Monday, January 30, 2006

It's getting plain.. I'll try not to complain.

I survived my weekend, and I return to you all with 75% less snot. How's that for results? The show went smoothly! Unfortunately Mr. Devitt couldn't show up. Darn. There goes my test on Irish Wrestlers. Oh well.

I decided to take on a side project today. I made up a banner for Clickwrestle. I sent it in to BossMan who seemed to like it, but sent me to someone for a little refining. He is slowly trying to teach me that less is more. Perhaps I'll learn that lesson soon. I am trying, just need a few more spoonfuls of sugar to help that medicine go down.

And lastly I found a wonderful new filter today. I have been working with the old IWC footage, which can tend to be a little dark, and I found the lovely little Shadow/Highlight filter. It's nuts.. Look at the difference:

Of course, the shot on the bottom is after the filter. It's a little grainy, but atleast you can SEE the picture. (And who is that guy? Well, that's Skate Devil. The IWC Hardcore Champion as of April 20th 2001. You can catch a few of his matches that are already on CW, and look out for some more than are coming in the coming months.) I like this filter a lot more than the Brightness/Contrast filter. A lot more brightness without the gray-out.

We have a lot of IWC footage, so I will get a lot of practice working with less-than-optimal film. I'll let you all know if I find any more fun little tools.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Let's do this; I am a cashew.

Much like Dane Cook's cashew, I find myself flung into the weekend. Tomorrow I have another APW show planned, and I think I am all but physically ready for it. My body is throwing a small hissy fit. I am all congested and stuffy and sore.. "Stop abusing me!", my body pleads, "I need sleep!". Then, when I refuse it, it turns on me and leaves me stuffy and miserable. Alas. Et tu, Body.

Tomorrow should be a good show though, mucus filled or not. Fergal Devitt will be challenging the APW Internet Champion, JJ Perez. I have never seen Fergal wrestle before, but I hear he is pretty big in Europe. Plus.. He's Irish! You can't go wrong with irish wrestlers. I mean.. Look at Rebecca Knox, she is gorgeous and a great wrestler. (A sweetheart to boot.) And actually, from what I hear, Fergal actually trained Knox. So.. Huzzah. Can't wait for the show tomorrow. And of course, this footage will be hitting you soon as well! =)

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Still Daized.

Crunched with the Daizie idea for a little longer today.. It has evolved quite a bit. I don't know. It's hard to say what is good and what isn't. It's all rather subjective. I am lucky enough to have quite a bit of help from a good friend from Pixel Perfect.

Here is what I have morphed through so far:

Version 1
Verson 2
Version 3
Version 4
Version 5


I am going to take a Daizee break now, and work on getting some new footage online! Let me know what you guys think about this stuff, opinions are much appreciated.

Daized and Confused

Yesterday I was so caught up in ideas for new Shimmer previews, I completely forgot to blog! So today? Two blogs! That's right. Two. Can you take it? I don't know if ~I~ can.

So yesterday I was working on an idea I had for a preview.. I am not sure it will work out, still, but it's an idea. I wanted to have a couple consecutive shots of the wrestler, Daizee Haze in this case, have them come in, fade to a silhouette, and then have the main shot, and her name would float in to introduce her. So I started with the shots.. here is how they progressed:




Anyhow.. I tried a couple different executions. It's tough. Bossman thinks there needs to be a sharp hard-hitting high impact quality to the previews we make, because it's wrestling. I do agree. But I also know that with female wrestling, there is a bit of a different feel to it. A lot of fans watch because it IS women wrestling. They want so see the women, what they look like, are interested in who they are.. etc. It's not quite as fierce as male wrestling. The silhouette idea is naturally a little slower, maybe it would work because they are female? I don't know. I suppose I'll play around with the idea some more.

Okie doke, back to work.. Talk to you guys later!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

The Butterfly? Nuh uh that's old... Let me see you tootsie roll!

