2012 Centy Awards

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything.  Chad and I once again collaborated and came up with the 2012 Centy Awards, honoring the best and worst of 2012 in the world of professional wrestling.  We announced our choices on a recent episode of From the Rafters Radio along with co  host Chris Hagstrom and friend of the show "Big Z 38" Greg Davis.  Here's our picks, and be sure to watch the video at the end, as there is an explanation behind the picks that Chad and I made.  Thanks for supporting My 1-2-3 Cents through the years!

Wrestler of the Year
Chad: Austin Aries
Kevin: CM Punk
Chris: CM Punk
Greg:  CM Punk

Most Hated
Chad: Randy Orton
Kevin: Brooke Hogan
Chris: Triple H
Greg: Rob Van Dam

Most Under-appreciated 
Chad: SHIMMER
Kevin: PAC
Chris: Dolph Ziggler
Greg: El Generico

Most Overrated
Chad: Jeff Hardy
Kevin: Alberto Del Rio
Chris: Randy Orton
Greg: Rob Van Dam

Breakout Star of the Year
Chad: Mr. Touchdown
Kevin: Mr. Touchdown
Chris: PAC
Greg Davis: ACH

Show of the Year
Chad: TNA's Bound for Glory
Kevin: AAPW's Main Event
Chris: AAPW's Main Event
Greg: Chikara's King of Trios Night 3

Star on the Horizon
Chad: Michael Elgin & Willie Mack
Kevin: Heath Hatton
Chris: Matt Cage
Greg: Paige

Female of the Year
Chad: Sara Del Rey
Kevin: Miss Tessmacher
Chris: Sara Del Rey
Greg: Sayra Knight

Best Use of Social Media
Chad: The Batiri
Kevin: The Batiri
Chris: Jim Ross
Greg: CM Punk

Biggest Fall from Grace
Chad: Zack Ryder
Kevin: Zack Ryder
Chris: Zack Ryder
Greg: Jim Cornette

Black Friday: Wrestling Style

Head to TheBatiri.com for details

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

Last year I wrote a post on Black Friday about the cool wrestling related items one can pick up online or in the store.  This year, I'm better versed in the world of indie (or is it indy?) wrestling, so I've moved away from the WWE and TNA shop zone sites.  Don't get me wrong, they have good stuff too, but I want to focus on some of the "outside the box" deals I've come across.

First up is the Batiri.  They of course are a trio from Chikara Pro, Wrestling is Fun, and AIW.  Two demons and a goblin who are quite the online businessmen.  Their site (click here for more) has a number of items up for grabs.  Two have caught my eye.  One being the new Batiri hoodie.  As you can see it features the members as legendary rockers Kiss.  It's an awesome design, and they're running deals with it on their website.  The other thing from this threesome that I actually bought was their Mystery Bag.  Although the experience was not exactly what I thought it would be, I did have fun with the reveal.  Check out the video below for the details.  None the less, if you do order something from them, they do a good job getting it shipped out and communicate well via email if you run into any problems.

Barbershopwindow.com

The Barbershop Window is a relatively new site, at least to me.  I discovered it about a year ago and I love their selection of tshirts.  Some of their designs and ideas are very original.  The Monsoon/Heenan 2012 was a neat idea for the recent presidential race.  They've also done fundraising tshirts to help wrestlers in need.  The Kamala one they did earlier in the year was really neat.  Co-blogger Chad picked up a couple of their shirts late last year.  He bought me the "Will You Stop" featuring Gorilla Monsoon and he got himself Vince McMahon's "What a Maneuver" design.  Even non-wrestling fans ask me about the Gorilla shirt.  It's one of my favorite shirts to wear.

coltmerch.com

Colt Cabana may be the king of merchandising.  He's a one man show, traveling city to city all over the world selling his wares.  He has a ton of cool shirts and poster designs on his website Colt Merch.  When he wrestled at AAPW's Zero Hour back in October (which will also soon be available on DVD, check here for details soon) I picked up a poster.  I had Colt sign it too.  I haven't done anything with it yet, as I plan to create some kind of My 1-2-3 Cents backdrop for the YouTube channel after the first of the year.  Colt's poster will be a part of it.  But if you're not into posters, like I said, there's plenty of other things there.  He personally ships everything himself too.  To me it's good knowing that my purchase is going directly into Colt's (or whatever indie star's) pocket and not through several other channels along the way.

I've only scratched the surface here.  There are plenty of great items out there and for fairly reasonable prices.  Good luck in your pursuits.  Thanks for reading.

