Category Archives: Featured

Thanks to Mick Foley, Christmas is far from “Mizerable” for illustrator Josh Adams

From his comic book illustrations for DC Comics‘ House of Mystery and IDW Publishing‘s Doctor Who to his design work for Syfy and WWE, Josh Adams is no stranger to to the fantastical realms of superheroes, time traveling and pro wrestling. This Christmas, Adams received an early present when he was asked to illustrate Mick Foley‘s latest children’s book, A Most Mizerable Christmas. Having previously drawn the likes of Rey Mysterio, Cody Rhodes, Jack Swagger and Christopher Daniels, you might think that illustrating a book featuring The Miz, CM Punk, Wade Barrett, Sheamus and other WWE superstars and divas would be a simple task. But this book offered a unique challenge in that Adams was creating these wrestlers as children, not in their current incarnations. Being a WWE fan, Adams was definitely up for the challenge and has helped create a new Christmas tale for wrestling fans of all ages. Here, Adams takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the challenges A Most Mizerable Christmas presented and how he was able to effectively execute his artistic finishing maneuvers.

Though you are no stranger to the wrestling world, A Most Mizerable Christmas is your first collaboration with Mick Foley. How did this collaboration come about and how did the process of illustrating Foley’s story work?

This is, indeed, our first collaboration. I wasn’t actually the first artist on the book. It wasn’t until July that I was brought onto the project after difficulty finding the right artist for a project. Jill Thompson recommended me. It was a weird encounter. Jill and I were both guests at Comic-Con International and our tables were down the aisle from each other. Jill came up to my table with a cell phone and asked me what my schedule was like. At first I thought she meant my schedule at the con, but then I realized she meant for an actual gig. I had just finished doing an issue of Doctor Who so I was free. Jill handed me her cell phone and on the other line was Mick Foley. Mick told me he had a lot of work and not a lot of time and wanted to know if I could handle the work. I had to scour the convention floor to find a watercolor set to do samples. It was a MacGyver moment if I ever had one, but that night I was able to finish some samples, email them to Mick, and just three weeks later I was turning in the final pages of A Most Mizerable Christmas. By the time I was brought on to the project there really were only three weeks till the deadline and a lot of art to do, so for my sake everything was already scripted, along with descriptions of what images should correspond with the text. There wasn’t a lot of time for Mick and I to go back and forth with different ideas, but thankfully after I finished a few pages of art, everyone felt we were in step with each other’s expectations.

Drawing WWE wrestlers is nothing new for, you but I believe A Most Mizerable Christmas is the first time you’ve drawn child versions of them. How did that compare to the previous wrestler illustrations you’ve done? How does drawing wrestlers compare to the superhero and fantasy stuff you do?

WWE Champion CM Punk is apparently a fan of "A Most Mizerable Christmas" artist Josh Adams. Photo by Saori Tsujimoto.

This is certainly the first time I have drawn child versions of professional wrestlers. Outside of children’s book illustration, there aren’t many opportunities that call for that kind of thing. The difficulty with doing the kid versions is that it’s not like drawing real kids. They’re cartoons, all with bubble heads and wearing kid clothes. One of the toughest was CM Punk. Here’s a guy who has piercings, facial hair and tattoos and I can’t illustrate any of them in this book. Drawing the wrestlers as you see them in reality is much easier for me and I’ve had a lot of experience with that. The real fun thing for me is that these men and women are like comic book characters and as a professional and as a fan I can appreciate the relationship that exists between the two. I’ve also found that many wrestlers are comic book fans, as well. My first wrestling-related job was illustrating a comic book for Rob Van Dam and it only grew from there, doing illustrations for Christopher Daniels, Stevie Richards, Daffney, storyboarding those artsy commercials that aired on Syfy for ECW and designing the print ads for SmackDown. My career has become quite inadvertently associated with wrestling, mainly because of my love for wrestling. There was actually one week last year where I was interviewed for Impact Wrestling one day and then the next day bagged by Cody Rhodes on WWE.com.

