The Imminent Demise of TNA Wrestling

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: I wrote this entry a month or so ago and have been sitting on it as I wasn't sure if it was going to be worth publishing. TNA is a boat that is still teetering, and so it appears this was a worthwhile effort after all. However, things have changed a bit since I last edited the piece, namely the fact that Hulk Hogan appears to have left TNA for at least the time being as his contract was not renewed. I'm not sure how much they were paying him, but that's a sizable burden lifted off the company's back as his presence never equated to improved ratings numbers. Aside from Hogan, the list of stars who have either left TNA or not had their deals renewed includes names such as Matt Morgan, Crimson, Kid Kash, Joey Ryan, Mickie James, Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria/Tara), Ken Anderson (Mr. Kennedy), D'Lo Brown, Devon Dudley, Bruce Prichard, and Luke Gallows (Festus/DOC). Also of note is the fact that every "winner" from the TNA GutCheck Challenge (which was a contest TNA sponsored in an effort to find new talent from the independent pro wrestling scene) has been released other than 2, those being Lei'D Tapa and Wes Brisco.]

I haven't written anything on my blog about professional wrestling in quite some time. Not since May of this year, as a matter of fact, when I put together a review of Chikara Pro Wrestling's "The Ghost of You Clings" event which was held in Porterdale, Georgia (be sure to check it out for yourself, if you haven't already, via this link - The Truesdales Went Down to Georgia). I still watch wrestling several days a week, so don't start thinking that I've given up on paying attention to the goings on of events inside (and outside) the squared circle. I've hung around through what have been some fairly dark days for the wrestling business as it relates to the in-ring product and I'm not about to abandon ship now, seeing as how things are mostly on the up-tick - for World Wrestling Entertainment, at least. Not so much for their competitor, Total Non-stop Action Wrestling.

If you read the title of this blog entry, you already have an idea of where I'm going with this topic. I want to say first and foremost that I do not have a desire for TNA Wrestling to close up shop. I'm not one of these fans who thinks TNA needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth because of decisions made by the higher-ups in the company. Far from it, honestly, as I would love to find myself again in a situation like I did when I was in high school where I had to pick and choose which show I was going to watch on which night (RAW or Nitro? Smackdown or Thunder?). What's more, were TNA to fold that would mean there's one less spot for men and women to work and earn a living doing something they love; that's bad news (potentially of the dream crushing kind), no matter how you look at it.

This is not an attempt to throw dirt on the still-warm body of a company that is, as of this writing, the closest competition WWE has in both the national and global professional wrestling market. The problem is that they're number two (there are a lot of number threes - Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla are the most well-known among them but quite a few regional independent companies have made strides in growing their audiences lately) and they're losing ground to number one (that being WWE). I mean that metaphorically as well as literally.

Over the course of the past couple years, WWE began a process of revamping their talent development system, which typically gets referred to simply as "developmental". There was a point in time where WWE maintained relationships with several smaller entities such as Ohio Valley Wrestling, Deep South Wrestling, and Florida Championship Wrestling. They eventually severed ties with OVW (which, ironically enough, is now used by TNA as their version of a developmental system) and DSW, then converted FCW into what has become the definitive incarnation of their NXT brand (which itself went through several iterations before settling into its current state).

From a tactical perspective, this all made sense. FCW was based in Tampa, Florida which is also where quite a few members of the WWE roster call home. (PRO-TIP: If you make a lot of money, it's a good idea to live where there's no state income tax.) The facility FCW occupied wasn't enough for WWE, though, as they wanted to hone their talent using training techniques typically reserved for professional athletes as well as state of the art production equipment for producing TV and web content. Enter Full Sail University, a "technical college" for lack of a better phrase based in Orlando specializing in educating students with a desire to work in the fields of entertainment and media.

WWE began taping NXT at Full Sail in the summer of 2012, and the product was an immediate success with wrestling fans even though it wasn't readily available in the United States (and still isn't; NXT is broadcast internationally but US fans can only see it by way of the Hulu Plus streaming service). Why was it so successful? In my eyes, it was for two reasons.

