By ACW Owner Brandon Bishop... (7.3.08)

Alrighty... Are you ready for round two??? I hope we are as well... ha ha... Having a year to prepare for the last show, compared to just a few weeks for this one makes a big difference... Hopefully ACW can get the word out as well as we did last time... I've been doing this for a long time now, and I know that sometimes success can be followed by heartbreak... But I'm very optimistic... I think the boys put on a show last month that WILL bring them back to us on July 18th, and I can promise everyone right now that on July 18th, you will receive a show that will bring you back in August for our 6th Anniversary gig... and etc etc etc...

Now I have never had an issue talking about extremely personal things in ACW, nothing in my eyes is sacred enough to keep from our fans, therefore I've gotten myself into a lot of shit by running my mouth about some things that probably shouldn't have been discussed.. either way... Ol' BB has been lying a little lower these days due to a shitty break up and a sudden move... things are good now, but still pretty shitty... My apologies for not getting everything rolling as promptly as it should have been.. Also with Mike Shumaker parading around in Disney Land with his family, let's just say we have a lot of work to get caught up on, but it'll get done... Have some faith people... It'll be as god as last month, if not A LOT better...

The Main event for July 18th will be The New ACW Champion The Unreal Joshua Michael vs. "Mr. Saturday Night" Michael Barry,,, Should be a nice capper for the night, and a match that I have a lot of interest in... Also I will be starting off the event with a special message for Joshua Michael, concerning my actions last month... Be there and find out what I have to say about it...

ACW University will be kicking back up on July 11th... For more details on our very own Wrestling training school, please email me @ brandonbishopacw@msn.com ... If you're looking to learn the basics of this game, and learn it in a unique manner, contact me now and reserve your spot...

Gonna keep this one short, got a lot to do right this second... See you all on July 18th at The Expo Center, get your tickets now at ticketswest.com or at A Better Game Store...

BB

By ACW Owner Brandon Bishop... (6.17.08)

Well holy shit people! Thank You's need to go out to so many people, I hope I can remember at least the extremely important ones... Well first off, Mike Shumaker... I can't put into text how much this gentleman means to ACW and to me personally... No, I'm not about to share a bed with the guy, but I'm not too far off from that... ACW is my baby, I'm not a big fan of people touching my REAL babies, nor am I much of a fan of people getting too involved behind the scenes with this one either... Mike came along and backed up every word & every promise with action & results, which in turn earned every bit of respect I can possibly give anyone... Thank you is not a big enough phrase to befit Mike, as well as everyone he's brought into ACW along  with him, Dave, our new Audio/Video/ Lighting Guru, and the best one we've ever had! I can truly say that after just one show! Dave is a god & the smartest guy I know at this very moment! Thank You Dave! Nate, our new post production Editing guy, and camera guy, and a guy that helped us pass out 3 thousand flyers at The Smackdown Event... Mike is also responsible for getting ACW our new voice in Danger Dean. Dean was nervous going into this, but more excited than even I was... Dean was perfect all night, and I will even go on record to say even better overall than my extremely good friend & 5 years voice for ACW, STEVE O.. Sorry Daddy, but it's a good thing we've found Dean, and I'm not letting this get get away from ACW! Also to Buddha, the new Crew guy that worked his ass off like no one has for ACW outside of me and a few select others, thanks for the sweat and energy! who else??? Shit, I know there's a bout 10 others that Mike has brought, including Mason at the front door, the march kid, UGH! Sorry to the ones I forget... I'm still tired and a tad sore, forgive me! But adding Mike Shumaker to ACW, and giving him half of my precious baby, has been the greatest decision I've ever made in wrestling... I can't wait for July 18th, and every moth after that...

The Phil Long Expo Center is amazing... James Snodgrass is not only the venue manager, he's my friggin' hero.. We would have eventually found a new home, and we would have ran shows, but I truly doubt we would have had the professionalism & the civility from anyone as James & the crew at The Expo center have shown us... William, the other manager, is a big meat head that scared me at first, but turned into someone I wish I would have had around for the past six years of ACW... This guy can do ANYTHING, and he turned my vision for the set up and production into a reality along with Cory and the rest of his staff... At no time in my life have I met a better crew for anything... I hope they are paid well and often... Big Thanks to the Expo Center, and once again working with them makes me even more excited about the future...

