I will be traveling to Tokyo, Japan once again next week, to take part in the Wrestling New Classic championship title tournament, to be held on Friday, October 26 at Korakuen Hall.
In the first round, I meet my former FCF teammate Hajime Ohara, whom I severed ties with this past July. I have defeated Ohara on several occasions, dropping him with my world-famous jumping spike-piledriver every time, and I expect this outing will be no different, as I vie for the beautiful new WNC title belt.
A look at the tournament brackets for the WNC title tourament
Last year on October 28, 2011 in Tokyo, I defeated “The Japanese Buzzsaw” TAJIRI in the SMASH title tournament finals to become the very first SMASH Champion in history. One year later, I am looking to make good and become the very first WNC Champion in history also.
Here is a look at the new men’s and women’s WNC title belts
Top bodybuilding and fitness wear manufacturer Gorilla Wear now sponsors me. Take a look at the video below and see their official website and YouTube channel.
Well, it’s a been a few days since we landed back in Finland after our last German tour with Crossfyre over late September – early October 2012, and I am still feeling the exhaustion from that jaunt.
Last rehearsal before the tour: Jay Jay Asikainen, Jaakko Kinnari, Danny Cross, Jupi Hjelt and StarBuck (left to right)
Our drummer Danny and guitarist Jay Jay drove out to Germany via Sweden and Denmark, whereas bassist Jupi Hjelt (filling in for the MIA Dan Rönnbacka), guitarist Jaakko Kinnari and I flew out ridiculously early in the morning on Wednesday, September 26 to play Bremen on the same evening.
Waiting for our flight out of Helsinki at around 4:00am in the morning … I would rather be in bed fast asleep!
Danny and Jay Jay picked us up at Hamburg Airport, and from there we headed to Meisenfrei Blues Club in Bremen for our first gig. German wrestling promoter Eddy Steinblock of EPW (European Pro Wrestling) came out to say hello and talk shop.
Wrestling promoter Eddy Steinblock came out to shoot the proverbial shizzat — I have worked several times for Eddy over the years.
Jay Jay and Jupi jam it up in Bremen.
The following day, we drove out to Braunschweig to Barnaby’s Blues Bar owner Peter’s rock and roll mansion – a relic from WWII – before heading out on Friday to Magdeburg for our scheduled next show.
My good pal, Braunschweig promoter Peter’s Labrador dog, Buddy!
Much to our surprise and chagrin, once we arrived at UrBar in Magdeburg, the club owner informed us that the city placed a restriction on all live gigs in their city block back in June of this year. The problem was, the club booker forgot to inform us of the changes. It was Spinal Tap 2012 – or perhaps we could call it Anvil – as we realized that not only did we drive all the way out to Magdeburg for nothing, we also ended up losing money because of the lost date and fuel expenses. I tried to salvage the day by scoping out other venues in the Magdeburg area, should we be so lucky as to score another gig on that same night, but to no avail. We were screwed.
Crossfyre live on the air at Radio Okerwelle in Braunschweig.
On Saturday, September 29, we played Barnaby’s Blues Bar in Braunschweig. Before the gig, we did a radio interview plugging the evening’s show at Radio Okerwelle with DJ and all-around good guy Florian Damm. Florian has had us on his station and show for three years in a row now, every time that we have played in Braunschweig, which has kind of become our German hotspot. Barnaby’s is always a good show when we are in town, with capacity audiences on hand. This time was no different, as we rocked the house like nobody’s business.
Crossfyre commands the stage at Barnaby’s Blues Bar.
Heading up into the mountains, on Sunday, September 30 we played Rockkneipe Jungfer in Arnstadt. Club owner Udo is one of a kind, a burly and loud, warm-hearted German bloke whose club is like a cross between a living room and a rehearsal pad. Udo even got on stage with his harmonica and jammed with us on our final number, ZZ Top’s Sharp Dressed Man!
Rockkneipe Jungfer owner Udo plays a mean harmonica.
Laying down a soulful mood in Arnstadt.
