It’s been three days since my title fight – and I do mean FIGHT – with Sam Gradwell this past weekend at Rytmikorjaamo in Seinäjoki, Finland.
I’m busted up, bruised, contused and heartbroken. No, I did not win the SLAM! championship. But neither did I concede the match.
Sam Gradwell assaulted me mercilessly, to the point that I was unable to defensively answer back. It was the official, Teemu Kytösaari, that ultimately called a halt to the match by referee’s decision.
I had been sick for two weeks prior to this pivotal and all-important bout. At the worst possible time, I got hit with whatever virus or influenza is making the rounds in Finland at the moment. Every second person seems to be sick with it. I wasn’t spared, either.
For two weeks, I was unable to prepare for the match. No physical training, no exercise. I was damn near bed-ridden for the first week when I caught the bug. During the second week, I went on antibiotics four days prior to the match. Quite literally, I pulled a proverbial rabbit out of the hat at less than 100%.
If there is one thing that I have learned in the day and age of social media, it is that you never let them see you bleed. If you bleed, if you suffer, you do so in silence. You do not tote cracks in your armor before the whole world to see. That is just plain stupidity and pearls before swine.
In so saying, I can’t let it end like this. Now, this has become a story of redemption, simply by proxy.
I have given 30 years of my life to professional wrestling. January 7 will be the three decade watermark since my very first match back in 1994 against my coach, Lance Storm, in Calgary, Canada. The fact that after all these years, I can still be active at a main event level is a testament to longevity and something that I take personal gratification and great pride in.
The fact that, at the age of 50, I can wrestle for a half-hour still, just as I did this past weekend at Wrestling SLAM in Seinäjoki against a beast of a man in Sam Gradwell, is something that I do not take lightly. Show me who else at my age can do what I do. Show me, because I’m waiting to see that list.
So at the end of all this, I have purposed to build myself back to not only full health following whatever this damn thing is that has ransacked my body, but also, I will redeem what I need to redeem following the brutal beating that I took this past weekend at the hands of Sam Gradwell.
SLAM! Wrestling Finland has an event entitled SUPERSLAM on February 10 in Helsinki at Mall of Tripla’s Black Box 360. I’m going to talk to the grand commissioner of European pro wrestling, Marty Jones out of England, and I’m going to lobby for the rematch. Marty resided with full jurisdiction over the title match that Gradwell and I had this past Saturday, and Marty has the power to make the rematch happen, because I rescinded all of my personal power over the ongoings and outcome of Saturday’s match to Marty in the spirit of fair play.
First though, I am going to take this holiday season and time to heal up.
I’m broken.
starbuck.fi 