I just received an email from Finland’s #1 newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, yesterday, regarding my announced involvement in pro wrestling legend Antonio Inoki‘s groundbreaking IGF fight cards in North Korea at the end of this month on August 30 & 31. This information is, however, untrue.
It is true that I was in negotiations with IGF about appearing and participating at these events, but we never reached a suitable deal and contractual settlement. I am not aware of how the news of my negotiations with IGF bled through and became public, as a top western consultant out of North Korea and China had also posted infos about my involvement at these events, along with my photo and a short biography about me, which has since been removed from his website.
Japanese wrestling legend and IGF boss, Antonio Inoki (middle)
Regardless, I must inform everyone, that any and all information about my involvement and participation at the IGF events in North Korea on August 30 & 31 are false. I will not be appearing and I will not be there.
Several people have already asked me about this, and I felt a need to publicly clarify before this story spreads further.
What a heck of a weekend we’ve had with Crossfyre up in Lapland, the northern hemisphere of Finland! On tour with Crossfyre, we brought the flavor of southern rock and classic rock in general to the north, and boy, did the people up here LOVE IT!
The band gets ready for Friday night’s gig in Levi.
With a back-to-back set of gigs in Levi and Kuusamo respectively, we witnessed the good vibes catch on in droves both nights, with all manner of folk dancing the night away in front of the stage. Indeed, we play adult-oriented rock, but that said, anyone from their twenties to their sixties seems to dig our sound, regardless of where we play. That said, we really must be doing something right.
The restaurants and establishment walls at Hullu Poro were embellished with our gig adverts.
On Friday night, we pulled into Levi on the outskirts of Kittilä, after a near-20-hour drive from Helsinki. Our newly revamped Crossmobile turned heads left and right, with its snazzy tape-job, sponosored by Mad Croc Energy Drinks. It was a couple of years back that we wrote the theme song for Mad Croc’s motor racing division worldwide, and since that time, we’ve developed a great working relationship with the energy drink giant.
Crossfyre’s official tour van, The Crossmobile!
The Hullu Poro Hotel and resort in Levi has to be seen to be believed. It is honestly one of the coolest, most endearing places visually and atmosphere-wise, that there is to be seen and experienced in Finland. As a trivia note, in January 2009, I won my second Eurostars European wrestling championship title from Bernard Vandamme of Belgium at Hullu Poro Arena in Levi, so that place carries a lot of significance to me personally.
Our gig venue in Levi at Hullu Poro.
Our Friday gig at Hully Poro was a capacity biker bash entitled WILD RIDE. It’s an annual event, and this year, Crossfyre was the band of choice to play the happening. Top-of-the-line hotel rooms, wickedly good food and high-class cuisine on the house and a tremendous atmosphere capped off this outing. And I have to say: our cover of ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man” always gets every ass in the joint moving like an ant farm. There’s just something to it that works every single time out. That’s probably because the original itself is such a great song to begin with!
This chick told me “Good grief, you’ve got one foot in the grave already!”
Our second gig last night in Kuusamo at Ravintola Veijo was stellar, also. A real gritty bar in feel and vibe, Veijo is the kind of place rock bands want to play at. With a population of around 16 000 people, Kuusamo doesn’t have a lot happening, so when something notable hits town, you better believe the town folk are going to show up! And show up they did, a packed house at that! Here, we got to see how another carefully chosen cover song, Golden Earring’s “Twilight Zone”, sank into people like a hot knife through butter. Me personally, I want to see us cover that song on our next album after our current Iron Horse release, in support of which we have been touring all summer long.
Thanks to all the fine folks that came out to see us do what we do best this past Friday and Saturday in Northern Finland. And ladies, hehee…I’m sorry: as a married man, I’m no longer on the playing field! Just a good reminder, as we head out to our other northern gigs next weekend in Saariselkä at Santa’s Village and Ivalo respectively. Tomorrow, I fly back to Helsinki out of Oulu, to perform my WWE wrestling commentaries for Eurosport television in Finnish, and then on Thursday I fly back up north to continue rocking the Arctic Circle!
The atmosphere at Veijo’s pub in Kuusamo was off the charts!
