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Letter to The Wrestling Business....

Posted: Mar 11th 2009 By: mikeiles

The following was taken from Brandon Bishop's MySpace blog. The uncensored views and opinions in this blog are of Brandon Bishop's only and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of anyone on staff at Oklafan.com.

To me, living life to it's fullest means you always have something to look forward to... I live for the days my son brandon Bishop Jr. is with me, I dream about the days the kids I can't see on a regular basis are with me. I'm looking forward to my book coming out, I'm looking forward to getting my Dangerous Karaoke & my Wedding Crashers Videography businesses up and running this summer. I'm looking forward to The Ghost Fighters project to begin filming and producing episodes and shopping them to networks. I am looking forward to every gig my new band Ginger's Hotter had lined up for the rest of this year and beyond. I am looking forward to getting my bachelors in Business, I'm looking forward to having a career as opposed to another job, and I'm looking forward to the completetion of this tattoo project i;ve started, that is quickly spreading all over my body.... BUT, through all of that, and and since I was about 5-years old, I've had Wrestling to look forward to... Until a big handful of years ago, I looked forward to the next TV show, of the next PPV, or to the next time WWE came into Detroit, or wherever I lived. I looked forward to seeing where the storylines were going, looked forward to the new talent, and in this aspect I STILL look forward to every TV show, Pay Per View, Storyline and Live event... But since the debut of Brandon Bishop INSIDE of the ring, this business has given me so much more to look forward to...
For years I've toured, recorded, and performed with musical acts, in stand up comedy, on TV, radio, etc. wrestling is the very best of all of that combined into one medium I like to call "Painful Theater."
Whether t's an ACW event, or another promotion I frequent, I eriously cannot wait to show up to the building, get the gear on, see the boys and girls, and push my way through that curtain... Sure big crowds are better, but just ahving ANYONE out there with the confidence in their rle of wrestling fans is awesome to me, and I remind myself each time before the curtains part how cool this really is. I remind myself that though many try, not many can do what i'm about to do as good as I do... I think about th days when guys like Ty Magnus, Chris Matthews, Angel Williams, Payton Scott were the guys I looked up to, without letting them know that I looked up them. Now after nearly a decade I get to walk into the locker room as soak in that same respect and on looking.
I do my best to give advice to though seeking it, and I do my best to improve each event whether it's my pencil or not. I know some see that as being a pain in the ass, well FUCK YOU, I'm not that guy sitting in the back talking shit behind OTHER promoters backs about the run sheet, I'm the guy that speaks up and respectfully offers alternatives and modifications, if they don't like them, that's fine, if they do, even better...
IN ACW, I love the production, I love the fact that we look like a millions bucks with lint in our pockets, I love the fact that we have been called the most fun promotion ever worked time and time again, by some of my favorite people on the Indy Circuit. I am proud of the respect ACW gets for the small details and the effort put forth. I thank wrestling for the talents it has awarded me in event production, video editing and filming, web design etc etc etc, all of which I knew nothing about until wrestling came into my life...
Outside of my kids, my family revolves around a Mom in Detroit, and a couple of cousins in Arizona... I'm not looking for sympathy by stating this, but it's a depressing truth. Wrestling has given me an entirely new family, and yes I call them family. whether it's the people I started ACW with in 2001, or workers that just started with us at the last show, I guarantee you that I'll know them, talk with them, and consider them in a positive manner for as long as we all live.
That's sounds like a variation of the word family to me...
Even those that I've garnered heat with for whatever reasons, I know that it'll pass. There were days that I would have loved to have seen a tombstone with the name John Wolfenbarger on it, and I'm positive he has felt the same, but just two months ago we shared a locker room in Cache, Oklahoma, shook hands, cracked a few jokes and that was that... I'll always have a bitterness towards him, bt on the other side of the token I care about the fuck head like family, and I always will... Being in the position i've been in as a promoter and a worker, it's odd and not always comfortable, but it's been rewarding in ore ways than it has been negative.
I'm proud of myself for taking ACW to where it's at right now here in Colorado Springs, and I truly hope those who have been on and off this ride throughout our existence are proud as well...
I would like to apologize to the wrestling business for being a part of it's bigest problem at times. I know I started of being the very thing I hate about Indy wrestling today. Just another douche with boots and a ring starting a promotion. But I grew up and learned from a milliom mistakes along the way, and now I'd put our product up against ANY other promotion anywhere... In the ring, I've learned to be the wrestler I've always wanted to be, and I no longer feel as though I have to prove anything to anyone... Jerry Lawler, Terry Funk, Raven, Vader, Honky Tonk Man, Al Snow, Dr Death and many others that know what they are talking about have told me that they enjoyed my work, and outside of them and the fans watching, who's oinions matter? Certainly not any of the shit talking little spot monkeys whom have talked shit since I first started... Tjose are usualy the same ones that perform in front of seated fans texting friends between high spots.
Anyways, I'm old, chubby and tired right now... Not sure how many years I have left INSIDE of the ring, but I guarantee you that the SICKNESS that makes me drive 20 hours round trip for $50 in front of 40 fans will never exit my blood stream. Count on ACW being around for years, and I'll be passing along whatever it is that I know to many others with the same passion I had for this game since I was just a small kid rifling through my mom's wrestling scrapbook...
Thank you wrestling, while the injuries heal, the bad emotions filter away, you're still within me taking up residence in my thoughts constantly. Thank you for always giving me somethign to look forward to...

BB

Tags: Brandon Bishop, WWE, ACW, Ty Magnus, Chris Matthews, Angel Williams, Payton Scott, Jerry Lawler, Vader, Honky Tonk Man, Al Snow, Steve Williams