There is a local indy wrestler we have here in California, he works for APW and a few other feds nearby. His name is Sean Pulver He is a flamboyant character that likes to keep his opponents guessing with his over the top antics. (More on that in a moment.) I was just capturing one of his matches from about half a year ago and it dawned on me that he stopped one of my favorite tactics of his..


I mentioned yesterday that I work for APW in productions; well, one of my main jobs is DJing the shows. Sean and I have been friends for a while, and Sean is a pretty clever cat (kitten?). One day he got the idea that he could use my position and friendship to his advantage during his matches. He approached me and asked if I could do him a little favor. He asked me to have some music lined up for him during his match, and he showed me a special signal he would use during the match to signify that I should start playing the music. No problem! It's my sound station, I say what music gets out there, if my friend needs a little uplifting music to get him through a match, no problem.


The first night he asked me to do this, Sean was in a match against Vennis DeMarco. 5 minutes or so into his match, Sean wasn't doing very well. I don't like Vennis DeMarco much, but I'll admit he has his moments in the ring. Anyhow, Sean was losing his match at a rapid rate and he hurriedly gave me the signal. I hit the music, not knowing what to expect from Sean. He did something I didn't expect at all.. He started dancing! Vennis wasn't expecting it either, he just stared at Sean slack-jawed, unable to believe what he was seeing. What happened next, I couldn't believe. Sean was dancing, and somehow.. He was able to coax Vennis into dancing as well! Vennis went all out, arms flailing, doing those little kicks like Elaine from Seinfeld. I think Sean was hoping to distract Vince long enough to forget about the match, but unfortunately Vennis came to, and the match continued.

Sean and I played around with that for a while.. and I have to say.. there is nothing more amusing than when Sean can coax a big burly wrestler into dancing. Imagine YOUR favorite big, bad wrestler doing the tootsie roll... Priceless! I'll have to talk to Sean.. We have to start that up again. Of course he did have varying ranges of success with this... Check out the match Sean has with Kafu that is coming to ClickWrestle soon!


In other news, there is a disturbing trend occurring here at the office. I try to keep a little dish of candy out for the guys at the office. It started in September when I started here. I brought in a little Halloween dish, and I toted in some chocolate to fill it. The boxes changed with the holidays, and so did the candy. About 4 rotations ago I got starburst for the candybox. During Christmas, there was some Hershey's kisses put into the box. Recently I put a valentine's day mix of candy in. Today I noticed that we are running out, and that I will have to renew the stash because we are getting low. I dumped out the candy to see what was left, and to my dismay... I saw a starburst. How has is it lasted so long? Why wont anyone eat the last starburst? Is it doomed to watch generation after generation of candy pass by it? BRYAN! Eat the starburst!

Monday, January 23, 2006

A small vacation from all the wrestling at work...

...To go to a live wrestling show. I can't get away from this stuff. What is wrong with me?

Actually, I work at a independent federation called All Pro Wrestling. I help work production at their shows. On Saturday we had a show in Bakersfield, California. Upon entering the venue, I was more than a little dubious.

It appears that the most popular venue for rock shows in Bakersfield is a remodeled Montgomery's Ward. Seeing that, APW thought it would be a good idea to try the built in crowd out for a little wrestling show. When I stepped into the building, I saw a bunch of emo/goth/metal kids lounging around, setting up sound equipment for a show. They're all my age.. but I can't stop feeling SO much older than these guys. I am so out of the loop =/ Anyways.. They are all sitting around with their cookie cutter haircuts and hoodies, and I thought we were definitely not in the right place. I was then led to a VERY scary elevator, which led to a huge room full of discarded Montgomery Ward equiptment, furniture, garbage.. etc. It looked like a place where you would find Brad Pitt and Edward Norton duking it out. At this point I was ready to go home.

However, I was delighted when I saw the area where we'd be actually running the show. A very large area with plenty of room for a ring, the merchandise booth, and lots of seating. The production team slowly starting putting things together, and about 12 hours of work later, it looked like a wrestling show! Lights, camera, entrance, sound, ring, oooh, ahhh!

