WELCOME BACK?
I would like to welcome
everyone to the brand new DOINOW.com. For those not familiar with whom I am, my
name is Sean McCaffrey, the former Editor-in-Chief of the old Declaration of
Independents newsletter/website, which ran from 2002-2011.
The Declaration of
Independents, during its hey-day, was the number 1 website for independent
wrestling news/opinions/columns. We broke news, did reviews and occasionally,
stirred the pot! The DOI was a great source for news and information and was
the TMZ of professional wrestling before there was a TMZ. We had a large readership during those
days, from people who loved our work to people who loved to hate our work.
Whether you liked the site or not, people read it because the writing was
always interesting, whether you agreed or disagreed with the views.
During my time with the DOI,
I started my own independent wrestling company, Women Superstars Uncensored
(WSU). The company launched in 2007. As WSU got bigger and bigger, I didn’t
have enough time to dedicate to DOI anymore. In 2011, I had to close shop on
DOI to focus my time solely on WSU. WSU was a profitable company and at that
point, my work with DOI suffered because I just didn’t have the time or
passion. It was hard to do DOI when WSU was paying the bills.
2011 was also an interesting
year, because that is when social media really blew up. Before Facebook &
Twitter, professional wrestling fans conversed through message boards &
later on, MySpace. I’m sure those who were around back then can remember the
DOI message board vividly, for better or worse.
The invention of Facebook
& Twitter, and how fast they caught on with users, made message boards,
MySpace and some websites obsolete. We live in a world where there is a lot of
white noise in a constant fast-paced news cycle. I’ve been asked countless
times to bring DOI back, in its original form. However, I don’t think people
realize that when DOI was at its peak, it was just a different world then.
Apple products have changed the way we consume news and conduct our lives.
There is no more running to the computer (and forget newsletters!) to get news.
People can get all the news they want while taking a shit by scrolling around
on their iPhones.
In 2012, with WSU at its
peak, I decided to leave professional wrestling all together and sold my
company. I had several reasons to leave at the time, all on my own accord, but
one of the biggest reasons was that I was just burnt out. I spent my entire
twenties dealing with independent wrestling every weekend. From Monday-Friday,
I was doing articles for DOI, booking shows, booking travel, packing
merchandise, dealing with wrestlers, dealing with venues, making DVDs, etc.
With a “real” job as well, I was working 80+ hour weeks. The money was good, I
met life-long friends & had great experiences, but sometimes when I look
back, I can understand why Michael Zevon, the person who recruited me
originally for DOI, left pro wrestling for good in 2004.
More than two years have
passed since I left wrestling for good. I do not miss it at all. I have
received a few offers to come back and help start up women wrestling groups,
but what’s the point? Unless it’s life-changing money, I won’t be back. I think the independent wrestling
business is at an all-time low. What could I really do anyway that I haven’t
done before? I would rather tackle something new than do repeats.
In my time away from
wrestling, I have enjoyed life more than ever before. You miss out on a lot of
things when you are gone every weekend at these silly indy shows. I’ve gotten
to attend more NHL games than ever before due to having my weekends back to
myself. I have reconnected with people I haven’t seen because I was always
traveling. I do miss some of the people from my indy days, but at this point in
life, I wouldn’t go back. Life is good for me now. I can’t imagine giving up my
weekends again.
Last month, my friend Dana,
who some of you wrestling people may remember as Dana Dameson, a wrestling
valet/manager from the northeast independent wrestling scene, asked me for
advice on her site HIPHOPSHORTSTOP.com.
Dana, like me, is done with wrestling, but is a huge sports fanatic. She
has different ideas than me when it comes to running a website, but at the
core, we both enjoy sports & talking sports.
After writing a facebook post
about the pathetic Jets, Dana thought it was good enough to run on her site. I
started getting feedback. I told Dana, as long as I had time, I’ll try to give
her more articles. I’ve since posted those articles on this website. However,
unlike my long-time run as the head of DOI & WSU, my stay at
HIPHOPSHORTSTOP.com was a short one! Within a month, just like some of the DOI
articles of old, my articles were deemed too controversial and Dana didn’t want
that.
If you look at the articles
on this blog, that appeared on Hiphopshortop.com first, in my opinion, I state
my opinions and how I see it. I’m not claiming facts anywhere. Dana would plug
these columns in respective fan facebook & twitter groups. So if I said,
“Carmelo Anthony will never win a championship with the Knicks”, 10000 people
would respond “FUCK YOU WHITE HATER!!!” But the best was yet to come.
Where Dana & I differ is
that I don’t care if people disagree with my writing. In fact, the people who
comment the most are the ones who disagree. The people who like it just read it
and move along. So Dana would read people saying “HOW CAN HE SAY THE KNICKS
WON’T WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR!!!!???” and would get upset. I told her as
long as the site hits/page views were up, what’s the difference? People are
reading and that’s all that matters. She told me she wanted puff pieces, and
that is something I could never do.
The shit hit the fan with my
“FORG1V3? F13K YOU AROID!” article. In the article, I said I thought those Bald
Vinny shirts were stupid and horrendous. I have no problem with Vinny
personally, and stated that several times in the article. However, Vinny got
upset on twitter because I was disparaging his product. I had nothing bad to
say about him at all, it was just that I didn’t agree with his shirt. He
flipped out that I didn’t agree with his stupid shirt slogan, but eventually
admitted that he was in it only for the money & he looked at my article as
an attack on his wallet. Understandable, but I’m entitled to my opinion as
well.