Jaakko Kinnari rips into a solo.
After Arnstadt, it was back to Braunschweig for us, as we had one more gig to play on Tuesday, September 2nd at Barnaby’s. This was the absolute highlight gig of the whole tour, as the “magic” was most definitely in the air that night, and the band played on “10”, bringing the audience on hand to life. Truth be told, the folks at Barnaby’s that night had such a blast, that they didn’t want to let us off the stage! That – I would say – is a job well done.
Jay Jay showcases his blues aptitude for the appreciative audience in Braunschweig.
Yours Truly tears up the stage with a rocking rendition of Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower.
Be sure to check out our newest Crossfyre studio offering, called Born to be Free, recorded just before our tour at Seawolf Studios with engineer Hannu Leiden in Helsinki.
When I got back to Finland, I was asked to perform in pop star Jessica Wolff‘s new music video Broken Wings. The video shoot was on Friday, October 5th in Helsinki, and I portrayed a violent alcoholic who was down on his luck. Truth be told, that is rather funny and ironic, as I am not a drinker … but I do partake in a rather aggressive sport, being a professional wrestler. As an interesting side note, Jessica Wolff’s producer Eric Gast has also worked with Britney Spears as an engineer on her hit, Oops!… I Did It Again. Read Jessica’s own blog about the Broken Wings music video HERE.
StarBuck and Jessica Wolff, on the set of “Broken Wings” (photo by Mikko Löppönen)
By the way, for anyone who wants to “like” my official Facebook page, you can join up HERE.
Also, you can subscribe to my personal music channel on YouTube HERE.
Last night, October 6th in Nurmes, Finland, I faced the brand new FCF Wrestling Champion, King Kong Karhula, in his first title defense to date.
Karhula locks a vicious chinlock on me
Karhula won the strap on August 25th in Helsinki, defeating 4-time former FCF Champion, Valentine, in the finals of a two-day title tournament. After seven years in the wrestling game, Karhula finally won the big one, cementing his legacy among the elite in the European professional wrestling field.
My skull literally ricochets off of the ringpost during the ringside brawl
Last night, Karhula brought the most vicious A-game that he had within him, knowing that I was in the hunt for my 5th FCF Championship to date also. The last time I held the coveted title was in 2010, when I both won and lost the belt to and from “The Japanese Buzzsaw” TAJIRI in Tokyo, on both occasions.
The ringpost shot put a goose egg on my cranium and the blood pours out
I had been struck with a debilitating influenza virus infection for over six weeks, and going into this match, I still was not at 100% physically. That is no excuse as to how things played out in the end, but it stands to take into consideration when looking back on this match. I had not been able to perform cardiovascular workouts during my sick spell, and this detail taxed me severely in last night’s encounter.
I rally back at Karhula with huge blows that rock the FCF Champion
Karhula and I fought tooth and nail – from technical, mat-based wrestling to full-out brawling with both fists blazing – throughout the contest, going 23:26 total match time … and I must say, this was one of my toughest matches in Finland over the past nine years that pro wrestling has been domestically promoted here.
THIS … is the proverbial face of rage unleashed
Karhula survived my superkick – a feat which very few have EVER accomplished, anywhere I have wrestled in the world – and came back with a series of World’s Strongest Slams to finally finish me off for the coup de grâce.
Bombs away — dropping the big elbow off of the top rope
I really must say that all things considered, under the circumstances, I gave it my best shot and did my all, but the better man won last night. Still, I say “the better man” only concerning “last night”. If Karhula is willing to take me on when I am at 100%, without any sicknesses or physical limitations, I challenge him to another match for his title.
After knocking the big ape to his knees, I feed him a wicked superkick
Still, the fact remains: King Kong Karhula is a force to be reckoned with on the European pro wrestling circuit. Very few wrestlers have gotten the one-up on Yours Truly in Europe over the past few years, and to claim a win over StarBuck definitely carries weight and makes a statement in our business.
