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
