A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

independent pro wrestling

Bumps and tosses: Training for pro-wrestling isn’t easy

Chuck Szili demonstrates a hip toss to an aspiring professional wrestler at a training seminar led by Szili and tag-team partner Sean Carr.

For those who watch pro wrestling beyond WWE, you know it can be a zany world.

From large crowds at smaller venues or smaller crowds at the same venue — sometimes being fewer than 100 in the crowd — the life of a wrestler on the independent circuit can be hard.

In recent weeks and months I’ve talked to several independent wrestlers and personalities with the hope of working on a series for the blog. The idea is to tell the stories of these wrestlers, the life on the road and the good and the bad.

The great thing about wrestlers? They all have a story to tell and, usually, it’s a different story. My hope is to take these stories and add on and have longer versions and turn those into an e-Book, but the series and/or book won’t be finished for at least a few months as I’m just starting to get into it.

It’s a crazy life these wrestlers live. This series of stories should even be compelling to non-wrestling fans because  there are things you’ll read that will make you wonder why any sane person would get involved with this profession.

Chuck Szili locks up with a wrestling student as tag-team partner Sean Carr (bottom left) and other trainees look on in this long-exposure shot.

I know what many people will say — “Come on, wrestling’s fake…”

When describing professional wrestling, one thing I despise is the word “fake.”

You want fake? Ask indy wrestler Charade if it’s fake. Check out this YouTube video. Be warned — this is kind of crazy and I firmly believe Charade should feel lucky he’s alive today. There’s no blood in this video, but what happens will make most people cringe. Note that the wrestler did live and apparently is better off than many might be in this situation.

So, the word “fake” is the wrong one to use.

Maybe planned? Choreographed? Worked? It’s entertainment. This isn’t the 50s or 70s or something like that anymore where the public didn’t — or acted like they didn’t — know what was going on.

These guys, after all, are still athletes and do some insanely crazy things.

When watching, you just hope they are trained correctly, can put on a good show and don’t get seriously maimed doing it.

This past Saturday, I had a really cool opportunity to join Binghamton-area wrestlers Sean Carr and Chuck Szili, who competes as Kage in the wrestling world, on a road trip to the Scranton area and see a training seminar. Carr, an acrobatic wrestler, is a relative newcomer to the sport, competing for about four or five years. Szili is the veteran, entering his 13th year. He’s traveled throughout the world to wrestle, even getting a proverbial cup of coffee with the WWE, wrestling on the Smackdown show a few years ago.

The two also form the tag team “CK,” and compete in 2CW (Squared Circle Wrestling), a top-level independent federation based out of Syracuse. Like many indy wrestlers, they also compete in other federations throughout the Northeast, but 2CW is their main spot.

Over the past few months, I’ve had to chat with these two at cards and such and have really been impressed with them. Not just as athletes, but how they look at this profession, realistically. They see it more than doing 15 high-risk moves and not doing anything beyond it. They think about telling a story, saving the big spots for when needed and being able to connect with the crowd.

Sean Carr slaps a headlock on a trainee at the Back Breaker Training Center.

That’s refreshing.

As a fan, I appreciate that. When I go to a wrestling event — whether it be the best of the best or the worst of the worst — I just want to believe for a few hours. I still enjoy heroes and villains, cheering and booing and going along with being part of the show. After all, the crowd is a major part of wrestling. But if a wrestler is poorly trained, it becomes less believable.

In the dozen or so 2CW cards I’ve seen, the believability is there. The villains are villains. The heroes are heroes. Does that line sometime get skewed? Sure. But for the most part, the good vs. bad is present.

Many federations don’t seem to be able to do this well — thus taking away believability. I once went to a card where one of the guys yelled to the crowd “we’re supposed to be the good guys.”

Here’s a bit of advice — if you are having to tell people if you are the villain or the hero? You haven’t done your job.

Beyond that, the action has to be believable. I want to watch a show, be entertained and know the people put everything into it. Federations like 2CW are like that. Others are the complete opposite. It might be about being “hardcore” or doing a ton of crazy things that could send one to the hospital.

It’s not worth it when you are getting $20 or $30 a night — if you are lucky.