Boo: Halloween Meets Christmas

UltraMantis Black
Photo credit: Scott Finkelstein
getlostphotography.smugmug.com

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

Earlier this year I experienced my first two live Chikara shows, "Hot Off the Griddle" and "The Contaminated Cowl."  Many of the wrestlers on the roster have larger than life personas.  Their costumes are as bold as their characters.  I've written about many of them, and will continue to do so.

One of the wrestlers on the shows who stood out to me was UltraMantis Black.  He describes himself as "devious" and often teams with Hallowicked.  Chad blogged about him last year in our Boo series.  Click this link for that writeup.

Black has been with Chikara since the company launched more than ten years ago.  I find that impressive, and shows me he has incredible staying power.  I know times weren't always great for Chikara, but to have the tenacity to stick around and help build the company into the success it is today says something to me.  Another unique aspect of UltraMantis Black is his mask.  Many of the wrestlers in Chikara have unique masks.  He looks like a praying mantis, much like the Colony masks emulate what you'd expect an ant to look like. I think that's part of the attraction to the company.  It's not a bunch of cookie cutter stars.  Black wears the same basic design of mask, but he has many different colors.  Many of them have significant meaning to tie in with the storyline.

Photo from: m-drop.com

Besides his outstanding work in the ring, the thing that stood out to me the most about Black is his tattoos.  His arms are covered in them.  With a name like devious used to describe him and his relationships with the Batiri, Hallowicked, and Delirious; you might expect demons, ghosts, and other demonic creatures as his body art.  Instead Black has lots of Christmas ink.  By far they are the coolest tattoos I've seen on a wrestler.  If he happens to read this, I would really love the chance to get more in depth about the meaning of the tats.  The artwork is fantastic, and being a big fan of Christmas myself, I love what he's done.  So, Mr. Black, if you would be willing to answer some questions for the blog, email me sometime my address is right here.

Spectral Envoy wins King of Trios 2012
Photo credit: Zia Hiltey

2012 has been a good year for the man under the mask.  UltraMantis Black and his teammates in the Spectral Envoy, Hallowicked and Frightmare (who Chad also blogged about last year, click here for that) won the presitgious King of Trios tournament, defeating four talented trios teams along the way.  He and Hallowicked are also in good standings in the tag team ranks of Chikara, and have earned the right to face the Campenatos de Parejas.

I've barely scratched the surface with UltraMantis Black, but like I mentioned earlier, I'm still kinda new to Chikara.  But the bottom line is, I enjoy what he does in the ring and think he helps define the significance of Chikara Pro in the indie scene and beyond.  He has a website too, check it out sometime by clicking here.

Boo: Welcome to Bled Island

Kodama, Kobald, & Obaryion
The Batiri
Photo from: TheBatiri.com

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger & @my123cents on Twitter

The end of the world is coming on December 21, 2012.  If you don't believe me, just ask the Batiri.  This threesome is made up of the Obaryion and Kodama (the demons with the green face paint) and their goblin buddy Kobald. The threesome has made quite an impact on Chikara Pro and other indie wrestling companies.

According to their official website the Batiri was selected by the devious Ultra Mantis Black (I'll be posting about him later this month) to wreck havoc on the world.  Sinn Bodhi (who wrestled very briefly for the WWE as Kizarny) trained this trio.  They plan to kick off a Batiri Apocalypse and rule the world as we know it.

If you follow @Batiri on Twitter, they'll keep you informed on their plans for world domination.  On a recent episode of From the Rafters Radio we interviewed Kobald.  To say the goblin is spooky may be the understatement of the year.  His demonic tones had the hosts of the show on edge the entire time.  We're not certain, but we believe he may have cast some sort of spell on the station that night as whenever the Batiri are mentioned on the air something inevitably goes haywire.

The Batiri attacks Sara Del Rey
"The Contaminated Cowl"
Photo by My 1-2-3 Cents

My first Chikara show in person I got to see all three members wrestle.  Obaryion and Kodama were on the losing end to The Throwbacks and Kobald ended up losing to Mixed Martial Archie at the "Hot Off the Griddle" event.  The next day at "The Contaminated Cowl" Kodama and Kobald lost in a tag team elimination match and Obaryion used a flying DDT to defeat the very talented Sarah Del Rey.  Both shows were a lot of fun and it was interesting see the Batiri out before and after their matches interacting with fans and selling merchandise.

Speaking of their merchandise you should really check it out on their page.  They sell a mystery bag of items.  It's only $6, but you never know what you're going to get.  So if you ever get a package from Bled Island, I would be careful when opening it.  Remember, the Batiri plan on ruling the world by December 21, are you with them or against?  I'm with them, as I picked the demons to win the King of Trios this year.  If we're around in 2013, don't bet against them.