1) A renewed focus on in-ring action as opposed to excessive talking, promos, and backstage segments
2) An opportunity for fans like myself to finally see top independent stars compete under the bright lights of WWE

Obviously there's no good to putting all this effort into developing talent if there's no talent to work with. This is why WWE made the brilliant move to begin signing some of the best talent available on the independent circuit. Guys like Chris Hero, El Generico, Pac, and a host of others. They may not be on television anytime soon but their being signed means they also won't be on a competitor's programming thanks to developmental deals with WWE making them exclusive to the company.

I am a confessed huge fan of NXT. I dig the show and its format, so much so that there have been times where I've woken up early on the day a new episode gets released just to watch it before I have to get ready to go to work. It's very reminiscent of the kind of wrestling TV shows I watched as a kid, and the talent featured there is fantastic.

The icing on the cake of WWE's Florida initiative was the assembly of the WWE Performance Center (also in Orlando), a pro wrestling mega-gym that's about as robust as could be in terms of serving as an all-around training facility for up and coming WWE Superstars. The Performance Center features exercise and recovery suites, 7 training rings, production areas, and more.

With the opening of the Performance Center, WWE's position in central Florida became cemented. This is relevant to the discussion here because there was a point in time in the history of professional wrestling where large companies existed all over the nation in a territorial system. Borders were established and promoters mostly kept to within their own confines. This system was destroyed, most would agree, when Vince McMahon, Jr. began taking the best talent from each territory and bringing them into his World Wrestling Federation. It's fitting, then, that McMahon would continue his reign by claiming central Florida for his own.

Why Orlando? Because that's where TNA lives - well, lived, I should say, seeing as how they've effectively been run out of town by the Goliath that is WWE.

TNA Wrestling started out more than 10 years ago as a subsidiary of the National Wrestling Alliance, and at that time was called NWA-TNA. The company started off by running weekly pay-per-view events from Nashville, Tennessee which is still considered to be their base of operations. In 2004, they made a bold leap towards advancing themselves as they moved into a sound stage on the property of Universal Studios Orlando which they referred to as the Impact Zone. It was a great opportunity because it meant they would have access to a self-contained production facility. Even better, because of the fact that the stage was connected to one of the most popular theme parks in the world it meant TNA would have easy access to an audience. Not necessarily always a pro wrestling audience or one that was paying for tickets (I believe the only events held in the Impact Zone for which tickets were sold were pay-per-views), but tourists who couldn't resist the allure of participating in an actual TV taping. No one complained because butts in seats look better than empty seats on TV, obviously.

Around March of this year, TNA announced that they were going to be leaving Universal, choosing instead to take their TV tapings on the road. That's not a bad idea, so long as the company can afford to endure the costs of travel related to mobile production - money, in other words, and that's where TNA either is or isn't in trouble these days depending on what you read.

[SIDE NOTE: According to BestOfOrlando.com, there are rumors that a restaurant currently in operation inside the Universal CityWalk (which is a shopping and dining district situated between the Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure theme parks) will be closing soon; this space would then be renovated in order to become a combination of a pro wrestling-themed restaurant and a physical location for the WWE Hall of Fame.]

When the announcement was made that TNA would be leaving the Impact Zone, the stated reasoning for the move was that it was a cost-cutting measure. In addition, they reduced the number of live pay-per-view events for 2013 from 12 down to 5 and there have been quite a few terminations of personnel, both on-air talent and people working behind the scenes. No big deal, right? Plenty of companies have had to tighten the old belt here lately as the economy in this country still isn't out of the tank yet.

It was revealed within the past two months that TNA has recently been several weeks to a month late in paying some of their talent. That's bad, and from a historical perspective it's been an indicator of the beginning of the end for wrestling promotions as this happened in both ECW and WCW. We all know how things turned out for those two companies.

You need look no further than the audiences that attend TNA's live events for validation of my statements. I challenge you to watch an episode of Impact and count the number of people you see in the crowd wearing WWE-branded apparel or how many kids are sporting a replica WWE championship belt. Now look at how many people in the crowd are wearing TNA apparel. It's a lopsided ratio if ever there was one.

This would come off as an iffy move from the standpoint of a company forcing its fans into a mold (which isn't anything new in terms of wrestling; for years WWE has policed signs fans bring into their TV tapings - I know because I've had several signs confiscated), but if I were in charge of TNA's live events I would push for a policy which states no one comes into our show wearing another company's gear. (A great way to respond to negative comments about this would be to offer that patron a free shirt featuring the logo or likeness of their favorite TNA wrestler - free stuff tends to silence complainers and when you're already purging millions of dollars a year on talent dropping a $5 shirt every so often isn't going to hurt.) I'm sorry but you don't give the competition any sort of a freebie, not even so much as a logo on a t-shirt.