In much the same way that WWE allows us to escape to a comic book-like reality, Christmas is a magical time of year for most people. What attracted you to doing a Christmas book featuring WWE stars?

Much like a professional wrestler evolves his character over time to keep the product from getting stale, I always like to try different things and change directions when the opportunity presents itself. Nothing ventured, nothing gained as they say. When this opportunity presented itself, I had never done anything remotely like it and the style of work I was doing at the time was as photorealistic as you could get. So the transition was drastic. It was even the first time I did a job using watercolor! But I am comfortable when there is a lot of pressure to make the deadline under crazy circumstances. I’ve been to a few signings with Mick and we usually make our way through 300-plus books. The truly amazing and humbling thing is that people are buying this book as a Christmas gift for a child or a loved one. In the end, regardless of the content, how famous the author is, the experience doing the work, nothing affected me more than the fact that people happily paid money without the bat of an eyelash to buy the book as a holiday gift for someone. A friend of mine who is a school teacher bought copies for all the teachers he works with to read to their class. That means a lot to me.

This book is a morality tale that uses WWE personas to illustrate a positive message. But as is often the case with WWE, many of these characters (The Miz and CM Punk in particular) have had some changes in attitude since this book came out. Do you think The Miz may have learned a lesson from being the antagonist in this book? Do you think CM Punk should maybe take a second look at the book to remember the example his character set?

I’d have loved to have seen CM Punk resemble the character in our book on television, but business is business and as much as we fans love to grumble at the TV when we think we could do it better, those guys and girls in the WWE put together an amazing product that is unmatchable these days. Having been backstage at their shows and up to their offices in Stamford, I have seen such a well-oiled machine that makes it really shine at producing live entertainment every week that is both exciting and family friendly. It was cool to see Miz start to resemble the change that we put in the book, though.

In the acknowledgements section of the book, you thank Jerry Lawler, who is an incredible artist in addition to being a wrestler, and Jill Thompson, who has worked with Foley previously. How much would you say these two artists inspired you and how did their art influence the illustrations you did for this book?

"A Most Mizerable Christmas" artist Josh Adams also illustrates the "Doctor Who" comic book. Photo by Patrick Robert.

I’ve known Jerry Lawler for a number of years and he is one of the most amazing people you could have the chance to meet. He’s got such a quick mind. Listening to him on commentary is evidence of that, but then you see his illustrations. I’m a guy who has devoted his life to illustration, and he is a professional wrestler and commentator with a very busy schedule who somehow manages to find time to create beautiful work. It’s like if I decided to hop in the ring one day and work a 40-minute main event-style match on pay-per-view. Jerry just has that creative and ambitious edge that makes him a threat in anything he tries. All the while he is one of the sweetest and most humble guys you could ever meet. Jill Thompson is one of the coolest artists I know. She has a versatility about her work that allows her to traverse genre and tone with ease, and her skills with watercolor are to die for. She very much mentored me through the early stages of this book and helped me find the style for the characters. It couldn’t have been done without her guidance and obviously I never would have had the opportunity if she hadn’t believed I was able to handle it.

Now that this book is out, what other projects do you have out or coming out in the near future?

I have been working on a few issues of Doctor Who for IDW Publishing, which will be out in January and February. Doctor Who is a great series for families. I’ve got a graphic novel that I’m working on and a webcomic series in the works as well, which are both for older audiences. But I have been excited about any opportunity to do more wrestling-related work, as well as more children’s book work.

www.whatwouldjoshdo.com

Despite new music and tour, nothing is too solid with Concrete Blonde

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Just prior to Concrete Blonde‘s tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its landmark Bloodletting album two years ago, I spoke to Johnette Napolitano for accessAtlanta (which you can read right here). That was actually my second time interviewing Napolitano and both experiences have lead me to the conclusion that it’s hard to keep up with her creative energy. For Concrete Blonde fans, that’s a good thing considering that the band recently released a white vinyl single for two new songs: “Rosalie” and “I Know the Ghost.” And after touring the world over the past couple of years, the band (rounded out by guitarist James Mankey and drummer Gabriel Ramirez) is currently on an East Coast tour. In the midst of that tour, Napolitano takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the possibility of a new Concrete Blonde album and her various other music projects.