I have an inspirational story, one which will both enamor and enthrall a lot of readers. As everyone knows by now, I am the pioneer of professional wrestling in Finland, dating back to 2003, when I became the first person ever in Finland to take the grappling game to a learning level. I’ve coached pretty everyone and anyone who has ever come onto the scene out of Finland. Back before we started domestic Finnish pro wrestling, it bears to be mentioned that there were a few strongmen and bodybuilders, who, being daring showmen as well, dallied in what very well may be considered as backyard wrestling to a large degree in the late 1990s.
There was a circle of four guys: strongman and former amateur champion Jouni Morsky (who wrestled as Normann the Viking), Tony Halme (who wrestled to international fame as WWF’s Ludvig Borga from 1994), bodybuilder Jyrki Savolainen (nicknamed “Indian” RIP; was trained for pro wrestling in Australia in the mid-’90s) and a guy called Boogie “Commando” Mustonen (who was a Finnish and European bodybuilding champion). Out of the four, I got to know every one of them at some stage during 1997 through their “promoter”, a shyster-kind of fellow who had a few dealings with the Russian mafia. His name was Jussi, and he was actually put down by the Russians after a deal of some sort went bad. But it was Jussi who introduced me to Mörsky and to Boogie during the spring of 1997.
Boogie Commando from around 1996-1997
When I first met him, I thought Boogie “Commando” Mustonen was a big-headed bastard, who thought he knew everything there was to know about the wrestling business. He had been trained by a bald-headed Andy-something-or-other in Australia in 1993. I have no idea what this Andy fellow taught Boogie, because he didn’t know anything about the business, period. The “matches” that the four various Finnish guys were having amongst themselves were far from professional wrestling. They pretty much consisted of three moves, done to overkill: a bodyslam, a clothesline and an elbow smash. Everything else was ramshackle brawling. I was going to the referee between Mustonen and Mörsky in a 2/3 falls match that they’d have in Äänekoski, Finland that summer. Boogie came across as proud, a real peacock, someone who just let you understand that you were beneath them. That was 17-years ago, and now, after I met the man again this past week, I am glad to say that he has changed for the better. Really, there has been a complete turn-around in the person of one Boogie Mustonen.
This past Thursday, I played a leading role in a television commercial shoot for a Sport & Spa hotel named Vesileppis, in Leppävirta, Finland. It’s really an amazing complex, complete with a 1.4 km ski-track deep underground that you can use even in the summertime, a year-round ice hockey rink, full-blown pool and spa area and tons of outside sports activities and possibilities. It’s like a nexus, a center for sports in the eastern Finnish province and area in which it is located. In the commercial, I play myself, complete in wrestling gear, alongside the Vesileppis mascot, which is a ladybug.
The Vesileppis mascot named Spa and me, as I play Sport
Well, Boogie Mustonen literally lives across the road from Vesileppis Hotel, where the wife and I were stationed during my commercial shoot. The owner of Vesileppis Hotel, a nice guy named Kimmo, wanted to organize a meeting between me and Boogie. Kimmo told me that Boogie had changed a lot, that he had an entirely new lease on life, after going through some horrendously hard times in his personal life in recent years. Mustonen has endured bowel cancer, he has had a kidney replaced, and he has gone through a blood poisoning episode, which led in turn to partial paralysis from the waist down for a period of six weeks. In addition, he has a faithful, old English Bulldog named Möykky, who is on his last legs now.
Boogie’s old, faithful buddy Möykky is on his last legs
Now at age 50, the shit hit the proverbial fan for Boogie this past year, when after going through kidney replacement surgery, he still wanted to compete in bodybuilding one more time at the upcoming annual Fitness Expo in Lahti, Finland. That is when his wife, Marjo-Nina, served him with an ultimatum, that she would file for divorce if he decided to risk his new, replacement kidney through bodybuilding competition anymore. The bottom line is, that the worst thing you can do to a kidney is to deplete it of hydration, which is exactly what happens when competitive bodybuilders diet down to the bone, draining their bodies dry to be as cut and lean as possible. Boogie saw the writing on the wall: game over.