The World’s Strongest Slam spells the end of the match … for me
King Kong Karhula goes from here to DOMination 6 in Helsinki on October 27th for his next title defense, whereas I head to Japan for the Wrestling New Classic title tournament on October 26 in Tokyo, facing my former teammate, Hajime Ohara, in the first round.
Well, now almost everything is in the proverbial can for my southern rock band Crossfyre‘s follow-up album to Southbound from 2010. We had a very intense recording jaunt at Seawolf Studios, located off the coast of Helsinki at Suomenlinna sea fortress, with engineer Hannu Leiden (some of you might know him from his own band, Havana Black) over this past week.
Hannu Leiden (left) says I sound like Jim Mangrum from Black Oak Arkansas! (photo by Jarmo Katila)
From Tuesday to Saturday, we recorded all of the drums, guitars, bass and keyboards for our new Iron Horse album, which will be out next year. We simply ran out of time before I could lay down all of the lead vocals, but I was able to amass an amazing total of eight songs yesterday … and considering the fact that I have been suffering from an extremely aggressive influenza virus for the past four weeks, it is an irrevocable miracle of Almighty God that my voice somehow sounded better than ever yesterday. Even engineer Leiden had to admit that I did a helluva job, and Hannu really made sure that my best material made tape. Think about that, folks — eight songs in one day! Just like Leiden said, the most that any vocalist will reasonably perform in one studio day is four songs. I did double that.
StarBuck lays down some of the best vocal tracks of his life for Iron Horse
The title track – music and lyrics – were written by Yours Truly, and overall this new album will be honest, classic southern rock in the vein of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet. Whereas the music for Southbound was written by and in large prior to my joining the band in 2010 – with much more in the way of raw blues – the material for Southbound was written for my vocal approach and in light of my strengths as a rock vocalist. That said, I can honestly say that the material on Iron Horse does not take a back seat to the latest Skynyrd album Last of a Dyin’ Breed in any way, shape or form. A bold statement, yes, but I am 110% certain that we can back that up, as everyone will hear once Iron Horse is officially released.
Jay Jay Asikainen lays down his solos while Jaakko Kinnari awaits his turn
Iron Horse was supposed to be released last year, in time for Crossfyre’s jaunt aboard the Rock Legends Cruise with ZZ Top and George Thorogood in December 2011, but we only made a limited edition pressing of the demo tracks for the new album to be sold at that gig. The band decided to up the ante and hire Hannu Leiden, who in all honesty is the number one studio man for southern rock in Finland, to record the official Iron Horse album, which carries a slightly different tracklisting as compared to the Rock Legend’s demo version of the album. However, I painted the cover art for Iron Horse last year, and this cover will be the one used for the official release of the new album also.
We are now headed next week on a tour of Germany, and our tour dates are as follows:
26/9 Meisenfrei Blues Club – Bremen, DE @ 20:00
27/9 TBA (updates at www.myspace.com/thecrossfyre)
28/9 UrBar – Magdeburg, DE @ 21:00
29/9 Barnaby’s Blues Bar -Braunschweig, DE @ 19:00
30/9 Rockkneipe Jungfer – Arnstadt, DE @ 22:00
2/10 Barnaby’s Blues Bar – Braunschweig, DE @ 21:00
Crossfyre’s German tour line-up (l-r): Jay Jay Asikainen, Jaakko Kinnari, Danny Cross, JJ Hjelt (filling in for Dan Rönnbacka) and StarBuck
Photographer extraordinaire Jarmo Katila (www.jarmokatila.fi) came out to Suomenlinna sea fortress to shoot the band line-up for Iron Horse, and below is one of the great shots from the photo set.
Crossfyre’s Iron Horse album line-up 2012 (photo by Jarmo Katila)
Take a look folks, I just opened my personal YouTube channel and one of the many musical offerings on tap is this stellar Stoner Kings gig from Helsinki’s legendary Tavastia club in March of 2006, when we released our sophomore album, Fuck the World:
I also just added a plethora of songs from my various bands over the years to my Music page here at StarBuck.fi, so be sure to check out all the cool tuneage to be heard!