Saturday’s trip took Szili and Carr to Back Breakers Training Center. Szili had trained there some 10 years ago and has a good relationship with the head of the school, Justyn Glory.

What followed was an impressive 3 1/2 hour session full of hip tosses, slams, running of the ropes, stories and advice.

I walked away with a new appreciation of what these guys do.

Here’s a bit of history. When I was in high school, one of my dreams was to be a professional wrestler. I’ll touch more on this when I run the full series of these stories, but I dreamed of one day being the (then) WWF champion. I actually researched wrestling schools and was pretty close to attempting it.

I’m not sure what stopped me (money, most likely), but watching this training session made me realize I likely never would have made it to mid-card status on an independent show, let alone the WWF champion.

Chuck Szili — Kage — discusses techniques during a training seminar.

Wrestling is a lot different than when I was in high school, too.

Back then, there was a fine line between giving away “secrets.” Wrestling was still “real.” These days, the majority of wrestling fans realize what it is — entertainment. These are highly athletic people who put on one hell of a show. Whether it’s a 50-minute endurance match or a 5-minute quickie, they entertain.

If what they did was fully real, there’d be many more injuries and, likely, deaths.

Still, when you step foot into these rings, you have to know what you are doing. From taking a bump to delivering basic moves, you are not only working to keep yourself safe, but to also keep your opponent safe. You are also telling a story to the fans in the crowd and giving them the chance to forget the real world for a few hours, taking them on a journey of believability.

Alas, this isn’t a backyard wrestling thing — just like anything else, you have to train to become a professional wrestler.

The harsh reality is probably 99 percent of all these guys who train to wrestle or wrestle on the independent scene won’t ever make it to the WWE, or even TNA. That’s not to say that there’s not a lot of places an indy wrestler could do well — such as Ring of Honor, Chikara or a place like 2CW.

Students work during a training seminar headed by Chuck Szili and Sean Carr.

It depends on what one is looking for.

One of the people at the training session even noted to Carr and Szili that he doesn’t have the goal of getting to the WWE. To that, Szili made sure to point out to give everyone one has at whatever level they are on.

The two made some great points to the students — from noting to have fun to making sure the youngsters stay out of politics and drama.

The best part was watching everything unfold. The students who attended were really focused. They listened and asked questions. They seemed to hang on the words of Carr and Kage. During the workout, they took additional bumps to better techniques. They listened. One guy even took his first hip tosses. Pretty cool to watch.

They told stories of the road — about how promoters can swindle you out of the small payday. Or how some promoters will treat you like gold, no matter who you are. There are the stories on the road — such as Carr missing the birth of his child because he got into an accident on the way home from a show.

The life isn’t glamorous — and it’s something Carr and Szili made sure to show these new wrestlers.

One thing I really saw was how good Szili was with these students. I have no doubt that one day in the future, when the days of in-ring work are over, Szili could have a calling as a trainer. His experience as well as his demeanor in the ring worked really well in this environment.

Partners Kage (orange) and Sean Carr demonstrate the art of pro wrestling to aspiring students at the Back Breakers Training Center in Scranton.

For those who only watch wrestling on television, it’s usually a polished product. The independent scene is anything but. Though you’ll have the chance to see some amazing people, there’s a reason not everybody makes it to the “big leagues.”

That’s what makes it so wonderful, though. It’s not perfect.

And not many people get the opportunity I got with Szili and Carr — having the chance to watch a training session up-close and personal.

The business has changed over the years, that’s for sure. There will always be good and bad people in the business. There will always be good and bad workers, promoters and anything else.

In the end, the business continues. At the lowest levels and at the highest levels. The dreams will always be there, too. To be the next big thing or whatever else. But with wresting — as it is with nearly everything else in life — one needs to be grounded and realistic to truly succeed.

With the way Carr and Szili carried themselves this weekend, it shows why they have been successful in their careers. Hopefully, that will rub off on these newer wrestlers, allowing them to also find success in their careers.

You can see all the photos from this day at this Flickr set.

Submitting as part of Dude Write’s weekly challenge. 

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

For better or worse, old-school pro wrestling is still around

ECPW at an old roller rink in Sidney — felt like the 50s!