I talked to you a couple of years ago just before your first rehearsal for the Bloodletting anniversary tour. Now you’re on tour again and have a new vinyl single, which is something you may not have anticipated last time we spoke. How did the new music and tour come about?

It just seems to be the right thing to do. We did that seven-inch single on white vinyl, which was fun to do. I don’t know how that idea really came about. It just seemed like the right thing to do. At my day job, that’s what I used to do is get masters to the plant to get them made into stampers and all that. That was my job, so I know a lot about vinyl and I just thought it would be fun to make a single. Obviously you can download anything digitally, but it was really fun. We took it out of the box and just went, “Oh, this is really cool.” It’s like it used to feel, that excitement when we made our first record. I think for Gabriel it was really cool because that’s how this band started was on vinyl. We’re excited about it and people apparently want us to play. That’s nothing that I take for granted. There are waves, especially in this fabulous entertainment industry we’re in, where trends come and go and things ebb and flow. The last thing you want to do is get out there and think everything’s cool and have six people show up.

Since that Bloodletting tour, we headlined a festival in China last year, which was a really amazing experience for all of us. We’ve been to South America a couple of times. As a matter of fact, we have to go back there in March or April because two days before a Brazilian festival I fell off one of my horses and broke four ribs and four vertebrae, so we’re going to make that up. Most of our touring in the last few years has been foreign. The States are a difficult place to work, as anybody in this business will tell you, because it’s like five different countries in one. You may do well New York, but nobody in Mississippi gives a shit, or vice versa. It’s really painstaking to make sure you’re connected in the right places and doing the right things to make sure people come because all you’ve got to do is one bad tour and nobody will come again.

The two songs on this seven-inch are stylistically very different from each other. One is very punk rock while the other is almost country…

Much like our first record.

Exactly. Are those the only two new songs you’ve been working on or do you have other new stuff that might be released soon?

I do. I always have a million half-finished things laying around. I’m my hardest critic and a song really has to earn its place before being immortalized. I love both of those songs. “Rosalie” just came to me in one piece while I was sitting on the porch of my cabin in Joshua Tree. It just blew in with the wind. It was just perfect. When that happens, all you’ve got to do is catch it. And with “I Know the Ghost,” “The Ghost” was a poem I wrote for a book called Rough Mix, which we have on sale, and I really liked it and loved the idea of setting it to music somehow. I also wanted to do something that we didn’t have to take that seriously; just a good old-fashioned West Coast punk feel because our roots are in West Coast punk. That’s when everybody started making their own records. That was a big deal and everybody was doing the DIY thing big time back then. That’s when Black Flag’s first record came out and Agent Orange and all that. Brett [Gurewitz] started Epitaph with a seven-inch single from Bad Religion, which both Jim and I worked on. But everybody was doing that then, so it makes sense. And on a very basic level, the sound of vinyl sounds good with certain stuff. Country music on vinyl just sounds so pure and right; and punk on vinyl sounds pure a right because there was a lot of that going on on vinyl. Now they have plug-ins to simulate the sound of vinyl if you record digitally.

The book is another thing you mentioned last time we talked. I’m glad to see that it’s out now.

Oh, yeah. It’s steadily selling on Amazon, which is really all I wanted to do. I want it to be a series and I’ve started another one on this tour. There are so many songs that it’s basically explaining what some of the songs are about. Then it has miscellaneous drawings, poems and things that don’t seem to fit anywhere else. I also did a CD series called Sketchbook and I only do 1,000 of each, then they’re gone. It gives me incentive to do another one because I have a loyal base of people who want every one I do. That’s really cool. I like that sort of approach. It’s not just throwing stuff out there for mass consumption; it’s custom little things for people who want them. People do appreciate that they have something special that is not going to be there once it’s gone.

