It’s official now, folks: Finland has invaded Sweden! At least in the world of professional wrestling, and that said, it’s been a long time coming. You see, for years on end, Finland was under Swedish rule, and the Finns despise the lingering Big Brother mentality of the Swedes. To this day, the hottest rivalry in Nordic Ice Hockey is between Finland and Sweden, and Finland vs. Russia is a close second, by a hair.
Last weekend in Malmö, Sweden, a literal gang of Finnish wrestlers crashed the SWS Wrestling card on Saturday, August 31. At the start of the Swedish event, the Finnish grapplers – FCF champion King Kong Karhula, Stark Adder, Valentine, Ricky Vendetta, Aurora Flame, Vili Luupää and Johnny McMetal – steamrolled into the ring out of the audience and kicked the living daylights out of the Swedish pair that was squaring off. This led to the immediate restructuring of the night’s card, as SWS officials deemed that if Finland came to Malmö to fight, then a fight they would receive!
Now, on Saturday, September 7, five of the best wrestlers out of Finland today – myself, Heimo Ukonselkä, Jessica Love, Valentine and King Kong Karhula – all descend on Gothenburg, Sweden, to take on the best that GBG Wrestling has to offer. The war cry has been sent out, and now there is not turning back!
Personally, I don’t know what this will mean for me, as my herniated C6-C7 vertebrae is far from being healed, but I plan on showing up for sure. I know that GBG wanted me to wrestle Conny Mejsel at this event in a rematch from FCF Wrestling’s DOMination 9 card back in Helsinki on June 8 this year. Personally speaking, I still owe Conny Mejsel a receipt big time, for the way that he assaulted me back in June, alongside Valentine, following our match.
Today I will have a photoshoot with Harley-Davidson of Finland at their Hoghaus headquarters in Vantaa, Finland. The shoot is for a 2014 calendar release, with proceeds going to charity.
Crossfyre Born to be Free music video shoot (photo by Danny Cross)
This week I will also be filming a music video for my southern rock band Crossfyre’s Born to be Free single off of our upcoming Iron Horse album.
On Wednesday, August 28 this week, I will be playing the Liberte Club in Helsinki at 20:00 sharp with my hard rock act Overnight Sensation. If you are in the vicinity, drop by for a set of kickass originals and a couple of covers. With Overnight Sensation, we will be releasing our debut album Life’s a Bitch on September 3 online via Muve Music, VerveLife, MySpace Music, Rhapsody, MediaNet, Xbox Music, Rdio, Amazon MP3, iHeartRadio, iTunes, Spotify, Sony Music Unlimited, Wimp, Google Play, Gracenote, Shazam, simfy, Nokia, eMusic and Deezer.
Album cover for Overnight Sensation’s Life’s a Bitch debut album — look for it!
Check out the title track from the upcoming Life’s a Bitch album here:
Bättre Folk. For a long time, the Swedes living in Finland have held themselves to be a step above the Finnish populace, probably stemming from the fact that Finland once used to be under Swedish rule. That “big brother” mentality still shines through and is prevalent these days, and a LOT of people in Finland despise the snobbish attitude of the Swedish “Better People” (= Bättre Folk).
So it was this past Saturday night, at an event in downtown Helsinki, entitled DOMination 9: New Blood Rising, that this age-old pest termed Bättre Folk showed up. We had them in the audience, I had one as an opponent, and when all was said and done, there were three of them in the ring.
Miss D give me a kiss for good luck before the match
When I started initially coaching Finnish wrestlers in 2003, I did my best to bring them up under certain, traditional etiquette and codes of honor that are time-tested in our business. Some of those kids from over the years have fallen out of the game, simply due to the fact that they either did not have the heart that this business requires, or because of serious physical injury in matches on a few occasions. To be honest, I counted awhile back that over half of the kids that have debuted in Finnish professional wrestling since 2013 have called it quits. It really is an astounding number.
To the best of my ability, I did my utmost to ween those with the best character, to take up leading positions in Finnish pro wrestling on the promotional end, as after all, our business does require group effort. Sometimes, my evaluation of certain peoples’ character is correct, but at times, I misjudge who and what they truly are. I hate to say it, but such an individual from this latter category would be my Eurosport co-commentator, Robert Holmström.