If you are a fan of independent professional wrestling — no matter the skill level — this area of Central New York is pretty spoiled.

There’s the best — 2CW (Squared Circle Wrestling, based in Syracuse), a group voted by readers of PWInsider.com as the top independent wrestling federation in the country. Several of us watch this as often as we can because it’s always an incredible form of entertainment. And never seems to disappoint.

Then you have some promotions that are not quite to that level — 3DW (which, apparently, has undergone some restructuring and is coming back in March with a card that looks quite solid). There’s also ECPW, a New Jersey-based federation that holds cards in New York and appears to use more localish workers for the bulk of the card.

When you deal with lower federations — such as the ECPW — you really get an interesting look at the world of professional wrestling.

I’ve seen ECPW twice — this is from the first and was one of the best matches of the night.

I’m a fan of pro wrestling, overall. I like really good shows and I like the bad ones. It’s two different worlds, but inside the zany world of the wrestling ring, there are so many story lines, either between wrestlers or federations or promoters or whatever else.

I’ve had the chance recently to watch ECPW twice. The cards were very different from one another, but enough the make you realize that this level of pro wrestling is quite different.

And interesting.

Being out of full “reporter” mode at this point, I forgot a pen both times and a forgot a notebook a second time. Thankfully, I had the phone and took notes that way — so I could accurately describe some of the things I witnessed.

Again — the two shows were night and day — so keep that in mind.

The first show was at a Legion hall in Binghamton. It’s a place where all these federations seem to use. But this was different. The back door was left open so people could go in and out to smoke. That got annoying after a while because nobody seemed to care. People came in later in the night who hadn’t been in there all night.

The ring is old school. It’s definitely a wood-based ring and really has a great sound. The turnbuckles that looked like they were towels (with electric tape) gave the feel of some old-school wrestling. The sag in the middle also gives that low-level independent feel. The odd part was the four gallon-sized water jugs hanging in each corner. But that was probably for the advertised flaming tables (which, apparently, is a bit illegal in New York. More on that later).

I love this stuff. I really do. It’s old school. It’s entertainment. But, there’s something I need when I pay to watch professional wrestling. I need a level of belief. Not that it’s not “scripted” or however you want to refer to it, but I need to be able to believe the stories being told. I need to believe in the performers.

The eliminated would later become a referee!

This wasn’t the most successful card at doing that.

Referees were out of place, had no idea what was going on and were all dressed different (outside of the striped shirts). One had wind pants on. Another had black jeans. They had regular sneakers, and not even black. The one ref, 10 minutes into the first match, was sweating more than the wrestlers and was having problems getting to the mat to count a pin. By the time he got to the mat to make the count, it had already been a five count. Even the crowd was making their distaste known.

And it seemed like they didn’t know what they were supposed to do.

That makes the pace of the match work slower. Close kickouts don’t have the same “feel” as they should.

Take this video I shot for an example — does this ref seem to know what’s going on? (Let me set this up, the heel [bad guy — smaller guy] set up the chair in the opposite corner and then walks into the picture.) This is what unfolds.

See what I am saying?

And the part that tweaked me was in the middle of matches, referees (and some wrestlers) were out talking to their friends and such. It’s hard to believe in the product when they aren’t “selling” it to the fans.

I realize wrestling, too, isn’t necessarily cheap to do. The reality is some of these guys might not even get paid to perform (though I don’t know with this fed… it happens that way in some places). Talking to people who have promoted, some of these smaller federations actually have a certain thing where performers have to sell a certain amount of tickets or “pay to wrestle” sort of thing. I don’t know if that’s true here, but I imagine it’s possible.

Former ECW champion Justin Credible made a surprise appearance at the second show.

Some of these guys just used normal sneakers to wrestle in. Ripped sweats. Maybe that’s the “persona” they play, but it doesn’t always show.

Then it’s just silly things.

A no disqualification match that ends in a countout. The video guy standing in front of the crowd and acting as clueless as can be (and he was using one of those plug and play recorders) when he never moves and people in the front rows try to ask him to move around and not always block the same people. The ring announcer never stood still and announced someone from somewhere in New Jersey (I can’t remember if it was Charlotte or something like that, where it was evident it was supposed to be North Carolina) and mis-pronounced things. The best of that, though? At the end of intermission when he announced for all wrestlers to report to the locker room.

