The MDB Mania- 10/26/10..The NEW JOISEY edition

Hey everybody- Whew what a last 2 weekends I had- lets just say lots of driving and lots of fun fun fun! The last column I promised you guys and gals that I'd write a recap of my Atlantic City trip as well as my trip the weekend before in New Jersey too. Don't worry, no dumb references of the stupid Jersey Shore TV show here lol :D It's gonna be a long post so get ready to stay in your chair for a good 10 minutes lol ;)


I'll start off with October 16th weekend at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Monroe, NJ. There was an event going on there called the Legends of the Ring thats been one of the most successful conventions in the northeast over the last 6 years. I sorta thought about going to it, but since I was planning to go to Atlantic City the weekend after, I wasn't going to go to LOTR- but my good friend of alot of years now, Tam, contacted me a week before the show and asked if I could possibly help her out, so I was like sure why not- since I hadn't seen her in a few months and thought it would be great to see her again. Next thing I know, I end up going to NJ 2 Fridays in a row which was a first for me....and my car as well lol


Overall the LOTR weekend was pretty good. I was able to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen in awhile, as well as meet some new ones. The drive up was such a mess though! One thing I learned from that is DO NOT leave to go up northeast during rush hour....ugh lol. I wound up getting stuck in Maryland and Delaware forever thanks to road work and toll booths for some reason taking eons to wait at. Once I finally got to the hotel and settled in, I hung out and relaxed & my friend Jerry came up and said hey, and wound up getting into the Ring Roast of Jim Cornette, which was ok. The comedians that night that I saw were pretty weak, but it was cool seeing Cornette get recognition since hes one of the all time great wrestling managers



-Me & Missy Hyatt
-Me & wrestling tag team legend "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton




One of the highlights of that weekend was seeing my friend Danielle and her family again. This girl and her family are an inspiration who have gone through alot and keep on fighting and having a great life and not to mention, they are so fun to be around! I wound up hanging out with them and & their close friend Torrie Wilson & her bf Nick that Friday night until like 3am...fun times! Torrie remembered me from us hanging out after the Wrestlers Rescue dinner 2 years ago and has always stayed sweet. Me & Torrie were talking about Boise State since I know thats where she's from and she was so jealous of me going to that Boise/Virginia Tech game last month when I showed her my clips and pics from it! hehe :)

-Me, Danielle, her parents, Torrie & Nick

-This was meant to be a picture but the camera was actually set on video so you can see all of us looking like we're ready for a pic and not a video lol :D Its the same one as above. We all hung out late into the night at the hotel bar & in Danielle's hotel room until 3am- it was a fun fun Friday night :) 10/15/10 in Monroe, New Jersey at the Crowne Plaza Hotel

Oh if your wondering, here's one of the clips I showed Tor from the Boise State game from early Sept ;)




The LOTR show itself on Saturday the 16th was a good time. Tammy was telling me it was slower then usual for those shows but we still did ok there and alot of fans did come up to us so it was decent. One moment that was cool was when former WWE diva Serena came up to say hi to us, and I mentioned to her about remember hearing about her going to a nearby high school to me(she went to Oakton High School and graduated in 2004, and I went to rival Chantilly High School and graduated there in 2002) so we joked and had fun with that hehe. I helped Tammy out with handling her fans who were buying autographs and pics from her and was her pic taker. Tam was a blast to work with and so easy going and would love to help her out again soon whenever she needs and wants my help- she knows Im around, since I know your reading this Tam lol ;) Your awesome :) Here's the new promo Tammy did for the blog as well as a few pics I took from that LOTR day:



-Me and Tam



-Me & Jerry

Me & Paul

-Me & Danielle

-Tam & some 6'9 wrestler. She's huge!!

-Me & Torrie


After that weekend, it was a normal work week for me, and then this past Friday the 22nd I came back up to NJ, but this time the location and event were alot more different then the weekend before. Thanks to my awesome bud Jerry, he got me hooked up to be at the MMA & Sports Expo in Atlantic City, NJ at the Taj Mahal Casino Hotel. Safe to say, this location was alot more around it then there was in Monroe,NJ lol. It was the first time I've been to Atlantic City in 15 years. The last time I was there was only for like a brief 1-2 hours with my brother Erek and my mom on a summer roadtrip back from Wildwood,NJ. This time around, I got to enjoy the surroundings of the fancy hotels and boardwalk. I've never really been that into MMA so the fact that I was working a MMA related event was ironic lol. It lasted from Friday through Sunday so it was for the whole weekend.