Boogie poses with multi-time Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates of the UK
Yesterday, as I was visiting Boogie at his home gym, he told me that he tried getting excited about discus throwing after his last bodybuilding aspirations went down the drain. Discus didn’t do it for him, Mustonen knew it wasn’t his game. Deep down, Boogie Mustonen knew who and what he was: a showman. He was an entertainer, who loved being in the spotlight. And something still ate at him, like acid on the soul. It was his last match, a July 1997 bout against Tony Halme in Joensuu, Finland. I was referee for their match, which can be seen in the three links below. It’s not a good match by any stretch of the imagination. It’s really quite terrible, a complete mess. It also happened to be, unbeknowst to Mustonen, his try-out match for Otto Wanz’s gigantic CWA (Catch Wrestling Association, in operation 1973-1999) promotion out of Austria. Had Boogie made good in the match against Halme, he very well might have gotten signed with Wanz, and he could have ended up making money in our business, but it was not to be.
Halme cursed underneath his breath to me after the outing, “Have you ever seen such a shit match?!”
He was right. It was downright drivel. Not the way a man wants his career in any field to be remembered. No, everyone out their wants their last standout memory from whatever etaph along the road of life to be a proud one. A tale that you tell excitedly about to your grandchildren one day. That is the marker that you want to leave behind.
Boogie Mustonen never got to clear the table, nor to give his soul rest in this matter. He never got to wrestle another match, a better match. A good, final memory.
Tony Halme vs. Boogie Mustonen in Joensuu 1997, with me officiating
So here we are, in the year 2014, 17-years after the fact, and Boogie tells me that he wants it now. He wants to come back and clear his name and wash clean his memory of the flop against Halme. I am astounded as I listen to him. He has passion in his voice, a determination. He really wants this. At 50, he’s not going to be denied.
So I tell him, “I will train you.” I have the track record to make him take me seriously. Boogie understands, that StarBuck IS professional wrestling here in Finland. If you want to go to the top, you have to learn from the best. And today, even at age 41, I can still say that with the knowledge that I have, I am the best here in this game. So we did a trade: being a former bodybuilding champion, Boogie coaches me in fine-tuning my body, my chassis, with which I ply my trade. In turn, I coach him in making a comeback match in Finnish professional wrestling.
Fine-tuning muscle-building techique with bent-over rows
I hope that Boogie Mustonen has the heart and drive to pull this one through. Bygones are bygones. The big-headed bastard from yesteryear has disappeared. In his place stands a humble, ambitious, grown man, who wants to do his soul and pride right. I want to support him every step of the way.
It’s like the past never happened, Boogie is a great guy!
What a week it has been! In the heat and the heart of the Scandinavian summer of 2014, I ventured out with my wife Diana to Langå, Denmark to commandeer an intensive 5-day pro wrestling training bootcamp. I had students attending from four different countries, as far away as Scotland to students from Sweden, Denmark and Germany. All in all, 21 participants showed up at the start of the week, this past Monday, when we set off. At the end of it all, about 16 were still actively participating, pulling through, right to the end.
As is the case in every single pro wrestling schooling that I have been a coach in, a certain number of folks always drop out. That is the law of nature: only the strong survive. That said, I am damn proud of the kids, ranging from age 12 to 26, who toughed it out til the bitter end. Well, the end wasn’t so bitter, because the payoff for those who pulled through was a student show in front of parents and close friends, by invitation only, this past Friday. I served as the special referee for all of the student matches, making sure everything was on the up and up.
Yours Truly donning the official’s uniform
I was particularly impressed with the natural aptitude of a few of the trainees on hand this past week. I feel compelled and even obligated to mention something about them, because they deserve props. There were a couple of young men from northern Sweden who showed up, and both of these guys had natural, innate talent. You could see the potential of greatness in them. They absorbed everything like a sponge, retaining what they had learned in quick order. It is a true pleasure to coach people like this, because it is very rewarding for the coach to see that someone just “gets it.” Then there was a young man named Duncan from Copenhagen, who attended a similar camp I coached in Denmark back in 2009, five years ago. At the time, he was a skinny, not so athletic kid. I told him what he needed to do to get himself into the kind of condition that he needed to be in, should he still want to aspire to his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. Well, five years later, this young man shows up in shape, having slaved away in the gym for the past several years, conditioning his mind to be disciplined. Someone like that deserves all my respect, and that is saying a lot, because the kid is still an unproven talent in the wrestling world. A couple of very talented young, rookie wrestlers from DPW (Danish Pro Wrestling, the parent company that organized this training camp), a pair of cousins, really showed incredible potential also. I am talking about the kind of talent that you either have, or you don’t. Given time, these kids will go far in the pro wrestling business, because they have the heart for it. A young man from Scotland showed incredible character and personality skills, with a gimmick that legitimately had spectators crapping their pants in fright. Simply based on ring presence alone, this guy, wrestling name Switch, should by all accounts have a solid chance at getting a healthy amount of bookings based on his uniqueness and character strength.