It felt more like a high school wrestling tournament.

Then you had a lumberjack match with six lumberjacks and only two of them were wrestlers.

The thing that easily irked me more than anything? The swearing. Kids were there. There’s no need for an in-ring promo to have F-bombs flying all over. One wrestler was spitting beer in the crowd — again filled with kids. And in the end, all of this helped create a couple skirmishes with the crowd, which is never a good thing.

Seriously, if you can’t get over in a promo without swearing, you’re not going to get over anyway. Now, if it’s an adult-only crowd and there’s swearing, so be it. But this ECPW, on its website, note it’s a family friendly form of entertainment. A low-level bit of swearing (ass, damn etc.) I can deal. But if it’s F-bomb after F-bomb, it’s a total turnoff.

And one thing I got a kick of is when a wrestler called out the state athletic commission guy who stopped them from setting a table — in the ring — on fire. Now, that could have made for cool photos. Especially because I was near a fire exit. But I can’t see calling out the state commission when the guy was doing his job and you were preparing to do something you weren’t supposed to do. Especially IN THE RING. (I would have seen the issue if it was in a safe spot with some fire extinguishers and people nearby — then hey, it’s part of the show. But in the ring with only the wrestlers and some gallon bottles of water? No way!)

Now, it wasn’t all bad.

It’s just that the bad things are easier to point out and stand out in my mind more.

Some of the matches were pretty solid. There were some good workers. I wasn’t upset that I paid the money — remember, I am a fan of any level of this because it is always entertaining — but I would have liked to have seen a little more work on making the product crisp and not look like a backyard wrestling federation. Make me believe, even if just for a few hours (or charge me less money). Tell a story without profanity-laced promos and things like that. The best about the top independent promotions is they can tell a story in the ring by doing their thing, not acting as if people understand everything going on. Remember that this isn’t on TV every week and people “outside” the circle have no clue what has been going on elsewhere.

The same group was then coming to Sidney. A short drive for me. And at a roller rink. So a small place, dark — 50s style wrestling. My kind of show.

To quote Harry from Dumb and Dumber…

“Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself!”

The second card was much better… and worked out well.

Not that this show was perfect. It wasn’t close to 2CW quality. But oh what an improvement. (It probably helped that the big cheese of the federation was here and on the card).

The matches were stronger.

The swearing was much less. In fact the one person I expected to have many, only had a few F-bombs (which I still think weren’t needed) and the whole card was pretty solid.

Don’t get me wrong, there were still some things that made us laugh. Such as…

  • The announcer proclaiming a fatal four-way match… and then only giving three people.
  • An advertised 20-man battle royal becomes a nine-man battle royal.
  • Silent chest chops.
  • A little over-selling on some missed moves.
  • Someone who participated in the battle royal who then reffed a match.
  • A punch to the shoulder was the finisher in a match between two big guys.

Overall, however, it was a better show. And an unannounced appearance by a “bigger name” in the world of pro wrestling (Justin Credible) was nice, too. He was booked late for the show, hence no advertising. But still cool to see him.

And, as I said, overall the show was much better.

So yes, I’d go see this crew again. I’m not sure how far I’d travel to do so, but I would see them again for sure. It’s a throwback to the old dusty halls and such from an era no longer seen in professional wrestling.

In the end, I can’t complain.

The prices were decent. The crowds were fun to watch (this really is the best with independent pro wrestling… fans can get wicked crazy), and, despite some of the things I pointed out earlier, it was some good entertainment. What I liked the most about it was that when you go to a pro wrestling show, you never know what you’ll get. You have an idea, but you never know.

Hit up something like 2CW and know you’ll see amazing action, a crisp show, a few “big names” and some stars who could easily be on your television with the big guns in a few years.

See something lower than that — such as an ECPW — and never know what you’ll see. Some good, some bad, some wacky and some crazy. All mixed into one show.

In the end, it all depends on what you are seeking.

For me? I like zany. And I like good. I’ll choose 2CW over anything for the most part.

