Five years ago, I started the Wrestling Express brand and even though it started with this website I branched it off to include YouTube and even Twitch. I will admit that I until last month I didn't know I had a Twitch either cause I hadn't touch Twitch since I started the account five years ago and didn't have a reason to even try it again. I always thought that my computer couldn't handle streaming, because it didn't seem to have that ability when I tried it five years ago. Instead of trying to learn how to do it or try figure out if I could actually do it I just gave up.
Earlier in the year I had an unhealthy fixation on finishing my books, and yes I know it's been a long time since I've mentioned the books to anyone and there is a reason. Last year, there really wasn't much to my life other then fixating on the book and trying to the book released. I had very little depth to life or meaning and I think the empty feeling I felt was tied to the fact that I really didn't have anything going on outside of the book. It is for this reason that I felt so lost when I thought when I finished the book, because I felt more empty and I was disappointed in myself for having a life without any depth or interest. I always thought I was never interesting enough for people to care about or want to be around and realizing that outside of the book I had nothing going on made me believe it was true. I will eventually release both books and know that spending this time holding them back will benefit everyone involved. Shifting all of my attention off the book and onto myself has been decision I could've made, because I found a way to add depth to my day to day. The depth has come in the form of friendships and streaming! I know both things seem normal, but neither of them have common a thread in my life until last month. Last Wednesday I spent four hours streaming over the course of the day which is something i never thought I would be able to do. I'm extremely grateful for the decisions I've made recently as it has made my life immeasurably better and I see that now. At first I was streaming as hobby just cause some of my friends were doing it and I wanted to try it myself, but last week I actually invested in the concept. I can't put into words how I felt at the end of second stream last Wednesday other than saying it was surreal. I have the best mods on Twitch, because I wouldn't be anywhere without them especially my first mod who is my best friend. I know you may not read this, but before you I had no friends and because of you I have more friends then I ever thought I could have. I'm humbled by the fact that people I barely know are willing to help me learn and get better with streaming it brings tears to my eyes. I'm not saying that I will end streaming for life, but it definitely has given me a little more of a purpose and it has brought me closer to people. I wanted this year to be different! I needed to rebuild myself this year and I've done more then that in ten months. I've taken a vacation alone, I've found a best friend, I stream, and have found the importance of feeling like I belong somewhere. I finally feel like I know what it means to be grateful!!
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For years I've tried to make use of social media to stick out from the pack and for the most part I've done things my way with recording videos only recording well one game Total Extreme Wrestling. After getting burned out from recording TEW for four years and leaning to much on the game without expanding content. Earlier this year I had finally hit the point where if I was going back to Youtube I was going to again do it my way, but expand my content to not just fixate on wrestling. I really couldn't just get behind recording and it wasn't, because I don't enjoy making videos anymore it's that I don't know where I'd go with it. I mean I wasn't as excited about the idea of recording anymore and wasn't pushing the videos or trying to grow my channel at all as that was never the goal or I never thought about it.
Upon launching Wrestling Express I first tried to find some way to make money with this site through affiliate marketing or advertising in general. I had an opportunity to join the affiliate program on Fite.TV all I had to do was fill-out some paperwork and the work I had to do wasn't much, but I didn't read at the time to know that instead I took one look at the paper work and thought it was complicated, that it would require too much work so I didn't do it. I passed on something that could've been a great opportunity to make money with this website, because I didn't want to do the work. Five years ago I wanted to do everything I wanted record, write, stream everything but didn't know how do any of it. Instead of focusing and trying to learn more about what I didn't know to get better at it I just focused on what I did know, because I didn't want to do the work to get better and didn't see a reason to learn more. I've always thought about giving streaming a try, but never wanted to for various reasons namely thinking nobody would watch. This year has been all about trying new things and undoing my past regrets that's why I'm doing. I don't know if I'm going to like it or a lot of the finer details that I know I don't need to know right now and can figure it out later, but I'm not unwilling to learn anymore. I thought you can try so why not and maybe it will be a good outlet for you and something new. Wrestling Express takes another step forward as I expand a little further. Join me as the roller coaster is back in service!!! Recently, I have been focused on the articles for the site and just really going through motions as it seemed like the right way to operate. It has been a long time since I've come up with an idea worth trying out and this isn't one of my worst ideas. I know that this might be a little far fetched and a bit of reach, but sometimes the best ideas are the ones that come from nowhere. I hope be able to help some lesser known streamers gain a stable following or even just get a little more eyes on people who deserve it.
I'm not doing this for myself or to help the site, this site is on stable ground right now and will be until I chose to take it from that foundation I laid it on. Until that point I will use my medium to help others improve the foundation which they laid and increase the likelihood they find stability. Think of this as a test run to see if I actually invest in this idea, but also to see if this idea actually works. Let the fun begin!! I just thought it would be time to break down the ongoing process when it comes to never promotion of the book that I've been playing to release for a few years at this point. I've said this before and I never really knew the amount of work that goes into not just writing a book, but I really started learning the process during recent months and it has given me insight on why I really couldn't wing everything when it came to the book. I was getting annoyed last year when I kept getting told to edit and edit and edit even though it should be something positive I didn't want to keep editing the book to the point that I was ready to send it to the publisher.
