Russell “Psycho” Simpson on RAW

Just found out tonight after our show that CWF Wrestler Russell “Psycho” Simpson was on WWE’s RAW Monday night from San Antonio.
Guess I don’t get to watch it much anymore without my DVR hooked up.
He and another guy jobbed to the new Highlanders. Haven’t seen many reviews of the match but PWTorch gave it a star I believe.
I’m sure that’s more Highlanders than anything else. Too bad he’s not using his Psycho gimick in the WWE, he’d get over a lot faster I’m sure.

World Class Championship Wrestling: Heroes of World Class review

Who were your heroes?

Originally published in the Waxahachie Daily Light

Jonathan Blundell
Staff writer

Mention professional wrestling to anyone in the Dallas area and one name will always come to mind — the Von Erichs.

People all over the Metroplex tell tales of tuning in every Saturday night on KVTT Channel 11 to watch three dashing young brothers take on the world, from their home in the squared-circle.

Stories of drama, action and excitement played out weekly on television sets around the world, as people tuned in to the weekly syndicated show featuring Fritz Von Erich (Jack Adkisson) and his sons, Kevin, Kerry and David.

It was the mid-80s and Fritz’s World Class Championship Wrestling was king.

Stories have been told of families across the world gathering on hillsides just so they could get a good reception and tune in to watch championship wrestling from downtown Dallas.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, and even Hulk Hogan were still years from becoming household names, but wrestlers like “The Gentleman” Chris Adams, Bruiser Brody, Kabala, The Fabulous Freebirds and even NWA World Heavyweight Ric Flair entertained the world from Dallas’ own Sportatorium.

But along with the rise to success, came the fall of defeat.

Some say it was a Von Erich curse, others say it was Fritz’s stubbornness to change.

Whatever the cause may have been, fans of WCCW began to watch their heroes crumble and fall as tragedy struck the Von Erich family and WCCW over and over again.

Once the brother to five and now the brother to none, Fritz’s eldest son Kevin is all that’s left of the wrestling dynasty.

Former WCCW wrestler and manager Scandor Ackbar said he knows of 18 young men involved with WCCW who have died since the promotion’s prime in 1982.

“At first I thought it was coincidence,” Ackbar said. “But then after a while — what’s going on?”

And as the city of Dallas condemned and began to tear down the famed Sportatorium in 2003, filmmaker Brian Harrison spent three years made it his mission to tell the story of his childhood heroes in “Heroes of World Class: The Story of the Von Erichs and the Rise and Fall of World Class Championship Wrestling.”

The film released June 15 to DVD details the stories of WCCW, starting with the early 1980s when Fritz Von Erich purchased the Dallas-based Big Time Wrestling and transformed it into one of the premiere wrestling promotions in the world.

Footage and photographs from WCCW and the Von Erich family are well used throughout the documentary as Kevin and a number of the remaining WCCW players tell the rise and fall of Texas’ great wrestling promotion.

“What took us eight years to build, took two years to take down,” former WCCW wrestler and manager Gary “Playboy” Hart said.

The stories told on the DVD encompass all sides of the WCCW rise and fall.

Kevin talks greatly about his family’s history, including his grandfather, a Texas sheriff.

According to Kevin, his grandfather would take Fritz to town as a young teen, just to make him fight other boys his age.

Kevin’s grandfather would then take bets on the fights for extra money.

Kevin shares the grief of losing each of his brothers, including three to suicide.

“The thing about grief is that it never gets better, it only gets worse,” Kevin said on losing his brothers and friends.

He also shared his father’s grief and rapid transformation when he was diagnosed with brain cancer in the late 1990’s.

“Dad told me I didn’t have the courage to kill myself like my other brothers,” Kevin said. “I know dad loved me but he wasn’t in his right mind. I think he just looked at me and saw all his other sons.”

This two and a half hour documentary does a great job of telling the Von Erich story and the story of WCCW.

And while the Von Erich’s were often the driving force behind the promotion, Harrison makes it a point to tell the entire WCCW story, not just the Von Erich’s.

The video montage in tribute to David Von Erich, who died while on a wrestling tour of Japan in 1984, was well edited and set to the song “Life by the Drop” by another Texas legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The entire documentary, with its vintage video and honest interviews, is a great to watch for the avid fan who watched every week on Channel 11, or just the casual observer wanting to know more about Texas’ first family of wrestling.