The show itself was awesome. Aside from the opening match, every match was entertaining and enjoyable. The fans were pumped to see Sandman take on the ex APW HeavyWeight Champ, Kafu, in a hardcore brawl. (Where I am pretty sure they got some weapons from that sketchy area I described earlier!) Sandman was kind enough to take some time out of his much crunched schedule to do some signings after the show, and fans were delighted. (Perhaps quite delighted in one case, check out this link where you can find the belt Sandman is signing for sale on Ebay. So much for sentimental value, eh?)

My personal favorite matches of the night was Derek Sanders vs. Mike Rapada and Sara Del Ray vs. Melissa. Derek took on Mike Rapada, a man who has been working in this business since Mullets were in style. They had a fantastic match that reminded very strongly of old school wrestling that you would of seen about 15 years ago. It's nice to know that people can still work a match without all of the glitz and glam. Melissa and Sara had a rematch from their ChickFight 3 match (which left off unresolved). They were both still quite furious with each other and they really tore into each other. When their match was said and done, it took 4 men to tear them away from each other in order to resume the show. Be sure to catch these one's when they show up on ClickWrestle in the weeks to come. =)

After all is said and done, I had a really good time. I hear we are going back to that venue in April.. Keep your eye on APW's website if you'd like to check out a show sometime!

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Sh... Shim... Shim-im-im-im...Shimmer down now!



Aww.. Look at at all of those pretty women. If you were to just pass by you might think you were looking at a group of spandex supermodels.. Maybe. But imagine, all these purty gals are talented wrestlers! I am pleased to announce that the much awaited (by me, anyways) Shimmer footage made it's way into my hands today. Yay!

I love what I have seen so far. Almost every female American wrestler worth their salt is in this batch of footage. I haven't seen everything yet, but so far MsChif and Melissa seem to REALLY stand out. MsChif is always fantastic, but Melissa seems to have really stepped it up in this match. She got fierce.. I can't wait until you guys get a chance to check it out. ~So!~ much good stuff in that match. For example, Melissa gets MsChif in an inverted texas cloverleaf and nearly folds MsChif in half, beating MsChif in the head with her own foot! Sick, Sick stuff! Check out this photo:


Okay.. Short post today.. Have to get back to watching Shimmer!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Chynna and Bryan, Indy Wrestling Detectives.

Today I have spent the day working on a variety of different matches. Anywhere from footage that is 20 years old, to stuff that was made just last year. Amongst the matches was a tag match with Christian and Edge before they were Christian and Edge! It was pretty neat to see them young and green. They were a decent tag team, even back then. Too often I see tag teams in the indy circuits with no actual tag moves, but "Christian Cage" and "Hardcastle" seemed to have their stuff together, and boy.. They didn't look much different then they do today.

















About 15 minutes ago, I looked over at Bryan and asked what he thought I should blog about today. He thought I should tell you all about our secret occupation: Private Investigators. Bryan and I often find ourselves with a disc handed to us with 8 or so matches, and very little information given along with it. Wrestler names, championship titles, histories, match dates and promotion names are our main worries when we get this stuff. We'll usually get a promotion name, unless the footage is bought from a person who is already a retailer. Unfortunately, a lot of the time we don't get much more than that. That's when I break out my Sherlock Holmes smoking pipe, and Bryan puts on his little Watson-esque hat trench coat and we start digging up info for these guys. In these situations, google is our best friend. Places like www.glorywrestling.com and www.obsessedwithwrestling.com come in close seconds.

Things get easier with time, though. You start recognizing all of these indy wrestlers that will probably never make it anywhere. (I mean, let's be fair. There are very few places you can make a name for yourself in right now.) You can track their gimmicks over time, watch as they get better, or (amazingly) worse. I wonder though.. I wonder if these people know that there are two people in an office in SF spending their days looking up obscure pictures of them, finding out when they debuted, tracking their title histories, watching their careers grow, grumbling and wondering why they weren't facing the camera when they did a move, finding out when they were at a certain location, etc. It's a task that I find makes us feel a little bit less like video editors and more like P.I.'s. Or stalkers!