Having just returned back home an hour ago from my last tour of Japan with Wrestling New Classic, I can now sit back and reminisce on a very memorable jaunt … and I say memorable for a few reasons.
In a major surprise, my old MMA buddy Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen from Norway showed up with his girlfriend at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo to watch me fight and to say hello. It had been the summer of 2009 that I saw Hellboy last in Oslo, and he happened to be training in Japan when I was there, so he made plans to come see my match. Hansen is a great guy and one hell of a fighter, so check him out on YouTube if you are not familiar with him. He is known as “The Japanese Killer” in the Land of the Rising Sun, because he has beaten so many of the Nippon best out there over the years.
Firstly, I wrestled the first barbed wire matches of my career in Japan this time around, and I must say that the danger aspect of these kinds of bouts is off the charts. The main objective of any rational wrestler in one of these matches is to stay away from the barbed wire as much as possible, yet at the same time trying to run your opponents into the same structure. It can be a very tricky and vulnerable scenario, and over the course of the tour, every single of the combatants in these intense matches got scarred and wounded, the girls included.
My team with AKIRA and Syuri defeated the team of TAJIRI, Mikey Whipwreck and Kana in both Tokyo on August 30th and Osaka on August 31st in said barbed wire warfare, but on September 1st in Toyohashi, our team fell to our adversaries when I was thrown by my opponents into the barbed wire board positioned in the corner of the ring, and my hair got entangled in the wire.
The story of Absalom, son of King Salomon in the Bible came to mind, when he rose up in defiance against his father and God struck him down in the battle of Ephraim Wood when he rode his mule into battle: Absalom, decked in long tresses of hair, rode his steed underneath an oak tree in the melee, and his locks got entwined in the branches, wherewith he was hung to death.
In the Toyohashi match, as I attempted to finish off Whipwreck with my trademark piledriver, TAJIRI hit me with a blindside high kick, after which he nailed me with a side thrust kick to the temple that jarred my neck. I was a sitting duck after that incident, as our opposing team laced into me with kicks when I was down, and then proceeded to flail me into the barbed wire board in the opposite ring corner. Not only did the board splinter and break upon my body crashing through it, my hair got wickedly entangled in the steel wire barbs, causing even more strain on my injured neck when my frame slumped down after the impact. Whipwreck then added the final coup de grâce, hitting me with a stunner for the academic pinfall and consequent first loss for our trio in Japan to date.
I will not have to take a few weeks off to properly heal my neck, but you can rest assured that there will be retribution and a day or reckoning in store for TAJIRI when I return to action in Japan the next time!
In Osaka, AKIRA, Syuri and I held a special afterparty for the WNC fans at Wrestling Bar 2.99, where I performed an acoustic number for those on hand, which was received warmly.
It was also in Osaka that I went out after the event to eat at the famous Cowboy Steak House with AKIRA, where we were treated to some of the finest beef that I have ever sunk my teeth into. Kudos to the friendly staff at Cowboy for sponsoring our meal!
My good friend Dr. Hiroaki Terasaki also took me out to eat at a fine restaurant, run by one of his long-time friends, seen in the photo below. Terasaki-san also introduced me to the editor of Tokyo Sports newspaper at lunch yesterday, and I will soon have some big news coming out of that meeting, so stay tuned to my website for more infos shortly!
In just over a week, I will be fighting for the first time in my career in a barbed wire grudge match in Japan for Wrestling New Classic. My trio with AKIRA and Syuri will face the vengeance-hungry team of TAJIRI, Mikey Whipwreck and Kana, and there it is guaranteed that there will be blood. It all comes down on August 30th at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
From there, my team will do battle against TAJIRI’s trio on August 31st in Osaka and on September 1st in Toyohashi, and these encounters will also be barbed wire matches. You can be sure that none of us will be the same after the dust settles next week across Japan! My team is undaunted however, and we will show once again how we dominate, just as we did on our last tour of Japan.