Like I said earlier, TNA is considered to be the #2 company in the world but they're not gaining ground on the competition. You can blame that on any number of things, from their overall strategy to hiring aging stars (Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sting, Scott Steiner - I could go on but you get the idea) as opposed to focusing on the continued development of young talent, to trying too hard to make their product something that's too similar to WWE. The bottom line is that unless they right the ship soon, the whole thing is going to go under and it will go down in history as being one of the most tragic demises in the whole of professional wrestling.

Notice I'm not being so bold as to suggest ways of fixing this debacle. I think it can be done but I'm just a fan with a blog, remember - what do I know?

Narrow Seats are Narrow

My wife and I have had the opportunity to attend several events recently at Colonial Life Arena and Carolina Stadium, two major sports venues in Columbia, SC, the latter being home to the back-to-back National Champion University of South Carolina baseball team (I threw that last bit in there just because). They are marvelous facilities that I'm glad we have access to as they're truly modern day pantheons equipped with everything from WiFi to a wine list. Be that as it may, there's one aspect to them that I wish was different, and it has to do with basic comfort - specifically the comfort of one's posterior as impacted by the seats in these arenas and others like them.

I've never tried to hide the fact that I'm a bigger guy - not that I could hide it if I wanted to. I'm in the area of 6'2"-6'3" and, to make a football analogy, my body type would be best described as that of an offensive lineman (albeit one who doesn't go to the gym and doesn't diet all that properly). I shop in the big & tall section. I have trouble finding shoes that fit because I wear a size 14 extra-wide and most manufacturers/retailers seem to think mens feet stop growing around size 12 (seriously, next time you're in a Rack Room Shoes or a similar store, count the number of shoes you see in size 14 or above). That said, I admit that when it comes to the physical dimensions of human beings I'm definitely an exception instead of the norm - always have been, always will be. For while I could lose weight, there's no hope of my becoming much less wide than I am right now short of having my pelvis, ribcage and internal organ placement reconfigured.

That's not an elective surgery I'll be signing up for any time soon.

There's a well-known quote attributed to famed professional wrestling commentator/talent coordinator Jim Ross that goes something like "I don't care who wins or who loses, so long as there's an ass every 18 inches I'm happy", his point being to state that the measure of success in his industry is about ticket sales more so than anything else. I'm not sure if Ross was aware of it or not when he made that comment, but he's actually quite accurate when it comes to depicting the space between rear-ends at most coliseums.

I've done extensive research on the subject (read, I Google'd "average stadium seat width") and based on my results (which are highly scientific in nature, needless to say) the typical seat width you'll find in any given arena is between 17"-20". To get an idea of what that looks like, take two pieces of ordinary copier paper and place them side-by-side. What you've got is more or less the same width and depth (14" is the norm in terms of depth) of most stadium seating. By contrast, the seat on my recliner is 23" wide and almost as deep.

The width and depth restrictions are bad but the kicker when it comes to arena seating is the "arm rests". I use quotation marks because while they are capable of serving as legitimate arm rests their true function is that of immovable barriers of butt containment and isolation. They ensure that every posterior has a more or less equal amount of inhabitable real estate for use over the course of an event. In the case of someone like myself, what they actually serve as is a vice grip - except unlike an actual vice there's no hope of adjustment, just the same level of near torturous restriction.

Does that come off as something that would be comfortable to sit in for a couple hours? Now imagine it's made from a hard material like plastic, wood or metal. To take it even further, imagine you're wedged in between two guys like me the whole time. Still want to pay your hard-earned money to go to that next big concert or sporting event?