Mejsel with a chinlock as the referee checks in
Robert was one of those people that had business savvy when he entered the game. He worked for a debt collection agency, and he had a certain way about him, that you could say was “business-like.” Robert even entered FCF’s wrestling school in 2005, but his physical prowess and athletic ability were not up to par, so he ended up becoming a referee. And for many years, Robert Holmström was the best referee that FCF Wrestling had. He even got so “over” with the fans in his officiating role, that it carried over to public support on his behalf, when he challenged former FCF General Manager Wilma Schlizewski in 2011 for her leadership title. Holmström became the new General Manager for FCF Wrestling in December 2011, when his representative wrestler (Finnhammer Halme) defeated Wilma’s representative wrestler (Angel de Tormentá).
Fall-away clothesline lays out Mejsel
It was during Robert’s time as General Manager, that his position of power corrupted him as a human being. He became Machiavellian in his thinking and actions, clearly proving, that some folks just aren’t cut out to handle authority. Holmström would abuse his position as General Manager, going so far in his personal xenophobia, as to personally single out Mexican-Finnish talent El Excentrico and make his life hell. FCF Wrestling’s board of directors couldn’t idly sit by and just let Holmström implode, so he was ousted from his General Manager spot in favor of Kristian Kurki, after the Talvisota VII event back in February of this year. Since then, Holmström has been a sour grape, with a chip on his shoulder and probably a bad case of acid reflux, considering his constant negativity.
All this said, I even got Holmström his position as my co-commentator of This Week in WWE and WWE Vintage Collection on Monday nights in Finland, back in February 2009. The Eurosport office asked me if I had someone in mind, who could work in the announcing booth with me, as an announcing team. They needed to be knowledgeable and have good, on-air chemistry with me. I had two or three names in mind, but I went to bat for Robert in the end, and he got the job.
Wounds of war, bleeding from the chin
Lo and behold, four years later, Robert Holmström has forgotten about the hand that fed him in 2009. Even moreso, he has forgotten who brought him up in the business and trained him back in 2005. In short, Robert Holmström has chosen to shit where he lives. How indicative of his musical taste in punk rock.
When I faced Sweden’s Conny Mejsel this past Saturday night in Helsinki in defense of my BWA Catchweight title, all was fair and game until former BWA champion Valentine blindsided me, prompting the referee to call for a disqualification. Valentine had previously assaulted me wife Diana on two separate occasions, and when she saw from ringside that Valentine ambushed me, she entered the ring and tried to pry him off. That is when Robert entered and grabbed my girl, choking and manhandling her in the process. The trio of Mejsel, Valentine and Holmström left me and my wife laying in the ring, proclaiming themselves to be “Bättre Folk”, as Holmström spat out to everyone in attendance, that he was sick and tired of playing second-fiddle to Yours Truly, and that the final nail in the coffin for him was when I brought Diana into the business.
a bunch of ignorant assholes – Bättre Folk
Holmström already challenged me earlier in May this year at FCF’s Jatkosota 2013 event in Espoo, where I won the BWA championship from Valentine, for a match against my wife. I accepted, knowing that my wife could wipe the mat with Robert, since she has a background in Jiu Jitsu and Kyokushin Karate. Robert didn’t get his wish, as FCF General Manager Kristian Kurki denied the match taking place at DOMination 9 this past weekend, and this caused even more bitterness for Holmström. I guess that is what prompted him to follow in Valentine’s footsteps and attack my wife also, proving that he also, is less than a man and a coward at that.
No need for further explanation…
It will be a challenge for me to sit beside Robert Holmström on Monday nights in the Eurosport announcing booth from this day forward. Only due to professionalism and for the sake of my job will I retain my composure and refrain from taking out my anger outside of the wrestling ring. However, once the next wrestling event rolls around, with Holmström and his compatriots on the other side of the ring, all bets are off. And then, even the cops won’t have jurisdiction, because what happens in wrestling stays in wrestling … and Robert and his Bättre Folk should know that.