Fake or Break camp 2014 Denmark, the final line-up that pulled through to the end (with veteran ace wrestler Chaos 2nd to my right and Poul Roest 2nd to my left)
I would like to extend a big hand to the promoters of DPW, Poul Roest and Kim Tinning, a couple of great guys who do their damndest to push their talent to achieve a higher level of aptitude and professionalism. In closing, the name of this intensive training camp was Fake or Break. That is a very fitting title, although it sounds a bit misleading, because if you cannot take the pain, blues and agony that goes along with this CONTACT SPORT, then you simply do not belong in our business. Fake it is not, Break you just might.
Showing the ropes to the students with top Danish wrestler Chaos
On Tuesday, July 29 in Helsinki, FCF Wrestling is going to see their biggest media coverage to date in the past 11 years that the game has been a domestic staple in the country of Finland. This stems from the fact that the biggest, #1-selling magazine in all the land, 7 Päivää (aka Seiska), is acting as the main media sponsor for an event entitled SNACKY SLAM! in the Pukinmäki suburb of Helsinki on that very day. SNACKY SLAM! is named after Helsinki’s famous hamburger fast food classic restaurant Snacky, who is hosting the event. For this special occasion, Snacky will be launching a new burger based on an idea that I pitched to them, called the Slamburger at SNACKY SLAM!. This will be a huge showcase for the entire sport here in Finland, and everyone is stoked about the media hype leading into the event. Best of all, especially for the public and the fans, this event will be 100% free admission, a matinee starting at 13:00 in the afternoon!
At SNACKY SLAM!, it’s six-man warfare as StarBuck’s team meets Ricky Vendetta’s team
At SNACKY SLAM!, I finally get my mitts on “Finnish Doberman” Ricky Vendetta, who has been shooting his mouth off over the past few months, making a big deal about the tainted win over Yours Truly that FCF champion Heimo Ukonselkä literally handed to him in a six-man match back at FCF’s Jatkosota 2014 in April. Ricky refuses to understand and come to grips with the fact that he never earned that victory the hard way. He didn’t actually beat me fair and square in the middle of the ring, based on his own talents or offensive attack. No, Ricky Vendetta was handed a win.
Jatkosota 2014 earlier this year and a tainted victory over me (photo: Marko Simonen)
Now, at SNACKY SLAM! on July 29, Ricky Vendetta gets the chance to make good – when his team with Stark Adder and the monsterous executioner-like Petrov meets my team with Sly Sebastian and Mikko Maestro – and show that he can put this old dog down the hard way. That is, if he can. Now me, I seriously doubt that. I have serious doubts over whether a 20-something upstart in the wrestling business with three years of experience under his belt can honestly best a 3-time European champion and time-tested, 20-year veteran of the ring wars in “The Rebel” StarBuck. Many before Young Mr. Vendetta have tried, and oh so many of them have failed miserably.
Ricky Vendetta has tested my ire before in Jan. 2013, and he ended up not so well (photo: Marko Simonen)
I might not be a young lad anymore, not able to play spider man with the other big dreamers on the school grounds or in the sandbox, but that has no bearing on anything. I have ring smarts. I have experience. And no amount of money or personal investment is going to get you what experience can only bring. That is my greatest asset, and the sooner that Ricky Vendetta understands that, the more tolerable — or perhaps intolerable — the hiding that I dish out to him will be this coming Tuesday, July 29 in Helsinki in our six-man tag team match showdown.
Below you can check out several media pieces and profile videos that entertainment juggernaut 7 Päivää has done on both myself and the SNACKY SLAM! event in general. Make plans to be there in person on July 29, right in the middle of vacation season here in Finland, at 13:00 in the afternoon, as I lay an ass-whopping on Ricky Vendetta and his team like has rarely been seen:
Also at SNACKY SLAM! on July 29, it’s going to be media favorite Johnny McMetal vs. FCF champion “Wildman” Heimo Ukonselkä for the title, the massive 125kg King Kong Karhula vs. flying punker Vili Luupää and a celebrity girls’ bikini match between Finnish Viidakon Tähtöset TV hit series star Marianne Kallio and Miss XL Finland Johanna Salminen, following Viidakon Tähtöset co-star and hated rival Tia Kiuru pulling out of the event.