-Trump Taj Mahal Casino on the boardwalk

On Friday night, they had this red carpet event going on where alot of the talent got all dressed up and interviewed by press. It was pretty cool with how it was setup, and by far- the hottest there was my friend,the Traci Brooks aka the Canadian Winnie Cooper(Danica McKellar from the TV show "Wonder Years") hehe :) Hubba Hubba! lol- she looked great in her blue dress! I was able to catch up with my friends Josh and his PR person Christina too & and it was great to do that too since I hadn't seen him in almost two years. It was cool catching up with Alicia Webb & meeting X-Pac, two very nice & down to earth people! Also was great seeing wrestling photographer extraodinare Bob Mulrenin again 2 weekends in a row- I know we were happy when the Phillies lost on Saturday night lol. Also got to catch up with Marty Manoli again too, always a good guy & like Bob was happy about the Phillies losing, Marty had fun with the Yankees losing on Friday night too :D Jerry introduced me to Diamond Dallas Page aka DDP as well & he's one awesome dude that I look forward to working with more in the future. For those who don't know, DDP has his own Yoga company these days that I'd recommend you all checking out at http://www.yrgfitness.com -oh btw for those who don't know, he was the originator of the triangle hand gesture(Diamond Cutter) long before Jay-Z and Lebron stole it and called their own



-the lovely Traci Brooks




- Me and Xpac- we've got 2 words for ya.... ;)

-Me and Alicia, I was being a goofball here lol


-Traci and Jackie

-me & UFC star "Lights Out" Shonae Carter & Kim Coture

-Me & Josh

-Me, Josh, Christine, and DDP

-DDP lines me up for the Diamond Cutter hehe

-me in front of the MMA cage

Heading into the weekend, honestly had no idea what I would be doing other then being a staff member. I thought I was going to help out my friend Traci, but I wasn't 100% sure what the promoter had planned for me, but I would of preferred working with Traci- but thats me lol. I was the one who helped Traci get interested in doing the show, so that felt great to be responsible for her being there and having a great time :) They gave me a free staff shirt for the show to wear so that way no one working the show would think I was some random guy trying to sneak in ha. The only bad thing was the shirt they gave me to wear was like almost two times my size and would of been better for me if I was 30 pounds overweight haha, but I didn't have time to shrink the shirt- so I had to wear it. Basically what I did at the show was walk around alot and made sure things were going good for the talent involved. It was a little different for me, since anyone who knows me knows when Im around people I don't usually see much, I get really shy. Everyone was totally cool that I met and got to hang with. There was so much neat stuff involved at the expo throughout the weekend. They had different booths/events going on in the arena like arm wrestling, cooking, karate, weightlifting, and bodybuilding competitions in additon to being able to meet all the talent. Here's some pictures and a video from the expo in the weekend:

-Video of bodybuilding competition ending including Alicia Webb, Tony Atlas, April Hunter, X-Pac, Rob Terry, and Traci Brooks

-Kurt Angle and April Hunter



-me and Bonebreakers girl. They had cool looking designed shirts there and I bought one






-DDP hosting his YRG Yoga class sessions at the Expo

-Me, Alicia, and Traci hanging out at the bar on Saturday night, and we were all being funny :D The Phillies were losing to the Giants in the NLCS during that on the big screens and us all high fived each other- fun times :)

-me & UFC legend Dan "The Beast" Severn

-Me & Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. One of the all time greats

-me and ROH's Prince Nana. It sure feels good to be royalty :)

-Me filming DDP's promo for my friend Fred(I look so nerdy here haha :D)

-me & Traci(who I helped get booked for the event)

-Traci knows my most sensative spots :D


On the Saturday, there was a cool moment where in the female bodybuilding competiton, Jackie Haas(former WWE/TNA diva) was a part of it, and shes good friends with Traci, Marty, Scott Epstein(their hookup for the event). She wound up winning the event, and I got a nice vid out of it since I was standing next to Jackie's friends when she won and they were all happy :) You go girl!






I also met a new friend, June, who I see big things for in the future! :) She's a total sweetheart that I'll look forward to seeing again soon :)




Saturday was pretty busy, but Sunday was pretty dead at the show. I think it had to do with NFL games going on mainly. With it being dead, it gave me and the talent more time to talk with each other which was nice. I was also able to snap some new vids for the blog with DDP & Traci. Thanks you 2 so much for doing that! DDP's was great since alot of the stuff he said came on the fly & the one with me and Traci came out great since it was cheesy but in a good way lol. Check them out!

