Hot Academy Summer

Posted byNicholas RadfordPosted inUncategorized

Hot Academy Summer.

That’s what we were calling it. The most booked and blessed Thom Alman and I have been since returning to live wrestling shows in February 2022. Since then, I’d only had eighteen matches in 2022 and (until August) eleven matches in 2023. For comparison, in 2015–my second year of wrestling–when I was hard into that hustle mindset, drinking innumerable energy drinks and sleeping about two hours every night) I had seventy-seven matches across eleven companies and three states/provinces. That was eight years ago, folks. I was working a low-effort job that allowed me to read comics and catch a nap in my car at lunch, plus I had nobody to come home to. My whole personality was wrestling. Nowadays, I’m a decaf coffee drinker who comes home to a wife and a cat. I run marathons, write blogs and poems, record podcasts, play weekly Dungeons & Dragons games with my friends, and even try to stream video games sometimes. 

That’s not to say The Academy hasn’t achieved anything since early 2022. Far from it, actually. We’ve wrestled steadily at DOA Pro Wrestling and SOS Pro Wrestling, becoming staple acts at both. We became the longest-reigning SOS Tag Team Champions after winning the titles in January 2023, right after I completed the Walt Disney World Marathon. At DOA, we became one of the hottest groups on the card, often bookending each show by appearing in the opening and closing segments. We also debuted at POW Pro Wrestling halfway through this year. 

DOA Grand Champion Nick Radford, Photo: @arealgoldmouth

Then, in August, things ramped up for The Academy. To kick off the month, I finally won the DOA Grand Championship by pinning KEL at the Queen of Thorns–an all-women tournament–after cashing in the Shot in the Dark contract, which I had been holding onto for safekeeping for Brian Cook. In doing so, I became the first DOA Asylum alumnus to win the title, and I did so with the support of my original trainer, Dr. Kliever. 

I didn’t have long to celebrate my victory because the next weekend, The Academy took on our nemeses, C.A.T. to successfully defend our SOS Tag Team Championships. After their defeat, C.A.T. challenged us to another match for the titles, allowing us to choose what they would put on the line to earn another shot at our gold. We picked an appropriate stipulation for the situation–Titles vs. Tails–before revealing later that the match would be contested under School Yard Street Fight rules.

Thom would take the next weekend off, which left me to defend The Academy’s honor at POW Pro Wrestling solo against Stephen Bradley of Duv & Dangerous, which led to another tally in the W column for the double champion and The Academy as a whole.

An exciting and rare opportunity arose a few days later when SOS held an event at Old Stove Ship Canal on a Thursday. This time, The Academy split into two matches, with Thom facing Kal Jack in a hard-hitting hoss fight, leaving me to add another accolade to my legacy by defeating Ghost Pirate Brian, Rook Kelly, and Pitfall Jones for the Old Stove Ship Canal Captainship. But I wasn’t done after just one wrestling show that week because that Saturday was the Seattle Summer Half Marathon. Last year, I completed the Seattle Summer 5K and 10K before heading to wrestling training–since they didn’t offer the half at the time–and I decided to up the ante a bit by doing the same after the half this year (a 5K and a 10K total about 9.3 miles, while a half marathon is about 13.1 miles). So, throughout one Saturday, I ran a half marathon, went to training for about an hour or so, and then stayed out playing Magic: The Gathering with other wrestlers and friends at Destiny City Comics in Tacoma, WA. That wasn’t even my busiest week because the following weekend would blow this one out of the water.

Pikmin 4 booth at Nintendo Live

PAX has become an annual tradition for my partner and me. Aside from a couple of pandemic years, we’ve been attending every year since a friend of mine gifted us some passes back in 2018. It usually falls on Labor Day weekend, which also tends to be a rather busy wrestling weekend, especially this year. I don’t know much about Bumbershoot other than it is a festival that focuses primarily on music and includes other art forms. This year was the first year in Bumbershoot history that those other forms of art included professional wrestling, and I was one of the lucky few who got to perform in some of those matches. But that’s not all I had going on during Labor Day weekend! A friend from the Great White North asked me to perform at one of his shows in Vancouver, BC, and since it didn’t fall on the same day I would be performing at Bumbershoot, I decided to make it happen. So my schedule for the weekend looked something like this: PAX on Friday, wrestling training and DUSK Pro Wrestling in Vancouver on Saturday, two matches at Bumbershoot on Sunday, and PAX again to cap off the weekend on Monday. It was a nice throwback to that 2015 era of Nick Radford, but that guy would do it every weekend, while this guy is happy to do it once.

Now, you’d think that would be a great way to cap off a long month of wrestling, running, and other fun extracurricular activities for The Academy, and you’d be right…except that wasn’t the end of it! We still had that Titles vs. Tails School Yard Street Fight that we set up earlier. The following Friday, we got hardcore with thumbtacks, kitty litter, broken doors and yardsticks, and floral rompers. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hang on to our SOS Tag Team Championships after I went through a door on the floor, and Thom suffered a brutal tack attack. Thus, our reign as tag champs ended. 

Titles vs. Tails School Yard Street Fight, Photo: @arealgoldmouth

Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because I’m still the DOA Grand Champion. 

The next day, battered and bruised, The Academy traveled to Portland for DOA’s packed fifteenth-anniversary show. Again, we opened and closed the event, with Thom and Dr. Kliever competing in a tag team gauntlet match to start us off while I managed to make quick work of my first challenger, Vinny Pacifico. Unfortunately, Brian and KEL unjustly attacked us after the match, demonstrating who has respect for the sport and title and who doesn’t.

Finally–yes, the marathon of busy weeks is coming to a close–this past weekend, The Academy returned to POW in full force to, once again, face Duv & Dangerous, who utilized my beloved book of poetry to sneak a win over Thom. Trust me, our little story with those two isn’t over. 

So here we are, seven weeks, ten matches, and many miles later. We lost some belts but gained another. Thom has some thumbtack holes. My left leg has been swollen and bruised for three weeks. I’m on the road to running my first 50K (31 miles) race at the end of October, which I guess will cap off my annual 31 Movies in 31 Days, so stay tuned for all that! We’ve done a lot recently, but there’s always more on the horizon. One thing that has gotten me through the last few weeks has been the song Wandering Day, from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It contains a bar that has been speaking to me lately that goes like this:

Of drink I have little, and food I have less

My strength tells me, “No”, but the path demands, “Yes”

My legs are so short and the way is so long

I’ve no rest nor comfort, no comfort but song

Essentially, this is all just an excuse to explain why I haven’t posted a blog, a podcast, or even streamed in the last couple of months. As I’m writing this, I just did just do a very low-key Pokemon stream last night, and the only reason I have time to write this is because I took a little sick day from work. But I’m starting to feel a little normal again, so hopefully, you can expect a bit more communication from me soon. 

THE WORLD IS YOUR BURRITO!

Links:

One thought on “Hot Academy Summer”

  1. Pingback: The Number 2023 – NickIsRadford

Leave a comment