Hello, everybody.
It’s been almost a full year since I sat down and wrote a blog on my times as a pro wrestling referee. 2025 was a hectic year for me, filled with ups and downs both inside and outside the ring. I will do my best to recap it here.
My last blog left off looking ahead to March 2025 with two Empire State Wrestling events that were coming up. One was an ESW Keystone event called Crisis in Erie, Penn. and the other was an ESW’s Tough Luck ‘25 in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Crisis was the last ESW Keystone event to date. The major factor that allowed ESW Keystone to come about was an already existing relationship with the Saga Club in Erie.
However, the Saga Club was purchased with the intent of renovations being done, which would prevent pro wrestling events from being held in the immediate future. Thus, Crisis marked the final time ESW-K would hold an event there.
The event featured a bulk of up-and-comers from the ESW roster with a few staples of the Erie wrestling scene. I worked the door as I did previous ESW-K events and refereed a few matches, including the main event. The night ended with a pair of brawling big men facing off as Benett Cole beat Zach Nystrom.
Year in Review 2025
There was some preliminary work done in looking for a new Erie venue for ESW-K, but nothing substantial came to fruition over the last year.
I don’t see it returning in the near future, but never say never. ESW still possesses enough of the infrastructure to bring it back if a venue becomes available or if there is anyone looking to partner in Pennsylvania.
Tough Luck ‘25 was the first ESW event in New York of 2025. There was a bigger layoff in between events (last New York one was in November 2024) than we liked but venue availability pushed the first date of the year back to what it was. The event featured many wrestlers that would serve as the core roster throughout the year.
Special shout-out to my other two referees on the night, Adam Wacker and Dan Liggett. After getting his feet wet as a referee, Wacker is now a member of the ESW wrestling roster.
Next up was ESW’s Spring Smash 3 held at Medina High School in April. This is an annual fundraiser event for the East Shelby Vol. Fire Dept.
I remember refereeing Starburst versus Darren Crowe and Jeremiah Richter of Edge of Hope which turned into Starburst teaming with one of Medina’s hometown heroes, Maxx Cannon, against Richter, Crowe and Mattick of Edge of Hope.
There was a second ESW event in April and it meant a ton to me. ESW debuted at the University at Buffalo (my alma mater!) as part of its spring fair event Bullsapalooza.
We held six matches as entertainment for the student body and it was a load of fun for me. It knocked off a bucket list item for me to referee at UB.
We set up the ring right outside O’Brien Hall, home to UB’s law school. Before we started wrestling, I got to walk around the campus a bit.
Some things were very different since I went there, and some things were exactly the same. Either way, it felt great to be back and share this experience with everyone at ESW. I would not have it any other way.
I refereed James Sayga successfully defending the ESW Interstate Championship against the ESW debuting Colton Quinn from Ohio.
I also refereed the ESW Women’s Title match with reigning champion Christina Marie defeating Dani Jacx. Lastly, I refereed ESW Heavyweight Champion Vince Valor as he bested “The Native Wolf” Groff in the main event. Valor came off as a total star at the end in front of the student crowd.
Bullsapalooza was a free event. We wish we could have promoted it more, but it came together quickly at the last second. It was a great time, and the UB organizers enjoyed it. I hope we can do it again in 2026 and push it sooner so more of our regulars can come out to it.
A few days later, I attended a lecture at Norton Hall, not far from where we were set up regarding Linda McMahon as the Secretary of Education, which featured several panelists including Brian Solomon, Lavie Margolin and Brandon Thurston.
It was cool to meet Brian and Lavie. I listen to Lavie’s Business of the Business podcast regularly, and it was good to catch up with Thurston. Afterward we went out to dinner together and talked about wrestling. It was a fun evening.
May was ESW’s return to Buffalo RiverWorks with Brawlfest – one of our marquee events of the year. Usually these bigger shows feature a former WWE star or legend, but this one was more loaded up with top independent talent such as Effy and Atticus Cogar.
I refereed three matches that night. My first was a five-way scramble which saw Tommy K defeat Brennen The First, Cal Keaton, Gavin Glass and Mattick.
My second was the women’s title match in which Christina Marie successfully defended the belt against WOW’s Holidead. I wrapped up the night with Vince Valor beating Richard Holliday to retain the heavyweight belt.
My second match was a title fight between Valor and Derek Dillinger. This was a hard hitting match. It also included Valor’s aunt who was selling items at her vendor table walking up to the guard rail and giving him a ton of encouragement.
ETG concluded with the ETG Rumble, which was won by John McChesney much to the crowd’s chagrin. It also saw some surprise returns by the likes of Puf and Chris Cooper.
My next booking came the day of the event. In late August, I got a text on a Thursday afternoon that the 4th Rope Wrestling event at RiverWorks that night did not have any referees booked and to come down to it. So I stopped working early, prepped for it as quickly as possible and headed out to Westside Gunn Day.
The show was loaded with TNA and AEW talent. It also utilized mostly TNA’s production as it was recorded for eventual broadcast at a later date.
