On Friday November 26th, I was honored to face international superstar Josh Daniels who has built himself a quality resume wrestling on a monthly basis in Japan. What made the ECPW encounter extra special was that the match took place 5 minutes from my home in nearby Mahwah, New Jersey, so therefore many of my friends, and family members were able to come out and watch me wrestle. Josh and I are no strangers to one another as I have fought against him on a few occasions in the past, but more importantly we train together weekly at the ECPW training facility. I knew this match would be difficult as my opponent was very skilled and experienced, but I was relying on my familiarity with his repitoir to carry me over the top. The key for me in this fight was to match Josh's intensity and force, as well as to counter his strength and power with superior speed, quickness, and conditioning. This match started out with evenly balanced chain wrestling and built up into a hard hitting affair which saw both of us trying to out do each other or counter one another with big moves in the final minutes. In the end, I think my stamina and endurance was the key. At the 20 minute mark I had just little bit more energy in my tank, and was able to lock on a Boston Crab which Josh tapped out to giving me the victory. This was an excellent match and I will certainly regard it as being one my favorites of my career as I love having the opportunity to wrestle in long matches.

    The next night I traveled to Rutherford, New Jersey to wrestle for the New Millennium Wrestling Federation which was running their debut show. The brainchild behind this new promotion is my close friend "Crowbar" Devon Storm. For the past eight months Devon has been planning this initial show and bouncing ideas off of me. The concept of his organization is that it is going to be run by the "boys" for the "boys", and  provide quality family oriented wrestling with superior production. With the experienced people involved in the planning of things such as the Patriot Tom Brandi, Simon Diamond, Danny Doring, Roadkill, and the Kodiak Bear, this promotion hopefully will succeed and thrive in an oversaturated market.

            The month of April started off in grand fashion in the life of Scotty Charisma. On April 4^th, I traveled to Lincoln, Maine for an ECPW event in which I wrestled against Mo Sexy. When I originally took the booking, I didn’t realize how difficult it would be driving 8 hours, getting out of the truck, wrestling, and then driving back home 8 hours that night. Luckily, I had two really cool people along with me for the ride, Josh Daniels and Damian Adams, which helped the time to go by and assisted with the driving responsibilities. Excluding the fatigue factor and the stiffness of my body when we arrived, it actually was a very fun trip. Not to mention the fact that I got to work against one of the most underrated wrestlers on the independent circuit, Mo Sexy. We had an excellent match, which even surprised me since I had such a difficult time getting my body loose before the match. It also helped that Mo Sexy had just returned from spending the week in the WWE’s Ohio Valley Developmental Camp down in Kentucky. The crowd in Maine was red hot the whole night, and made for a very enjoyable experience. I look forward to returning to the state very soon.

Unfortunately, two days after returning from Maine, I caught a vicious stomach virus. What many people don’t realize was that in May of 2001, I was bedridden and hospitalized for 9 days with a severe gastritis infection. The problem is that anytime I vomit the infection comes back. Well, I spent the entire Easter vacation week, one in which I was off from school nonetheless, in severe pain unable to stand up and not able to eat anything. I lost 6 pounds all together. On Saturday April 10^th, I was supposed to wrestle in one of the biggest matches of my career against DCW Heavyweight Champion Justice Pain in Harrington, Delaware. Instead, I spent the day at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York. Thankfully, I have recovered since but I have to take antibiotics for the next 6 weeks.

As my stomach heeled my hardest challenge was recovering my strength. Even though I was able to eat again, my body was so weak that it was very difficult getting back into the ring. My stamina and timing was way off. I was not able to wrestle for Jersey Championship Wrestling on April 17^th  because of this.  The last thing I wanted to do was go out and have a bad match because my body was not ready, especially since the following week I had a very important trip half way across the country.

By April 23^rd, my health and my wrestling seemed to be back normal. This was crucial as I flew to Wichita, Kansas for two weekend shows for the NWA-Oklahoma promotion. The first show Friday night took place in at the Hutchinson Memorial Coliseum in Ponca City, Oklahoma. The show was headlined by one of the all time legends of professional wrestling, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. I was involved in a tag team match in which I partnered with Harley D of Texas Trailer Park Trash fame, and our opponents were Dexter Hardaway and Tyler Bateman. Hardaway is a solid ring technician and was scheduled to work dark matches this upcoming week for the WWE’s Raw and Smackdown shows in the Oklahoma / Texas area. This match was very simple, and old school style with tons of psychology. We played the babyfaces, and the heels isolated my left arm during the heat. They used a variety of creative holds and moves to work my arm over. Eventually, I made the hot tag to the 6’7” Harley D, who unloaded on our opponents as the crowd erupted. My partner hit Bateman with a sky-high choke slam to earn the victory for our team. The crowd absolutely loved the match, as they seemed to really enjoy matches that tell a story in the ring. The ironic thing is that this match would have received “boring” chants in the Northeast, but if the WWE had gotten a videotape of the match, they would have loved it.