Dana, who is a big Yankee
fan, didn’t want any problems with Vinny. She deleted the article and while she
told me she agreed Vinny overreacted, she didn’t want another episode like this
again. I don’t know if Dana looks at Vinny as a Yankee celebrity or something,
to me, he’s just another diehard yankee fan, just one that happens to sell
t-shirts and scream out last names at the top of his lungs. Either way, she
didn’t want to offend him at all.
In the same article, I also
made a joke about cheap jews & lawsuits. Listen, I like all types of humor.
If you’re going to be offended by a cheap jew comment, then maybe I should get
upset every time Notre Dame calls themselves the Fighting Irish or every time
someone makes an Irish drinking joke. Get LAWST!
If you’re a fan of my old
work or just discovering me today, let me explain that my sense of humor is
very high. If you can’t watch a stand-up comedy show or anything on HBO without
getting offended, then just click the back button and go somewhere else. I will
always write what is on my mind and what I think is funny. I love watching
comedians, especially stand-ups like Artie Lange, Dave Attell, Bob Saget, Greg
Girlado (RIP), etc, and if you can’t take that type of humor, you will hate me
too. Nothing is ever written to be taken at a personal level. So if you hate
racial jokes, fat jokes, gay jokes, sexist jokes, knock-knock jokes, or the
jokes called the NY Jets, then like a black man finding out he’s a father, get
out of here ASAP!
Moving along, basically Dana
and I had different viewpoints on my writing style. Despite shutting down the
DOI 3 years ago and leaving WSU over 2 years ago, when I was writing for Dana’s
site, I realized that I enjoyed doing it. It was everything else I hated. Even
if you look at this site, it’s on a google blogspot site. I don’t want to waste
time doing HTML. I’m not a webmaster. I just want to vent/rant and call it a
day. I’m not making any money off of this. I’m just doing this for fun. If
monetary issues arise, (Twitter fans, how about those F13K AROID shirts?) maybe
I’ll explore it, but this is just me and whoever else wants to jump on board
discussing topics we are passionate about.
I’ve always enjoyed the
written word. As time has gone on in our world, everything is podcasts and
radio shows. Who has time to listen to every single thing? All these people are
doing 1-2 hour podcasts. Who wants to listen to all that? With these articles, this one
being the first and last article that’s about me, as future articles will be
about current events in sports, you can read these in 5-10 minutes. You can
even read it on the toilet, on the train, at work, waiting for your meal at a
restaurant, etc. You can’t just sit down for an hour with a podcast. You can
read this anywhere. I also feel that writing keeps your mind sharp, and it’s a
fun little hobby.
Dana told me she wanted me to
tone it down and do puff pieces. That’s just not my style. So instead of going
somewhere else & encountering the same issue, I have decided to do my own
thing. Welcome to DOINOW.com. We can not repeat the past, but we can look into
the future together. If you knew me from my old wrestling writing days, my
style is still the same. If you’re into sports, you will love this. If you’re
new to my writing, give it a chance. Let me know what you think. I’ll never
mail a column in and I’ll post a new article when the news cycle demands it.
Joining me in this venture is
my former DOI Editor-in-Chief, Michael Zevon. Look for an article from him soon.
Mikey will be doing political columns mostly and whatever the hell else he
wants. The purpose of DOINOW.com is to give you articles with uncensored
thoughts and opinions. Where Dana had her vision and wanted articles to reflect
that, my vision is to use this site to give people a forum to vent and rant
away. It can be on any topic. I will be doing sports. If you think my articles
suck and want to submit something, feel free. We’ll post it. All views and
opinions are welcome.
For example, I’m a liberal democrat
who voted for Obama. Mikey is a conservative Republican who despises Obama. I
will probably disagree with 99% of Mikey’s columns, but I know they will be
well written and his opinion will come out passionately. DOINOW.com is just
going to be the place for strong opinions. Perhaps my old chum Frank Goodman
will bring back the Maniac Minute and rant on his encounters with gypsies in
Disney!
I don’t know whose eyes these
words might reach, but I’m hoping that someone with a background in BLOGSPOT.com
or any webmaster gets their eyes on this paragraph. I could use a webmaster guy
for light work. I basically would like to insert tables onto this site, fix the
social media buttons, put up some graphics, etc. Stuff that will take you 5
minutes to do, but me forever, especially since I’m punching this out on this
old ass laptop that freezes. This site is still a work in progress, our soft open, if you will, so if you can help me out, shoot me a line.
Welcome to DOINOW.com. A DOI
for a whole new generation.
Dana-free
Dana-free
Opinionated
Independent thoughts.
This will be a simpler site
and more of a grass roots thing. We hope you stay with us to watch us grow.
I would like to also thank
Dana for being a good sport about all the ribbing Mikey, my friend Bison and
myself have given her about all this. I’m glad we have re-united post-wrestling
and can break balls like this again. Also, thanks to Ray Sager for encouraging
me to continue to write. I have fun doing this. It’s amazing how people can get
riled up through words or how people can connect with you through words.
Do you really think I should
make a shirt to compete with Bald Vinny, saying F13K AROID (with the I being a
needle?). Let’s discuss that, this new project and any other questions or
comments you may have about DOINOW.com. Contact below, and thanks for joining
the ride!
Sean McCaffrey
DOINOW.com
@nycthemic on the twitter
gimmick
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