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!
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:
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.”
Well, I didn’t manage to claim my third Eurostars European wrestling championship this past Sunday night in Holland. I came oh, so close, but alas, no cigar. I had Belgium’s Bernard Vandamme on defense for the bulk of the 21:10 of the title match that we wrestled at Dutch Pro Wrestling‘s biggest event of the years, Grand Slam 2014, but in the end, I got caught out with a crossbody dive out of the corner that Vandamme just barely managed to keep me down with for the final three-count.
Telling Vandamme that he’s got it coming to him.
I have an outstanding issue with Vandamme, over the fact that he managed to upset me for the WNC (Wrestling New Classic in Japan) championship back in March this year, and I have not even gotten my rematch for that title. Vandamme is a double champion right now, holding both the WNC and Eurostars European championships, and as I am a two-time titleholder of the Eurostars title, the Eurostars championship committee decided that I was up for their title this time in Holland, and the WNC title was not part of the picture.
Looking to make Vandamme tap … he didn’t.
Vandamme and I have a long and storied history against one another, dating all the way back to the latter half of 2006, when we first grappled. We’ve fought in many countries and had some classic battles, and somehow, the issue is still there between our parties. This past Sunday night in Poeldijk, Holland, was another chapter in our rivalry, which will go down in the history books with Vandamme retaining his gold, which brings to mind what former WWF commentator Gorilla Monsoon stated back in the day, “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
Butterfly double-underhook suplex plants Vandamme for a nearfall.
Holland was my 19th country in professional wrestling to date over the past 20-years, and I would like to extend a huge thank you to the entire DPW organization, who were all incredible folks and a true pleasure to work with!
I’m very excited about wrestling in Holland in two weeks time, which marks my 19th country in the grappling game. More importantly, it marks my comeuppance against reigning Eurostars European wrestling champion and WNC champion, Bernard Vandamme of Belgium.
It was just this past March 8 in Helsinki, Finland, that I unceremoniously lost Japan’s WNC (Wrestling New Classic) title to Vandamme in just under two-minutes, in what can be argued to be a huge upset. It made international headlines and it most definitely shocked every fan on hand at FCF Wrestling’s Talvisota VIII event that night. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, and for a moment, I thought I’d be getting my rematch for the WNC strap when I first heard about Dutch Pro Wrestling booking Vandamme as my opponent for June 1 on their biggest show of the year in Poeldijk, Holland.
However, being that I am a former two-time Eurostars European champion myself, defeating and losing that championship to Vandamme in 2006-2007 and 2009, the Eurostars wrestling office decided it was time for StarBuck to get another shot at continental supremacy in Poeldijk at DPW’s Grandslam 2014 mega-event. This decision overrode Japan’s WNC organization’s rematch clause, and so, the June 1 match will be for the Eurostars title only, regardless of the fact that Vandamme is a double-champion at the moment.
December 2, 2006 – the night I first defeated Vandamme for the Eurostars title in Vantaa, Finland
Personally speaking, I am highly looking forward to this showdown. Vandamme and I have a long and storied history, going back to 2006, when we first locked horns. We have had a tenacious feud, one that has spanned from west to east, from Europe to Asia, and like the proverbial thorn in my side, Vandamme is still prevalent as an adversary in my career eight years later.
I will be more than ready to strip Vandamme of his Eurostars European title on June 1, just as he stripped me of the WNC gold a few months back. I will walk into Grandslam 2014 and let loose the full measure of my personal vindication and wrath on the person of Bernard Vandamme, and I will walk out of Poeldijk as the new Eurostars champion.
How’s that for “an eye for an eye”, Bernard? Deal with it!
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That’s life. But then, sometimes you lose again. And again. And then you start taking stock of what exactly the problem is, because if you don’t stop the downward spiral, you will end up hitting the proverbial wall.
This past weekend at FCF Wrestling’s Jatkosota 2014 event in Helsinki, I teamed with Sly Sebastian and Kristian Kurki to face the trio of FCF champion Heimo Ukonselkä, Stark Adder and Ricky Vendetta. Sly and Kurki had upset Adder and Vendetta a month back, translating into the biggest win so far for Sly Sebastian in particular, as he managed to eek out a pin over mat veteran Stark Adder in that tag match. Now, Adder and Vendetta had upped the ante and challenged Kurki and Sly to another match. Only this time, it would be a six-man rumble at Jatkosota.
Catching Ricky Vendetta in the Gory Special (photo by Marko Simonen)
I ended up eating the pin in that match from this past weekend, after Ricky Vendetta managed to hit me with his finisher, but only following an assist from the outside ring apron from Ukonselkä, who blasted me behind the ear with a forearm smash as I hit the ropes.
Heimo Ukonselkä flails away at me (photo by Marko Simonen)
After losing both the WNC title to Belgium’s Bernard Vandamme and the BWA title to Valentine last month, I really hit the wall. Now, I took another loss, which I have to admit, stings. I really cannot afford to get sucked into the negative downward spiral, and courtesy of Ukonselkä’s timely assist, Ricky Vendetta scored the biggest win of his young career a couple of nights ago. That is a wrong that I am going to be forced to rectify. Were it a straight-up contest, I could say the better man won. Now, all I can say is, the numbers game caught up with me. No excuses, only the facts.
Intense action! (photo by Marko Simonen)
Ricky Vendetta tried making his mark against me once already, back at the end of 2012. He failed in spades, and now, I guess he has found a reason to finally gloat at my expense. It must feel pretty sweet for him.
Sly Sebastian and Kristian Kurki help me to my feet after the bout (photo by Marko Simonen)
Savor the taste, son. It won’t last long, because I am going to kick it out of your mouth, that you can count on.
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