MsChif

There were quite a few different ideas in my head when I started blogging today. First, I thought I'd talk a little bit about our first release today, a free streaming APW internet title match. Free matches, doesn't get much better than that, right? Well then I saw the featured match of the day, featuring Allison Danger against the deadly Mschif. I thought I would tell you all that we have a dozen Mschif matches on ClickWrestle, so if you haven't seen her.. Do it NOW! But then a thought came into my mind, and it pushed all of those ideas out.

MsChif versus Mariko Yoshida. Two of the most brutal female wrestlers, world wide. Could you imagine the carnage? The flexibility, skill, passion, and rage that both of those women possess is unsurpassed. I know it's highly unlikely.. Mariko Yoshida spending a good 98% of her time in Japan, and I don't think I've seen MsChif on this coast.. But boy, a gal can dream can't she?

Adobe Premiere 2.0

Keeping up with the software in video editing is proving to be a bit of an annoyance at the moment. Adobe Premiere 2.0 is supposed to have a multi-camera editing tool that rocks. It's supposed to be able to keep up with the newest version of final cut pro. That is.. if I can get it to function. I've been wrestling with the multi-cam feature all day.. it's wearing me out.

In other news- Our presidents day sale is running! 50% off all downloads. How awesome is that? I suggest you all catch our latest two matches while the sale is still running. They are 2 consecutive matches from UWF, where Sabu and Al Snow rekindle an old feud. Definately not to be missed!

Get down, girl.. Go head, get down!

The featured match of the day today is Immortal Fear versus The Mafia versus Girls Gone Wrestling versus All Pro Rangers, a match brought to us by APW. At the time of this match Immortal Fear was yet to be split, and they were regularly escorted to the ring with their valet, Payton. Immortal Fear was the reigning Tag Team Champions for over half a year. Payton was quite fond of the titles, as you can see in the photo. At that time, Payton had quite a bit of a chip on her shoulder, and she didn't seem to care much for anyone but Immortal Fear.

Time has passed, the team that was known as Immortal Fear has split, and everyone has gone their own ways, including Payton. These days Payton seems to be quite a bit friendlier, and has gotten especially friendly with the current HeavyWeight Champion, Derek Sanders. 3 Weeks ago Derek happened upon the tag team titles. This might just be a coincidence, but it seems like after he got the titles she got really sweet on him. It could be that Derek had helped her out with a few guy troubles with her former guy, Billy Blade... But I think this tag team title thing is just a little too serendipitous. Has Derek caught a bit of a gold-digger? I dunno...

Space Jams; I believe I can fly

Amongst the other tedious tasks I come across on a daily basis, I think file transfers are about as high up on the annoyance scale as rendering is. I say this because today as I edit Fergal Devitt verus JJ Perez I keep running in to Space Jams. No, not the movie. I keep running out of space on my drives. AVI files are disgustingly huge. The average uncompressed match takes up about 7-8 gigs of hard drive space. Even though we have over a thousand gigs worth of hard drive space here in the office, I still find that it's not always enough. Saying that out loud makes the whole thing seem ridiculous. There should be enough room! Perhaps the problem is that it's not continual hard drive space, it's sectioned up into 10 or so different drives.

So as the files transfer ever so slowly, I take the time to look over my small unfinished projects and bring them to conclusion. I finished up mid-2005 APW matches I had been meaning to get to for the past 2 weeks or so, dusted off some IWC matches and shined them up, stuck those on line. And, most excitingly, started looking for new content providers. I got a list of about 30 or so companys I am going to contact in the next few days to see if they'd like to put their footage on clickwrestle. I'd also like to encourage you, constant reader, to send in your ideas. Have a favored promotion you'd like to see on CW? Write to me at Chynna@blackpants.net and let me know what you think.

An Executive Transvestite. Well, not quite.

I made it through the weekend, impressed? Here I am today, to report back to you, constant reader. On Saturday I had an APW show where, yay!, Fergal Devitt finally showed up. He turned out to be a fantastic wrestler, with an amazing physique and wonderful technical abilities. But I am not here to talk about his wrestling, no matter how excellent it might be. I am here to talk about his odd resemblance of one of my favorite comedians, Eddie Izzard. Here, look at these photos:

Bryan doesn't see it, but I think he is nuts. Those guys look so similar! Keep your eye open for Fergal's match coming up on ClickWrestle!

In other news, we are adding Mac Support to clickwrestle! All new matches coming up will soon have quicktime counterparts! Woo!