Gonna come undone (got your address)
Got to keep me from (where you live)
Like a lost street bum (got your number)
They call me ... they call me ...
STALKER

~Urge Overkill

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

No more rhymes now, I mean it! (Anybody want a peanut?)

We were lucky enough to receive a batch of footage a few weeks ago that contains a match featuring Ox Baker, Andre the Giant, Karl Von Krupp, and Dick the Bruiser. I love watching the older style of wrestling, mostly because I have never really seen it. It's so interesting to see how much wrestling has changed over the years. The sport, the story, the production, everything. Quite amazing.

I am especially pleased with this match because it has Andre the Giant in it. I didn't watch wrestling much as a young girl, but I did watch a whole lot of the Princess Bride. Andre was my favorite part of the whole movie. I can honestly say I never saw Andre actually wrestle until I was about 16. By then, I missed everything (I am 22, now). So everytime I see Andre wrestle, it's brand new to me. He isn't quite the big huggable beast in the ring that he was in the movie, but he still has a definite charm in the ring. It's amazing to watch such a large person maneuver. When a person is that big they make the smallest wrestling maneuver seem simply devastating.

Actually, I just looked it up and here is a interesting fact, today is 10 days from the 13th anniversary of Andre's death. Everyone, take a moment to celebrate his life and check out one of his matches for FREE on www.ClickWrestle.com. (And check out The Princess Bride, too!)

Friday, January 13, 2006

Tales from the cage, part deux

Ahh! So.. I'll have you all know.. I am not suffering from multiple personality disorder. Let me explain what just happened in that last post.

So earlier today I opened up my little blogging tool and I tried to think of what to write about today.. I looked around.. and saw our cage. You read right, our cage. Bryan and I have our office in a section of the office which used to hold servers. The servers were kept within a cage that had a lock, so no one could come in a totally dismantle some poor website's servers. When BossMan got this office, he also received the server space. Bryan, who was hired before I was, took out all the old server equipment and set up desks in here to make it what is now our office. However, one thing remains.

The Cage!
Behold it's glory:

So, that is our cage. I thought it would be sort of funny to show people that I work in a cage, har har har. Well, I got up to borrow BossMan's camera and took a good look at the cage. Now, I'll admit that the door isn't usually shut on the cage, but I thought it would add some comedy to close the door for the picture. So I closed it, took a couple pics, and returned the camera to Jason. I turned around, and attempted to return to my desk.

I failed. Apparently the door on our cage self locks. It closes; it's locked. So I locked the cage. Doh! Not a big deal, right? Just ask Bryan (who is in the cage) to come unlock it. I call Bryan over and he informs me there is no latch from the inside either! So as I am locked out, he has it worse.. He is locked in! Finding this very funny I take advantage of Bryan's vulnerable state, and take a picture of him locked in the cage. I then proceed to ask half of the people in the building if they have a key to the cage. Nope. Bryan looks at me gravely at this point and says, "I have to go to the bathroom." BossMan finally remembers that he DOES have the key.. at his house. BossMan trudges off to get the key, and I try to figure out what I am going to do in the meantime.. Of course, I had left all of my windows open on my computer. Including the blog I was trying to write. (Not to mention my email, a few chat panels, etc.) Bryan took advantage of that fact and wrote that last blog you saw. BossMan appears to had made it back in time to let Bryan get to the bathroom, I certainly don't see any suspicious puddles in the cage.

So.. I suppose we do more than put wrestling matches online at ClickWrestle.com. We also lock our coworkers in cages. Friday the 13th, Cheers!

Tales from the cage!

Chynna Locked me in the cage at CW headquarters. help!!!

-Bryan

Thursday, January 12, 2006

ClickWrestle: Lets lick crew!