This meant I was required to wear an earpiece for the first time in years and follow instructions from Kurt Adonis that was producing from the gorilla position.
I refereed alongside Ref Karen on the night. We received an itinerary for the evening – the first time I ever did at a wrestling event.
My first match was Real1 versus Mo Jabari. Check out this clip that received some attention online where Real1 jumps into the crowd and gets physical here:
Next up, I was assigned Cha Cha Charile and Ninja Mack versus Gino Medina and Danny Limelight. Then I refereed EJ Nduka versus Moose – which saw Nduka toss me around for a second. I also got to referee Daniel Garcia in front of his hometown against Joe Alonzo.
I then refereed the biggest match of my life in terms of name value. It was The Good Brothers versus The Infantry versus The Hardys!
I normally do not get nervous before matches, but I probably would have gotten nervous before this one, but I locked myself in so much going into the show because I was so concerned about messing up on such a big stage that I remained dead focused the entire time.
It was after this match that I saw Dion Dawkins of the Buffalo Bills backstage and met his brother who wrestles on the New Jersey indies who was hanging out with my old work friend Kip who now runs marketing for Dawkins.
But that was not my last match for the night. I finished things off my refereeing Joshua Bishop against Matt Riddle in a cage! There was a table spot and the action got bloody. Hopefully it will be available for viewing someday.
You can watch the entire show here:
After that, I was at ESW’s 1Fall! We returned to Frontier in Niagara Falls for this one. I worked two of the bigger matches that night.
The first between Bustah & The Brain against Miracle Generation. This could be considered the best independent wrestling match of 2025, it was that damn good. Plus it really tested my cardiovascular system.
I then worked the main event between Valor and Marie against The Production (Dillinger and Katie Arquette). The bout featured a unique stipulation: 2 belts, 1 fall – both the ESW Heavyweight and Women’s Championships were on the line. This was an incredibly intense match that really delivered considering it came right after that insane tag team match,
And after that, my year of refereeing was over.
Why so quickly? Why was it done by late September? There was still WrestleBash coming up in November and likely Blissmas again in December. What led to my 2025 ending so soon and abruptly?
Here is the long story. I only shared this privately, until now.
After getting some initial scans in 2018 due to what turned out to be bile duct spasm, the imaging showed enlarged abdominal lymph nodes that required regular monitoring.
In late 2024, a scan showed an enlargement in my large intestine which turned out to be big enough to allow for a biopsy to be done safely on one of my lymph nodes.
The biopsy was done last summer. In August, I received my results. I was diagnosed with a low grade follicular lymphoma.
Thankfully, my form is slow growing and because it was monitored for some time, it is very treatable. However, the treatment is six months of chemotherapy. The plan is to attack it aggressively, as this strategy can put it into permanent remission or not see a recurrence for another 10-15 years.
My doctors told me that as long as I feel good, there are no restrictions for me. This gave me hope that I could continue to ref while going through it.
After my first treatment in October, I felt OK for some time after. Then two weeks afterward, I had a delayed reaction coupled with a viral infection and using ibuprofen the weekend before (a huge no-no) that landed me in the hospital for three days. I thought I was taking things seriously, but I needed to do so even more after going through that experience.
After talking it over with my family and friends, it was best to move forward staying away from wrestling shows throughout the treatment.
The fatigue I experience varies on a daily basis. I cannot predict it and just take it on a day-to-day basis. I have good days. I have bad days. It’s just how it goes.
On top of physically struggling to ref, I also would put myself at increased risk of infections with my compromised immune system due to the chemo. Therefore, my refereeing for me in 2025 was done.
I am very thankful for all the people that are supporting me through all this. The people I have told in my wrestling life have been super helpful and I am forever grateful for that.
I am happy that Andrew Mollon returned in my absence to fill in for me at ESW and Blissmas. He made such a smooth transition back and am proud of how well he just picked things back up. I still help with ESW office duties and thankful for the assistance provided by everyone on that side of things.
I want to be done with this, move forward, get back to my normal self. I don’t have the strength to go to the gym right now.
Once in a while, I can do some light workouts at home with some 3 lb. weights and a resistance band but doing any heavy weight lifting and hard cardio isn’t an option presently.
I want to change that quickly after March is done, even getting a personal trainer if need be. I want to return to the ring gradually, too. I know myself well enough that I can’t just jump back in. I’ll need to knock off some ring rust. We’ll see what happens.
Thus, I am eyeing April for my return to refereeing on shows. I don’t know how much I can take on right away until I get through everything.
I expect to take it slow, but I am definitely coming back. I am NOT ending my referee career this way. I did more than I imagined when I first started, but since then I set reasonable goals for myself that I want to achieve. I will achieve them.
In 2025, I turned down a good chunk of bookings even before my diagnosis due to how busy my family life was getting. I hope I can make good on getting to these places once I return as long as I can plan them out with ample timing.
So that was my 2025 in review. What 2026 will hold for me? I don’t have the slightest clue. But that doesn’t mean I cannot get back to being in a good spot in not just the wrestling world, but also in my whole life.
As always, thanks for reading.
