Holiday Thoughts & Wishes

It's time to bring the best out in our nature and wish each other happy holidays and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

2008 was not the easiest of years and with a faltering economy and uncertainty in the lives of most Americans, the season comes with a dark cloud over many whose jobs and ways of life may be in jeapordized by conditions they have no control over.

This holiday season, I wish you the happiness of being here to enjoy the season, the blessing of loved ones to share it with and the gift of good health to continue this wonderful journey we call life.

I look forward to a great 2009 and look forward to sharing it with you.

Happy holidays!

R.I.P. Steve Bradley, POWER OF LOVE Thoughts & More

There is not much I can add about the tragic death of Steve Bradley. There are things that happen in life that are not fair and this was one of them. I thought we had a nice tribute to him on The Mouthpiece Wrestling Show two weeks ago. I hope people will remember the positives that Steve brought to this world and our business and not the downsides.

I got a rather annoying message from an "anonymous" individual who felt that such a tribute coming from me was "pathetic." Any heat Steve Bradley and I ever had was squashed years ago. In fact, one of the last conversations I had with him was after the rather ugly split with a former booker. Steve called me to say how sorry he was that it had happened, how this individual was wrong and that he planned his little escapde deliberately and for quite some time. Steve also told me that I shouldn't give up on the business and that it needed me. I appreciated that phone call on a lot of levels and his words meant a lot to me at the time.

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Saturday night's NECW POWER OF LOVE event at the Billerica Memorial High School was a very gratifying night, being a benefit for Toys for Tots.

While the crowd numbers were a disappointment, those who were there were vocal and enthusiastic. The action more than held up its end of the bargain with some real standout matches. Complete results are up at www.NECWwrestling.com.

I am looking forward to making this an annual event. With a little more lead time next year and perhaps moving the show earlier to avoid the crunch of the holiday season, we should get significantly better numbers.

Even still, Saturday night's event managed to fill 4 huge bins full of toys for needy kids and I'm especially proud to say that the NECW stars and staff pitched in big time, not just by their work on Saturday night, but by bringing so many unsolicited donations of toys that the NECW crew filled one whole bin by themselves.

I believe that it's important for our company to involve itself in worthy community causes. It is the responsibility of every athlete and entertainer to display the positive personal traits of doing good deeds and charitable acts. What a blessing it is to have a roster full of young talent that so eagerly took the chance to do something so worthy.

The staff at the high school and the United States Marine Corps Reservers who run the Toys for Tots program were great to work with and all enjoyed their first taste of NECW action up close. Some new fans were made Saturday night, and I would be remiss not to thank our many Quincy regulars who made the drive to Billerica to support this event.

Thank you all and happy holidays!

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The Mouthpiece Wrestling Show, that I host every Friday on Boston's 1510 The Zone, is taking a bit of a holiday break. We will be returning on a new day and time - Wednesday afternoons from 5 to 6 PM EST - starting January 7th. The show has been such a great experience for me and I look forward to bringing you more great guests and more great talk on pro wrestling in the new year!