Author: DJ Jarka

Remembering Brodie Lee The day after Christmas in 2021, I finished snow blowing and shovelling around our house. I undressed from my winter clothes and sat on my couch. Was ready to treat myself after digging my family out from the latest snowstorm to hit our area by drinking some hot tea provided by my wife and watching some football for the rest of the night. I decided to check my phone as I saw some alerts popped up while I was outside. Seeing that I received two text messages from friends and a slew of Facebook messenger notifications. They…

Just like at the 2018 Fairground Fallout Return of the Empire, the 2019 showing will also be a charity event. All proceeds will go toward the East Shelby Volunteer Fire Company. Coming off its first-ever sold-out event at the St. Johnsburg Fire Hall in North Tonawanda, N.Y., Empire State Wrestling (ESW) looks to continue its strong momentum when it returns to the  Orleans County 4H Fairgrounds in Albion, N.Y. for “Fairground Fallout: Return of the Empire” on Saturday, May 4. “Not only did we raise a significant sum of money for (East Shelby Volunteer) Fire Company from the first event…

A new tradition was born nine years ago that honors Buffalo’s wrestling past and connects it to independent wrestling’s modern-day stars. This trophy match links its winner to one of the Queen City’s most recognized wrestling names. This is the history of The llio DiPaolo Memorial Cup. On November 20, 2013, the first Ilio DiPaolo Memorial Cup match took place at the Kenan Center in Lockport, N.Y. at Empire State Wrestling’s WrestleBash 2013. The match featured six combatants who quested for the trophy in the inaugural bout. Along with the DiPaolo Cup itself, the winner also received an ESW title…

Hello everyone. This latest blog entry is about my time at Empire State Wrestling’s Rochester event on February 22nd, 2020, called “Second Coming”. Let’s dive right into the happenings and some other tidbits on this show. My preparations for the day went a lot smoother than the previous month. I started getting everything prepared as soon as I woke up and it was a lot less stressful of a situation. My wife stayed home with our daughter for this one. I ended up driving there by myself. Earlier in my referee career, I made this drive to Rochester a lot.…

Hello, everyone and thank you again for checking in on the Jarkaster Journey! This entry will be about my time at Empire State Wrestling’s latest event “Shipwrecked on Grando Island” on Saturday, January 25th, 2020 as my home promotion started out the new decade by debuting at a new location. I liked how my last entry worked out when I formatted it with bullet points, so I plan on doing that again here and moving forward. Shipwrecked on Grando Island was held at the Radisson Hotel in Grand Island, N.Y. Not only was this the first ESW event at this…

The Return Hello, everybody! Thank you once again for reading my blog. My last entry was far from my usual chipper ones. But I can say with confidence that this one is much different. Let’s start where I left off in February, approaching my final treatment of my chemotherapy cycle in early March. The last treatment went as smoothly as possible. The post-treatment fatigue was as tough as it’s been, granted there were no major medical incidents, so I buckled down and hoped that I was at the end of the tunnel soon. I was ready to be done with…

Hello, everybody! Thanks for stopping by for another installment of my “journey” as a referee on the independent pro wrestling circuit. I put the word “journey” in quotes this time because, with the current state of society, my journey is at a standstill. These are the beginnings. I wish I was previewing Empire State Wrestling shows. Or going into detail about the fun times and weird happenings I encountered at them. But with the global concern about COVID-19 being paramount these days, independent wrestling, as we all know, is at a standstill. With nothing else to really discuss wrestling-wise on…

Hello everybody! This is another edition of the Jarkaster Journey and the first featuring another promotion in New York State that regularly books me: Southern Tier Wrestling (STW). This is Gold Rush 2019. Here is a little background on STW. Formed in 2016 by Randy Grey and Jon Osterdahl, STW is based in the Southern Tier region of Western New York, with the majority of its events held in Jamestown, N.Y., and its surrounding towns. If you are unfamiliar with Jamestown, the city is located about a 1.5-hour drive south of Buffalo, N.Y. and is most famous for being the…

Hello, everyone! On this life entry on my time as a referee, I will sum up my experiences at Empire State Wrestling’s (ESW) Wrestlebash X event held on Saturday, November 23rd, 2019. It was held at the Kenan Center in Lockport, N.Y. which is a very special place for me. This is – my Wrestlebash X experience. As some people may know from my very first post on here, I began my referee career in Ohio in September 2007. I did not ref my first event in my home state of New York until the following summer. That very first…

Hello, everyone! In 2019, one of my adventures in pro wrestling takes me all the way to Cuba, a collision in cuba. No, not the island nation, but a small town nestled in a remote part of Western New York. This is Collision in Cuba. For this Empire State Wrestling event, I played a small role in its planning. My friend Kip Doyle is an avid pro wrestling fan and also puts on an annual benefit show in Cuba – his hometown – in memory of his good friend that died from cancer a few years ago. In previous installments…