Now a big thanks to the hottest fans we've ever had... Our UNOFFICIAL count is at 412... But that could be high or low... If you want an exact count, then you come out on July 18th and do it yourself... Either way, they were awesome, and hot for the entire night... I hope that everyone there on June 13th will make the trip each time we put up our ring and giant entrance! I couldn't have asked for a better crowd to perform in front of, and once again I thank each and every one of them for making our show what it was!

Not to the show itself...

I kicked it off, I like coming out to greet the fans, It's my little way of saying thank you personally... My match with Michael Barry, could have been better on my behalf because I lost, but Brianna Bringle's legs and other assets where certainly a tad distracting... I respect Barry, but he's with Jeremy Quinn and that makes him a total Douche... Of course my initial challenge was made out to Quinn, but he shit out on us for a business trip to London, and sent his goon Michael Barry, and his Ring Rat Brianna out to take care of his so-called light work...me... Well they did just fine, I hope he paid Barry a lot of money, because come July 18th, he's going to earn every cent... But enough about my stuff...well, enough until the Battle Royale... Ugh...

Let me say a few things about Dr. Death Steve Williams... A lot of times these bigger named wrestlers come in and they just act like complete assholes.. DOC was no where near one of them... A lot of these guys walk in demanding unreal levels of respect, DOC earned it from the start with everyone in our locker room... All it took was a quick lunch at Famous Dave's across the street from the Expo Center with DOC and about 7 others, to learn that this is one of the coolest human beings I've ever met, and I am blessed & fortunate to have met him... He spoke highly of our product and seemed to enjoy himself throughout the night... Having DOC on our roster can only breed wonderful things from here on out, and we can't wait to do it all over again in July, August, September etc etc etc...

Lamotta, Ryzin, Carter & Evans... four people I hate.. I hate them because they are all WAY better than me... Ha ha... The fatal four way Cruiserweight title match was a show stealer on paper, and delivered live... Lamotta is a guy that has been ready for years to make the big leap into the national scene, as well as the others in this match... Unreal actions that quenched the high spot thirty fans... I was glad to see Ryzin keep the ACW Cruiserweight title, but he's got 3 people just in that match alone that could certainly take it away from him...

Epic & Lonnie Valdez and once again together & once again tag team champions... I guess over the past year they patched things up, and now they look like the most dominating tag champs we've ever had... Seeing Lonnie as someone the crowd doesn't adore worked for me in a big way, The match with The champs vs. Johnny Crash & Joshua Michael was easily once of the best tag matches we've had in years... Everyone seemed to pulls out a little something extra for this one and it resulted in a very good tag match...

Kenneth Campbell is a little odd, but he's been odd in ACW for 5 years now... easily one of my favorite people to watch... Now along with Brother Luc Stecher he looks even more unstoppable... His match & promos with DOC were priceless... The match provided an old school element that the show needed in a big way, I'm happy that both of them connected in our ring...

I got a lot of slack for the Go Go Gore Girls segment, but after just watching it, it wasn't all that bad.. I enjoyed it in a Evil Nitro Girls type of way... That's what I was going for... Maybe they're not the best thing for wrestling crowds, but I'm still glad they showed up and did what they do.. I had fun watching them... so my Informant can piss off... Leave the girls alone... they rule...

Seeing Se7en in our ring after all of these years was important for me... He brought to me a sense of where we came from and when we started... I consider Se7en one of my mentors in this business, and grant him all the gratitude & respect I can for helping me get started... I had flash backs of 2002 in Lawton, of being pummeled by Se7en every week... I am thrilled and honored to have him back with us... His opponent for the night Carnage is equally important to me as a friend... I'm happy to have been the one that promoted that match between them... Things don't always go smoothly, and the guest first time Alice Cooper ref gimmick probably wasn't one of my better ideas, but again it looked fun on paper... Alice did as good as he knew how to, and under that disguise he's a great guy, BUT... maybe reffin' wrestling matches just isn't his thing right now... ha ha...

