A New Year, a New APWF

Hi Everyone, and Happy New Year!

I waited on purpose to write a new blog, as I wanted to see how the TNA vs. WWE challenge on Monday night played out. It was the biggest night in wrestling in the last ten years, and played out pretty much like I thought it would. More on that in a moment!

On New Years Eve day, I got remarried to Katherine Peck. If you attend APWF shows, you've seen her, and know I'm a very lucky man. I'm very happy! Finding someone like this following the death of a spouse is never an easy thing. The new Kathy Lash and I dated in high school, and reunited earlier this year. By the way she loves wrestling, and allows me to be involved in it. You will always see me with a smile on my face again at a show near you!

I hope you enjoyed watching the interview with my new Gem City Wrestling partner. Whe are very serious about this new project and challenge. Filming a wrestling TV show is a lot different than doing basically a house show. I still believe a good TV product can build attendance, and that is our hope as we debut later this year. It also gives a lot of good Ohio and Pittsburgh talent, yet another opportunity to apply their skills. And doing TV is another good learning experience. I for one, have no problem in front of a camera, but look forward to getting better at it as well!!

Vince McMahon is and will always be the greatest marketer and brander of his kind! The single sole reason that the WWE will always be successful and the leader in sports entertainment is that he has branded his product so rock solid that he will never be beaten again. He proved it to me again in the recent Monday Night Raw here in Dayton. The show went up against TNA on live TV. And except for the return of Bret Hart, he didn't react to what TNA was doing. Because he doesn't have too! While TNA had several surprises (Jeff Hardy and Ric Flair), Vince never missed a beat with his cable brand called RAW!! You can throw Hulk Hogan at him all day, he will not lose again! My two negatives on the WWE right now are: 1) same thing every week with a small roster 2) Their almost TOO big at live events.

But there's a part of me that wishes he would! We need the competition. When I started the APWF in 1997, it was almost a can't lose proposition! We drew big crowds, and all of wrestling was much bigger than! The WWE, WCW and ECW were hot. And so where we, along with most every other indy out there. Its also why I push the bottons of the other promotion in our area. I've tried to pick a fight with them from time to time, because competition is good for all of us.

People as me why I still care about wrestling? Three reasons: 1) Diceman 2) I grew up on it 3) it still better than 95% of everything else on TV.

I love it when I hear other promoters say: "I never watch the WWE or TNA" What? Why? I watch for different reasons then most of you do. But you have to watch, just to stay up on what's going on, so it can benefit your indy product. I always get ideas while watching. Lighting ideas, video ideas, and many other things!!

Right now, ROH is my favorite promotion. I love the athletes, love Jim Cornette, and love the fact that its basic and about wrestling. No comedy skits here, they cut promos, challenge each other to fights, and then go wrestle the match. They could push their storylines alittle harder for me, but I still enjoy what they are about!! If you don't get HD Net like I do, I invite you to go to You Tube and watch their TV episodes each week! Even with their recent losses to TNA and the WWE, there's still a ton of talent out there to continue to help them grow! I will agree however with a fellow promoter who said "They don't sell enough in matches."

We're finalizing our last tag team for the next APWF show on February 28th. This show looks really good on paper! All we need is for you to join suspended promoter Bubba Brewer at ringside to watch the show!!

Thanks for reading! I'm off to watch both ROH and TNA! I DVR'd both while attending RAW here in Dayton the other night!

Chris Lash
APWF Founder

NWA East/Heroes of Wrestling
Gem City Wrestling Promoter