-DDP doing a video promo for Skins, Fins & Bears...Oh My!

-Me & my lovely bud Traci welcome you to Skins,Fins,& Bears..Oh My!

Overall, it was one heck of an experience both weekends. If you would of told me like 8/10/12 years ago that I'd be doing and seeing the stuff/people that I've been doing these last few weeks and 2+ years- I would of been in heaven and thought I was crazy! I was one of those guys back in middle school and high school who would wear the wrestling t-shirts around proud that never would of thought that all these years later, that I'd be doing the stuff I've been doing. Its really cool when I sit down and think about it for sure. Just goes to show if anyone wants to dream about anything, its possible :)

I want to also give a big shoutout and huge thanks to 2 people I mentioned earlier who were responsible for me having these experiences the last 2 weeks- Tammy Sytch & Jerry Sorrentino. Tammy....what can I say- I've been lucky enough to have known her personally for like 12 years now ever since the days on AOL when we were TSytch1033, ECWCANMAN, and Markola98...god times flies haha. She's also one of the sweetest people that I know. Lastly- Jerry....the man responsible for getting me hooked up with the access in Atlantic City at the Expo. You did alot for me and will forever be greatful for that, and will look forward to our new journey with your new upcoming company!

Onto sports & entertainment related happenings-

My Washington Redskins survived a ugly game vs. the Bears on Sunday. I wasn't able to watch it since I was driving back home from AC, but glad I missed it sorta lol. I was able to catch the 30 minute version of the game later on Sunday night when I got home thanks to my NFL Sunday Ticket package. If it wasn't for D'Angelo Hall- they would be a 3-4 record by now just like their defense gameplan, but thankfully they pulled out the win and are only a game back of 1st in the NFC East. Go Skins go! :)

The hockey season so far has been back and forth. The Washington Capitals(my hometown team) are doing ok so far with a 5-3. The surprise team so far has to be the Nashville Predators with a 5-0 record(I know your happy with that Traci ;) Its gonna be interesting to see how the season goes, and as long as the Caps don't win the Presidents Trophy again- they should have better luck in the postseason lol, since usually the team who wins the regular season presidents cup trophy ends up really choking in the playoffs

I'm ok with the new BCS rankings but still think Boise State is getting screwed. I think Auburn is gonna lose one of these games coming up and Oregon is bound for a letdown game. I wanna see Boise Vs. TCU in the title game just to upset all the big conference & SEC fans lol

Yay- glad to see my picks in the LCS series win and face each other in the World Series. The Giants/Rangers series is gonna be a fun series to watch I have a feeling. I'm gonna pick the Giants to win in 7 games and its gonna come down to how well San Fran's pitching can do vs. the Rangers hot bats

I'm happy Kurt Warner is still alive on Dancing with the Stars, but am not surprised since the football guys on there usually do great and get alot of fan support. Hopefully he doesn't get eliminated tonight! Honestly, the only reason I watch that show is whenever the sports athletes are on(Jerry Rice, Chad Ocho Cinco, Kenny Mayne lol,etc.) not for "celebs" like Sarah Palin's daughter and a Jersey Shore airhead

Here's my 4 NFL Game picks for this week:

Washington Redskins at Detroit Lions-
My pick: Redskins, this is gonna be an dangerous game and after their loss to the Rams last month- we'll see if Washington can step it up against a underrated 1-5 Lions team thats better then their record

Jenn's pick: Lions
Krista's pick: Redskins

Miami Dolphins at Cincinatti Bengals- My pick: Bengals, I think they'll start to get back on track this week

Jenn's pick: Bengals
Krista's pick: Fins

Pittsburgh Steelers at New Orleans Saints- My pick: Steelers, I see a big game for Steelers WR Mike Wallace

Jenn's pick: Saints
Krista's pick: Saints

Houston Texas at Indianpolis Colts: My pick: Colts, this will be the game of the week and fitting its on a Monday night. I think the Colts are gonna start going on their annual long hot winning streaks now

Jenn's pick: Colts
Krista's pick: Colts

Thats all for today and I know it was alot to read so I'll close it out now. Thanks for coming again and until next time- cyanora :)

Mark