Amazing News!

As a child, my brother and I devoutly watched pro wrestling. From it I learned many valuable life lessons I still carry with me today. No matter how bad he's hurt, never count a hero out. No matter how great his advantage, a villain will almost always get what's coming to him. Rowdy Roddy Piper is the greatest wrestler/actor of all time (don't believe me? Here's the evidence). But mostly, I learned that I wanted to be part of that glorious world.

Of course, as the years passed I realized that maybe (just maybe) the world I watched through my color television screen may not have been entirely truthful in regards to the end result of throwing a man off a ladder into barbed wire. Perhaps their over the top exultations were merely for show... It was a hard realization, one that deeply depressed and scarred

me for many years. I ceased being a fan and moved through the next twenty-odd years of my life no longer enjoying the televised spectacle that is Vince McMahon's steroid-fueled athletic entertainment.

Then in November of last year, my brother introduced me to 3X Wrestling, which occurs each month at a small establishment called the Des Moines Social Club in downtown Des Moines. The atmosphere is intimate, and the room small enough that any seat is close enough to really see the action. In live format, I discovered that I enjoy watching pro wrestling again. Not in the same way I once did, but I admire people working their way up the chain, taking part in an activity they love, all the while putting on a show that is athletic and, at times, very funny.

Why bring this up? Oh, no reason. Except that there is a good chance that I may get to be a GUEST RING ANNOUNCER FOR 3X WRESTLING THIS FALL! That's right, boys and girls. Not since I was eight (and realized I would never be very tall or super-muscular and so would never make a good wrestler) have I been this close to glory. The details haven't all been worked out yet, and I'll feel like an idiot if things don't pan out, but I'm so super-stoked about this.

I am a firm believer that life is all about collecting really awesome stories. I've jumped out of a plane, I beheld the Berlin Wall before its fall, I've performed standup comedy across the country professionally, I won a fairly significant screenwriting contest, I was married wearing a Hawaiian shirt, I've become a licensed minister, and now I'll be able to say I've been part of a professional wrestling organization and worked as a ring announcer.

Now if I could just find a way to stop my unending downward financial spiral, lose some weight, and cut back on the drinking, we could all agree everything's coming up Daryl!