She's Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
First and foremost -- thank you to everyone for all the wonderful birthday wishes on December 2. You truly floored me with your kind gestures and generosity. Thank you for making it a very special day.
Ah yes, I have returned and returned with a vengeance, might I add. I'm fully refreshed after two incredibly successful wrestling shows with Int'l Pro- Wrestling, a three part Real Audio interview with Ed Zohn and the boys over at Pro-Wrestling Between the Sheets and three weeks of rest. However, I did come to the realization that I was in dire need of a vacation and I had burned myself out writing on a weekly basis.
Well, the buck stops here. No, I am not retiring "Into the Fire" as I am entirely too opinionated to hang up my journalistic integrity just yet. I am, however, putting it on the back burner so to speak. "Into The Fire" is, was and will always be very important to me. However, as my life unfolds before me, I'm finding that there are other things much more important....My fiance', my career and my sanity to name three.
In my last article, I outlined the various responsibilities in my life. I received many, many letters of support and of course, a scant few letters of childish rants. To those who don't believe I carry the many responsibilities I outlined, I can't say that your notes meant much to me simply because I know what my life entails. Those most important to me also know what my life and responsibilities consist of and that's what truly matters to me. To those who showed support and understanding, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Last but not least, to those who disagreed with my assessment of the political situation regarding Mr. Ventura and did so in an articulate, intelligent manner, as always I respect your opinion and thank you wholeheartedly for sharing it with me. Rest assured, many valid points were made.
As I said, I do plan to continue writing "Into the Fire". However, in order to preserve the creativity and quality of my product, I feel I must slow my pace down to writing bi-weekly instead of on a weekly basis. If I'm able to squeeze an article in occasionally between bi-weekly deadlines, I'll do so but for now, issuing "Into the Fire" on a bi-weekly basis will be most beneficial for myself as well as my readers. My bi-weekly submissions will begin on December 31, 1998 as events that unfolded during my time off have given me enough ammunition to carry me through until the end of this year.
Now, on to matters at hand. On Wednesday, November 25, Ed Zohn and I had the pleasure of being involved in a Real Audio show called "Layin' the Smack Down". It's a weekly wrestling show venture created by the people at Pro-Wrestling Between The Sheets in conjunction with WORAN and 1indigo Wrestling that has proven to be extremely popular. Head on over to http://1indigo.simplenet.com/woran, read the incredible reviews it's received so far and give it a listen. The schedule for our interviews on Layin' the Smack Down is as follows:
Part 1: November 28 - December 5
Part 2: December 5 - December 12
Part 3: December 12 - December 19
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the interview has become so popular that it has to be streamed from two separate locations. Wow! A big hearty thank- you to the guys at PWBTS, WORAN and 1indigo Wrestling for their help, support and the opportunity for this interview.
Int'l Pro-Wrestling had two of their hottest shows ever on November 27 in Steelton, PA and November 28 in Lebanon, PA. A full account of the results can be found at the IPW website (http://welcome.to/IPW). Unfortunately, Ed Zohn suffered some debilitating injuries at the hands of Paul Mitchell on November 28th in Lebanon. Paul Mitchell is a student of Steve Blackman and currently is one of the trainers at Steve Blackman's Lethal Weapon Academy in Harrisburg, PA. Evidently, Paul grew tired of "doing the right thing" and joined forces with G. Q. Bronsky and Doug Flex. Mitchell executed a gut-wrench suplex on Commissioner Zohn, which allowed Flex and Bronsky the opportunity to get their shots in as well. Be sure to check out the full account of what really happened and find out what my involvement was. (I couldn't very well just sit there and not do anything now, could I?) Additionally, get well wishes may be sent to Commissioner Zohn at EdZohn@iName.com.
On a more serious note, I was informed of some disturbing news while I was on vacation. IPW Referee, Jeff Capo, forwarded me the following news article from the November 20th edition of The York Dispatch out of York, PA:
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PRO WRESTLER GRAPPLING WITH TRUTH?
Bell Socialization says weekend match won't benefit agency. by Lauri Lebo
In the head-locking, arm-twisting world of professional wrestling, sometimes it's the truth that gets stretched a bit.
And officials at a local non-profit agency say a Red Lion wrestling promoter has twisted the truth too far to help draw a crowd to a racy series of matches tomorrow night.
On widely circulated fliers and posters, "Dirty Deeds" Darren Wyse, a self- proclaimed wrestler, promoter, booker, manager, trainer and talent scout, is claiming his "Brutality is our Business" wrestling match in Red Lion tomorrow "benefits Bell Socialization Services of York County."
But officials at the agency, which serves developmentally disabled adults, said yesterday that Wyse has no relationship with them, and they asked him a year ago to stop making such claims.