But if nothing else is going on and I’m looking for some entertainment? I’d gladly return to watch federations such as this. As I said, we’re a bit spoiled around here when it comes to wrestling. That’s not a bad thing, though. And it makes for some excellent photos!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Foto Friday: Capturing emotion in the squared circle

A closeup in this shot allows you to get more emotion than if you had used a wide-angle shot to get the ring and all the ropes in the photo.

The reality of most sports fans is that when you go to a game, if you are going to take photos, you’ll have to think outside the box.

Not having the credentials, connections or ability to get right in on the action makes one have to look at how to take photos and what to focus on when capturing the event.

Remember, just because you don’t get all the action doesn’t mean you can’t tell a story with your images.

As a fan of professional wrestling, going to live events is an extreme blast. I really like it because it gives me a different outlet to shoot images. However, not being up next to the ring makes action shots harder. Not that one can’t do it, but you get the ropes in the way and shadows created by the ropes by lighting or a flash can make things harder.

A few of us went to an event last weekend and were close to the ring, which made it even better.

When wrestlers go back and forth with fans, closing in on the wrestler gives a more close-up feel to the action.

It was a place to capture more close ups and to see some emotion.

We’ve seen this federation — 2CW — before. It’s a good company with solid workers who know how to play to the crowd and utilize their roles. No matter how you look at professional wrestling, realize this — it’s entertainment. It’s a show and when done well, it’s highly athletic entertainment. That gives a photographer a chance to really hone in on several skills — action shots, closeups, emotion and reactions. You have the best of many worlds when you shoot pro wrestling.

If you’re lucky, you can capture everything in one shot.

So how to go about it?

Use a zoom lens. I used my 70-200 F4 with a flash. I was probably 20-25 feet from the ring and standing, so I had a pretty good vantage point. With a white ceiling, I was able to, at times, bounce the flash a little bit to get some better lighting. I’ve noticed in the times shooting wrestling that shooting the flash directly at the ring can be too much lighting, so play around with your flash and adjust as needed.

Snapping shots of personalities during down time can give you interesting images of the people outside the element of "action."

Though the way I shoot isn’t for everyone, it works well for me. Some of my techniques include:

  • Closing in on the action so I can see the focus of the wrestler(s). It makes for a tighter crop on the photo and brings out details in what’s going on.
  • Capturing people/personalities in down situations. You get to see different reactions and such by doing so.
  • Keeping an eye on turnbuckles or action coming toward you.
  • Watch your surroundings — you never know when something else or someone else could add to your photo.

This isn’t the only way I shoot wrestling, however. I use a wide-angle lens at times to try and capture the feel of the venue or what’s going on overall.

The best part of independent professional wrestling?

It’s usually a cheap ticket. So for 10 or 12 bucks, you can usually get 2-4 hours of interesting entertainment and a bundle of photograph opportunities. Many times, these independent federations will also bring in one or more older stars — those from yesteryear who are no longer affiliated with the WWE or some other big place. It’s cool to see them, too, for the most part because they can be very personable.

Bring several memory cards, your camera, a flash and a lens or two and snap away.

Here are some more of the shots I took at the last event I went to:

Keep an eye on the turnbuckle area because you can get some cool action and emotions and not usually be blocked out by anyone or anything.

Watch your surroundings -- sometimes something else can add to the shot. Such as this video guy and being able to see his screen as he films this wrestler.

Many independent federations bring in old stars, such as Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Getting closeups on these guys can usually be pretty wild.

The reactions and emotions you can get with closeups can help tell the story.

If you decide that you’d like to try shooting a wrestling event, check out this calendar. Though it doesn’t list everything possible, it’s pretty close and it’s one of the most comprehensive calendars for pro wrestling.

It’s a fun event to shoot though. Get out there and give it a try. You might get some wild images!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Thank goodness the week has started…

I know that everyone longs for the weekends and all the things you can do.

Especially weekends which, for the most part, feature nice weather — in November.

Alas, sometimes weekends are so packed with fun that it’s tough to not smile when it’s over and done with. After all, the body needs a rest. For me, the start of the weeks means getting back to the job hunt, searching, writing cover letters, sending out resumes and whatever else I can do to find some employment again. For others, Monday’s return means back to the daily work grind.