Marianne Kallio (left) will have to find a new opponent, as Tia Kiuru (right) has pulled out.
7 Päivää magazine has announced Miss XL Finland Johanna Salminen as Tia Kiuru’s replacement against Marianne Kallio in the celebrity bikini match at SNACKY SLAM!, where the objective will be for one competitor to strip her opponent of all her clothes, ripping them off her body, until her adversary is left standing in only her bikini!
I just had a flash of visceral clarity today while I was out jogging in the woods. You know, no phone, no Internet, no other voices, no distractions. I just thought to share this moment of clairvoyance with all of you who read my blog.
We live in a day and age of distraction and haze, unlike any other prior in human history. Our brains and minds are overloaded with completely useless information and clutter, with propaganda and worthless entertainment. Much of this, dare I say perhaps nearly all of it, is directly due to our enslavement to technology. In particular, this has to do with the Internet, with smartphones, tablets, PC’s, pads and what have you. Basically anything that keeps a person disconnected with the here and now, live and in living color, in real life. Just think of a group of friends going out on a Saturday night and everyone sitting there, playing with their smartphones.
The sad truth is, that we – and by and in large by this I mean the western, ”free” world – have sold ourselves to the slavery of virtual existence and viral life. We live vicariously through our computers, deceptively imagining that we are somehow part of a huge, global, online community and that our voice counts for something amongst the masses. How foolish we are.
The truth of the matter is, that our brains are overloaded. Our minds are full of fog. We are kept intentionally distracted from what is really going on behind this all in the world. Like iconic comedian George Carlin (RIP) so prolifically once stated, ”Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice . . . you don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything….It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in The big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care.”
Fear is the single greatest motivator in the history of mankind. Moreso than love, fear makes people act. Organized religion knows this, the governments know this, global corporations know this. Like acclaimed lifecoach Anthony Robbins so aptly stated, ”We all make decisions based on two forces, and that is to avoid pain and to gain pleasure.”
People are more hedonistic now that at perhaps any time before in world history. Perhaps an argument can be made for Ancient Rome before its fall, but I dare say nowadays we are even more self-indulgent, based on the fact that we are more effectively sold the illusion of luxury and status through the virtual and advertising world and media at large. We are made to want and aspire after things that we don’t even really want in and of ourselves, nor do we need them. Useless clutter. Stuff. Shit to fill up the empty spaces in our lives.
We have come to a day and age of learned helplessness, a chosen self-defeat. We fall back on the excuse that nothing is our fault directly, we can always pass the blame on to someone else, and something or someone doesn’t please us – BANG! Out they go, right out the window. We are a society sick on our own self-indulgence. It’s the grand day of ”me, me me.” Trust me when I tell you, there ain’t no room for ”you” when it’s all about ”me.” No wonder relationships never last nowadays.
This society so desperately needs a strong, swift kick in the proverbial ass that would snap everyone out of their secular haze. Nothing around us is as it seems. Everything is doctored to suit someone else’s bigger purpose at large. Everyone knows that they can’t do much about it, so we just fall back into accepting our fate. How the civilzations of old would mock and scorn us! Speaking only of the vikings, I believe they would have no mercy on our pathetic state of affairs.
The bottom line is: YOU are 100% responsible for your life. At the end of it all, you cannot shift the blame to anyone else for what you have done or left undone. You cannot play the victim and expect anything to change for the better. You will answer and pay the price, or conversely reap the rewards, of your own choices and actions. The bitch of a fact in this whole deal is that you can’t even remain neutral or ride the fence, without taking a side or moving forward, because time keeps ticking away, and stagnancy only results in death. Just think of a cancer cell, if left untreated or unremoved. At the end of the day, no one else is responsible for your life: you alone make it or break it. As the old saying in Finland goes, you are ”the blacksmith of your own destiny.”
It takes personal responsibility to activate empowerment in one’s life. It takes you and I saying, ”I am responsible at least in part for what has happened to me, and I will make the effort to change things.” I am not speaking on high from a soapbox here. I can only call it for what it is, recognizing our collective predicament. I just have clarity. And along with the knowledge that comes with clarity comes the responsibility and obligation to do something with that insight. Having the cure for cancer and keeping it all to yourself will not help anybody in the end.