[SIDE NOTE: I mention paying for tickets to events - I think that's a factor I can add into this discussion as it is something that definitely serves to exacerbate the issue of pain in the buns. I brought up Colonial Life Arena earlier in this entry; that building will soon serve as host to such artists as Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber. The face value for tickets to those concerts will set you back $63.50, $86.50, and $95, respectively. (That's not including the cost of other expenses that come along with going to an event such as parking, which runs between $10-$20.) I will admit to having paid some high ticket prices in the past (I believe I paid around $90 to see Metallica almost a decade ago - we were in the front row and I got guitar picks from James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett so it was worth it for me), but the cost of attendance has become extremely exorbitant these days, so much so that fans have started to really question whether or not it's worth it. To me, that's what's happening to NASCAR. The TV coverage is so good (even though the racing itself isn't always that exciting) and the events so expensive that people seem to have realized it's just as well that they stay home.]

As I said earlier, I'm a big guy. For the sake of this blog entry, I measured the breadth of my chest from shoulder to shoulder and it was in the area of 27". (I haven't had cause to buy a sport coat or be fitted for a similar garment in roughly 3 years, so forgive me for referencing what is certainly an accurate albeit less than precise measurement.) My hips aren't that much narrower than my shoulders. How do you put something that's 27" wide into a seat that's 17" wide? You can take my word that it's not an easy task as different seats require different derriere depositing methods. With some stadium seats brute force works best; gravity will only drag things down so far, you see. These are generally the seats that I loathe the most as they're usually the ones that leave my tush quite sore, sometimes to the point of leaving bruises. (I've had bruising on my knees from spending hours shoved into a row of seats as well - the curvature of the seat backs combined with the narrow gap between rows only adds to my already high level of discomfort.) Other seats I've found can best be accessed by first sitting down on the edge of the seat then sliding back into the bucket. It takes some trial and error but fortunately I've yet to find a seat that I absolutely cannot get into.

[SIDE NOTE #2: I take that last statement back - I have found seats I can't get into, but not stadium seats.

When my wife & I went to the Magic Kingdom last November I was quite bummed that my ability to ride a lot of the attractions in those theme parks was limited. Oddly enough, the issue wasn't seat width or depth rather it was the length of my legs that inhibited the restraints from being fully engaged. The first time this happened to me was on Space Mountain; I'd gotten into the car and when the lap bar dropped it hit my knees. I tried to get my legs into a position that would allow me to ride but that effort was to no avail.

I'm assuming this has become a recurring problem for ride operators to have to deal with. We noticed at Universal Studios that there are test seats outside many of the attractions so that patrons can see if they'll be able to fit into the cars prior to boarding. I'm sure there's a joke to be made here about this being unnecessary except for the fact that people nowadays are fatter than ever. Even so, if this is a known trend amongst the masses (pun intended) then why not just make the cars bigger?]

The scenario I painted in a previous paragraph of a person being unwittingly wedged in between two men similar to myself is one that my poor wife has had to endure a number of times. She's a trooper, though, and finds ways to get through those occasions, sometimes with a bit of ingenuity. (Typically I'll throw an arm around her as this takes away a bit of my width and gives us both more comfort, even though it usually winds up with me having to watch where my hand winds up - some people don't like it when a dude they've never met touches them on the shoulder or knee oddly enough.) She and a fellow female attendee to a Ring of Honor pro wrestling card in Charlotte, NC we went to devised a method for improving the comfort level for quite a few people at said event. The show was held in a building that wasn't much more than a warehouse with folding chairs set up for seating. For the sake of security, wrestling fans being the lively sort that we are, the chairs had all been zip-tied together. The other female fan realized that she could remedy the situation by snipping the zip-ties with a pair of fingernail clippers; suddenly we went from being packed into our row like sardines in a can to sitting sprawled out and as comfortable as could be.

[SIDE NOTE #3: While writing of the story about modifying ROH's seating I was reminded of another situation that happened at a different ROH event, one that I hesitate to share because of the individual it involves but that I'm going to put out there anyway.

ROH made use of the same zip-tied chairs for this event, and we'd planned accordingly by bringing fingernail clippers. We adjusted the seats to give ourselves more room but there was one fan whose physical condition necessitated having even more room than I. I don't want it to sound like I'm making fun of him but he was morbidly obese, probably 500 lbs. if not more. He had separated his chair and moved it to a position that put him almost in line with us, which also meant that he gave himself a free upgrade seeing as how he went from having a seat in the general admission section to one that was worth significantly more than those. My wife wasn't thrilled with his presence for another reason; he had what sounded like a couple dollars worth of quarters in his pocket and jingled them incessantly, and this was getting on her nerves.