I knew those people were right and that's why neither book has been published as of right now. I remember going on podcasts two years telling people that the book would be done within a couple of weeks and that it would be released soon after, but the reality is neither book was ready and one actually sucked at the time. Looking back then I was extremely naive to any sort of process being in place when it came to writing a book I though I could just write and publish it like I did with blogs or this website. I know it's crazy to think someone could be that naive, but I am the same person that thought making a magazine in 2018 was a good idea. This won't be a long article, because it doesn't need to be as I've learned a tremendous amount in the last year about the process and that I know I've got a lot to learn and some of the process will just come as time goes on, but other things I've got to learn myself. I can finally say that I am getting there, because I made a mistake of leaning on one book even though that one has more work to be done. As some of you might know I've spent a lot of time working on "The Sale that Changed Wrestling" which focuses on the sale of WCW. Another book I've been working on is called "Wrestling with Generations" which focuses on a love of wrestling being shared through generations. The second book was the first one I started working on, but it landed in developmental hell for around a year when I worked on the WCW book. Even though "Wrestling with Generations" was further along and closer to being done I wanted to finish the WCW book first even though it would take a lot more work to finish. For the longest time "Wrestling with Generations" was always the second fiddle until recently when I realized how close I was to finishing it. There is no doubting now that "Wrestling with Generations" will be first and it's only a matter of time before I will be able to call myself a published author. I've never realized how much I wanted this to happen and will give the promotion everything I have this will work out as I plenty of faith. For the most part the only series that has stuck around for the channel next to the Let's Play series is the Inside TEW series. The difference between the Inside TEW series and regular Let's Play's is that the Inside TEW series consists only of my personal saves and weren't started with an end sight. In the past my go to for this series was the longstanding personal save I had with WCW. This video though explores my save with the WWF where I have finally landed in the mid 1990's and started to make a move to a more attitude focused product. Recently, Total Extreme Wrestling 2020 went on sale and that might've took some wind of the sail for the previous generation game. The reality is I've been focusing on preparing a new database for 2020 as my return to Let's Play's, but it's going to take a while to complete. I have been trying to move forward with a variety of content on the channel to take it in a more diverse direction, and even though wrestling will always have a place on the channel it will shift from being the main focus of the channel once I figure out a steady way to publish content. Back in the spring of 2016, Sam and I started a new Let's Play series as we went back to the original brand split in 2004. This was the first time that I actually attempted to work together with someone on a consistent basis. Starting with the just a video focused on signing new talent to WWE and figuring out what plans or ideas we had in mind for the series. After four years and many breaks in content due to real life getting in the way and forcing us to put the series on hold multiple times. Now with the next installment of the Total Extreme Wrestling franchise finally arriving it is time to move on past the longest running series on the channel. I think that it might be time to move on from the Let's Play concept and welcome new content channel. It was fun while it lasted but I think that if anything you could see a one off return, but never a full return to this series, because life has made it impossible for us to put TEW first like we use to. After around a year or so of recording a semi weekly podcast I decided after recording one final episode that I thought a monthly discussion would be better then trying for a podcast. Basically I thought that having one person to work with would be better then trying to keep finding a new guest for every new episode. This way also allowed for that type of content on the channel, but it would require a little less work then the podcast did to produce. It was very easy to set aside an hour to just talk about wrestling, and follow an outline based on the amount of news that had taken place in between our videos. It is hard to transition from having such an organized video to really winging it, but we did it and even though it might've taken a couple of videos we got a handle on it. A part of burning out last year this is one of the series that went away, but with rebuild it's time to give somethings another look. For those who don't know anything about this series, I decided to show how I would handle the move from the new generation to the attitude era. I have taken the slow approach to changing the weekly programming for WWE from family friendly to infusing a bit more attitude. However, I will not be shifting to the style of booking that Vince Russo was known for, because it's not my type of booking. I think wrestling should be portrayed in a certain way to not insult the fans or the sport of wrestling. In this episode I show the aftermath of our last PPV and the recent mind games someone is play with Ric Flair. At this point it has been a couple of weeks since I recorded an episode of the series and it's not that I've given up on the series it's more I've just taken a break. With the current situation I've been working a lot more often it's been harder to set aside time to record especially with the other ideas that I've been thinking about recording. It's like I want to record, but don't really know exactly what I want to record and instead of just recording anything I recorded only certain videos. I will get back on track eventually especially with TEW 2020 out now some new content will be filing in some blanks soon enough. After my computer crashed I had to settle on the original game from Grey Dog Software. It'd been a long time I had played Extreme Warfare Revenge and there is a massive learning curve with the game and normally around when you understand the game is when you get fired. It is very easy to do everything right in this game and still find a way to get fired for no real reason or without even trying. In my opinion, this is a good game for people who just want a basic experience of what it is like to run the creative of a wrestling company. The next game Total Extreme Wrestling is a far more in depth look into the world of running a wrestling company and having creative control. I've always had an interest in the backstage side of wrestling and finding a game like EWR that would give me a taste of what it's like well I enjoyed it. Then finding TEW and the added depth that the game brought to the table was enough to make me want to try a new game and I loved it. I remember this video and it was great throwback, but I don't know that I can go back after playing TEW. Enjoy this trip down memory lane!!! Recently, I began a series on YouTube were I search the web for a quote someone said and include it in a video and then pose the question what does it mean to you. It's meant to be a simple series with more of a focus placed on your opinion rather then mine like every other series on the channel has been to this point. Once I decided to change the name of the channel and break it off a little bit I knew that some new content had to come to the channel. I wasn't expecting to do a series like this, but after seeing these headlines I thought it would make for an interesting video for you. Right now I will begin to branch off this series to other sports as well including MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, UFC, and others. I will also still be focusing some attention on the initial series which focused on quotes that people have said. I know that this could do better with a different title, but I prefer uniformity over click bait titles and this was more of a test run then a full launch for a new series. |
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