After watching the documentary, my only wish was that there were complete matches added to the DVD, especially the famous championship battle between Kerry Von Erich and NWA Champion Ric Flair at Texas Stadium after David Von Erich’s death.

We’ll now have to wait now for Vince McMahon Jr. and WWE to release the old footage after McMahon’s company purchased the WCCW video library from Kevin in early June.

“Heroes of World Class: The Story of the Von Erichs and the Rise and Fall of World Class Championship Wrestling” can be purchased online directly from the documentary’s producers, Right Here Pictures, at www.rightherepictures.com or from Amazon.com.

Superman cannot lie… and neither will I

Superman Returns

I went and saw “Superman Returns” at the special screening at 10:10 last night with my boy Aaron.

I will not lie. It was good. From the moment the John William’s Superman score hits the screen to the end I was caught in the moment.

I thought the storyline was great and answers the question, “Well where’s Superman been?” while Spiderman, X-Men, Batman and others have taken over Superman’s spot at the box office.

Apparently Superman (played by Brandon Routh) went home to see if there was anything left of his home planet.

But he returns to earth to see that the world has moved on without him, including the love of his life, Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth). Lane is even being awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her editorial piece, “Why the world doesn’t need Superman.”

Superman’s vile enemy Lex Luther, wonderfully played by Kevin Spacey, has been released from jail after Superman, the key witness in his case failed to appear at his trial. Luther sets out on his next plan to take over the world and of course only one man can stop him – Superman.

I kept sensing a spiritual theme in the movie as Lane tells Superman the world doesn’t need a savior. From his viewpoint high above the world, Superman tells her “I hear all the screams and cries for a savior.”

The movie also grapples with Superman’s mortality as the the others have as well.

Routh plays an excellent replacement for Christopher Reeves and at times you can see Reeves in Routh’s expressions and face.

There is definatly a greater element of special effects than the first three movies, but they’re done well enough that you don’t lose the “reality” of the movie.

You don’t get a chance to stop and think, now was that done with computers or the real thing?

I won’t give away the ending, but it will leave you applauding the film makers for a job well done.

The movie opens nationwide today.

Tips on frequent posting

Tall Skinny Kiwi has some advice on frequent posting for bloggers:

Blogging Advice in the Wild Wild Web 2.0
The rules of blogging have changed for our brave new web and Eric Kintz has some good advice.
Why blog frequency does not matter anymore

#1 – Traffic is generated by participating in the community; not daily posting
#2 – Traffic is irrelevant to your blog’s success anyway
#3 – Loyal readers coming back daily to check your posts is so Web 1.0
#4 – Frequent posting is actually starting to have a negative impact on loyalty
#5 – Frequent posting keeps key senior executives and thought leaders out of the blogosphere
#6 – Frequent posting drives poor content quality
#7 – Frequent posting threatens the credibility of the blogosphere
#8 – Frequent posting will push corporate bloggers into the hands of PR agencies
#9 – Frequent posting creates the equivalent of a blogging landfill
#10 – I love my family too much

I’ve never set a goal for myself, but I do usually try to find at least two things I can blog about weekdays.
On the other hand, my mom and sister have told me they don’t read any of my “long entries” and usually just skim my page.
My dad tends to read everything, but usually a week at a time – like his e-mails.
My mom naturally is only concerned about things that directly involve me, rather than anything political or related to music, wrestling or other things. She does seem to enjoy the recipes though.
What about the rest of you? Why do you read my blog? What do you look for?
Do you enjoy personal insight? Politics? The fight for Africa?
What about other blogs you visit? Do you visit more than once a day? Why do you visit them?

Found – great CC music

I love Creative Commons and the idea of people sharing their creative works.
And per my last post, I did some more digging and found that http://starfrosch.ch has a great collection of CC music to listen to, use and enjoy. Jazz, Rock, Ambient, Drum and Bass and more. Check it out…

What’s starfrosch? Starfrosch is a user driven music blog with high-traffic podcasts. At starfrosch, users submit Creative Commons music or videos. Yet a moderator team keeps care of the quality.