Storm Clouds are a Comin'...

Well, let's hope just for this piece! I've got tons of stuff brewing in October, a couple of things have the possibility of being miserable, or great! If both turn out on the positive, it'll be truly life changing... hopefully all will be well. Speaking of stuff going well, here is the latest cover for IEWeekly from myself and my talented colorist, Joaquin Pereyra! This piece is based off the article on Toxic Dust storms going through the Inland Empire and poluting the Salton Sea.

Hope you guys enjoy it... the piece, not the polution... { :-/

SL

Respect for those that deserve it...

So, I usually don't talk about wrestling and the behind the scenes stuff out in the open, but a blog of a "Female" wrestler was sent to me, badmouthing me & I'm not really gonna let that slide. Her recollection of the incident was very vague & one sided, as most peoples stories tend to be. Let me tell you that when I tell a story, I'll say all the shit I did wrong, because I don't want the story to be tainted. I don't want someone to call me out & say, "Hey, remember you said this though?" And it makes me look like a liar for omitting part of it. Rightfully so. Here's what Nikki had to say about me and this particular incident:

"I worked with a girl at AWS one time.  I forgot her name.  I think she was training for about six weeks, but I DO remember she was dating Scott Lost at the time.  Why do I remember that?  Well.  Let’s just say the girl was making some severely stupid mistakes in our match.  I think I chopped her a few times.  She was a really nice girl, but had no business being on a card.  What happens next? Scott Lost, the guy she’s banging, storms in the women’s locker room and goes off on me, a 7-year veteran at the time.  When I say go off, I mean screamed in my face, telling ME I should respect HIM for whatever reason.  Asshole. Now IM not getting any respect in my own space, because his girlfriend decided she wants to go pro. *On a side note, thank you Jezebel Romo for being the only one who had any balls to stick up for me on that matter."

Hahaha!!! Yeah, I screamed in her face alright, but for good reason. Since Nikki doesn't seem to remember exactly what happened, let me tell you. So, when I watch a match, regardless if I'm dating a girl in it or it's just two people I don't know, I say how it is. More so, if it's a girl I'm dating, I'm even more harsh. Why? Because I want to make her better than every other Woman she steps in the ring with. The girl Nikki wrestled, her name was Sylvie and yes, she was not ready. I told her that, I told her that as soon as she got out of the ring. I watched Nikki beat the shit out of her, give her a bloody lip, under to no sell her offense and then get a crap win no one even remembers. Nikki went straight to the girls lockerroom & Sylvie came to me. I told her, "Okay, let's go talk about the match. You need ALOT of work." We make our way to the Lockerroom and the first thing out of Nikki's mouth was, "You know why I beat the shit out of you, right?" I said, "Excuse me, I don't know why you beat the shit out of her." In a calm manner. In which Nikki replies, "This ain't none of your fuckin' business." Here comes the YELLING!!!!! hahaha

Me-"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME YOU? I have been wrestling for 10 years & you will show me some FUCKING respect!"
Nikki-"You need to give me some time after my match! You can't just come up and start saying shit to me." 
Me-"I will say whatever the fuck I want to you and when! Don't you ever fucking talk to someone like that!"
Nikki- "I'm sorry, Scott. I respect you as a worker, but I'm still hot headed after a match."
Me(calming down a bit)- "You know what, that's fine, I get that, but don't ever do that shit again... to anyone."
Nikki- "Ok, I'm sorry."
Me- "Now, I wanted to come back here and talk to you about the match and what needed work, but you fucking pissed me off..."

Now, after that we all calmed down and I actually explained to this "7 year vet" why the match was terrible, they listened and they BOTH thanked me for my honest critique. The match was shit, yes, a large part of it was Sylvie not being ready for a singles match, but also for the fact that when you are the "Vet" in the ring, you don't beat your opponent silly so they can't listen. You blast someone in the face & then expect them to listen to you? This was her first singles match and she was getting destroyed. Vets don't do that, dumbass. Vets guide newbies, you obviously couldn't do that. A lot of other problems with the match was terrible selling... by Nikki. "Ouch, my arm" in a monotone voice is not selling. You make your opponent look like shit and you look like an idiot because you can't get out of this apparently shit arm ringer. When you beat a nothing in the ring, what have you accomplished? Well, nothing. Just like Nikki putting a blog out talking about respect and not showing any, you get no respect.

See, I got a call from Shannon the following day asking what happened. I was taken aback by this because I thought all was squashed and we were fine. Apparently, Nikki called Shannon right after the show and was cussing up a storm! "How come you didn't tell me your student was dating Scott Lost? He fucking lost it on me! She wasn't ready to be in the ring and I was doing you a favor!!!" This is her talking to her Trainer. No respect. Shannon then tells me a story about something very similar happening to Nikki when she was first starting. She was in one of her very first matches in Arizona w/ a wrestler named Lucky. Now Nikki was doing the same thing Sylvie was doing, fucking up left and right. Making mistake after mistake and Lucky was sick of it, so what'd he do? He bit her hard as fuck!!! Legit. She got to the back crying and Shannon grabbed Lucky, who was his friend, by the THROAT and said, "If you ever do that to anyone ever again, I'll beat the fuck out of you." Lucky felt TERRIBLE and apologized to her and to Shannon. He was an emotional guy and knew he fucked up. So, years later, when Nikki had the chance to make right something that happened to her years before, SHE DOES THE SAME THING! No, she doesn't bite Sylvie, but she sure took advantage of being the "Vet" in the match and beat the crap out of her.

This wasn't meant to embarrass Nikki, because well, I don't give a flying fuck about her, but hopefully she'll realize she should tell the whole truth about her not getting the respect she deserves in a situation. I showed her the respect she showed me, which was none. And hopefully next time she's in a ring with a new wrestler, she'll actually try to have a good match and have them learn what to do, not what not to do.

Cool?

SL

The Train Job & other updates...

So, things have been a mixed bag as of late... Unfortunately, the colorist I had lined up backed out of the project after he had the first 6 pages(flatted out for him already) for around 3 months. Wouldn't return my calls, texts, emails, facebook messages, you name it. I know he was getting them because he was still posting up work online. Terrible situation. He at least said he would return my deposit, which I'm now waiting for. Very sad, as his coloring style worked perfectly w/ my lines. On the good side of it, I continue my freelance career by getting another cover gig for IEWeekly. The Train Job is the title of a episode of Firefly, but in this case refers to an article about illegals and drugs coming into the country by train, from Mexico. Check it out!

SL

2011 has been all progress!

So, after a VERY rough 2010, things are finally looking up. I'm currently on page 19 of my second book(4 more pages to go), sold my second car(giving me a down payment for a condo/townhouse), I’ve got a couple of vacations planned for next month and found a colorist for my book at an amazing price! Since I’m funding the book myself until I find a publisher, this was a great help. I’ll be doing the color flats to help be part of the process(and keep my overhead low), while my colorist will be handling the finishes(shading, special effects, etc.).

Check out the work of the newest edition to my team, Mike Kilgore’s sweet colors over my Usagi Yojimbo piece!