You always seem to be working on musical projects with various other musicians. What else do you have in the works right now?

I’m still working with David J and David is all over the map. We’re working on a project called Tres Vampires with a DJ named Shok out of L.A. We’ve got three tracks down, only one mixed, and a video that really needs some re-editing. It’s hard to keep up with David J. He’s one of the most driven artists I’ve ever known. He really is off the planet and I’m a big fan.

You were also working with a flamenco group in New Orleans called Ven Pa’Ca and talking about opening your own flamenco club there. Did that ever happen?

I spent a lot of time down in New Orleans after my dad died and opening a place down there was definitely not as simple as I thought it was going to be. New Orleans is a scary place if they don’t want you there. I was at the airport and two big white men came to the bar where I was sitting and said, “Can we join you?” I said, “No,” but they sat down anyway. I was pretty much told that it wasn’t a good idea for me to be opening anything down there. It was pretty scary. I’d heard that New Orleans is no place to fuck with, but I don’t know who they think I am or whether they didn’t dig what I was doing. I had rented Preservation Hall for one day and shot flamenco with Leticia from Ven Pa’Ca. We did a version of “Mexican Moon” and it was really cool because it made sense for me to have flamenco there. But that’s not what the place really is about. New Orleans really doesn’t appreciate you deviating from what they want to go down, basically. That really did freak me out because they were just like, “We’ll bury you down here.” It was very creepy. I don’t know if they thought I was related to Janet Napolitano or what. It was really strange, so I kind of put that idea to the side because I think playing down there with the big boys is not the easiest thing in the world to do.

You mentioned that you’ve been working on other new songs. Does that mean we might see a new Concrete Blonde album in the near future?

Everybody keeps asking me that, but I’m afraid to make that commitment with the band, to tell you the truth. We have a relationship that is difficult sometimes, like anyone else who’s been together for so many years. It’s really important that nobody get too comfortable. That’s why I got pissed off at the band in the first place because everybody got really comfortable and everybody started taking things for granted. I like that we’re doing this, I like that there’s a single and there is new music, but I know I’ll never again in my life go out and tour for seven months at a time like we used to do in the old days. As a matter of fact, what has been the main factor in the last couple of years for me is I don’t like to leave home for more than a week out of the month. It throws me off balance and I really need to be home because I’ve got goats and horses and all that. But it’s not practical to do that. On the East Coast we’ve got to do it for two weeks to make it work, but it’s hard for me to be gone for that long. It’s hard on personal relationships and your life and it’s not worth it. To keep that balance is the most important thing for me and if it takes doing things in little spurts so everybody keeps it together and stays nice to each other, that’s great. The minute it’s not fun, there are a million other jobs to do that pay more.

As we just talked about, you also do various other musical projects with other people. So you seem to stay busy even when you’re not working with Concrete Blonde. Are you working on any other new musical projects?

I am pleased to be working with Billy Howerdel on the new Ashes Divide record. I just spent a couple of days not too long ago doing some heavy duty writing with Billy, which is always intense, but a total pleasure. It’s a beautiful record; I’m really pleased. I just love Billy Howerdel. He’s a great guy and I love his family. I’m just envious of him because he has a beautiful wife, beautiful kids, he makes beautiful music and he makes amazing food. That motherfucker cooks like an angel, so anytime you work with Billy you know you’re going to get fed really well.

Kickboxer Gary Daniels goes toe-to-toe with Peter Weller in “Forced to Fight”

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After an accomplished kickboxing and karate career, Gary Daniels made the transition into acting in the late 80s. Since then, Daniels has been the lead in numerous B movies and performed alongside better-known action stars like Jackie Chan, Dolph Lundgren and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Daniels biggest mainstream exposure came in 2010 when he was part of the ensemble cast of Sylvester Stallone‘s The Expendables. But with the Dec. 18 release of Forced to Fight, Daniels gets the leading role again alongside the original RoboCop, Peter Weller (playing a crime lord villainously similar to the corrupt cop he played on Dexter). In the film, Daniels plays a retired fighter who has no choice but to get back into the underground fight scene in order to pay of his brother’s debt. With Forced to Fight now available in DVD, Blu-ray and digital download, Daniels talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about making this film and his career goals going forward.