The Main Event Battle Royale shrunk a little due to call offs etc. but I truly believe that it went well.. Hardly a clusterfuck like we all expected, more like an organized, semi clusterfuck... I took a beating from the high spot beginning, I do truly believe that everyone aimed for me until it was my turn to fly...UGH! I was squashed by FX, Mitch, Ryzin & Lamotta.. I think that Bleech got me too... UGH! Either way it was fun, and looks great on tape...

Now a lot of people are asking me why I leveled Joshua Michael with the chair after he won the title... Uhhh... I don't really have an answer for that... My original reason for coming back out with the chair was to get Michael Barry off of him... Then I saw the guy that eliminated me from my chances at winning my third ACW title stagger towards me, and something snapped like a twig... So I nailed him in the head with a chair... It's wrestling people! That's not the first chair shot he's taken, and it won't be the last I'm sure... But dammit, I needed that title... Through everything that Quinn has put me through, from all the personal issues I'm going through right now, taking that belt home as champion would have made up for every bit of it... But Joshua Michael killed that for me... Now I know I was wrong for it, but in that moment, it didn't seem wrong.. It seemed very necessary... Either way, I have a special message for Joshua Michael at the beginning of the July 18th event... Hopefully we can get past it...

All in all I had a great time & it was certainly the best ACW event we've produced yet... I'm very proud to see how far we've come, and I cannot wait to see how far we will go... Thanks again to everyone!

BB

By ACW Owner Brandon Bishop... (5.16.08)

Nerves! Luckily mine have been frayed and severed over the past 20 years of promoting wrestling, bands, venues, nightclubs, comedy acts etc. I still get nervous, especially with this June 13th event here in Colorado Springs, the more people involved, the more people there are to possibly let down, and we all know that Mr. Bishop just aims to please right? Just looking at the main page of this web site, and the multitude of sponsors, not to mention to huge roster we have on that night, plus the newly expanded crew, and even more importantly the huge numbers of asses that will be making the trip and paying to see what we have to offer... Nerves! But I wouldn't trade a single lost hair or nervous tick for their absence. I love this freakin' shit! I think I enjoy the preparations and the building of the tension, as much as I enjoy actually being out there in front of the crowd... It's a close call to be honest with you... Doing them both, and holding on for dear life as this roller coaster throws my body all around inside it's cruel little cart is simply a blast... I truly enjoy my position in ACW, and in Indy wrestling in general, and I'm doing my best to make the very most of it before I hear my last bell, and stare up at my final set of lights...

One thing I hate hearing from the legends in this business, is that it's "All about the money". As much as I respect these people, and I'm talking about a level of respect that I rarely rear to anyone unless they've spent years earning it from me, I know they're full of posterior offerings... Hearing Dusty Rhodes tell me that it's more about the money than the passion is horseshit, and I wish I had the nuts to tell him that to his face as he told me... This is the same guy that gave an award winning hall of fame speech last year about the passion for this business... I feel he was acting more for my lone listening ears, than he was for that crowd at the Fox Theater... I adore Dusty, and I feel lucky to have met him several times, worked with him, and exchanged countless emails & phone calls, but if he truly feels that it's all about the money, then that's one small aspect I don't agree with, and one statement I cannot respect... Ask anyone that has spent any amount of time in ACW, if we're doing it for the money... ask them... they'd probably laugh at you... Sure the money is great when it comes, and it truly has come in, but it mostly goes to paying the bills to keep the ring lights on... Indy Wrestling is a break even business, I've learned that years ago, and stuck with it because it didn't matter to me... As long as there is blood flowing through the veins of Asylum Championship Wrestling, there is a smile on Brandon Bishop's face... I don't need anything but the monthly blank canvas of an ACW show to motivate me... I need my wrestlers to show up and make me even more motivated to make them shine... And I need the fans in the seats to let me know exactly what they think... It's all about the passion for me and ACW, and I feel truly honored to be surrounded by a group of guys & girls that share this same ideal... Thanks again to them... all of them...