I haven't pointed it out until now but the folding chairs ROH used were the kind that have metal legs and plastic panels. They tend to feel flimsy to me, and now you know where I'm going with this story...

Towards the end of the show, this guy's chair gave up its will to live and collapsed under his weight. He hit the floor to a raucous calamity, his stash of quarters went rolling away in mass exodus, and he laid there on the ground with an expression on his face as if he were in shock. He eventually got up after being assisted by myself and a few others, gathered his quarters, fetched himself another chair, and returned to the same spot he'd been occupying previously as if nothing had ever happened.]

Unfortunately, you'd need a much more heavy duty piece of equipment than a pair of fingernail clippers to make the kind of arena seating we've been encountering more comfortable, and something even more powerful than a backhoe to get those who are in the business of building, operating and maintaining these facilities to even consider using seats wider than they are now. The point of any business is to make money, after all - in their case the more seats in a venue, the more money there is to be made from putting butts into them. Even butts like mine. So it is that the decision becomes either avoiding events because of issues like these or going to them regardless for the love of the thing.

I guess dealing with a couple sore cheeks isn't so bad every now and then.

Rainbow Farting Unicorns - Part 1

The actual source of all rainbows

It's been brought to my attention that, more often than not, I tend to make things which have drawn my ire the subject of blog posts.  I can't argue with that point as I agree that I've developed a particular pattern of subject matter when it comes to what I choose to write about. (At least I can't be criticized for being inconsistent, I guess.) I also realize that this isn't healthy when it comes to trying to maintain the interest of readers - even though I'm certain there's a group of people who actually like entries wherein I complain and rant about things incessantly, this silent majority has been more than appeased thus far during the lifetime of my blog.  That being the case, I'm introducing this entry as the first in a recurring series wherein I talk about nothing but things I like or that have otherwise made me happy, hence the title "Rainbow-Farting Unicorns" (because you're in a deeper, darker place than I'd ever hope to consider being if the image of a rainbow-farting unicorn can't put a smile on your face).

"WORLD WAR Z" IS REALLY GOOD

It's no secret that zombies have become the flavor of the week when it comes to monsters being used in movies and television productions.  There's some kind of rotation that Hollywood uses which we mere mortals aren't privy to, I'm sure of it - how else can you explain that there are years where a bunch of alien invasion movies get made then the next a slew of vampire-centric films are rolled out?  They tap popular trends (striking while the iron is hot, as it were) and at this point zombies are about as popular as they ever have been.

A piece of literature that was on the forefront of the current zombie movement is Max Brooks' (yes, as in Mel Brooks' son) "World War Z", which is currently being adapted into a movie (which, allegedly, isn't going to be that close to its source material - shocker) starring Brad Pitt.  Originally released in 2006, WWZ is a very unique book in that it makes use of anecdotal stories gathered from first-hand interviews to chronicle the struggles of humanity attempting to overcome a world-wide plague of the undead.

Let me say first that it took some doing for me to get into this book.  I started reading it earlier this year and was challenged immediately by how it is written.  I think most avid readers are accustomed to stories being presented in a narrative format, which makes them relatively easy to navigate and absorb.  WWZ is different in that the story is pieced together through individual and seemingly scattered elements, making the scope of it incredibly vast.  It wasn't until after I'd forced myself to dedicate time to reading it that I began to appreciate how these pieces come to form an intricate tale ripe with details.  I enjoy using my imagination to assemble mental images of scenes and characters from books I'm reading as I'm reading them; if you share this trait, I can confirm that WWZ presents many opportunities to stretch your grey matter.  From epic battles with legions of zombies staged on familiar sites (Yonkers, New York for example was the site of the first large-scale encounter between the US military and the living dead) to harrowing survival stories involving perilous situations at every turn, the scenery in WWZ is truly epic.  I highly recommend this book for fans of horror, suspense, or science fiction - and documentaries, for that matter.

I'VE LOST WEIGHT

My wife and I have been members of our local YMCA for about 18 months now and she's been actively participating in Weight Watchers since February of this year.  Jill (who updates her blog a whole lot more frequently than I do - check her out at The Truesdale Times) has lost just shy of 75 pounds while on the Weight Watchers program and I could not be more proud of her!  She's done a tremendous job of subscribing to their guidelines and the proof is in the fact that she's in arguably the best shape of her life - I always thought she was beautiful but when I refer to her as my hot, young trophy wife now people actually get a sense of what I've been talking about.