You made the transition from kickboxing to acting many years ago…

I attempted to. I’m still working on that.

But with Forced to Fight you’re also the fight choreographer. Have you been a fight choreographer on many of your previous films?

I’ve actually choreographed a lot of fights in a lot of the films that I’ve done. It’s something I like to do, but unfortunately to really get your vision for a fight scene on film not only do you have to choreograph it, you have to direct it, choose the right lenses for the camera, get the right camera angles and get into the editing room to edit the fight. I choreograph the fights, but I don’t get a say on the direction or in the editing room. So very rarely do I ever get my vision.

How close would you say the fight scenes in Forced to Fight came to what you had envisioned them to be?

The problem with Forced to Fight was I wasn’t the original choreographer. Before I went to Romania to shoot the film, I asked if they already had a fight choreographer and they told me they had a local guy in Romania doing it. So when I went out there I hadn’t done any prep for any kind of fight scenes, I hadn’t done any prep on who I’d be fighting. That’s what you normally do is you prep the fights in advance before you actually get to the set. But once I got to Romania, about two or three days before the actual shooting, I looked at what the local choreographer had done and it was very substandard to what I was expecting, and what I expect of myself. So I had to re-choreograph, from scratch, all of the fights and I only had a couple of days. There’s, like, 15 fights in that film and each of them has to have a story in regards to where they fit in the film and where the characters are at emotionally in the film. Another problem was that the guys I had to fight were not film fighters. These guys were real kickboxers, real wrestlers, a couple of gangsters. One guy was 6’9″ – lovely fellow – and this guy had bullet wounds all up his arm because he had been in a shoot-out with the police when his brother was being killed. These are the kind of guys they brought me to fight. So not only was I trying to choreograph the fights, I was trying to teach these guys how to movie fight. It was a very difficult challenge.

So when you ask me how much of my vision did I actually get, if I had been working with real film fighters it would have been a lot better. When you do a film fight, it’s like doing a dance with a partner – you have to work in tandem with each other. One gives, one takes, one pushes, the other one pulls, you give each other the right distance. So when you work with proper movie fighters and stuntmen, they understand this. But when you’re working with real fighters, it’s a difficult concept for them because they’re used to winning and disrupting rhythm. In a real fight you’d disrupt your opponents rhythm, not work with it. I’m not going to say it’s the best fights I’ve done, but I think with the time we had and what we had to work with we did a pretty good job. If I had to give you a percentage, I’d say it would be maybe 40-50 percent of what I’d have like to have seen.

In many of your films, your character is based largely on your interaction with the bigger stars of each film like Jackie Chan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin or, in this case, Peter Weller. How would you say working with Weller compared to some of the other actors and action stars you’ve worked with?

When you’re working with someone that’s the caliber of actor that Peter Weller is, it only elevates your own performance. Peter is a fantastic actor and he brought so much to the character he played in Forced to Fight that it was an absolute pleasure working with him. I know it helped elevate my character and my performance in the film. I’ve done about 60 films and early in my career, in about two-thirds of my films, I was the lead actor. What they’d do is bring in bigger name actors to support me for the sales. Sometimes you find that some of these bigger actors come onto these smaller films and just do it for a paycheck. It looks like they’re sleepwalking through the roles. But I have to say that with Peter, he truly brought it. He did a perfect performance in the film and it was an absolute pleasure working with him. You’re always apprehensive when you have these bigger name guys coming off these huge productions, and sometimes they show some apprehension coming to the set. But after the very first scene I did with Peter, I stepped out of the car where we were shooting and went straight to the director and said, “Well, I think we’e got something here.” He had a great presence and brought so much to the character.