The next night, we traveled an hour south to wrestle in a small town called Perry. My opponent for the evening was Texas star Brandon Bishop. This match had a little more East Coast flavor as it was hard hitting and somewhat fast paced, with a little comedy mixed in. It was an extreme pleasure working Bishop as he was very appreciative to learn the type of style that is more suitable to the Northeast.

            This month wrapped up the busiest few weeks of my professional wrestling career.  The focus centered around the big ECPW show at my former high school in Suffern, New York back on March 12th. This particular event served as the annual fundraiser for the Suffern High School Football team where I serve as an Assistant Coach each fall.  I wrestled in the main event against former WCW Titleholder “Crowbar” Devon Storm. The fact that I coach at Suffern High, and I was involved in the main event of the show, I had a double stake in the success of the show.

With former WWF Legends such as Tito Santana, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, and the 6’10”, 508 pound former “Ministry of Darkness” member, Viscera the rest of the card was loaded.  These stars, coupled with the fact that many of my students, family, friends, enemies, colleagues, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends and everyone else who knew me from Suffern, could have an opportunity to come and see me wrestle right in my hometown (or come watch me get beat up whichever they preferred).

In any event the place was jam packed, as 1655 people walked through the doors of the Suffern High School Gymnasium. Last year, for this event we had between 650-700, so we almost tripled that number this year. More importantly, the unbelievable attendance figure translated into $14,000 being raised for the football team.  Any way you slice it, the show was a tremendous success.

However, the amount of work that went into the planning, promoting, and production of this show, is directly responsible for the amount of people that came to the event. The Suffern Touchdown Club, which is made up of primarily of coaches and parents of football players on the Suffern team began having meetings for this event as early as December. The card and the talent were secured before Christmas time. The goal was to have the show, which was bought from Gino Caruso (making it a sold show), to be sponsored by local businesses. Each Touchdown Club member would be responsible for soliciting these business owners to take advertisements out in our program, which would be given out the night of the show. The community response was absolutely remarkable. We had 96 local businesses advertise in our program. The minimum quarter page ad was $40 and the full-page ad went for $100.  With this revenue, the show was paid for before one ticket was even sold. We even had enough money left over to advertise the show in the Orange County newspaper.

Our focus then turned to selling tickets, since at this point the entire gross from the ticket sales would go directly to the Touchdown Club as profit. Over 600 posters were put up in local businesses in a 50-mile radius of the school. With the help of the Suffern Police Department’s D.A.R.E program, and the 8 schools that make up the Ramapo Central School District, we were able to pass out over 10,000 flyers advertising the show, to approximately 5,000 students that live within the district. Also, wrestlers such as myself, Vic D. Vine, Johnny Thunder, Red Hot Russ, and Mike Xylas all contributed in personally visiting all 8 of these schools the week of the show, to discuss the dangers of practicing professional wrestling moves at home. These special assemblies that the Principals and PTA of each school helped coordinate, all served as excellent promotional tools for the show.  I can personally say that the warm, loving reception that the students at each school gave us, was overwhelming to say the least.

From a media perspective, I was a personal guest on “The Christopher St. Lawrence Show” three times in the weeks leading up to March 12^th. This television show airs in Rockland County and served as an excellent forum to generate positive interest for this event. Radio interviews promoting the show and discussing the event, were also conducted on the “Power Bomb” Internet Radio Show and the local AM radio station WRCR (1300) here in Rockland County. But I have to say that the single biggest piece of positive advertisement came from an article written by Bob Baird, which was featured on the front page of the “Rockland Journal News” here in Rockland County. The newspaper writer did a tremendous job of adding credibility and respect to the craft of professional wrestling, which is so often misrepresented and under appreciated by the mainstream media. I personally would like to thank Mr. Baird for his understanding and admiration for the skill that we as wrestlers possess, and sharing with the members of my community the sacrifices and risks, that we as entertainers take on a nightly basis.

So the stage was set, the gym was filling up fast, the ticket lines to get into Suffern High was reminiscent of being at an event at a major arena, the parking lot was filled to capacity, and the traffic to get into the High School parking lot was jammed for a mile!!! As I peered out into the crowd, it seemed as if everyone I knew, or ever knew, was in this building to see this wrestling show. I knew that I had to have a great match; otherwise it was going to be very difficult to show my face around town. With the amount of effort that it took making all these appearances and interviews the week of the show, combined with the fact that my body fat was extremely low from dieting for the March 27^th bodybuilding show, I just hoped I would have enough energy to go out and perform…especially for 25 minutes…at what ended up being 10:00pm at night…1 hour passed my scheduled bedtime!!!