Oskari Pastila (the director of both the current Crossfyre video documentary and the upcoming StarBuck movie out in 2013) leaves the camera mugging to me. Photo: Valtteri Pokela
I feel compelled to tell all of you about one single, irrefutable and powerful testimony of faith. I have told this story to dozens if not hundreds of people over the years, and it is always equally potent.
On my 13th birthday, April 24 back in 1986, my father’s best friend drowned in a fishing accident in Ontario, Canada. Like my father, his best buddy was a preacher man, and his name was Pentti. We were living in Thunder Bay, Ontario at the time, and I recall Pentti being one of the warmest, good-hearted people that I have ever known. The man had a tangible aura of invisible light about him.
Pentti was an avid fisherman in addition to being a preacher, which is another thing that bonded him and my dad in their friendship. One spring day in late April 1986, a Swedish visiting preacher that was staying at Pentti’s home on his trip to Canada asked if they could go fishing. Pentti knew that the ice was already getting thin even on the northern lakes in Ontario, but he wanted to be a good chap and accommodate the Swede, so they headed as far north as was reasonable to drive to do some ice fishing. One man survived that trip and the other lost his life.
The story goes that Pentti and his visitor walked out onto the ice, which seemed to hold up and be solid, until suddenly the ice gave way and both men were immersed in the freezing waters of the lake. Pentti had a very bad case of rheumatism, and his limbs would often stiffen up in the winter time, even though he was indoors. It’s not hard to imagine what the ice cold water did to Pentti in the few minutes that he was able to keep his head above the surface. Both men screamed out for help, hoping their cries would reach someone’s ears on the shores of the lake. They were literally out in the boondocks, in a very remote area of Ontario, so the chances of anyone being around were slim to none.
Pentti knew that his time was up. Very solemnly, he stated to his Swedish friend in peril.
“My time has come,” and with his last words, he preached one last time … only this this time, he preached to himself.
“In the name and blood of Jesus Christ, ALL of my sins are forgiven!”
And so he sank below the surface.
Man. That just sends chills up my spine every time I reiterate this part of the story. THAT is powerful, folks. THAT is humility. THAT was a righteous man.
The Swede continued to cry out for help after Pentti went down. By stroke of divine intervention, there was a fishing cabin on one side of the lake, and the man’s voice carried across the ice to that spot. A couple of other fishermen heard him from afar and ended up saving the Swede’s life before he was a goner too.
The police were supposed to retrieve Pentti’s body for a proper burial, to say nothing of his widowed wife, who was devastated by her loss. However, the police took their sweet time and were in no hurry to get the job done, so my father – accompanied by 11 other fishermen in four boats – went out to the lake three months after the incident, to where Pentti drowned to do justice to his fallen friend. One of my dad’s fishing accomplices had an old school Sonar device, which was an ancient version of a fish finder before they became high-tech digital things, and the gimmick was that it would actually print out a graph showing the bottom of the lake and the fish herds beneath the boat. Now please keep in mind that none of the 11 fishermen who were with my dad were Christians or men of faith. However, when they came to the place where Pentti lay, about 50m down on the bottom of the lake (which was about 1okm x 25km), the Sonar drew the picture of a CROSS.
Think about that, folks. THAT is a SIGN. My dad was not even in the boat that had the Sonar, as all four boats were using hooked drags to sweep the bottom of the lake, hoping to catch the fallen fisherman on the drag hooks. The paper printout of the Sonar graph with the cross where Pentti was discovered was given at his funeral to his widowed wife. The fishermen on that expedition even took photos of the Sonar drawing, which my father showed to me many years ago.
All I have to say is that this is one of the most powerful testimonies I have from real life. I am sure this has touched many people reading this right now.
Consider Pentti’s last words, and consider what that means to you.
For those in Finland or who otherwise speak and understand the Finnish language, my interview from this morning with Radio City is now online and can be heard here: http://www.radiocity.fi/audiovideo/vieraat/2/76
As many of you have heard already, there is an extensive professional documentary movie about myself in the works. This project has been underway already for over two years, and the film crew has been with me to Japan, Sweden and Germany in addition to Finland.
filming at Ribera Steak House in Tokyo (director Oskari in the foreground)
While the general theme of the movie has to do with my wrestling career and my pioneering work in Finland in the mat game, the film will also give viewers a very comprehensive cross-section about Michael Majalahti as both a person and as a showman. It will delve into my personal life philosophy, my bands such as Crossfyre and Overnight Sensation, personal training and my artwork with projects such as children’s metal act Hevisaurus.