You’ve worked with numerous big names, especially in The Expendables. Are there any particular action stars or bigger names you have yet to work with that you’d like to?

To be honest with you, I’m not really looking to work with certain action stars. I’d really like to work with some of the actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and some of the other bigger actors. It’s not working with these actors that’s going to help promote my career. It’s really just trying to work with a higher level of production with better writers and better directors. I’d love to work with Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan and some of these bigger directors. That’s what’s really going to help take my career up another notch. Just working with these B movie action guys like myself is not going to elevate my career. Having done 60 of these films, I’m probably closer to that level. But I really want to work with good writers, good directors, better actors. Like every other actor, I want to step it up a notch and move up another level. So I’m going to be looking for that break and I’m not going to do it by doing another Steve Austin movie. Nothing against Steve, I love the guy to death.

Forced to Fight is out today, but it looks like you have a few other films coming out soon.

One of the films I’m proud of is something I worked on last year in Thailand called Angels. The lead was Dustin Nguyen, who was the Vietnamese character on the original 21 Jump Street, and he’s a very good actor. We had a brilliant, fantastic script, but it was on a budget. We just had the world premiere screening in Vietnam and they took me over for the premiere. I was very, very happy with the way the film turned out. The director was a guy named Wych Kaos – he wrote it, directed it and produced it – and he’s a genuinely talented filmmaker. That should be coming out sometime next year and I think it could do some great things for me. It was a straight acting role for me without any fighting. I was happy with the performance in the film overall, so I’m looking forward to that coming out.

Any chance you might currently be working on something that might take you to that next level as an actor?

I do have a few projects in the works, but not the kind of projects I’m looking for right now. I have three or four projects in the works for next year, but I’m still looking for that one break-out role. It’s pretty difficult when you come from a fighting or sports background. When you do make the transition into the film industry, it’s very hard to get people to take you seriously as an actor. When you come from a fighting background, you’ve learned to not show any emotions. So if you’re tired or hurt, you can’t show it. But in the movie industry, as an actor, you have to wear your emotions on your sleeve so everyone in the audience can see it and feel what you’re feeling. One of my early acting coaches would say, “Look, Gary. I know you’re feeling it but we have to see that you’re feeling it.” I have been working very hard on my acting and the only way you’re going to move up is not by being a good martial artist, it’s going to be by being a good actor.

www.garydaniels.com

Georgia Wrestling Now remembers Jason Speed and welcomes Mr. Donnie

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It has been a sad few days for many people in the Georgia wrestling seen with the passing of Pro Wrestling Resurrection/The New Tradition Pro Wrestling‘s Jason Speed. So this week’s Georgia Wrestling Now is dedicated to Speed, with remembrances by Simon Sermon, “The Lethal Dose” Stryknyn, Matt “Sex” Sells, Matt Von Reaper, Michael Gentry, El Zombie Mascara and Ryan Bonebrake. Sermon also fills in for Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins as we also talk to Mr. Donnie and Brian Alexander “The Great” about the annual Toys for Tots wrestling benefit at Henderson Arena on Dec. 22. Listen live every Monday at 7 p.m. and call 347-324-5735 for questions or comments.

Mr. Donnie (center) talks about this Saturday's Toys for Tots benefit at Henderson Arena. Photo by Terry Lawler.

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Georgia Wrestling Now welcomes Clint Eller and Dementia D’Rose

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Team All You Can Eat’s Matt Hankins, Georgia Wrestling History‘s Larry Goodman and Wrestling with Pop Culture have gotten to the bottom of a few wrestling mysteries on Georgia Wrestling Now. And this week we find out how the once happy-go-lucky Aisha Sunshine evolved into the now-deranged Dementia D’Rose, one of the most enigmatic female wrestlers around. We also talk to Old School Wrestling Alliance’s Clint Eller about this new promotion’s upcoming events at the Georgia Hapkido Academy. Listen live every Monday at 7 p.m. and call 347-324-5735 for questions or comments.

