Straight Up John Watanabe

 Blessings to the Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science for putting on an exhibit that I never thought I would ever see in any mainstream museum in America. My wife April & I walked down an amazing aisle, as we enjoyed the Evansville Museum's spotlight on the history of pro wrestling in Evansville, Indiana (this exhibit runs through January 31, 2027), featuring lots of newspaper articles, posters, photos and costumes, covering the various wrestlers, venues and crowds from the 1890s through the present day, that have made this form of entertainment so colorful and enduring in the River City near the Ohio River. During my career, I did some ring announcing in northwest Indiana, and I've known wrestling personalities who worked in Evansville and other parts of Indiana. At this exhibit, we saw some things on display that you don't exactly see every day: Bosse Field in Evansville is the third oldest ballpark still in use for professional baseball (April & I al...

 During a recent drive across the country, my wife April took this photo of me on June 30, 2026, of me standing on a small piece of land, where a small building once stood which was once the home of my first on-air radio job (decades ago), AM 1480, WFXW, at 7 Richards Street (at the corner of Richards Street & State Street/Illinois 38) in Geneva, Illinois. Many who read this blog know that I obviously became better known around the globe for other credits in television, radio and professional wrestling, but we are not to despise small beginnings (Zechariah 4:10). As of this writing, the real estate listing site Realtor lists "7 Richards Street, Geneva, IL" as a 0.98 acre lot that is off market/not for sale. When I worked there (when the building still existed), a White Hen Pantry was next door, but a 7-Eleven is now next door to this now-empty lot, after plucking the Hen. On March 13, 2018, the Geneva History Museum invited the public to its radio history event, on the hi...

 Praise God and blessings to my good former employer for this mighty fine pictorial tribute, which was presented to me at my retirement luncheon, on the campus of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, celebrating my fifteen glorious years as an on-air personality at KWVE/"K-WAVE" Christian Radio 107.9 & 1110/Los Angeles. In one room on the CCCM campus, I saw several copies of this pictorial tribute on a table, along with multicolor paint marker pens, presumably to be colored by kids at Calvary Chapel Schools. This animated artwork of appreciation (I thanked Tchuck Lopez at this luncheon for his part in it) not only expresses thanks for my years working on-air in the 5th floor radio studios within the K-WAVE Building, but also an acknowledgment of my professional wrestling announcing career, which is still what I am best known for (I am amazed that some fans have seen my on-camera hosting/wrestling play-by-play in certain parts of the world where I didn't even know it was distrib...

 This photo features me & my beautiful wife April, at my retirement ceremony & luncheon (held earlier today, June 22, 2026), at the K-WAVE Building, on the campus of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, honoring my fifteen years as an on-air radio personality at KWVE/"K-WAVE" Christian Radio, 107.9 & 1110/Los Angeles. If I had to make a pro wrestling comparison (since most folks around the globe know me as a professional wrestling announcer), I can't help but think about the send-off ceremony for Ric Flair, on a Monday night back on March 31, 2008, the night after his "retirement match", featuring the Nature Boy giving a farewell speech and various colleagues paying tribute.  The Bible says "Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth" (Proverbs 27:2). At my retirement ceremony, there were many kind words spoken by past and more recent colleagues of mine (in-person and via recorded messages), and I received a Certificate of Appreciation signed...

This photo featuring me & my wife April was taken during the Celebrity VIP Breakfast at the 65th annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival (slight correction for some good folks who thought I was our parade's Grand Marshal...even though I was chosen as one of the celebrities for the parade and other Strawberry Festival events, our parade's Grand Marshal was actress Kate Linder from the CBS-TV soap opera "The Young And The Restless").  After fifteen glorious years as an on-air radio personality at KWVE/"K-WAVE" FM 107.9 & AM 1110/Los Angeles, owned by and on the campus of the megachurch Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, I will be retiring in June (my final day will be Friday, June 12, 2026). This week, via email, I gave my official retirement notice to KWVE Program Director Brian Perez (who is also the host of our live call-in radio program "Pastors Perspective") and KWVE general manager Colin McLean (who is also the Executive Director of Gatherings ...

 The photo above features an invitation I received back in March 2025, to be a featured celebrity guest (for my work in pro wrestling and radio) for various events (including a parade) at the 65th annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival in May 2025. I received this invitation at KWVE/"K-WAVE" Christian Radio FM 107.9 & AM 1110/Los Angeles (my full-time on-air workplace during the last 15 years) from Wendy Ellis, PR & Marketing Director for the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Association Board of Directors. This is a very encouraging "epistle" that I will cherish for a long time. The Holy Bible's "epistles" in the New Testament were simply letters (as in messages, not the alphabet), written "back in the day" on scrolls. Back in "my day", epistles were written on pieces of paper and delivered by the post office, and for you kids, epistles are often sent and received today via emails or text messages on your cell phone.  The e...