It’s time to snap out of it. Time to realize that we have been fed a big, long line of bullshit. We have become willfully ignorant, believing that our chosen ignorance will become bliss. Forget viral culture and virtual lives, it’s time to go out there and become active.
In closing, to paraphrase something from acclaimed author Anthony De Mello, ”If you have ears to hear what I just said, then great. If not, woe is you.”
What a blast we had this past weekend, driving out with the band to play the very first Mossala Run on the island of Mossala (or more precisely Houtskari) off of the western coast of Finland. After a dismal, cloudy and rainy June, July is looking to finally usher in summer, and the weather was fantastic!
We had to take five ferries to cross over from the mainland to our destination, and it took almost 8h to get there from the point of departure, but damn, it was worth it! “Big Chief” Danny Cross and I took our respective ladies with us on this first-ever Mossala Run, so the girls could get a chance to take in Finland at its utmost best. I got to shed my “winter coat”, as they say here in Finland, taking my first dunk and swim of the year in the sea, straight out of the sauna next to our log cabin. We had the best overall barbeque ever, courtesy of Fafa’s Smokery on the island. In short, we enjoyed the hell out of this past weekend!
Here is a music video and photo compilation from the members of Custom Bikers Finland, who organized the Mossala Run and exclusively invited us to play there for their fine club:
Rain, rain and more rain. It rained today. That was actually a song by Crossfyre that we didn’t end up recording for our new Iron Horse album, in support of which we are touring all throughout the summer this year. After the nice, sunny weather on our Estonia-Poland-Germany tour a couple of weeks back, the wet and cloudy Finnish summer just ain’t cutting it thus far.
Nonetheless, festival season is on here in Finland, and we are hitting and playing a few vacation stops along the way as our Crossmobile tour van makes its way down those miles of road. This weekend, we played the Rockin’ by the River rockabilly festival in Iisalmi on Friday (which is funny considering we southern gentlemen were the only non-rockabilly act on hand), and Kolisewa MC’s 20th anniversary bash last night. We got to meet some cool folks, enjoy the sights and sounds of the other acts on hand, and breathe the open air. That’s already a good deal in and of itself.
Iisalmi was a long way from Helsinki and I got up early-squirly to join the boys, as we drove out of Porvoo along the eastern route highway to head up north. Once we got to Iisalmi, we stopped off at our second guitarist Jay Jay’s mother’s place, as she had cooked up some traditional cabbage casserole that is famous from that part of Finland. Off to the gig we went, placed into the opening timeslot to kick things off on Friday evening. Event organizer Timo Pelkonen of Timba Oy had a nice stage set-up and the sound was good all around. We cut out most of our bluesier and slower numbers, opting to go for more of a rocking set, taking into consideration the nature of the event that we were playing at. All in all, it worked out rather dandy and the people out there dug it. The cream on the cake was the fact that we got featured in the local Iisalmen Sanomat newspaper with a big-assed photo of the band, giving us a hell of a lot of focus.
Crossfyre taking care of business at Rockin’ by the River
A stay at Sokos Hotel Koljonvirta and one morning later, we set off for Karkkila, back down south. Arriving at the Kolisewa MC’s headquarters in the middle of the woods, I noted that there were bikers from far and wide attending the 20th anniversay bash. Members of the Hell’s Angels, Cannonball MC, Diablos, Red Devils and many others had dropped in to extend their support to the local Karkkila Kolisewa gang, and there was a slew of bands on the menu for the bikers to groove to.
As we arrived, The Dusty Beaver Band started their set of cover songs, all the musicians of which were members of a local MC out of Vihti. I have to say, that The Dusty Beaver Band has one of the best names EVER! It’s like a cross between the iconic cartoon character Bucky Beaver and pro wrestling legend “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. On top of that, the band was right as shizzat, and had both a male and female vocalist duetting throughout, who sounded absolutely great! I highly recommend checking these guys out.
The Dusty Beaver Band
We jammed through a 90-minute set of originals and classic covers, having a blast while doing so. Once we finished up, Kolisewa MC president Harri pleaded that we play one more song, as they enjoyed the Crossfyre live experience so much. We pulled Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Simple Man out of the hat, which really seemed to move a lot of folks on hand.
