Journal 12
by Tony Kozina on 2000-06-09

I know, I know. It's been way to long since i've last written. I have been very busy, but now the schedule has died down once again so I have the time to take a rest, collect my thoughts, and fill you all in on just what the hell has been going on.

The Northern Hell Tour was much busier this year than last. Longer road trips between towns, and more car troubles to boot! I did however get to enjoy the luxury of driving a nice rental car from Terrace to Prince Rupert. What a beautiful drive. What made it better was that I had a cassette tape of assorted music that I listened to while I drove. Never before has Iron Maiden's song "Stranger in a strange land" been more appropriate. Call me nutty, but it was awesome!!! Speaking of Iron Maiden... hold on...okay there it goes. That's right!!!

The brand new studio release Brave New World filling my ears with Heavy Metal goodness.

Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the beautiful city of Prince Rupert, BC. I roomed with Juggernaut on the sixth floor of a very nice hotel overlooking the water. We shot some quick video of us up there too. It really was something. The following day he drove with me in the rental car back to Terrace and I filled him in on some of Iron Maiden best pieces of work. After listening to classics like "The evil that men do", "Powerslave", and "Can I play with madness" he was hooked and loving it. We all ventured up north to only about 120 miles south of Whitehorse, in the galldarn Yukon my friends. ECCW has even teased the idea of running shows up in the Yukon later this year. I wouldn't want to miss that tour for the World.

I learned a bit about myself in recent months as well. Let me elaborate if you will...

I was at a Seattle mall with my family and I went into the coolest toy store i've ever seen. In fact the whole mall was the neatest place i've ever been to. I'm no mallrat by any means, but they had some incredible stores and I could have spent a small fortune that day... Anyways, this toy store had Excitebike 64 on display and ready to play. Now, I being an avid supporter of the older, classic video games, remembered this fun game and thought that i'd give the new and apparently improved game a whirl. I won't go into too much embarassing detail, but I was thrown off, trounced, ran over, and had fallen so far behind in the race that I was plowed into by a rider crossing over where the track criss-crossed. (does that make sense?) It was then that I realized that my best days of video gaming are far behind me. But I ask you, why do we need 25 buttons on the damn controller anyways? What happened to a joystick, and two simple but wonderful buttons? Run and jump. It's really all you need. Life was so much easier jumping on a turtle's back, or pumping up little colorful monsters with an air pump until they exploded, but I know i'm fighting a losing battle- what can you do...

I am excited about the ECCW relationship with IWA Japan and Korea Pro Wrestling. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will get to tour over there before the year is through. There is one coveted item that I as well as a few other ECCW wrestlers want to possess. A title belt you wonder? Nope!! It's the almighty Ribera jacket from Tokyo, Japan. Don't ask me why but if it's the last thing I do I will have one. I heard that Starr and Juggernaut already got theirs and i'll admit i'm green with envy.

Well, I've got another week or so until things pick back up. Until next time, I leave you to recall the bathroom scene from the movie Detroit Rock City. For those of you that haven't seen the movie- go out and rent it. The 20 second scene alone is worth the 4 bucks. Just remember me when you're on the floor having a fit and scrambling for the remote to rewind and watch the scene time and again.