This film will show a very humanitarian side of Yours Truly, seen here with some kids in Japan
While many people (especially in Finland) know me as a very outspoken and controversial cult hero-like figure, few people have any grasp at all on who StarBuck really is. This documentary movie is now in the final stages of filming, and by all intents and purposes should see a broad spectrum of daylight in 2012.
Cameraman Arne filming my match against Shinya Ishikawa from Korakuen Hall, May 2011
All I can say is I believe a lot of people are going to be very impacted when they see the end result on film.
For the longest time I was meaning to take up a regular morning exercise regimen consisting of 50 free squats, 50 push-ups and 50 leg-raises. Meaning to is the key term here. Then finally this past Wednesday morning, I got serious.
The reason many of us fail to achieve or overcome is because we are stuck in a rut. Call it a comfort zone, whathaveyou. Regardless of whatever the tag you plant on it, it all boils down to willful negligence and laziness.
I finally had enough, got disgusted at my own alibis, and decided to get busy. After all, just as Tyler Durden so eloquently stated in one of my favorite movies Fight Club: “This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
There’s not a single person out there who cannot start their mornings with a -10 minute training session. Unless you are physically handicapped, you have absolutely NO excuse.
I have to say I feel a hell of a lot better about myself after starting up what I should have initiated months ago.
I just came back from spending midsummer in Finland with my girlfriend out in the heart of the wild woods. On a weekend when most Finlanders are out getting drunk out of their skulls and drowning out on the lakes, we were stone cold sober and camping out while zeroing out. In the meantime, we had a great discussion about something as simple as diet.
Point blank, people don’t know what to eat anymore. As a personal trainer, I try to give my clients the best advice I can using plain old common sense, but the fact is there are a shitload of diverse and adverse pitches out there as to what to eat in order to live right.
Ah, the elusive search for the truth, even in something as rudimentary as diet. Let’s take a look anyway, even though we are all so paranoid we don’t know who to believe anymore.
HELLOWEEN had the right idea, read the lyrics to this song.
Take the Warrior Diet for example: eating only once a day. The problem with this dietary approach is that there are no more Roman Legionnaires around who live the traveling foot soldier, marching army lifestyle. That in itself my friends speaks volumes against anyone in our western world copying the said approach. If you aren’t marching 12 hours or more a day and fighting a few bloody battles in between then the only person you are fooling following a Warrior Diet is yourself. If your lifestyle does not complement the warrior way of life for real, complete with body armour and lifelong battle scars, then move on to something more realistic. (Sorry, playing Dungeons and Dragons doesn’t count for qualification.)
The Paleo Diet cancels out all dairy, beans, legumes, grains and moderates fruit intake based on sugar content. First of all, who the hell among us were around to ever record how early man prepared his food, and what texts of the like are there to be found of the said period’s food preparation? I can well understand eliminating processed foods which are stock full of unhealthy fats and manipulated sugars in addition to gluttonously starchy carbs, but I cannot fathom the thinking behind skimming out sugars that stem from fruits that nature produces as such.
Simple reasoning says nature produces all food nutrients and elements for a said purpose, and we are idiots to screw with the universal and natural code – – and it can be argued that we are paying the price with our health and allergies nowadays for doing so, at least in part. Everything that God has put into the food that nature produces is there for a reason and none of it is bad, period.
BOTTOM LINE: behind every single dietary school of thought there is an entire industry waiting to cash in. It’s a big scam and it’s making somebody very rich. It’s time to wake up.
The entire superfood industry has boomed astronomically in the last couple of years, as people are turning out in droves to buy anything from Maca to Chia seeds to plankton and beyond. Some of this stuff is founded, some of it is clearly filled to the brim with innuendo and heresay.
Who is guaranteeing that your Goji berries are organically grown without artificial fertilizers somewhere out in China? Who is guaranteeing that your Brazilian beef products haven’t been produced using a little steroid enhancement? Do you take everything the authorties tell you as absolute truth? Whose agenda is the “truth” serving? Just look at politics and I need say no more.