Her efforts have rubbed off on me a bit because I've seen the fruits of her labor.  By watching her and paying attention to how she's been able to have such great success with the program, I've developed an understanding that the great thing about Weight Watchers is how it promotes effective decision making when it comes to choosing what to eat.  You can eat what you want while keeping in mind the consequences of your decisions (good or bad) instead of being forced into a diet where you're eating foods that will sustain you but will also make your taste buds want to rip themselves free of your tongue. (What's more, I think I'd go crazy if I had to switch out meals with shakes or some kind of beverage.) I feel like that's what most people use as an excuse to not maintain a diet, the fact that they can't have the foods they enjoy.  So instead of a regimen they can endure they wind up suffering through what's more akin to a form of penance than anything and can't help but hate the experience.  Weight Watchers is the exact opposite of that.

If you want a double-bacon cheeseburger, go ahead - but you have to realize that because you had the cheeseburger you shouldn't have other similar items that aren't exactly good choices.  On top of that, exercise helps!  No one is going to confuse me for an Olympic athlete, but I have to say that the changes I've been able to make by way of regular exercise are noticeable.  I have more endurance, greater strength, and more energy.  It used to be that I had to push myself just to keep up with Jill while we were walking (I'm still convinced she was trying to lose me while we were on the strip in Las Vegas), but that isn't the case anymore!  Little things like that (as well as the fact that I'm down a shirt size) start to add up in your mind and give you a sense of confidence to keep going.

The point is to say that I've been made aware of things I was eating previously and now realize the impact they can have in an overall sense of well being.  I know I've lost at least 20 pounds since some point this summer as that was when we purchased a scale and have been regularly tracking our weight.  Not to sound too cocky but I've thought of the idea of re-taking our wedding pictures because of the fact that we both look better now than we did then!

WE'RE (going to be) ON A BOAT!

When my then soon-to-be wife and I were going over options for our honeymoon more than a year ago, my ideas were Disney World or Hawaii.  Hawaii was out of the running fairly quickly, mainly because I didn't want to have to take out a personal loan just to finance the trip.  Disney is a personal favorite of mine as I've always loved the theme parks.  My family and I used to go there almost every year when I was growing up, so it goes without saying that I have plenty of fond memories of those experiences.

Jill's idea, on the other hand, was to take a cruise.  I'd never been on one (whereas she'd already been on several) and, truth be told, I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea initially.  I was concerned about being sick the whole time, if we'd be comfortable living out of a cramped cabin for several days, and most of all whether or not it would be worth the money.  I only plan on getting married once, so of course I wanted the experience to be as memorable as possible (and of course I have to live up to my promise to Jill that our life together will be an adventure).  I eventually agreed to the cruise and so we booked a trip to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival Sensation.

To put my thoughts on the cruise quite succinctly, I loved every moment of it!  I have recommended the cruising experience to literally everyone who so much as mentions the possibility of being slightly interested in the chance they might take one at some point in their life.  I'm not necessarily a travel expert, but be that as it may I do not think that you can get a vacation with such great value by any other means.  Between the food, the shows, the picturesque ports of call, and everything else in between, it was a phenomenal trip and we were almost immediately looking forward to our next outing.

We're now within two weeks of being on the water again as we'll be setting sail to the western Caribbean for a 7 day voyage on board the Carnival Dream.  Saying "I CAN'T WAIT!" would be a slight understatement at this point as it feels like we've been looking forward to this trip for more than a year (which isn't far from the truth; we booked far in advance to get a lesser rate).  I wanted to take a longer trip on a bigger boat, and that's exactly what this itinerary allows for as the Dream is one of the largest vessels in Carnival's fleet.  We'll be making stops in Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya, and Isla Roatan - on top of that we've booked several shore excursions, which we didn't try at all on our honeymoon.  This is one more example of an activity that as little as a few years ago I never thought I'd ever do, but I am and I'm sure we'll enjoy this trek just as much (or hopefully more so) as we did our previous adventure.