 While it is still the year 2025 as I write this, I must say that one of my God-given highlights of 2025 was my participation as one of the celebrities at the 65th annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival (thanks again to Andrea Perez, Wendy Ellis and the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Board of Directors for choosing me and welcoming me). The photo above (taken by Michael David) features me signing an autograph for a fan at the Celebrity Meet & Greet outside the Garden Grove Courtyard Center (which took place after the Celebrity Breakfast, the Strawberry Festival Parade, and the VIP Celebrity Lunch). My wife April was sitting several feet behind me, as folks lined up for autographs in front of me. Some of my fellow celebrities sitting near me at the Celebrity Meet & Greet table included our Celebrity Grand Marshal Kate Linder (aka Esther Valentine on the TV soap opera "The Young & The Restless"), Wing Lam (co-founder of and TV commercial spokesman for Wahoo's...

 Before the year 2025 ends very soon, I just want to say that I am honored to be a full-time on-air personality on a radio station that is celebrating its 40th year anniversary, KWVE/"K-WAVE" FM 107.9 & AM 1110/Los Angeles. As K-WAVE celebrates 40 years on the air this year, praise God that I have been working at this radio station (owned by and on the campus of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa) during the last 14 years. It's an honor for me to be one of the chosen ones to carry on 2 legacies...the legacies of AM 1110 in Los Angeles and the great Calvary Chapel founder Pastor Chuck Smith (who was portrayed by Kelsey Grammer in the movie "Jesus Revolution").  Back on April 15, 1985, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa took over 107.9 FM (fulfilling a vision by Pastor Chuck Smith to start a radio station that would spread the gospel and equip believers in Christ Jesus), and in 2023, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa bought the powerful 50,000-watt AM 1110/Los Angeles from the Walt Dis...

Just hours ago, my wife April & I enjoyed serving at one of the booths at Calvary Chapel Azusa's Harvest Fest (featuring games, candy and all sorts of family fun), which included praying for people asking for prayer, and it was a delight meeting and getting to know one of my very loyal radio listeners at this event (Ms. Andrews of Rialto), after she heard me announcing on KWVE/"K-WAVE" Christian Radio (FM 107.9 & AM 1110/Los Angeles) that my wife & I will be serving at this event. The turnout for this Los Angeles County event was surprisingly good, considering that the Los Angeles Dodgers were playing a "need to win" Game 6 of the World Series vs. the Toronto Blue Jays as our harvest festival was taking place (as a side note, Toronto is the home of one of my old FMW Wrestling co-hosts, Dan "The Mouth" Lovranski from Live Audio Wrestling). While moms, dads and their kids were having fun at this Harvest Fest, some of these folks were frequent...

The photo above was taken at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival "VIP Celebrity Lunch" (which took place in between the Strawberry Festival Parade and the Celebrity Meet And Greet), featuring me with our parade's Grand Marshal, Kate Linder, aka Esther Valentine on the TV soap opera "The Young And The Restless" (Kate and yours truly were two of the festival's featured celebrities this year, invited by the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Association Board of Directors). My lovely blonde wife April is sitting in the background in this photo...we ate lots of delicious food at this buffet lunch, including, naturally, a strawberry dessert that was berry good! Before and during her run on TV's "The Young And The Restless" (she's been on the show for 43 years now), Kate has maintained her weekend job as a flight attendant for United Airlines (which she says keeps her grounded). This reminds me of an in-flight video for United Airlines that I acte...

The photo above (taken by Michael David) features my wife April in the front passenger seat (next to our friendly and capable driver Scott) and yours truly in the back, "K-WAVE's own John Watanabe...one of the celebrities riding in the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival Parade on May 24th at 10am!", as mentioned for weeks on the website for my full-time on-air radio home during the last 14 years, KWVE/"K-WAVE" Christian Radio, FM 107.9 & AM 1110/Los Angeles.   Almost every year, going back to 2012, April & I made appearances at the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival via the K-WAVE radio booth (under a tent, next to other festival sponsors and vendors), but this year, in what was our final Garden Grove Strawberry Festival appearance (more on that down the road, as our retirement plans draw near), thank God that April & I really went out with a bang, by being featured in the festival's parade and other events involving me being chosen this year as one ...

