the zoo. This was going to be the first day it went outside with its mother. How cool is that?

The walk was scheduled to be about two hours long and we went about 2 1/2. It was a beautiful day out, which made it even better. Ross Park Zoo is not only loaded with many animals, but some great nature and good fall color, too.

As noted, our group was smaller. We had 11, but honestly, I only saw 6-7 of them on a consistent basis. We all walked the same way, but people went their own ways, stopped, took photos and such. After, people are invited to meet and eat and chat. Six of us ended up going to a local place for a solid meal.

Fall colors were aplenty.

This photo walk really is fun and it’s worth experiencing. I said when I did my first one that I wanted to try and go somewhere new each year and I hope to continue that trend next year. The idea is to see how different leaders do things and see different places, which is always nice.

It’s amazing, too, to see all of the photos and posts tagged on different social medias. The range of photographers and their styles and experience is excellent.

For example, the walk I was on had different people — from iPhone photographers to point-and-shoots to high-level DSLRs, there was a wide range. That’s the best part of this — there’s no experience needed. Just come, socialize and take photos.

And it doesn’t get much better than that.

I look forward to next year and really enjoyed this year. Make sure, if you are a photographer, you keep an eye on this so you can possibly join up next year!

Below are a few more of the images I took. To see them all, check out the set I posted on Flickr.

Amur Tiger.

Does this scare you?

Snowy owl.

Bald Eagle.

Fall color.

Ring-tailed Lemur.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Hard work, dedication pays off for a pair of indy wrestlers

June 27, 2013

Despite what many may think about professional wrestling — and it’s been called many things over the year — there is real emotion that comes out of it.

Whether you look at it as something corny or top-notch entertainment, those who perform have a lot vested in what they do. No matter if it’s in the WWE or smaller independents, there are times when the emotion can truly fly.

See, in some federations — such as lower independents and such — championships are just shiny belts. In others, they can truly mean a lot. If you are a top champion in WWE, for example, you’re likely a drawing power, which equals more money. In the independents, it can often be the same thing.

But when you work for a top organization and earn a championship — especially your first with said company — fans often get to see raw emotion. No matter what this sport is and how it’s run, it’s still shows what somebody means to a company when there are championships are involved.

Sean Carr shows raw emotion after winning the 2CW tag team championship this past Monday.

In all the years I’ve watched wrestling, I’ve been enamored with championship titles. The look, the meaning and everything in between. I’ve understood why in the older days, wrestlers such as Bruno Sammartino and Hulk Hogan held titles for so many years — because they drew people. In the more current day, people like John Cena — whether you like him or hate him — are top dogs because they draw people and sell a ton of merchandise.

But that’s at the top.

Then we hit the independents. Sometimes championships are show pieces. Heck, sometimes they aren’t even custom titles, rather replicas of old WWE or WCW titles with electrical tape covering the logo. I’m not kidding there — it happens more often than people may think.

Then there’s 2CW.

One of the top independent promotions around, the Syracuse-based federations has quite the lineage when it comes to its championships. These aren’t toy belts (they are some of the finest custom championships I’ve seen) and those who have held the titles — be it the heavyweight or tag — have been some of the finest performers out there.

This past Monday, the company held a special card in Binghamton. The spot they hold their card — the Legion Hall — is always hopping with some great fans. The card was headlined by Rob Van Dam, who has recently re-signed with WWE, taking on Sami Callihan, who also recently signed a WWE contract.

The match was a doozy, but not the match of the night.

That goes to the tag team championship match, which featured champions Kevin Graham and Punisher Van Slyke taking on Binghamton locals Sean Carr and Kage.

If you read my blog, you might remember the names Carr and Kage as they were the two I ventured with to see a pro wrestling training session.

Over the past year and a half or so, I’ve had the chance to get to know these two and watch them as they grew within the 2CW organization. They are a solid tag team, combining power (Kage) with high-flying skills (Carr). Kage has been in the profession much longer than Carr, even getting his cup of coffee with the WWE. The two have paid their dues in 2CW and they were rewarded this past Monday.

In a hardcore match that featured chairs, baking pans, ladders and whatever else, CK as they are known, had one heck of a battle with Graham and Van Slyke. I couldn’t see all the match as people were standing throughout, but what I saw was insane.

Kage showing off his new hardware.

I’ve long been a fan of all four of these wrestlers as they epitomize what local independent wrestling should be all about. They can all tell a story through a match and this one was one of the best I’ve seen.

In the end, Carr and Kage had their hands raised, dethroning the two-time 2CW champions. There was emotion in the air, too, as you could see it on their faces as they had the chance to win the championships in front of more than 400 people packing the Legion Hall.

And that’s what it’s all about.

There’s something to be said about that raw emotion when one is rewarded for hard work, professionalism and everything else. Carr seemed like he fought back some of that emotion, but that lasted for only so long. The look on Kage’s face showed how important this was to his career.

So no matter how you look at the world of pro wrestling, there’s a lot of real with it and emotion is part of it. These guys put a lot of heart and soul into their profession to entertain as many people as they can and when it all pays off, it’s as real as it comes.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Hacksaw entertains with his one-man show

Summer of Baseball: A game in Binghamton is a nice night

Rising to the top: Dreams come true in the zany wrestling world

Foto Friday: Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk

Hard work, dedication pays off for a pair of indy wrestlers

hoohaa29

P.J. Harmer