Rocking the Kolisewa MC 20th anniversary gig
Best burgers in the land
There was also a BBQ on Wheels stand on hand, which bears mention, as they quite possibly served up the best beef hamburgers that I have ever passed down my gullet to this date in Finnish history. Turku’s Pikku Torre and Snacky’s Iso Monsteri are close to the top slot, too, but this little BBQ wagon takes the cake in my book!
Next weekend, it’s off to Mossala, off the coast of Turku, to play Saariston Lomakeskus, a vacation resort on the beautiful little islands off the western coast of Finland. Join Crossfyre’s Iron Horse on tour, as it rolls through a town near you!
Well, I’ve been back for a few days following our Crossfyre “Iron Horse” album release tour through Estonia, Poland and Germany, and I’m still recouping! Erradic hours, irregular and short sleep, and 5,995 kilometers of road later, it tends to build up and wear on you.
But whose complaining?! We had a great time, life on the road, like a band of gypsies, rocking and rolling. Dreaming it and living it are two different things. We got to take in some great experiences and meet some fantastic new people along the way.
Morning scenery from the Super Rally grounds
First of all, The Harley-Davidson 2014 Super Rally in Tallinn, Estonia (which I chronicled in and of itself earlier HERE) was off the charts. 15,000 bikers from all around Europe ventured to Estonia’s capital for some boozin’ and cruisin’ June 5-7. We played the main stage at the Super Rally on Saturday evening, right after Mr. Bill Davidson, CEO of Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, raffled off a brand new bike to a lucky Finn in the audience, who was dumbfounded when his number got called. All in all, the Super Rally was a sight to behold, but the food was somewhat overpriced for the serving sizes offered. As an added bonus, I was able to hit the fantastic Sparta sports club in Tallinn the day after the show with a big fan of mine from many years back named Keio, getting in a blasting compete body workout before moving forward on our journey.
As Hulk Hogan would say, “Hangin’ and bangin'” at Sparta gym!
Driving through Latvia, we got to see some of the finest beaches that there are to be found in Europe. Riga was ridiculously overpriced, and I wondered what industry fuels their economy to justify the extravagant prices that we saw everywhere. Riga was also the place where we picked up our regular bassist Dan Rönnbacka, as Sami Salminen (of The Slidemobile) filled in on bass in Tallinn and left the day after the Super Rally to go back to Finland.
Lithuania was up next, with a stop in God knows what town, and a hotel right next to the railroad tracks. Damn. That was a bad move. The Latvian two-star vs. Estonian four-star hotel were quite different from the other, let me assure you! Pretty much everywhere we travelled in Latvia and Lithuania, we had to use bottled water, as purportedly the tap water is questionable to drink.
The stage at Alchemia in Bialystok, Poland
Poland was a blast! Our first gig in Bialystok on June 10 saw girls dancing on tables and the audience shucking and jiving in front of the stage. Small venue. Alchemia by name, the place was very intimate with William Blake-like artwork and interior design. There were even a few wrestling fans at the show, who came out to see StarBuck, which was a nice thing.
The next stop was 5 Sztuk in Siedlce, a student town, of which 25% of the population account for students. Once again, just the night prior, the people on hand were going bananas by the end of it all when our rendition of ZZ Top’s Sharp Dressed Man closed things off. After the gig, we got invited to the local Gryf MC headquarters for a drink, as we presented a rebel Confederate flag for their clubhouse also.
Next up was the Alligator music club in Poznan, which was a big city and we found ourselves smack-dab in the center of the marketplace. Let me say this about Poland: if you are a bachelor, then plan a trip there, as the women will be sure to catch your eye! Alligator was a very cool club, with some of the niftiest interior design that I have seen so far in any club. Very high-scale environment.
Getting the mood right at Alligator music bar (photo by Gozia Czek)
Our last gig in Poland was in the city of Szczecin at the Free Blues Club. I know I keep sounding pretty high on Poland, but I have to expressly note that the stage sound at Free Blues Club was in the top five of any stage that I have performed on in the past 15-years. It was pure pleasure to play the this place, as I could make every instrument out crystal clear and I didn’t have to push my voice at all.
Best stage sound around at Free Blues Club (photo by Ryszard Pakieser)
Then it was off to Barnaby’s Blues Bar in Braunschweig, Germany. Barnaby’s is like our home away from home, an establishment that we have now played about five times. Local Radio Okerwelle DJ Florian Damm is always up for having us appear on his show for an hour-long interview every time we are in town the day of the show. We rocked Barnaby’s in familiar fashion, leaving the folks screaming for more…were it not for the soccer game that was just starting 10-minutes after we finished our set. It should be noted, that soccer takes precedence to anything and everything in Germany. People would probably skip their grandparents’ funeral to watch the soccer championships!