  Praise God, on Saturday, May 24, 2025, my wife April & I will be riding in the parade (representing KWVE/"K-WAVE" Christian Radio FM 107.9 & AM 1110/Los Angeles) at the 65th annual Garden Grove Strawberry Festival (a free family festival which attracts hundreds of thousands of people every year in Southern California), and then I will be one of this year's celebrities signing autographs at the celebrity autograph signing table outside the Garden Grove Courtyard Center. The parade will start at 10am, and the autograph signing will start at approximately 1pm (for more details, go to the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival website and click on "Celebrities"...strawberryfestival.org/celebrities). About 6 years ago, a wrestling fan named David Samuel Blain from Florida tweeted, "I'd truly wish I would have met John Watanabe in person, as an FMW Japan wrestling fan." Well, just as the apostle Paul sincerely wrote words of encouragement to people w...

My wife April & I, a week ago, had lunch with my long-time good friend and former pro wrestler/trainer/promoter Sonny Rogers, at a certain restaurant that Sonny goes to and talks about almost daily, the Oak Creek Diner in Oak Creek, Wisconsin (pictured above), about four minutes away from Milwaukee Airport, and not far from the statue of "The Wrestler Who Made Milwaukee Famous", da one, da only, Da Crusher (HOW 'BOUT DAT?!). With the bad news of so many restaurants across the nation filing for bankruptcy or closing locations, this simple breakfast and lunch restaurant in Oak Creek was a big draw on this day. The parking lot was full (FREE parking, thank God) and while sitting in our booth, April joked, "The whole town of Oak Creek is here!" When it comes to the "eating out experiences" that April & I have enjoyed, the Oak Creek Diner reminds me of our times at (the sadly now defunct) Miller's Sensational Salads & Sandwiches in Canoga Pa...

Today, November 2nd is National Bison Day (celebrated on the first Saturday in November), which "honors one of the most magnificent beasts to roam the land". On National Bison Day, I thought I'd honor one of the most magnificent and good-natured beasts to rule the wrestling ring, an old friend and colleague from my pro wrestling announcing days, Mark "Bison" Smith (who passed away on November 22, 2011 at the age of 41). Bison Smith may have looked like a big, intimidating buffalo, but away from the ring and TV cameras, he was really kind, sensitive and good-natured. I thought I'd share a good-natured story revolving around the above photo featuring me and Bison. Backstage, before one of our Urban Wrestling Alliance TV tapings at the historic Grand Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, I asked Bison if he could take a photo of me and someone else together (I don't even remember who it was) with my camera (before cameras on phones). Shortly after I h...

"Jesus wept" (John 11:35). That's the shortest verse in the Holy Bible. And this will probably be my shortest blog post. Above is a painting painted by a friend of my wife April's, a talented artist named Loretta Schroder of Big Bear City, California. In today's world where much of the "art work" we see is electronic, computerized and digitalized, it is SO refreshing to see an actual handmade painting on canvas, made with such great care by an actual human being's own hands. This beautiful painting features 2 verses from God's Word, Jeremiah 1:5 and Isaiah 49:1 (look 'em up, they're in there). Enjoy gazing at it, and may you see (visually and spiritually) the finger of God!

The photo above features me & my wife April with Bernie the baseball mascot, in one of the suites at San Manuel Stadium in San Bernardino, California, the home of the California League's Inland Empire 66ers baseball team. Over the years, around this time of year, April & I have enjoyed visiting several different minor league baseball parks (this last June, we witnessed the Evansville Otters winning over the Windy City Thunderbolts at Bosse Field in Evansville, Indiana), and this photo brings back good memories involving this San Bernardino-based baseball team and my pro wrestling announcing career. More than a decade ago, I was one of the morning radio co-hosts on KCAA AM 1050 (the NBC talk radio station in the Inland Empire), which also featured live broadcasts of Inland Empire 66ers baseball games. During one 66ers game, at San Manuel Stadium, then-Inland Empire 66ers baseball play-by-play announcer Sam Farber invited me into the stadium's radio broadcast booth to be ...

The photo above features me and another one of my old pro wrestling colleagues, the late "Shooter" Tony Jones, in the locker room at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, before I did play-by-play at ringside for one of our Urban Wrestling Alliance TV tapings. Tony passed away last month at the age of 53. Tony Jones and another old wrestling colleague of mine, Michael Modest (who was our UWA trainer) were prominently featured as the 2 wrestlers who had a WWF tryout match in the documentary movie "Beyond The Mat". For the Urban Wrestling Alliance TV shows, Tony wrestled as HTK...first, as a no-nonsense babyface/"good guy" known as Hard To Kill, and then later on as a heel/"bad guy" known as Honor, True & Knowledge. While there was no doubt that Tony was solid on the mat, there were some in the "creative department" (which included a staff of Hollywood TV writers) who had doubts about his "charisma" or on-cam...

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...