"We did not endorse this; we were never contacted," said Ike Hileman, Bell's executive Director.
Although Wyse has claimed for years that his annual wrestling show benefits Bell, the agency has never received any money, Hileman said.
"After they used us last year - and they never contacted us then either - we wrote to them and said "Don't do this again," Hileman aid.
The colorful Wyse, who also bills himself as "200 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal," said people are misunderstanding what he means when he claims the wrestling show "benefits" the agency.
The deal is that employees and staff from Bell are allowed to attend the event for free. "I'm not going to say that everybody in that place knows what's going on but that's far from the truth," he said of Hileman's assertion the agency was never contacted.
Wyse said he set the deal up with an employee in Bell's group home division he knows only as "Vivian."
"Talk to Vivian at extension 505," he said. "I've done this for six years running, done the exact same thing.
"I don't know what the executive director's situation is, my deal is not a financial handing over of money deal," Wyse said. "The door is open to them to bring as many of their clients, patients, staff to my shows."
"Their main purpose, doing this years ago, was to get their name out there. I don't claim that I give them tons of money - I don't. That's not the deal I have worked out with them."
Bell's director of communications Samiah Pennings, whose extension is 505, said that Vivian Heath, a program coordinator, did receive free tickets from Wyse, however, no one at Bell ever gave the wrestling promoter permission to use the agency's name.
"No letter of confirmation was ever sent to him," Pennings said. "We don't want to be associated with this."
It's not just the fact Wyse is advertising a relationship that doesn't existing that has Bell officials bugged. The posters and fliers also advertise discount prices to kids "8 and under" while promoting a "mixed tag, ladies must be stripped to bra and panties match."
Even if promoters had contacted Hileman, he doubts the organization would have wanted to participate.
"We would want something pretty language neutral," he said, looking at the flier. "We wouldn't want anything vulgar. No, I don't think we want to be associated with that."
At least one ticket holder is upset by the advertisements.
Terry Bluett of Yoe, whose son Shane is a big pro-wrestling fan, bought three tickets before learning the event will feature the mixed tag event.
"The kids are bugging their parents to get tickets to this - my son watches wrestling every Saturday night - and here they're stripping women to their bra and panties," Bluett said.
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What I know of Darren Wyse are his previous dealings with self-proclaimed wrestlers and promoters, Jimmy Deo (IWCCW) and Damien Kane (AWF). As the cliché' goes, "You're judged by the company you keep." If that statement is true, then the aforementioned relationships should be an indication of just how little integrity Darren Wyse has. I questioned several wrestlers, promoters and even some journalists about their assessment of "Dirty Deeds Darren Wyse". The responses I received were unflattering to say the least. As a matter of fact, I have yet to receive a favorable response.
I presented the newspaper article to "Joe" (the name has been changed to protect the innocent), a high-profile and widely respected journalist. He also had some interesting tid-bits regarding Wyse's way of doing business after reading the article:
"Interesting article. Darren has been running an annual wrestling show in Red Lion at the old Fairmont Middle School each November for a number of years. In previous years, I have actually seen the posters for the shows in Red Lion. I actually saw some of the old posters around town that said, "Benefits Bell Socialization" or "Benefits Bell Socialization Services." I was very surprised that they would be associated with Darren, but I figured that they were being budgeted by state and federal funds and needed a fundraiser. I actually went to a couple of the shows a few years ago. He did a few with Deo under the IWCCW banner and one with Dennis Coralluzzo under the NWA banner. For the most part, they were pretty bad shows.
If a reporter really wanted to dig, he'd dig up a program from a previous show and contact the sponsors to see what they were told. I would suspect that Darren may have contacted the same sponsors to support this year's show.
I always tried to stay away from Darren due to his reputation. I really don't know too much more about him - other than he worked a lot for both Deo and Damien Kane in Reading. Hope that at least helped a little bit. I am glad that you're covering this. I think it needs to be addressed."
The sad thing about this entire scenario is the fact that a non-profit organization is whom Wyse decided to pray upon. It's no secret that professional wrestling and non-profit organizations have gone hand-in-hand for many years. However, in this case someone dropped the ball when it came to the legal paperwork being signed, sealed and delivered. With threats of lawsuits left and right in today's society, verbal agreements mean nothing. You're no longer able to do business simply on a handshake because there is so much more at stake today than in previous years.
From all accounts, it seems that Darren Wyse seems to have been caught in one of his many "dirty deeds" .... but this one won't be done dirt cheap. Unfortunately, Bell's Socialization Services is paying the price.
Carrie A. Messantonio - IPW@iName.com
Int'l Pro-Wrestling - http://welcome.to/IPW
The WWF Inferno - http://www.scoopscentral.com/inferno