Hanging with some fine folks on the Reeperbahn
Our last gig of the tour was in Hamburg, Germany, right on the infamous Reeperbahn. The place was called Cowboy und Indianer, like cowboys and Indians, and it was frequented by folks who knew their rock and blues. Older musicians, rock police if they chose to be, had filled the bar by the end of the night. I saw people taking out their cell phones, calling their friends, like “get your ass here right away, you have GOT to see this band!” People just kept filing in throughout the set to see what the commotion was all about. Let me say this: we did something right that night. To turn the heads of musicians with 40+ years of experience, you have got to have your shizzat together. I am proud to say that our gig on Hamburg on June 15 was one of the finest performances that we have ever pulled off!
From Hamburg we drove straight through the night to catch my plane from Copenhagen back to Helsinki in time to make my WWE Eurosport broadcast on Monday night. I didn’t get a wink of sleep after leaving Hamburg, and let me tell you, I was knackered right out of my boots on air that evening.
Next up, the Rockin’ by the River festival in Iisalmi, Finland on June 27, followed by a gig for Kolisewa MC in Karkkilaon June 28. The Crossfyre Iron Horse keeps on rolling!
When you look back on the best times and highlights of your life, one tends to wax emotional.
Yesterday, the Japanese sporting press announced the end of WNC (Wrestling New Classic) and its merger with Keiji Mutoh’s Wrestle-1 organization. From WNC’s roster, Tajiri, Akira Nogami, Rionne Fujiwara, Yusuke Kodama, Koji Doi and Jiro Kuroshio join the Wrestle-1 roster. Everyone else becomes a free agent. I was the second last champion for WNC (Bernard Vandamme of Belgium is the current and final titleholder), and was with the company since its inception in April 2012.
Yours Truly as WNC champion (photo by Marko Simonen)
Time for a reality check. We are living in hard times, and it honestly doesn’t look like it’s going to get any easier, globally speaking. The rich keep getting richer, those with less are losing even that which they have, and the the big are eating up the small. Mergers are the business word of the day, be it Time-Warner or Microsoft swallowing up Nokia. At the end of it all, it all boils down to money; those who have it and those who don’t. The financial crunch that has burdened much of the world over the past several years certainly isn’t helping.
When I look back on my time with WNC, I reminisce with fondness. I made a friend, a great friend, in Akira Nogami. Along with Akira and Japanese kickboxing and multiple-time women’s pro wrestling champion Syuri Kondou, I was part of the coolest rebel unit to hit Japan in ages in Synapse. We wrecked havoc, took names and kicked volumes of ass. I still fondly recall my first teaming with Akira and Syuri against Tajiri, Hajime Ohara and Kana back in on August 2, 2012 in Tokyo. It was a hard-hitting, feisty brawl from start to finish, and during the melee, Tajiri kicked one of my front teeth out. Battle scars, medals of honor. No hard feelings, of course, just business as usual in the modern day arena of the gladiators. It was Tajiri’s sister’s dental office in southern Kagoshima, that even fixed my missing lego at the end of that tour. I remember the barbed wire matches that Synapse had with Tajiri, Kana and Mikey Whipwreck … matches that definitely had you on the edge of your seat, as everyone tried their damndest to keep from being mangled by the barbed wire sticking out of the boards in the corners of the ring. I recall the outings against various three-opponent trifectas around Japan, all of whom we put down and convincingly so. Then, as my last, great memory from my time with WNC, I remember February 27 of this year, when I beat Tajiri himself for the WNC championship title in Tokyo in one of the hardest slobberknocking matches of my career.
The first ever teaming of Synapse (all photos by WNC)
I want to publicly thank WNC and especially main man Tajiri himself for giving me the golden opportunity to wrestle for their company over the past couple of years that they were in existence. It has been a hell of a ride. Thank you Akira, my brother, for your friendship. Thank you Syuri, for your warm smiles. Thank you Yusuke Kodama, Rionne Fujiwara, Nozomu Matsuzawa and all of the young boys and girls of the WNC roster.
Once again, the words of King Solomon from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 come to pass:
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”
starbuck.fi 