Clint Eller calls the action at a recent OSWA event. Photo by Tray Sees Photography.

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Really Big Santa brings a larger-than-life holiday spectacular to the Plaza Theatre

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Santa and his helpers are everywhere this time of year. But if those department store bell ringers and shopping mall offshoots just don’t live up to the holiday hype, there’s one Santa that will have you believing in a big way. A really big way. Continuing the tradition he started last year, Really Big Santa returns to the Plaza Theatre on Dec. 8 for Santa’s Super Saturday Show. As his name implies, Really Big Santa is a very large version of the big guy from the North Pole. But don’t let his towering frame intimidate you. Really Big Santa is a jolly fellow who will sing and dance with you, offer up his homemade hot cider, take pictures with you and host a screening of Jim Henson‘s 1977 TV movie Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas. As he prepares for this big event, he takes a moment to have this fireside chat with Wrestling with Pop Culture.

Santa’s Saturday Super Show features singing, dancing, cider and other holiday fun. For those who weren’t there last year, what else can people expect?

Photo by Evan Bartelston.

We’ll have prizes, Santa’s own special hot cider, a floor show with the folks from Blast-Off Burlesque and wrap it all up with a sing-along and Santa’s dance party! We also will start pictures with Santa at 11 a.m. and at 8 p.m. for the night show. For $15 you get a digital copy emailed to you and a print mailed to your home!

Who else will be joining you at this event?

My helper Max, who is a real elf. We’ll have classical Christmas guitar music provided by “Evil” Jim Wright from the band Bigfoot. Blast-Off Burlesque will be performing with me and our pictures will be taken by Knotty Pictures this year. We are excited! The night show will have a very special surprise crew showing up!

How does the matinee show differ from the night-time show?

The matinee show is not as loud, has longer sitting times for pictures with Santa and has fewer German Christmas characters in the show.

Speaking of German Christmas characters, rumor has it another lesser known (at least to most Americans) Christmas creature will be making an appearance at the night show. What do you know about the Krampus and the bar crawl he has planned in conjunction with your event?

We will be staging the annual Little Five Points Krampus Krawl in conjunction with 7 Stages Theatre, Java Lords and the Euclid Ave. Yacht Club right after the movies wrap. We’ll be hitting The Righteous Room, Manuel’s Tavern, the Five Spot, the Little 5 Corner Tavern, the EAYC, Elmyr and some others over the course of the night. The Euclid Ave. Yacht Club will have Bavarian food specials all night, too!

You don’t claim to be the real Santa, but you’re just as jolly as the big guy at the North Pole. Is there some sort of criteria Saint Nick looks for when choosing his helpers? Was any sort of training involved?

Photo by Evan Bartelston.

I am an official Santa Claus which is different than the Santa Claus. I have a 24/365 hotline to the big guy, and I have a territory I cover as his ambassador. I handle requests, manufacturing, livestock and distribution for my territory as if I were the old man. He picks us personally, trains us rigorously and trusts us implicitly. I am proud to be one of the few.

Kids are often afraid of Santa even when he’s not Really Big. Do you find that you’re more intimidating than the average Santa? If so, what do you do to appease frightened girls and boys?

No. I actually seem to have an easier time with them as I’m willing to work with them if they are scared. It’s not my size, it’s my demeanor. That and the parents that bring their kids to Really Big Santa aren’t pushing their kids to do something they don’t want. I rarely have a kid that doesn’t end up getting a picture of some sort out of the visit.

I’m sure you’re very busy this time of year. Where else might we see Really Big Santa this holiday season?