Seriously, who is the all-seeing eye who can guarantee that anything that is on the label holds to be 100% true and accurate? We all (should) know that the sports supplement industry alone is full of all kinds of bullshit products that promise you the look of Lee Priest but deliver mostly just empty pockets and nervous systems brought to the edge.
You wanna become a superman? Sorry, but sports supplements won’t get you there.
To be honest, I have been an active weight-trainer for 23 years of my life and I have tried all kinds of sports supplements promising the moon. Most of the stuff I have used, I have to say that I really cannot point out any real benefits from its use. After 23 years of testing out the market I am finally starting to smarten up, and I have to admit that I am very, very disillusioned. For every serving of valid and working creatine powder there are a truckload of products that can’t pass laboratory inspection.
Hey, if I had the cash I’d test every single product bought from either a sports supplement center or a food store. I would love to know what actually IS – – or ISN’T – – in the stuff that we ingest.
When I was a kid, I ate rocks from my back yard and chowed down whatever was put on my plate, and for years upon years I was healthy and without allergies of any kind. Only once I started trying out different diets and messing with various sports supplements did my body start telling me something was wrong. Over the past 10 years I have developed lactose-intolerance and negative bodily reactions to certain grains. I am not sure how much of this is due to the overall “doctoring” of our food industry on a whole, and how much is due to just fucking with nature a tad too much.
We have been lied to, time and time again. Many God-given basic food products have been demonized to the point that we question where eating bananas will make us fat. How fucking absurd is THAT? Show me one single case study of a person who has gotten fat off of eating bananas, I dare you to produce such evidence anywhere!
The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting foiled, over and over and over again. I guess it’s like P.T. Barnum so aptly said: “Never give a sucker and even break.”
Maybe we all need to get back to basics. Maybe we all need to break out our forgotten, dusty Bibles and find some old-school Truth.
The least we could do is start looking.
For the TRUTH, that is.
First, we could start off with me selling you the only thing I have: common sense (a good place to start).
starbuck.fi 
Finland invades Sweden!
Posted: September 5, 2013 in Life, Professional Wrestling, Social commentaryTags: Conny Mejsel, FCF Wrestling, fight, Finland, GBG Wrestling, Gothenburg, Heimo Ukonselkä, Jessica Love, King Kong Karhula, match, Pro Wrestling, StarBuck, Sweden, Valentine
It’s official now, folks: Finland has invaded Sweden! At least in the world of professional wrestling, and that said, it’s been a long time coming. You see, for years on end, Finland was under Swedish rule, and the Finns despise the lingering Big Brother mentality of the Swedes. To this day, the hottest rivalry in Nordic Ice Hockey is between Finland and Sweden, and Finland vs. Russia is a close second, by a hair.
Last weekend in Malmö, Sweden, a literal gang of Finnish wrestlers crashed the SWS Wrestling card on Saturday, August 31. At the start of the Swedish event, the Finnish grapplers – FCF champion King Kong Karhula, Stark Adder, Valentine, Ricky Vendetta, Aurora Flame, Vili Luupää and Johnny McMetal – steamrolled into the ring out of the audience and kicked the living daylights out of the Swedish pair that was squaring off. This led to the immediate restructuring of the night’s card, as SWS officials deemed that if Finland came to Malmö to fight, then a fight they would receive!
Now, on Saturday, September 7, five of the best wrestlers out of Finland today – myself, Heimo Ukonselkä, Jessica Love, Valentine and King Kong Karhula – all descend on Gothenburg, Sweden, to take on the best that GBG Wrestling has to offer. The war cry has been sent out, and now there is not turning back!
Personally, I don’t know what this will mean for me, as my herniated C6-C7 vertebrae is far from being healed, but I plan on showing up for sure. I know that GBG wanted me to wrestle Conny Mejsel at this event in a rematch from FCF Wrestling’s DOMination 9 card back in Helsinki on June 8 this year. Personally speaking, I still owe Conny Mejsel a receipt big time, for the way that he assaulted me back in June, alongside Valentine, following our match.
The bottom line is, the war is officially ON!