I sat down to begin finalizing my 2020 year end review on Christmas Eve so I could avoid thoughts of my Father's death, two years earlier. I had put a lot of the grunt work in and was formatting it to look good on the website.
On Christmas, I just drank. Another tool of avoidance. So I sat down on the 26th feeling a little bit better and ready to finish the 2020 review.
About an hour into it, I refreshed FB and saw a post in one of the wrestling groups I'm in that Jon Huber, aka Brodie Lee had died.
My response was probably screamed in unison throughout the country at the time: What the fuck?
I closed out all my writing tabs and went to Twitter to investigate if this was just another stupid celebrity hoax.
And there it was, from AEW itself.
Every wrestling death I've experienced started flashing through my mind, every ten bell salute and I was right back to Christmas Eve again.
I sit here now looking at the work I put in on the review and it all seems so fucking trivial - the wins and losses, the best matches and best promotions.
Anyone who watches prowrestling or indiewrestling knows who the best of the best are and ranking matches is subjective, if anything.
2020 sucked for everyone in some way. I'm thankful though that there was still something to watch most of the time. There were promotions that lifted the business upon it's shoulders and carried it when some were kicking at their shins. Other promotions fought to bring shows to us, having to work endless hours simply getting people to the shows through cancelations and internet vitirol.
We've lost so many stars of this business this year, some you've seen or heard of, some you may not.
La Parka II – Jan 11, 2020.
Rocky Johnson – Jan 15, 2020.
Black Demon – April 13, 2020.
Howard Finkel – April 16, 2020.
Shad Gaspard – May 17, 2020.
Hana Kimura – May 23, 2020.
Danny Havoc – May 31, 2020.
Kamala – August 9, 2020.
Xavier – August 16, 2020
‘Bullet’ Bob Armstrong – August 27, 2020
Joseph “Animal” Laurinaitis – September 22, 2020
Tracy Smothers – October 28, 2020
RJ ‘The Bruiser’ Meyers – November 16, 2020
Pat Patterson – December 2, 2020
Danny Hodge – December 26
Brodie Lee – December 26
Incidentally, the man I was naming Indie Wrestler of the Year, AJ Gray, lost his Grandfather around the same time.
Life is funny that way, I suppose. It continues to remind us on a daily basis that none of us are here forever, regardless of who we are. Be it a superstar, a wrestler on the brink of superstardom or a drunk who writes about each. For everything that we don't have in common, we are all bound by the same realities at the end of the day.
What's frustrating, though, is we seem to take it all for granted more often than not. Each other. The amazing community we have at our fingertips. The excess of content to consume. None of it's good enough we'd rather fight or finger point.
That's the shit that should die.
2020 had it's share of great wrestling moments. Great wrestling matches. I think, however, when I think back on 2020, I'll just remember how we pushed and fought to make it through a mentally exhausting year that felt like a decade inside of a minute.
I think the right thing is to thank every individual, be it performer, crew member, ticket taker, etc. for putting themselves in harms way to entertain us in a year that we needed you the most.
I know I needed you. And I thank you.
Dennis