Ahh, Anagrams. Gotta love 'em. Clicker Welts is pretty good, too. Sorry no blog yesterday! I had to call in sick. If I can make a suggestion: Just say no to grocery store sushi. It may look JUST like the sushi in your favorite Japanese restaurant, but it's not. Beware.

Anyhow.. Today I spend the day rendering. What is rendering? Well.. Rendering is altering, or converting. When my computer is rendering, it's going ahead and actually making all the permanent changes to the video that I requested it to do. Unfortunately, while the video is rendering, I can't do anything else to it. When you do video editing all day, you spend a good deal of time looking at this tiny little window-

Beautiful, aint it? Not really. One of the hardest parts of my job is dealing with the downtime involved with video editing. As BossMan would put it, Human Time and Computer Time: two very different things. While the computer is taking time to do it's thing, I have to try my best to be productive with my Human Time. So what do I do. Well, I blog, for one.. Go over any number of office tasks, review incoming footage, write match descriptions, stick things in Bryan's hair. The usual. Still, I can't help but feel a little unproductive while the computer does it's thing. Especially when Bryan is not here for me to pester. (I wonder if the evil grocery store sushi got him, too?!) However, the outcome is worth the wait. You'd be surprised by just how much a little sprucing up to a video can help.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

There's something about Lacey

I am going to make an admission that a woman in my business shouldn't make, but I have to get it out. I am not entirely impressed with most US female wrestlers. There! I said it, that's right! Perhaps I've been spoiled by all of the awesome Japanese footage that has passed through my fingers here at CW headquarters, but it just seems like our American girls are not measuring up.

That said, when I do come across an American female wrestler who impresses me, I usually become a big fan quickly. Like Lacey. You may have noticed that one of her matches, against Tracey Brooks, came out on ClickWrestle today. Well, not only did that happen, but I also just happen to be editing a few of her matches today. Today I have been surrounded by the Lovely Lacy. I realized today that she is really pretty good. I didn't pay much attention to her when I first started getting her footage, but the more I watch, the more I like. She has fantastic ring presence, but above that, she is acrobatic. She moves gracefully and has some pretty surprising moves. She has a cartwheel into an elbow drop that never fails to impress me, and her ability to drop into the splits at the drop of a dime is cringingly awesome.
Anyhow.. Yay for Lacey, keep up the good work!

In other news.. I got pretty bored yesterday and redesigned the Production white-board. I tell ya, those white boards are the best.. They are like finger-paints for grown ups. BossMan probably doesn't appreciate my fine art, but I bet Bryan gets a kick out of those little hearts and swirls.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Monday: The pumice patch on your slip and slide.

Ahh.. A slow day at the office. I love when that happens.. The sort of day where no one bugs you, and you're free to get to all that work that has been piling up on you. I certainly seem to have gotten a lot done today, and the day is only half over!

First off, I finalized everything for the new shipment of female matches, so they should be appearing on the New Releases list fairly soon. Of course, the New Releases seem to have a mind of their own, who knows what's going to come out next? You see, here on the back end of ClickWrestle, I will take a few matches, prepare them and set them up to go out on the new release listings. However, the new releases are randomized, so any of the matches that are ready can go out at any time, not necessarily in the chronological order I put them in. Everyday is an adventure here at ClickWrestle. :P

After finishing up the new female matches I got some more new footage from the BossMan, including some awesome matches from IWA-MS and some footage from WWWA. Business is doing well, it seems!

And here is my obligatory plug for my co-worker, Bryan. He gave me a hard time about not spending a paragraph or two talking about what great work he does in my first blog... So here we are. Bryan is the most awesomest co-worker ever. And watch out ladies- He's single!

Sunday, January 08, 2006

SuperGirls Music Video


Just noticed the fine folks at ECCW have posted a SuperGirls Music Video on their site. The SuperGirls shows featured some great female wrestling matches and we thank ECCW for allowing us to bring you each and every match.