The United Wrestling Federation

Finally! The secret is out. ClickWrestle is glad to announce that we will now be carrying matches from Dave Hebner's new promotion, the United Wrestling Federation! We are now carrying their first two shows from the Buckle Up! tour of 2006. The first show's date was 1/13/06! That's less than a month ago. There are a ton of great stars in this footage, including Al Snow, Shannon Moore, The James Gang, Spike Dudley, The Dudley Brothers, Jeff Jarrett and AJ Styles, plus so many more.

We hope you enjoy this footage!

Beth Phoenix vs. Allison Danger

Worked on finishing up a shimmer preview today. Beth Phoenix versus Allison Danger. Any comments or suggestions are always appreciated! =) You should all check it out anyway, if not for my splendiforous editing, than because Beth and Allison are total babes and great wrestlers to boot!

Super Secret Surprise matches still haven't released! Agh... Soon! Soon!

So much Shimmer, and so little time.

Short blog today, I have been a bit pre-occupied with some editting stuff. I notice that we had 3 shimmer releases in a row. What a treat for you fans! But it makes me wonder if our random-releases are so random after all.

Hopefully some of that special surprise footage will make it out tonight.. Hmm!

Dressing for success.. (Or is that dressing LESS for success?)

For those of you that didn't know, I'll let you all know a little something about me. I fancy myself a seamstress. In fact, I made a wrestling gear for a short period of time. So now when I watch wrestling, I do find myself a bit distracted from the actual wrestling and pay a bit more attention to what the wrestlers are wearing. Okay, I'll admit it. There are times when I think that I may not be able to continue watching a match when the wrestler has a major outfit flaw. For example, there was a time that one of the wrestlers at APW, who shall remain nameless (coughinternetchampcough!), came out to the ring in trunks and a tanktop. With the tank top tucked into his trunks. Tucked. That's right, Tucked.

In any case, I thought I would point out today's new release. It stars Shantelle Taylor versus Tiana Ringer. Now, the wrestling was good, but I thought I'd make it a point to point out who I thought had the best gear in the whole Shimmer show.. and that would be Shantelle Taylor. And why do I think she has the best gear? Well, let's see..

• Bikini Cut: Good.
• Criss-Cross Straps: Very good.
• Studded accents: Excellent
• Matching bracers: Check!
• Skull and Crossbone buckle: Adorable
• Less is more? Indeed.

However, honorable mentions go to Christie Ricci for her great knee-boot covers, and Sara Del Ray because I am a sucker for camo.

Also, that exciting new footage is just about done! It should be coming your way very soon. And one last thing, good ol' Bryan pointed something out to me today. One of our wrestlers, and past HeavyWeight champion, Kafu appears to have a history of family in wrestling..



What do you guys think, don't they look alike? Heh! The man on the left is actually Chin Lee, he wrestled in the early seventies with Suki Sito. Boy, they do look alike though. Maybe Kafu isn't Brazilian after all.

She's so Vaine, she probably thinks this post is about her.

Yesterday morning we had another Shimmer Release! Team Blondage, Krissy Vaine and Amber Oneal, takes on Cindy Rogers and Nikki Roxx. Of the four women in this match, I have to say I was most intrigued to see Krissy Vaine in action.

Cindy Rogers I have seen in multiple matches, as well as Nikki Roxx. I pretty much have made up my mind about those two, but the other two women I had still yet to make my opinion on. I had never seen Amber O'neal before, but I had seen one match involving Krissy Vaine before. She seemed to be a decent worker, and she had a certain attitude about her. In any case, I think I paid the most attention to Krissy when watching this match.

Krissy and her partner came off pretty prissy in this match, not quite the spunky gal she was in the match I had seen her in prior. However, before that could put me too far off with her attitude, she FINALLY got in the ring, and I got to see her in action. She may be prissy with her looks, but once in the ring, she is brutal. You guys definitely check that match out.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Hey kids! I am back after a short/forgetful absence. There has been a lot going around at the office, it's made my blog sort of fall to the wayside. My apologies! I'll try to stay more on top of this thing.

Today I finished a very fun trailer for the Sara Del Ray/Cheerleader Melissa match that took place on the Bakersfield show I worked two weekends ago. I have been getting some training so hopefully my trailers will be getting better and better. Keep your eye open for this match, I am pretty proud of the trailer. =) As well as finishing that trailer, I also finished the editing for all but one of the matches from that show. Multi-Camera editing can be a bit of a pain, but I think I prefer it over live switching.. This way I always know I am getting the best shot, not whatever someone else thinks is the best shot.

Also! I want to let you know that there is some VERY exciting new footage that will be coming to ClickWrestle.com soon. There are some huge names in this stuff. You guys will love it. =)

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.

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! =)

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!)