I ORDERED MY IPOD CLASSIC (Related Topic: Amazon.com is effing-incredible)

For several months now I've been agonizing over the decision as to whether or not I wanted to purchase a new iPod.  I have a significant amount of music in my collection and my older iPod Nano wasn't cutting it anymore.  The Nano I have only carries around 2 gigabytes of memory, which is a terribly small amount of storage space when you consider I have upwards of 60 gigs of music.  It's a pain for me to have to constantly unload and load music as my tastes change or as I acquire new tunes.  I wanted a device that would allow me to sync it up with my library every so often and carry all my music with me, not only for ease of maintenance but also because I now have a head unit in my truck that can interface with a USB device.  Suffice it to say that it's a whole lot more convenient to have my media contained on a box the size of a deck of cards instead of a huge case of CDs.

My problem, being the epic tight-wad that I am when it comes to spending money, was that I didn't want to incur the expense of upgrading.  I kid you not when I say that I agonized for what seemed like several months over making the purchase.  I knew what I wanted but I wasn't sure how to pay for it.  "Do I use my credit card or try to save up the cash?", I repeatedly asked myself.  Apparently I suffered a moment of weakness at some point within the past week because I ordered a 160 gigabyte iPod Classic with an accessory bundle from Amazon and the lovely thing was delivered to me early this morning!

Now I get to look forward to spending time setting it up - I sincerely hope there's never a stage of my life where I don't anticipate playtime with a new gadget with the kind of glee typically reserved for a 9 year old boy on Christmas morning.

RING OF HONOR RETURNS TO THE CAROLINAS 

When it comes to professional wrestling in the United States, there really are only two major companies in existence right now (even though a whole bunch of small indy promotions would have you believe they're the closest equivalent), those being World Wrestling Entertainment and iMPACT (aka, TNA) Wrestling.  Most observers, myself included, feel that the gap between WWE and TNA is ever widening with WWE having a huge advantage both in popularity and (more importantly) profitability.  They're the largest sports entertainment company in the world and their domination of the global market grows every year.  That's all well and good (especially if you're a little boy or a woman who delights in the fact that John Cena is the second coming of Hulk Hogan, that being a wrestler who's physique and charisma are unrivaled but who also happens to be an iffy at best when it comes to his grappling ability) except for the fact that the lack of any legitimate competition seems to make the creative forces behind the scenes feel like they don't necessarily have to work as hard as they would otherwise.  Point being, on some level WWE has realized that they're now at the top of the food chain and that the nearest threat is still wet behind the ears which has caused their product to become quite stale as of late.

There was a moment in the history of professional wrestling where there were three companies - WWE, World Championship Wrestling, and Extreme Championship Wrestling - competing in the United States.  ECW was always third in the pecking order, although to some felt they (despite being a much smaller company with nowhere near the financial backing of WWE) were better than WCW and even WWE.  Interestingly enough, nowadays there is once again a third company attempting to climb the mountain, as it were, in an attempt to open the eyes of fans to an alternative to the norm.  Enter Ring of Honor.

ROH has been around for nearly a decade and has enjoyed a significant amount of critical success as their unique brand of action takes a cue from what's referred to as strong-style wrestling more frequently seen in Japan.  Strong-style involves much more legitimate strikes and kicks than what's typically a part of wrestling matches, thereby heightening the audience's perception of genuine violence taking place.  This has been a great selling point for their brand as they're capable of reaching fans of both professional wrestling and mixed martial arts fighting without alienating either sub-culture.

I've been a fan of theirs for several years but, unfortunately for me, the only way I could ever see ROH material was by way of DVDs or ultra-low quality video of matches on YouTube or some other streaming site.  ROH is based in the northeast, Philadelphia specifically, and a majority of their live events take place in that region.  However, as my luck would have it they've now begun touring more extensively and have added several cities in the Carolinas to their list of regular haunts.  They've already held a handful of events in Charlotte, North Carolina and in December they'll be making two stops in the Carolinas: December 3 - Spartanburg, SC, and December 4 - Greensboro, NC.  With any luck, I'll be able to make it to at least one of these events (more than likely won't get to both but that would be fantastic).

I'd strongly encourage any wrestling fans in the area to check them out as theirs are some of the best shows I've been to in quite some time.  Take a chance on something new by seeing what else exists in the world of professional wrestling!