A Thank You Letter from @YourBuddyCJ

Professional wrestling has always been here for me. I grew up as a very lonely kid. All through school, from elementary through high school, I was always shunned. Kiss didn't want to be around me because of how I looked, or how I talked. They didn't like that I had to get my clothes from salvation army, or that I would hide in the bathroom at lunch so they wouldn't make fun of me. The one constant in my life has been professional wrestling.
My love for this great sport began in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1998. I was 8 years old, and I was at my grandmother's house. She lived in a rough part of town, so I wasn't allowed to go outside when we visited grandma. One night, I sat down on her couch with my dad, and my uncle was watching WCW Monday Nitro. There was this huge guy with a bald head spearing and jackhammering people. I was hooked from the moment I laid eyes on pro wrestling.


Although my parents supported me and wanted me to be happy, they never understood my passion for professional wrestling. It was all I talked about, it was all I thought about, and it caused my parents to leave me to myself, because they just couldn't get into it. The more time I spent alone, the more opportunities I had to learn everything I could about wrestling. I watched as much Raw and Nitro as I could, fully entrenched in the Monday Night Wars.


When my parents got divorced, I became more and more isolated. As hard as I tried to fit in at school, I got pushed further and further away. Whenever I felt like I had nobody to turn to, I had pro wrestling. When I couldn't be around my parents because they were too busy screaming at each other, pro wrestling was always there when I needed it.


A few years ago, when I started getting more involved in social media, I finally had a way to give back to the sport that had given me hope. The first wrestling podcast I ever heard was a show called 3 Count Radio. I instantly connected with the people on that show, because they had the same passion I had for the business, while having a real sense of humor about it at the same time. Out of the 3CR community cane a show called Answering the 10 Count. They were the first show to embrace me, and appreciated the contributions I made and the support I showed, which I still do to this day, and I will be forever grateful to those guys. As I started getting more of a twitter following, I found The Steel Cage podcast, and while going back and forth with the great guys over there, I stumbled across a guy who called himself True God. 

He and I immediately connected through our love for wrestling, and he was the first guy to offer me a full-time opportunity to contribute and express myself for a wrestling site. Without the support of everyone at WrestlingHeels/Eyes on the Ring, I wouldn't have had the confidence to reach out to wrestlers that I've grown up watching. Consider this my thank you letter. Not just to all of the great men and women in the wrestling podcast world, but to every single wrestling fan with whom I've ever interacted. I have been alone for so long, and all of you have been gracious enough to take me in. Every single one of you have truly made my life better, and are the reason I have fallen in love with this amazing sport all over again. You guys have accepted me when nobody else would. I can finally look at myself in the mirror and see a happy person. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I belong to a family. You guys may not have thought it was a big deal, but it has saved my life. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for making me feel like I belong. I owe each and every one of you a debt of gratitude. Thank you.