We're finally moving the ACW set up to the Phil Long Expo Center this Saturday, it's not only a good chance finally get the shit to it's new home, but also a first chance for a lot of the new staff, crew & management to finally meet one another... I love seeing a group of people together under the ACW cloud, working to get shit done because we all care so much about it...

On June 13th, I have several moments, matches & memories that I'm looking forward to watching be created... Of course I'm looking forward to seeing The DOC in our house... I was a huge fan of Steve Williams when I was a marky youngling... A true honor to have him with us... The Battle Royale will be a difficult production, but I can promise you it won't be a clusterfuck like my "Informant" called it... It'll be very structures, and the violence quite visible to all... I can't wait to see the "Festival of Violence" Match between Carnage & Rexx Reed sponsored by our friends at Zeezo's... Zeezo's is a Halloween Costume shop open all year long... I recently got the opportunity to venture into there "Dungeon" storage basement, and the "FOV" match instantly came to life.. This will be sick! The Go Go Gore Girls will be opening for the match in order to get everyone's stomachs ready for the brutality.. Should be interesting... I'm always up for watching Joshua Michael & Seth Allen in the ring, and watching them face each other is somewhat of a mini-dream match for me, could steal the show... Ryzin, Carter, Lamotta, FX should have no trouble burying itself into the memories of the ACW fans, and the ACW owner... I can't wait to see what they have to give us... Plus the rest of the card is off the charts, I can't wait for that night to get here... More later!

By ACW Owner Brandon Bishop... (5.6.08)

If I could describe for you fine people in crystal detail the roller coaster ride that is being a Pro Wrestling promoter, I would be a Literature professor at some high end Ivy league college somewhere... I'm in no way complaining, I could easily quit at any time, and probably diminish about 93% of whatever stress I enjoy on a day to day basis, but where's the fun in that? It's just my perfectionist attitude that towards ACW and wrestling in general that ties knots in my skull... Maybe I should check into a shrink and officially discover the OCD blanket that I'm pretty sure I've been  snuggled under for years... I mean, hell with reign upon whomever sets up a light crooked or a microphone level wrong! If it's not as perfect as it can be, IT'S WRONG! Ha ha... But anyways, just a quick little negative rant to blow off months of steam from dealing with wrestlers, sponsors, venues, The City of Colorado Springs, lawyers, more wrestlers, and promotional people... I wish I had that mediocre gene in my body that would allow me to set up he ACW ring in a dirty smelly high school gym, leave all the gym lights on, throw a blanket over a door way and call that an entrance... I wish I could do it, seriously! I wish I could set up a shitty PA system in an echoed room where no one can hear what anyone is saying... I wish I could have some guy in jeans & a Brock Lesnar T-Shirt as a ring announcer, I wish I wasn't pissed off when my camera crew, security & staff aren't uniformly dressed... I wish I didn't cringe when wrestlers come out to the ring to "Bon Jovi" or "Van Halen" songs... I wish I could hand out a hundred and fifty flyers four days before the show and be somewhat pleased when 80 people show up... But I can't be any of that, and I can't do any of that.. Because I'm me, and this is ACW, and if ANY of those things crept into my show I would probably dig my handgun out of my gear bag and kill the persons responsible before turning the gun on myself... A little dramatic? Yes... But probably not far from the truth... Anyways, this is supposed to be the State of The ACW Address, not a prognosis on the mental State of it's owner...

