B Stands For Blackball (and 99.9% end of TCW)

Shocking news came out of Texas indies. Wrestler and promoter of Total Championship Wrestling "Mr. B" John Peterson got outed for making predatory advances on a minor. Wrestler Brysin Scott, who been busting wrestlers who go after minors, received and posted the screenshots of conversation between Peterson and the minor. Follow it up with another coming out he chased another minor before. The news of his public outing sent shockwaves throughout Texas indy wrestling scene then stretched with emotions of shock, disappointment, and anger. I texted a friend from South Carolina about it and how I felt. She mentioned she saw it on her Twitter feed and she isn't a wrestling fan. Wrestlers and feds immediately distanced themselves from him and his company especially with DreamCon Wrestling banning him. Wrestler Reggie Lincoln, who Peterson blackballed from his fed, had fun with making "B. Kelly" memes as both are from Chicago. The ones that hurt are the talents who consider him a mentor and/or wrestled for his company. They have found out the person they receive in-ring advice isn't who he really is. Imagine them trying get booked and are refused because they worked mostly for him as form of guilty by association. What's more painful is his daughter having deal with the fallout. She received unwarranted insults and abuse from angry wrestlers and fans for his actions. One talent mention she called him in tears over it. It's a horrible situation all around. Here's a guy I watched in the ring as well attended one of his shows turns out to be a 180 from what was he perceived out of the ring. Consider that few years ago he publicly called out a guy who scammed him and few others and later found out is a registered sex offender. Now he got caught making advances on minors. He once had a gimmick of him chasing after white girls. Turns out it was not a gimmick at all. Apparently the B in Mr. B stands for blackball from wrestling scene.

Tragic week in wrestling

It's been tragic filled week in wrestling with three deaths. Former WWE wrestler Shad Gaspard,
411 Wrestling writer Larry Csonka, and Stardom wrestler Hana Kimura passed under different circumstances.

- Shad Gaspard was in WWE with his tag team partner JTG known as Cryme Tyme. After their WWE release both would continue to tag in the indies. Behind the scenes he's a heavily well-liked man toward his co-workers helping them out. He always put family up in front especially his kids.
Shad Gaspard was at the beach with his family. He was part of group along with his son when he got caught underneath a tide. As lifeguards rushed to save the group his last words was telling the guards to save his son before being swept out to sea. His body was washed ashore few days later. Lost is a family man who puts his kids in front of him and would have your back. Support from wrestling community poured with JTG sharing final text from him as well tributes from many wrestlers such as Kofi Kingston, Byron Saxton, and Triple H. A tribute at beach where he lost his life held few nights ago. To help out his family you can donate at GoFund Me (https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-shad-gaspard-family-fund) or purchase a t-shirt (https://store.collarandelbowbrand.com/collections/mens/products/beast).

- 411 Wrestling writer Larry Csonka is one of few guys I read for show reviews. I was shocked when I heard he passed away on Monday. One of his reviews was up on the site the previous day. I didn't know he was dealing with health issues in his life. He passed away from it leaving behind a wife and two daughters who were love of his life. His writings on wrestling not only the fans but the wrestlers. Of the many wrestlers leaving outpouring of support is WWE wrestler Kevin Owens. A GoFundMe page is up to provide for his two young daughters. To contribute here's the link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/larrymania-living-on-in-his-girls

- The shocking death of Stardom wrestler Hana Kimura turn to various forms of angry once details trickled in. Japanese woman wrestler was targeted after her appearance on reality TV show. She was cyberbullied with on social media platforms with assholes telling her to either catch covid-19 or to kill herself. The threats made her post pictures of her doing bodily harm of herself before committing suicide. Seeing few screenshots of the threats made me angry. How can these scumbags live with themselves that their cyberbullying  made her commit suicide? So much being in friendly towards each other during this time. Sad Hana died but angry was lead her to it. Just horrible people...

Not been good year and five months in we are ready to be it over with. My thoughts, condolences, and prayers toward the families and friends of Shad, Larry, and Hana.

Hoping For ACH to be Repaired For Redemption

When I was living in Austin and getting into Texas indy wrestling scene in Dec 2011 one wrestler stood out throughout the years. From his athletic skills and his charismatic charm A.C.H. stood above. He is one of key wrestlers to help put Austin on the map on indy wrestling scene. A well respected locker room leader who got two proper send-offs when he first left for Ring of Honor then for WWE on the second. The guy gets the crowd pumped up for his matches and back it up with his wonderful performance in the ring. Got to wrestle in Japan where he quickly absorbed more in-ring knowledge. Goes to WWE and assigned to NXT where he won the NXT Breakout tournament. WWE camera crew followed his excitement being at Wrestlemania 35 as a contracted worker. Things were looking ahead for him or as fans thought til last fall.....

WWE released a controversial t-shirt of a smile with his ring name on a black shirt. ACH, offended, angrily blew up calling them racists for the t-shirt design as it was quickly pulled. He follow it up with week-long meltdown which including taking a shot at Jay Lethal and ROH which ended with him publicly announcing he quit the WWE.

He returned back to indy scene quickly with his first post-WWE appearance in I-35 Austin/San Antonio corridor area first with Heavy Metal Wrestling then to Anarchy Championship Wrestling and Inspire Pro and Chicago based AAW. Was signed to Major League Wrestling where he wrestle a show only to say he retire from wrestling the next day because he hated wrestling. Yet despite retirement claim he would continue to wrestle afterwards til the pandemic shut down all shows. He took that time to reflect and wished how he would handle it differently.

So what happen? Where did it go wrong? He did interview on Submission Squad: Dollar Menu Midcarder few weeks ago. After listening to the entire podcast I felt the pressure of backstage politics got to him. He got first dose of it in ROH. Then he goes to WWE and got another dose of it causing him to flashback his time in ROH. It pretty much broke him down mentally leaving him in a rough patch of state. He wished to take back how things went down because he now will be known for the meltdown than his matches.

Not for me because I will remember his matches watching it live in person. I was there live when he and Matthew Palmer had, in my opinion, the greatest match in ACW. He would also give Marcus Rose a beatdown of a lifetime. He out-classed Sammy Guevara in a match at Inspire Pro. Speaking of Guevara here's another wrestler that bounced back from being in the wrong and got himself in national stage of AEW. I witness him give and risk his body not to the fans but entire Austin indy wrestling scene to even going far to check himself out ER to wrestle against Shane Strickland (now known as Isiah Scott in NXT) at Inspire.

When this covid-19 outbreak is over with and shows start running regularly I want A.C.H. to do this when he's mentally ready: road to redemption in the ring. Its to prove he can bounce from regrets and show why he's not just King of Texas, but one of the best indy wrestler in the nation that it will lead him to AEW or Japan or back to WWE (even though its a longshot and all is forgiven). I'm not the only fan who wants that. There are thousands of fans and talent want him to do it as well. One of thing he did in the ring is to motivate his opponent. This time we, the fans and wrestlers, motivate and are pulling for him for in-ring redemption.

Here's full ACH interview from Dollar Menu Midcarders. It's a great listen for over 2 hours of in and off the ring stories and thoughts. Give credit to Evan Gelistico and Matt Jackson (formerly known as Pierre Abernathy; not the guy from a tag team) for doing this. In fact give these guys a listen for the stories of their on the road indy shows travels, interviews, and happening around St. Louis area indies (especially St. Louis Anarchy which Matt runs). You will be entertained as they pull behind the curtains.