This week, I welcomed the return of the job hunt.

I won’t lie — I had a great weekend. But it was filled with long days, shorter sleep cycles and a tiring body by the time Sunday night rolled around.

So I wanted to give a little glimpse, in photos, of what my weekend was. Note that most of these photos were taken with my iPhone. The ones I took with my main camera will eventually be on my Flickr stream!

It began Friday — 11-11-11 — when there were a couple of geocaching events celebrating that day. One was in Oneonta, the other in Ithaca. It was a cold day, though. So outside hiking was likely going to be short.

So starts the weekend of driving.

An interesting fire hydrant I saw in Ithaca while we were looking for a cache.

The first event was solid and a group of us headed up to Ithaca. We found some caches along the way and at one point, I felt my phone vibrate and then ding several times in rapid succession.

At our next stop, I checked to see what all the texts were for.

Several friends had wanted to note that the Phillies had signed Jonathan Papelbon for $50 million bucks. So, on the day when the Phillies make a splash, I’m not reading anything and relying on a few tweets I can dig up about it.

On a side note on this — I have mixed feeling about this move. Is he the best on the market? Yes. Is he an upgrade over Ryan Madson. Probably. But to bring in someone with a reputation such as he has? Who can tell. It’s my hope that the likes of people like Halladay, Lee, Hamels etc., can calm Papelbon down enough to make me actually like the guy. I’ve had a lot of fun cheering against him over the years, though most times it doesn’t end with me being happy. So maybe I can be happy soon enough with him. Who knows.

The subs at the Shortstop Deli in Ithaca are outstanding!

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled blog…

We got to Ithaca and did a little caching before heading to the event, which was a good time. I saw some people I hadn’t seen in quite some time, so that was nice. After, we went and found a couple of caches.

In between said caches, however, we stopped at the Shortstop Deli, which is a must stop whenever I am in Ithaca. I love the subs there. The bread is awesome. It’s one of my favorite places to get subs.

So, with it now being dark (remember, it comes earlier now), three of us set out to find one of the new caches in Ithaca. It’s a 4-star terrain.

We had heard about this one and arrived at the park.

Turns out the cache is about, oh, 20 feet in the air in a tree. After using a phone-a-friend to make sure we had the right tree, we started scanning. With the assistance of a flashlight, the cache was spotted. Sheesh!

Brent signs in... as he's way up top!

Brent, being the ever-crazy cacher who will be willing to do most anything to nab a find, said he was going up. After finding a way to head up the tree (which included his pockets emptying with credit cards, cell phone and other things), he slowly made his way up the tree. Once there, he nabbed the cache and helped us in logging. It was a team effort indeed as those of us left on the ground tried to make sure he knew where to go and where the footing would be best without killing himself!

After getting back to the area, the second part of the Oneonta caching event was held (at 11:11 p.m.). Surprisingly, many people were there for this part, too. It was nice to chat for a bit, before finally calling it a night.

The alarm went off early Saturday.

With a lot of plans in place, I made an early exit and headed to Schenectady to shoot some urban disc golf. This is all part of a bigger project I am working on, so it was nice to test some things out to see what I can do with the camera and such.

We spent several hours scouting some places and trying a few things.

In the end, I got some really good videos and have several other big ideas in place for future shoots.

I also got to see some different parts of Schenectady I hadn’t seen before. There are some interesting looking places for photos and videos, so I put those in the back of my head.

A great lunch!

At this point, too, we were getting a little hungry, so we stopped at a place called Clinton’s Ditch. It’s a nice little place, not far from the General Electric plant. It was clean inside, modern looking and had some good workers. Jeff knew the place, so we sat at the bar to eat.

The bacon cheeseburger I got was incredibly good.

Jeff, who is normally a right-handed player, has an injury, so he was chucking left-handed.

Following that, two of the four of us were going to play a round. One of the others was going to play a few holes, so I decided to tag along and do a little filming and photography.

There are certain ways to shoot disc golf and I need to learn how to do it so the videos can be better. One of the better shots was catching Chuck almost hit an ace on the first hold. He clanged off the basket, coming just inches away from getting the ace.

