Straight Up John Watanabe

With the news of Paul Heyman being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame, as a part of the festivities leading up to WrestleMania 40 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, I thought I'd share this photo and some memories of the first time I met with Paul Heyman (back when he was the heel or "bad guy" wrestling manager Paul E. Dangerously) and his involvement with a certain small independent wrestling group that even some hardcore wrestling fans may not know that he was a part of. This photo was taken in a locker room at Marengo High School, in the tiny town of Marengo, Illinois, when Paul was brought in to manage The Terminators (Riggs & Wolf) at an event presented by a new promotion called Windy City Wrestling, promoted by Sam Decero (who formerly wrestled as Super Maxx, one half of the Maxx Brothers tag team with Mad Maxx, aka Eli The Eliminator). At the time, Windy City's events coordinator was the late Alan Eppenstein (I also knew Alan when he promoted some

My wife April took this recent photo of me with my long-time good friend and former Chicago-based pro wrestler/promoter/trainer Sonny Rogers. This picture features me & Sonny in front of the Oak Creek Diner in Oak Creek, Wisconsin (near where Sonny currently resides)...one of this diner's regulars is a peculiar old man whom Sonny calls "Terrytales" since this individual named Terry tells a lot of tall tales as a way to get everybody's attention. Since Sonny already mentioned on the old school wrestling website Kayfabe Memories that he, yours truly and former wrestler Jonnie Stewart all have birthdays on March 4th (even though I regard every day the same as any other, per Romans 14:5), I thought I'd share this memory of mine involving the 3 of us birthday boys in a wrestling ring. During my wrestling ring announcing days (before I began doing television & home video wrestling on-camera hosting & play-by-play), I was working at this Hammond (Indiana) Civ

This is long overdue. I owe this one to Carl Kerby, the founder and president of the Christian apologetics ministry Reasons For Hope, not only because I enjoyed reading this book several years ago, but also after my wife April & I had lunch with Carl & his wife Masami, and after Carl helped me & April by preparing us for our exciting adventures at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky and Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky.  Carl has written other books (and his son, Carl Kerby, Jr., is an author, too), but this book "Reasons For Hope In the Mosaic Of Your Life" is his cornerstone or foundational book that challenges and engages the reader by providing, well, reasons for this hope that we have, when we put our hope in Christ Jesus who IS our hope (1 Timothy 1:1). I "yellow highlighted" and "red pen circled" several parts of this book (a sign that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it), including Bible passages written thousands of years ag

Just hours ago, my wife April & I enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship, at a Christmas Eve service at Grace Harbor Church & School in Tustin, California (led by my brother-in-law Pastor Fred Snider & sis-in-law Dawn Snider). A highlight at this service involved my friend and old school pro wrestler Mando Guerrero. Many years ago, Mando & his wife Barb led an Awana group at this church, and just hours ago, surrounded by a group of children on stage, Mando recited the Biblical account of Jesus our God and Savior (2 Peter 1:1) coming to this earth in the form of a baby in Bethlehem, based on the gospels of Matthew and Luke. I told Mando beforehand that this should be an easy performance, "with no bumps in the ring", but Mando was nervous and said that he had "bumps in the heart!" Afterward, Mando liked my "review" of his Christmas Eve performance, in which I compared his presentation to "old school pro wrestling", as opposed to tod

As I write this, it was exactly 15 years ago (November 18, 2008) when I got this nice message from one of my old cohorts from my days as a professional wrestling announcer...former pro wrestler Sonny Siaki:  What's up, Watanabe! Hope you are well. Just want to thank you for leaving a comment for Bernard. That meant a lot to us. Please keep us in your prayers and help spread my brother's story.  Thanks again and God bless, FA'AMALOSI (STAY STRONG) Sonny  During the time when Sonny Siaki sent me this message, Sonny decided to be the kidney donor for his brother, Bernard Siaki, who had Renal Kidney Failure. Due to this procedure, Sonny's doctor said he can no longer wrestle, and thus, Sonny retired from pro wrestling. However, in the process, Sonny saved his brother's life.  In this world with plenty of selfishness and cold hearts (2 Timothy 3:2-4, Matthew 24:12), my old pal Sonny Siaki is now a true champion. At the time that this news spread, the First Church Of The

My fellow KWVE/"K-WAVE" on-air colleagues & I are excited to be a part of a radio ministry team that made history just hours ago. Along with 107.9 FM, K-WAVE is also now heard on the legendary 50,000-watt powerhouse known as AM 1110 in Los Angeles! A few months ago, my employer Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa (founded by Pastor Chuck Smith) bought AM 1110 from The Disney Company for $5 million (a nice piece of cheese to a certain Mouse Factory, in what is not a Mickey Mouse deal). On Friday, September 8th, 2023, at 3:00 PM Pacific Time, AM 1110 made the switch from a Disney Company-owned sports talk format to a Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa-owned Christian talk/Bible teaching format. Among many others, my wife April was an "earwitness", telling me over the phone that she could hear K-WAVE loud and clear on AM 1110 while driving through the San Fernando Valley (where our 107.9 FM signal can be "spotty" in some areas). Now via a much stronger signal on AM 1110, K-