Although my 2004 move to the United States brought me closer to the pro wrestling scene, the lack of abundance of indy groups in north-east Ohio and north-west Indiana - where I was originally located - meant that once again I had little opportunity to be an active participant.
At the end of 2012 however, I moved south to Kentucky. Most of 2013 was spent establishing a new life (including a regular income), but in 2014, a July visit to Ashland to see my old friend Bobby Blaze started the ball rolling again.
He took me to two shows that he was involved in over the July 4 holiday weekend, and we talked. I returned to Ashland in October and we went to another show and talked some more.
The October show saw me help out as time-keeper. While yes, it is a job that is a vital part of the show, I'm reluctant to say that I "worked" the show, given this role. Although as I said to Bobby after the show was over "If you'd told me back in the 1980s and 1990s that one day I would be 'working' on shows in the United States alongside big names such as Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson, Jimmy Valiant and Tracy Smothers, I probably wouldn't have believed you."
I'm not where I want to be with it all yet, but I've certainly covered a lot of ground since those teenage years spent watching "On The Mat" on television back in New Zealand. And I've had some great adventures, and met a lot of fantastic people along the way.
(Pictured above: Tracy Smothers, Bobby Blaze, Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson used the occasion of their reappearance together on the Oct. 11 card in Wayne, WV to recreate a special group photo taken some years previously, when all four worked for Smoky Mountain Wrestling. They were kind enough to autograph a copy of the original for me, and let me take the "present day" photo).
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