Be sure to watch the music video and visit the ECCW online store for SuperGirls DVD's, t-shirts and more.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Melissa vs. Sara Del Ray

I don't want to get into the habit of gushing over matches here, but tonight a very special match was posted on the site. The match was Cheerleader Melissa vs. Sara Del Ray from the ChickFight 3 tournament that took place last October at the APW Garage in California.

When it was announced that Sara Del Ray would be competing in ChickFight3 it was a real shocker. You see, Sara had turned her back on APW not too long ago to join rival promotion PWI and there was still some bad blood and hurt feelings between certain APW members and the wrestler who got her start in the business at APW and at the time was called "Nikki", now known as Sara Del Ray.

One person in particular that had issue with the return of Sara was Cheerleader Melissa. It was no secret around APW that Sara and Melissa had their fare share of problems getting along during training sessions. As Sara trained under American Dragon and Bobby Quance at APW Boot Camp, Melissa spent time in Japan and on the road perfecting her skills. Melissa's spot as top female wrestler was in jeopardy and many people were predicting that Sara would quickly pass up Melissa and prove to be the best female wrestler in APW and quite possibly North America.

Unfortunately, the question of Who is the Better Female Wrestler was never answered because as both women were quickly becoming outstanding wrestlers, Sara decided to leave APW and seek training from a rival school, while Melissa stayed with APW.

It was not until two years later, when APW announced the lineup for ChickFight3 that we realized there was a very real chance Melissa and Sara may finally have a chance to settle the debate. ChickFight3 was a tournament and both Melissa and Sara were a shoe-in to advance to the finals and hopefully compete against each other.

The night of the show a random drawing took place and the brackets were announced during the opening ceremonies. We were all surprised to find out that Melissa would be facing Sara in the opening round!

I'm not going to go into details on the match, but I will say that if you are fan of either Melissa or Sara or just female wrestling at all, you will not be disappointed with this match. I have seen many matches from both of them and have to say this is probably the best match I have ever seen out of these two amazing athletes. These women beat the hell out of each other for over 30 minutes and I still don't think we know who the better woman is. Hopefully we will see them again at ChickFight4!

Also be sure to check out the great free preview that is available for this match created by our own video whizz kid, Bryan. Bryan has been doing a great job creating these free previews for you and we sure hope you enjoy them.

Do not hesitate to buy this match. You will thank me.

Friday, January 06, 2006

First Day of Blogging!

Hey everyone!

I am Chynna! If you want to know a little more about me, you can check out my profile, but for now I will be using this as a platform to let everyone know what's going on with www.clickwrestle.com and, subsequently, what is going on in my world at work. On with the show, yes?

So today we got SIX years of footage from a southern California Indy wrestling promotion called "International Wrestling Council". They are an older promotion that went out of business a while back, but they have some pretty interesting stuff. A ton of Frankie Kazarian matches from early in his career, there is some B-Boy stuff, even a little bit of Puma before he was known as Puma (in this fed he was known as "Pinoy Boy").. And to spice it up a bit, there is even Cheerleader Melissa in this stack of footage; way back in her valet days with the Ballards. There is a ton of footage (64 discs! Jeez!) which means a ton of work for me, but I think it will totally be worth it to see a lot of my favorite Indy stars back when they were all very green. I'll let everyone know how the actual footage looks once I get into reviewing it.

In other news, I just finished previews for a batch of new women's matches from RF Direct called "IndyGirls 3". There are some really great matches in this batch, including some April Hunter, Talia, and Tracey Brooks stuff. I am a bit worried that some of the previews came off a little racey, especially the Talia/Alicia match.. But you guys will let me know what you think once they are released, right? =)

And as for the match that came out today, we have Pinoy Boy (Yay Puma!) against Ricky Reyes. Puma is one of my favorite wrestlers these days.. There is something about the way he moves.. He's a total predator. In any case, this match has him when he was totally green. You see all the spudding potential and he looks completely different without his developed body and mask.

Anyways, that's the day at work for me! If ya'll ever have any questions or suggestions for the site, be sure to let me know!