First however, I will be gunning for my fifth FCF Championship title reign at DOMination 5 in Helsinki, Finland on August 24&25th, as over a two-day period a tournament will be held to crown a new titleholder. It was 2010 last that I held the FCF crown, defeating TAJIRI in Tokyo on July 24 that year, before losing it back to TAJIRI on November 22, 2010 in Tokyo also.
In round one on Friday, August 24th, I will fight in the main event in a triple threat match against King Kong Karhula and “Wildman” Heimo Ukonselkä. The winner of that match goes on the next night to advance to the semi-finals, and should they be victorious, the finals on the same night.
Last night I arrived back home in Finland after two weeks out in Japan, during which I was on tour with Wrestling New Classic in five different cities across the country.
AKIRA, StarBuck and Syuri (photo by Kazuhiko Kato)
My new team with AKIRA and Syuri rocked the houses every night, and we were a dominant trio, pulling out wins in every single one of our six-person tag matches.
TAJIRI one-upped me in Hakata, Japan (Photo: WNC)
The only loss my team suffered was my personal singles match loss to TAJIRI at Hakata Starlanes in Fukuoka on August 6th.
training with my team at American Gym in Fukuoka
In our first team encounter on August 2nd in Tokyo against TAJIRI, Hajime Ohara and Kana, Tajiri knocked my front tooth out as we brawled on the outside of the ring.
TAJIRI caught me with a knee right in the chops as I charged for him on the floor, and in the process the blow busted the bridge that I have for a prosthetic tooth up front, which I lost in a stunt-riding BMX accident when I was 9-years old. In the picture below you can see the damage.
We traveled across Japan, from Tokyo southbound toward the southernmost tip of the country in Kagoshima, where WNC kindly offered to get my tooth fixed, saving me the expense in the process. The friendly ladies at Calla Orthodontic Clinic in Kagoshima made my mug look like brand new, sparkling smile et al…
I was able to meet some very cool, new people in Japan on this trip, from avid wrestling fans of mine to ring legends like The Great Kabuki at his restaurant Kabuki with Family in Tokyo. As I usually do with old timers who knew Bruiser Brody – one of my all-time favorites in the game and a legend in Japan too – I grilled Kabuki on his take as to the death of Brody in Puerto Rico in 1988 at the hands of Invader #1, where Brody got stabbed to death in the locker room. Out of respect, the details of our conversation will remain anonymous, but I got a good understanding of the possible reasons behind the incident.
The Great Kabuki
My next tour with WNC takes place at the end of this month, starting on August 30th at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, where I again team with AKIRA and Syuri in the main event against TAJIRI, Kana and Mikey Whipwreck of ECW fame in a huge barbed-wire board match, which will not be for the faint of heart!
Our team victorious across Japan (Photo by Nobuya Iwatsubo)
I will be leaving this coming Monday, July 30th for a wrestling tour with WNC (Wrestling New Classic) throughout Japan at the beginning of August.
On August 2nd at Shinjuku FACE Arena in Tokyo, I will team with AKIRA and Syuri will face TAJIRI, Hajime Ohara and Kana in the Wrestling New Classic main event. From there I move on with my new team to establish wrestling dominance in Osaka on August 3rd, Hiroshima on August 4th, Hakata on August 6th and Kagoshima on August 7th.
This past week, I wrestled in Rome, Italy at Rainbow Magicland, which is a huge theme park outside the city. Every day about 10 000 people visit Magicland, and on July 24 IWS Wrestling ran a show at the establishment. I wrestled against huge black wrestler Tiny Iron, who has been a bodyguard for bands like The Black-Eyed Peas, Beyoncé and 50 Cent. I was disqualified in the match when Michael Kovac of Austria and Leo Cristiani of Spain interfered on my behalf.
“Half man, half amazing” Tiny Iron
This week on Saturday, July 28 I wrestle against Finnish academic standout and brash rookie Mikko Maestro in Kerava, Finland for FCF Wrestling at SummerSmash 3.
starbuck.fi 