ACW is rolling into June 13th at high speed, days are falling past us quicker than I had thought they would... Usually when you're looking forward to something the minutes seem like hours, but in this case, I'm staying more than a little busy preparing & promoting... This will easily be the most advertised ACW event we've ever produced, hopefully drawing the biggest fan base we've ever had... Plus with the addition of Dr. Death Steve Williams to the roster, it should easily be one of the best all around shows we've ever produced... Needless to say I'm beyond excited, and beyond ready to once again be inside my own ring... The Expo Center has been wonderful thus far, I couldn't ask for a better venue, or more support from a venue's management... I wasn't expecting much when we waltzed into the place, it's not a nightclub or and Event Center, it looks like a giant empty Wal-Mart inside, but with the ACW touch, and the new set up we're bringing, the Expo Center will be perfect... James Snodgrass is the venue manager, and deserves an enormous THANK YOU from everyone affiliated with ACW. It's always funny how things can both fall together and fall apart, finding this location and building the rapport we have with them is one of those things that just fell together perfectly, and ACW is happy to call The Phil Long Expo Center our new home...

In other news, we just signed on Mike Dibiase, the son of The Million Dollar Man & The Grandson of Iron Mike Dibiase... Sure it's nice to have that Dibiase name affiliated with our product, but this guy would have been booked whether his last name was Dibiase or Whippleman... I could care less, he's an extremely good wrestler, looks like a million bucks (No pun intended...) and knows the business better than anyone on the roster including myself... Mike will be a fantastic addition to our roster, and will raise the bar for everyone in the ACW ring... We're excited & lucky to have him... His debut will be on Friday July 18th, 2008...

Local DJ Danger Dean will be stepping into the slot of ring announcer for ACW... I met with Dean at the Magic FM (Citadel Radio) studios here in Colorado Springs about a couple weeks ago, and was impressed by his wrestling knowledge, and passion for our business... For me personally it's going to be hard to not have Steve O's voice coming through the microphone, because of my long time friendship with him, and the fact that he's only missed 3 ACW events in 6 years... Steve O has been an important part of ACW since the very first time we set up the ring, but I have a great feeling about Danger Dean, unlike Steve O, Dean's coming into this as a huge wrestling fan, and a student of the game... I'm sure it'll take a few shows to get the swing of it, because being a wrestling ring announcer is not anywhere near as easy as it seems... I truly consider it one of the top three aspects of the show, he has to keep the flow going, and he has to know what he's talking about, and he has to keep the fans pumped for over two hours... It's rough! But I know Dean can do all of this & as much as I love Steve O like a true brother, I hope Dean not only fills his shoes, but crushes them! Did that make any sense?

Look and listen for ACW commercials all over the radio as we get closer to the event... Our TV ads will be airing on Comcast cable & Ft Carson Post Cable during all of the wrestling & other similar sporting programs... Our radios ads & tags will be all over the citadel stations & others as well... Plus we'll all be out in force at the WWE Smackdown/ECW event on May 27th, as well as the Pikes Peak Derby Dames bout on May 31st, also you'll feel the ACW presence during Colorado Springs Territory Days around the same time... There are many events that will be saturated with ACW advertisements leading up to June 13th... Make sure and get your tickets NOW for only $10 in advance ($12 Day of show), you can get them right now by following the link on the index page of this web site... That link will take you to ticketswest.com, and they have them there waiting for you...

ACW might be throwing out a major announcement in a couple days, I don't want to spoil it for everyone, nor do I want to look ridiculous if it falls flat, but it's a big deal and we're also excited about it's possibilities... I'll keep you posted! It'll be the top story on this site if it happens! Don't you hate secrets? Ha ha!

Well it's midnight and I have to wake up and take my girlfriend to get a boob job in the morning, so I'm going to cut this short compared to a usual Brandon Bishop commentary... I'll close by thanking all of my wrestlers, staff, sponsors and friends that are making the heart of ACW beat once again, and faster than ever... These are exciting times people! A special thanks to Mike Shumaker of "A Better Game Store" here in Colorado Springs (Union & Briargate), not only does he run the best gaming store in this city, but he's the new manager of Asylum Championship Wrestling. Mike has done more for ACW in the few shorts months he's been with us than anyone has in years, if not ever... This show would not be anything near what it's going to be without Mike Shumaker, and I want to personally thank him on behalf of everyone in ACW.

BB