After a few holes, I had decided I was going to head back. I was going to take a shortcut trail back to the parking lot until I realized I was missing something.

My camera bag.

Crap!

Inside the bag was my 17-40 F4L lens. Nothing else, but that is enough to make me panic. I knew where I had placed it down when shooting a few things. So I walked quickly back (along with Jeff, who was calling it a day as well) and got back to the spot and I saw the bag still there. And the lens, of course, still in it.

Whew!

2CW in Binghamton.

After my heart stopped beating so fast, it was back to the car and home so I could unload the memory cards and charge my battery as much as I could before bolting out the door to head to Binghamton with a few friends to watch 2CW, an independent pro wrestling group based in Central New York.

As normal, it was a top-notch show. Some great action and I am a big fan of photographing wrestling, because you can get some crazy shots. These guys put on a good show, too, so it was fun to watch. Most of the matches were quite solid. The championship match stole the show. A couple of local guys got some great reactions. Truthfully, there were only a couple of matches that weren’t that great and it didn’t hurt the card too bad.

The best part was that this was the first time we went to one of their shows where it started within 15 minutes of the scheduled time and it ended at a decent hour!

Still, it ended up not being an early night.

By the time I got home and did a few things, it was probably 1:30 or 2 by the time I went to bed. That alarm rang in the AM again as I headed over to take some photos and watch several friends play in a flag football championship.

The day was beautiful, too, so that made it even better being outside.

Warren scores a touchdown during a championship victory.

The game was even better as the team I was watching put a hurting on the team that was top seeded and came in unbeaten. I had watched these two teams play a few weeks ago and it was a beat down the other way. Alas, a 40-13 score made this one a laugher in the championship as it was quite a dominant performance on both sides of the ball.

Flag football is interesting to take photos of because it’s a pass-happy game, yet it’s still tough to see where things are unfolding. But it gives cool chances to see different things, like people pulling the flags, balls being caught, and different things that sometimes can be very hard in regular football. The biggest thing is being able to see faces better because with the lack of major contact, helmets and pads, you can see expressions and such when shooting. That makes it more fun.

Following the championship triumph and chatting for a bit, I headed to Oneonta to do some maintenance on a few caches and join some others for the same and some caching. It stayed a beautiful day, which was nice. One of my caches was missing (as expected) because of the flood and the area wasn’t as “nice” as it had been in the past, so I decided to archive that cache.

Two more of my caches at the same location got through the flood and were fine.

It shows a little wear, but this made it through the floods!

However, of those two, the one golden ammo can (placed by someone in honor of another cacher reaching 1,000 finds) I have in this spot had been moved by the flood. Too, part of its hiding spot was gone. I’m glad we did this walk because we got to see that everything was dry and safe (I can’t imagine what it was like during the flood!) and each of the caches were re-hidden a bit better.

I also got to hit up a new cache, which was nice to grab a find to end the day.

And with that, the weekend came to an end. I slept well, I might add. Now, back to my grind of the job hunt. Hopefully, something will come along soon. That, in turn, will likely start giving me a better appreciation of these action-packed and fun weekends, no matter how tiring they are.

I can hope, anyway!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Old-school rasslin’

A chair shot to lead things off...

I’m sure by now, if you’ve read my blog at all, you know I like to watch a little pro wrestling here and there.

As much as it’s cool to watch all the big names and such, I still don’t know if there’s a better bang for your buck for entertainment than independent professional wrestling. There are so many more people out there who participate in this “sport” than those you watch on television every week.

And what these people do to their bodies night after night for payouts of, say, 50 bucks, is crazy.

Chairs.

Tables.

Crazy bumps.

Blood.

Anything to put on one heck of a show for the fans.

This past weekend, I had the chance to go see two shows put on by 3DW, a federation based out of the Binghamton area. The first show was at the one Legion Hall in Binghamton, where I’ve seen the federation 2CW perform before.

Having the chance to watch 3DW gave me that old-school feel of professional wrestling. It had everything, too. Bad wrestling (just being honest… some of the early matches were pretty rough). Then better wrestling. Finally, the last three matches of the night were off-the-hook good. Starting with an eight-man tag match, then to the tag-team championship match and ending with a tables, ladders and chairs match to crown the first Television champion.