Well the match itself turned out to be outstanding. With the electricity that was circulating throughout the gym and the deafening volume of the crowd when I was introduced, my energy levels were quickly revitalized. Crowbar and I worked for a full 20 minutes or so before I went to the top rope and connected with a high cross body block from the top turnbuckle. I was sure of a 3 count, only to find out that the time limit had expired and the match was ruled a draw. However, Crowbar quickly got on the microphone and demanded 5 more minutes. The match was restarted. The crowd which began emptying, anticipating a major traffic jam in the parking lot, filed back into the gym, and were very happy to see me gain the 3 count after reversing out of Crowbar’s sunset flip. The 1,655 people in the gym erupted, just as I they did last year when I defeated Damian Adams, only this time there were three times the amount of people in the audience.  I will never forget these 25 minutes of my life, as they were absolutely the highlight of my wrestling career up to this point.

It amazes me to this day, how much support from the Suffern Community this wrestling event generated. I have received over 60 emails and letters from parents and dignitaries thanking us for putting together such an enjoyable family event. People are already talking about next year. In all honesty, of the 1,655 people that came to the show, the Ramapo Central School District received only one complaint. If I am not mistaken, ironically it came from a person who wasn’t even at the show.

 I would like to personally thank the following people for their hard work and support in organizing this show: Suffern High Head Football Coach Bill Delaney, Maria’s Pasta and Steakhouse owner Scott Forman, Deputy Town of Ramapo Supervisor Phil Tisi, Ramapo Town Supervisor Chris St. Lawrence, the 97 local businesses that sponsored the event, Pat Faherty, Glen Weeks and Bob Buono of Suffern High, Village of Suffern DARE officers Benji Arena and Clark Osbourne, Ramapo Central School District Superintendent Rob MacNaughton, school board members William Gonzalez, Craig Long, and Dom Del Duca, scottycharisma.com web master Rich Deibler, Freddy Greenburg, the principals and teachers at all the Elementary Schools in the district, Sloatsburg Mayor Carl S. Wright, Selena Nichols of the “Power Bomb” Internet Radio Show, Bob Baird of the Rockland Journal News, and most importantly Crowbar Devon Storm for giving me one of the best matches of my career. I could not have asked for a more knowledgeable, skilled wrestler to work with on such a special occasion. I cannot fathom why the WWE will not hire such an outstanding individual.

The day after this major event, I drove four hours to the Delaware State Fairgrounds in Harrington, Delaware to wrestle for DCW. I defeated Flash Williams and Zac Conner in a Triple Threat Match to become the number one contender for the DCW International Championship. The victory set up my title shot against Justice Pain on April 10^th. Ironically, this is the same day that the DCW television show begins airing on the UPN network in the Delaware-Maryland area. Hopefully, it will be only a matter of time before the show starts airing across the country…especially on UPN Channel 9, here in the New York market.

On March 20^th I made my debut for WSWF wrestling federation in Lancaster, Pennsylvania were I was defeated by Vic D. Vine in an excellent match up. The promotion is run by Johnny Glitter, and seems to be a real professional organization that I look forward to returning to on May 22^nd. The next day I traveled New Britain, Connecticut to defend my ACW Television Championship Belt against Eddie Edwards. This turned out to be a terrific match as Edwards is an outstanding worker. Thanks to my new ACW valet Talia, who was able to protect me from Edwards’ valet Ariel, I was able to get the victory. I have to say Talia and I make a very formidable combination. I enjoy having her by my side.

On March 27^th, I competed in the NBI Natural Bodybuilding Show at Clarkstown South High School, in West Nyack, New York. It was my twelfth lifetime show. I placed 2^nd in the Novice Light Heavyweight Class. It was a well-attended show by many people of Rockland County. This was another special opportunity for me, as it allowed me to perform in front of dozens of my friends and family members, that had not previously had the opportunity to see me compete because the bodybuilding shows are usually too far away. It was also very enjoyable to have a festive late night dinner at Chili’s in the Palisades Mall, after 12 intense weeks of dieting.

             I would personally like to thank Premier Fitness for sponsoring this event, and specifically Brian and Warren Fahrenfeld for their professionalism in allowing me to compete in this show. Of all the bodybuilding shows I have ever done, this was by far the most professional and well-run event I have ever been apart of. Thanks again.