Today marks 27 years since I started my in-ring, active professional wrestling career.
My first match was on January 7, 1994 at the Victoria Park Civic Center in Calgary, Canada. I worked against one of my coaches, Lance Storm, who went on to become a champion in ECW, WCW and WWE.
I recall how my good friend Chris Jericho, now with AEW, lent me a pair of his old tights that he wore alongside Lance in their tag team, Sudden Impact. Chris also gifted me my first pair of wrestling boots for that encounter, a pair of plain black ones, which I have somewhere in storage back in Canada to this day.
My match with Lance was seven minutes on the nose, and Lance pinned me after a competitive outing that I was afforded by hitting a jack-knife pin after a powerbomb. The guys in the dressing room clapped it up afterwards, including my other coach, Karl “Jason The Terrible” Moffat, Lenny St. Clair (AEW’s Luther), Beef Wellington, Jericho and others, claiming it was the second best match on the card that night. The top honors went to Beef Wellington vs. Chris Jericho in the main event.
So here’s to a look back at 27 years ago half a world away. Today, I run my own wrestling company, SLAM! Wrestling, in Finland and Estonia, as well as being an active wrestler at the age of 47, still able to pull 30-minute matches with ease.
Life is for living, so I embrace every day that the Good Lord gives me and I’m thankful for the 22 countries and four continents I’ve been able to ply my trade in, and thanks to all the bookers and promoters who made it possible!
(photos by Sam Leppänen, Sander Burmeister and Rob Haynes)
I did an extensive interview with my birth country Canada’s top internet sports media, SLAM! Sports, for their website. Journalist Blaine Van Der Griend went to extensive lengths, cross-checking and getting the low-down from some influential people that have seen my pro wrestling career sparkle in Japan. This piece of media is really a treat, folks. The gloves come off here, so sit back, take 15-minutes and read some good inside stuff: http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/2015/07/05/22488981.html
Thanks again to SLAM! Sports for this feature, and a big shout-out to all my Canadian compatriots out there! Reach for the stars, eh!!!
I once heard a tremendous quote that I have often recalled throughout my life, that says “There are no such things as excuses, only reasons why things don’t get done.”
As some of you might or then might not know, in addition to being a professional wrestler, I am also a rock vocalist in three separate bands: Overnight Sensation (hard rock), Angel of Sodom (thrash metal) and Crossfyre (southern blues rock).
I just came home a few days ago, back to Finland, after spending the last two weeks on the road, through the Baltics, down to Poland and Germany, for a set of gigs with Crossfyre. Before I left for this recent tour jaunt, I got word that I’d be having a match against Russia’s premiere wrestler, Ivan Markov, on July 23 in Helsinki. I knew that I would have to train on the road, utilizing every possible opportunity to get some body work and conditioning in.
After all, this is going to be a very important match. I loaded up one 16kg kettlebell, two 5kg plates equipped with handles and three different resistance power bands. This, plus my own bodyweight and a plethora of training knowledge, were all I had to train with for two weeks, while on tour.
My tour training equipment, sans the smallest resistance power band…
I recall doing the same kind of training five years ago, when I played across Europe with Crossfyre, which was just before my pro wrestling debut in Japan. That definitive time period was a breakthrough opportunity for me, when I was to make my first foray in the Land of the Rising Sun, in my first match there against Hajime Ohara back on July 24, 2010 in Tokyo. After that initial match, and the subsequent second match I had, later that same night, against former WWE superstar “The Japanese Buzzsaw” Tajiri, my career was made in Japan. I became a superstar there, literally overnight. That was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the finest moments of my professional athletic career.
Now, five years later, I am on the edge of another critically important moment in my wrestling epoch. On July 23, I will be defending the honor of the country I represent, Finland, against the imposing threat of big Russia in the first-ever wrestling war between our countries. I absolutely must be in shape for this coming battle, and my entire training approach changed considerably when I heard the news that Ivan Markov had called me out and challenged me to a match on Finnish soil. Especially, considering the history between our countries, and the fact that Finland used to be under Russian rule in years past by the Czar, this is a huge, milestone moment upcoming in athletic history in the Nordics. Plus, Ivan Markov is bigger, younger and stronger than me, so I have to up my ante to face this coming challenge.
Take a look at the bodyweight and hybrid training montage that I compiled from the tour we were on. I hope it inspires you also! It just goes to show, that when there isn’t an actual gym nearby, there is still no excuse to get in an effective training routine, regardless of the circumstances.
“The Rebel” StarBuck vs. “Locomotive” Ivan Markov is upcoming on Thursday, July 23 at SNACKY SLAM in the Pukinmäki suburb or Helsinki, as a free media event, open to the public, at 13:00 in the afternoon, located at Snacky fast food restaurant, Malminkaari 2a, 00720 Helsinki. The event is open to all ages, free of charge.
starbuck.fi 