New champion!

Awesome.

The next night, they went to a roller rink in Sidney. There were far fewer fans (I got my ticket at the door and it was number 85) and the action was a little better overall that night, with the normal slower matches starting off, and ending with several stellar matches. The main event featured a no-holds-barred match to crown the first United States champion with the winner being a local guy from the Sidney area. Kind of cool stuff.

Winning the title on his home turf!

Now, for those who might be reading who could possibly be steamed over the “bad wrestling” comment, allow me to clarify.

I loved it.

When some friends, who are somewhat into pro wrestling, asked me about the two shows, I refer to it as cheesy wrestling. Now, if any independent wrestlers happen to read this post, please don’t take that as an insult. In fact, it’s more a term of endearment. See, when I think cheesy wrestling, I think how it used to be in the old days. Crazy crowds. Some wrestling is good. Some is bad. But the entertainment factor is through the roof.When I say cheesy wrestling, in my eyes, it’s a good thing. It’s not all pomp-and-circumstance. It’s old-school.

To me, that’s how my 3DW experience was.

There were things I could have done without, to be sure. Namely, the over-excessive swearing during Friday’s show (there were a lot of kids in the audience). I realize there was some sort of rival promotion present (I think), which might have made the 3DW guys a little more rowdy, but lets remember that kids don’t need to hear that.

… or do they need to hear some of the items that were said Saturday, though it was quite a bit more tame.

When one thinks of the WWE, or to some extents, TNA Wrestling, it’s more of a story. These federations have weekly shows, and in the case of the WWE, several weekly shows. When you work the independents, there’s not much for TV. There’s the internet and some federations are lucky enough to be on local channels, but many of these promotions only hold a few cards a month, at best.

That means from night to night, the crowds are going to be different.

One example is Friday night when the crowd was behind one tag team that apparently were supposed to be the “bad guys.” When they won and the crowd showed their appreciation (for the record, it was an excellent all-around match), the one member of the losing “good guy” team yelled to the crowd “We’re supposed to be the baby faces. Just saying.”

For the record? If you are supposed to be the baby faces and were getting booed? You weren’t doing the job of a baby face.

But that’s the beauty of independent professional wrestling.

Some of the guys who were good guys Friday were bad guys Saturday. And vice versa. It gives guys the chance to be on both sides of the crowd, which is funny. One wrestler who drew incredible and legit heat Friday night after taking a bite of someone’s pizza was seemingly different Saturday and had people in stitches with his funny antics.

Considering there’s really only one “big-time” federation (WWE) and one middle-line promotion (TNA), the odds of these guys making it to the big payday are slim. It’s no different than professional baseball for a minor leaguer. One in how many make it to the Major Leagues? Exactly.

But that doesn’t take away from what these guys do in the ring every night.

A championship is still a championship, no matter what the federation. It still shows that said federation sees something in you to make you represent it (it also likely shows your loyalty and willingness to come back to said promotion for its cards).

In the end, let us remember that pro wrestling is a form of entertainment. It’s a show. But those people out there are still doing some crazy stuff. They take incredible risks with their moves (remember, too, that these people have regular jobs and need to work), they’ll bleed when necessary (which doesn’t happen as often anymore in the “big leagues”), and they’ll sometimes push the envelope with the crowd to the point where it becomes risky (I saw a show several months ago where a fan swung at a wrestler).

But every bit of the independent scene is worth the money you pay.

It has drama. It has athleticism. It has showmanship. It has humor. It has seriousness. And in the end, it has entertainment.

Which is what it’s all about in the first place.

I’ll gladly shell out several bucks to watch the 3DW again (especially because it’s so close). And I’ll look forward to seeing which of these guys might be able to crest this level and maybe reach the bigger time.

For those that don’t, keep living the dream. You’re doing something you love and entertaining people. What more can you ask for?

I encourage you to check out my wrestling photos I’ve taken at independent cards. I have them linked below. Graphic warning — a couple of the shots in each of the sets show blood.

3DW on April 23, 2011: Flickr set

3DW on April 22, 2011: Flickr set

2CW on Sept. 24, 2010: Flickr set

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.