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What's up, wrestling bros.
I've had some pretty exciting stuff happen lately with my wrestling writing.
I thought of an idea called "Inside the Rivalry" and shot the idea to the owner of The Predicament (Iowa's oldest wrestling magazine/site) and the guy loved the idea and gave me my own column. I have 6 written already (not including the intro) and only 2 have been posted and it has become a huge hit. Since the reception was so good, he offered me my own podcast called "The Mat Chat" as well as the guarantee that the series is ongoing as well as a spinoff series called "Epic Matches." So I am now paid to do 2 wrestling podcasts including The Mepo Dogcast. Pretty exciting stuff, for just last year, the wrestling journalist of the year (which is awarded at NCAA Nationals) went to a writer from The Predicament and my name will be thrown into the mix now. The intro got people excited, Chapter 1 went awesome and Chapter 2 was the one that became a huge hit. Chapter 3 is posted tomorrow morning (he only wants to post one every 2-3 weeks to increase anticipation) and I am getting a lot of requests for other rivalries to do this on...which is great! The goal is to write publish one or more books to be sold at wrestling events like Dan McCool does with his "Reach for the Stars" series. I wanted to share these with you and see what you guys think. I'll post The Intro, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 in different posts....
The main thing I want to know is which writing style I should roll with. In the first one, I took the responses from the wrestling rivals and lumped them into 2-3 big paragraphs. In the 2nd one, I chronicled the events in sequential order via narratives, but inserted the rival's specific comments as the story went on... you'll see what I mean. I think I am going to roll with the 2nd. It had the best reception, although I don't know if it was more due to the writing style, awareness of the series, clubs, that the guys wrestled for, the wrestlers themselves, etc.
Here is what I have done so far:
Intro
Published:
Chapter 1: Marshall Koethe (Akron Westfield/Twin River Valley vs. Nate Herda (Central Lyon) 2005-2008
Chapter 2: Nick Lee (Columbus Jct.) vs. Joe Reiter (Gilberville Don Bosco) 1998-1999
Published at 7A tomorrow:
Chapter 3: JJ Krutsinger (Waterloo Columbus) vs. Kyle Pedretti (MFL Marmac) 2007
Finished:
Chapter 4: Mitch Mueller (Iowa City West) vs. Zach Mckray (Iowa City High)
2003-2005
Chapter 5: Seth Noble (Columbus Jct.) vs. Tanner Hiatt (Ballard) 2009-2010
Chapter 6: JJ Butteris (Lisbon) vs. Brett Little (Tri County Thornburg) 1999 ...I can't wait for this one...their responses were so entertaining and they went from hating each other to being groomsmen in each other's weddings.
Confirmed/working on:
Jesse Sundell (Ogden) vs. Mario Galanakis (Nodaway Valley) 2001
Brandon Mason (Lewis Central) vs. Anthony Watson (Iowa City High) 2003
Jake Halverson (Iowa City West) vs. Adam Gottschalk (Dubuque Hempstead) 2000-2002
Richie Lewis (Belmond) vs. Brent Hagen (1976)
Would LOVE to get a certain matchup from 1994 that is probably the most notorious match to ever happen at state. I have one on board...the other has never commented on what happened and has turned down every interview to this point on it... and my buddy who knows him well has him going back and forth on it... that would be huge.
It's bee awesome getting to know all these people...have only run into one abrasive person who has been pissy about things... These people have been great...given their responses, it's no mystery as to why and how they were successful. Better people than myself.
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