Discovering a Pro Wrestling Passion Amidst an Inland Hurricane

These past few days have felt like a trip back to my childhood.

Curfews set for 8 p.m. Being in bed before the sun even set. No video games.

And most sadly, no professional wrestling.

No, this time there were no nagging parents yelling about the violence or telling my friends and I we needed to stop clotheslining each other on the trampoline.

This time, the wrestling simply wasn't there.

On Friday afternoon, the Midwest was hit with what the National Weather Service originally coined "an inland hurricane."

I live in Southern Illinois, the area hit the most. We lost an 87-year-old man who was killed when a tree knocked him down the steps of his basements, numerous houses are destroyed and many people's lives will never fully recover.

Much of the region still does not have electricity. It's been more than four days since the storm struck, and many of us—including myself—are still in the dark. My work office has power back, so I stole the quick opportunity to write this on my lunch break.

As many of my fellow wrestling community Bleacher Creatures already know, I'm a professional journalist. That means I've been at the heart of the storm, the core of the damage for days.

I've seen the devastation and talked to those affected. I haven't had a day off since last Monday, and will only have one day off between now and next Wednesday.

I've needed time to relax and do something light-hearted. The result is this article.

On Friday, my mind was on the storm. We had to get coverage of everything going on around us and cover the news. I didn't have time to think about what Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy and Edge were up to on Smackdown.

Then came Saturday, and the peak of the recovery efforts beginning, and again, I had little time to think about Bryan Danielson, the Briscoes and Jimmy Jacobs.

By Sunday, when things began to calm down and I had time to collect thoughts, I realized how much wrestling I had missed. It was a lame thought for many people, but in order to stay on top of things around here, you have to know what's going on.

Monday passed, no Raw. Now it's Tuesday and there likely won't be any ECW on my television set. With any luck, my television and TiVo will be operational by Thursday, so I won't have to miss the best two hours of pro wrestling television this week (and no, I'm not referencing the first run and reply of WWE Superstars).

As I have periodically found Internet access, B/R has been one of the first sites I check. When my editor was pounding away on editing copies, I checked in a few glances at stories from Sulayaman, Ray and Daris.

Sorry to those of you I didn't mention or have a chance to catch right now, but I'll get back into everything when I have electricity at home.

But, as I sat there in the local community college office using my cell phone to call electric companies and sneaking peaks at articles about the Intercontinental Title, Mickie James and our love of pro wrestling, I realized two things:

1. As ashamed as I may be to admit it to new people I meet, I truly love pro wrestling. There's just something about being able to catch it each week and follow the superstars like jocks cover their favorite baseball or basketball team is truly an amazing experience.

2. I have officially become a member of the Bleacher Report community. There was an article a few days or so ago about the five stages of B/R membership, and I agree with it more than ever.

I have become addicted to this site and to the intelligent discussions and debates we can have. Whenever I'm in the mood for a good chat, I know I can hit up Daris, Shane, Demetrus, Ray and countless others. And JLB is always there for a good back-and-forth debate.

Now, if I didn't mention you, please don't take it personally. You all have a place in this community, and I respect all of you and love to hear from you, even those TNA haters out there who like to swamp me with ill-reasoned explanations on why WWE is better than TNA. You all know who you are. =)

Anyway, this diatribe has continued long enough. I just wanted to let everyone know what's happened here and share a bit of my experiences with you.

Now, more than ever, I am proud to be a pro wrestling fan and a member of this community. We don't realize the joys we get from the simple things in life - including eight hours of men and women beating the living hell out of one another - until it's gone.

Hopefully I'll be back on here full time soon, especially so Demetrus and I can continue our Brand Battle, but in the meantime, keep everyone who has been affected by this disaster in your thoughts and prayers.

Maybe the dust has settled, the trees have been removed from their homes, FEMA has left the region and everything has returned to normal, they will also sit down at the TV, tune to USA, SiFi, My Network TV, WGN or Spike TV and allow themselves to escape the difficulties of every day life and find themselves in our world.

Until I return...