The best place to keep up with me this year is www.facebook.com/reallybigsanta. I also will be appearing on Public Broadcasting Atlanta in my new TV special, Christmas Around Atlanta. It will be airing all month on Atlanta’s PBA30.

www.reallybigsanta.com

AJ Styles has one last battle with Christopher Daniels at Final Resolution

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If any one wrestler has become synonymous with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, it’s “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles. He’s held every men’s title in the company, defeated almost everyone on the roster and been there since TNA’s first event. Though Styles has had many rivalries over the years, his perfect foil within and outside of TNA has been “The Fallen Angel” Christopher Daniels. These two have waged more high-flying battles in 2012 than perhaps ever before and it call comes to a head this Sunday at Final Resolution in what is being billed as a “one last time” match. But before that one-on-one encounter, Styles and Daniels will be on opposite sides of the ring tonight on Impact Wrestling as Styles teams up with TNA World Heavyweight Champion Jeff Hardy and “The Cowboy” James Storm to take on Daniels, Kazarian and Bobby Roode. Wrestling with Pop Culture recently got to talk to Styles yet again about his rivalry with Daniels, other potential rivalries and what his plans are for the new year.

This Sunday’s match is billed as the final battle between you and Daniels. What are your memories of the first time you and Daniels faced each other and how do think you’ve both changed as competitors over the years?

The first time he and I ever got into the ring together was the 53rd Anniversary of the NWA; it was the first time I had ever met Christopher Daniels. What a match it was – two guys who knew nothing about each other going in there and having an unbelievable match. I think it’s what helped take my career get to the next level. When you have matches like that with Christopher Daniels you get noticed. My popularity has grown every since I wrestled Christopher Daniels. As far as changing over the years, I can’t tell you that there’s been that much change as far as the wrestling goes. [But] we’ve been the closest friends and bitter enemies.

The two of you have met so many times, and the bar is raised each time you get into the ring together. Fans always expect the two of you to put on a tremendous match, so is there any pressure going into this Sunday knowing it’s being billed as the final match between you two?

The thing about me and Chris is we’ve had so many matches and they’ve all been pretty good, so the bar has been raised every time. The last time we met was a last man standing match and we literally about killed each other. It was such a brutal match from both of us that ended with me putting him through a table off the ramp with a Styles Clash. It’s so hard to top something like that because we literally left everything we had in the ring and outside the ring. There was nothing left of either one of us after that match, so to have one final match is a lot of pressure because we’ve got to make it something that people will never forget. We want to put on a classic. It is hard, but I think we’ll be able to do it.

You recently lost another match with a stipulation that you won’t get another title shot until next year. How does that change your outlook on your goals and what you want to accomplish in the next year?

I don’t know. The year’s not over and who knows what my mindset will be at the end of this year? I’m not sure where this will lead me and where I will take it. Hopefully there will be loopholes, there will be some way for me to get that world title before Bound for Glory. Who’s to say that I’ll even make in the tournament? I have yet to do that, so even though I may have a shot at Bound for Glory doesn’t mean I’ll get it.

Since Sunday’s match is being billed as the last meeting between you and Daniels, what do you plan on doing to try and make it stand out amongst the many matches the two of you have had against one another?

The thing I’m going to try to accomplish in this match is make sure it’s different from everybody else’s on the card and do something people haven’t seen, or maybe they’ve forgotten about like classic wrestling, classic storytelling and everything that goes along with what professional wrestling has been and what it will be. I think the thing is to try to make it different from what we’ve done and what everybody else is doing.

Is there anyone else on the TNA roster you’d like to develop a friendship or rivalry with that might compare to the ones you’ve had with Christopher Daniels?

Rivalries? Who knows who the next guy is? I can tell you that as far as friendships, I think I’ve done enough of those little friendships and factions and stuff like that. I think it’s about time that AJ Styles do his own thing and stop worrying about everybody else and stop being the janitor of TNA and cleaning up messes and go out there and do my own thing.

Probably the one solid rule in professional wrestling is to never say “never.” Do you really believe this is the last time you two guys will meet?

You know, I’ve thought about that myself. What if he’s in the Bound for Glory Series and what if I’m in the Bound for Glory Series? How can we not wrestle each other? Just little things like that. How can we stay apart? Is there going to be some rule? Or maybe there will be one final time where I ask him to wrestle me and he accepts or something like that. That’s going to be a hard one to get around, so we’ll see.

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