Column of Honor: 08.19.06 - Part 2
Posted by Ari Berenstein on 08.19.2006
For my grandfather.
Your Mid Column Olay
When we last left the column, Scott Steiner had nefariously INVADED and besmirched this most sanctified feature of the Column of Honor. The "Big Bad Booty Daddy" of professional wrestling laid waste to the baddest mother fucker alive, the Samoan Submission Machine. Scott Steiner then proceeded to put Joe in the Steiner Recliner, which is a variation of the Camel Clutch…no, he didn't suplex him or fuck his ass, but regardless, Joe has been walking around all week very uneasily, in fact feeling HUMBLED~!
***Police Sirens play…***
"HOLLA, IF YOU HEAR ME!"
Well, it looks like Scotty Steiner has stuck around for another week after all. He's the proverbial big dog in the yard, so to speak…and he's holding court, to mix my metaphors. Wait, wait, it looks like Steiner is heading this way, to our announcers booth! I'm getting outta here, before he bitchslaps me or worse! I don't get hazard pay for this freaking column…
Steiner: "Well, for those of you wondering where that big fat donut eating bastard Samoa Joe went to, let me clue you in. That half-breed was so embarrassed from the beat down beat up that I gave him last week that he up and quit this column. See, he's got a new job, where his slovenly ways won't ever have to cross paths with nature's biggest galactic freak, the big bad booty daddy! That's right, Sloppy Joe went across the street from The Impact! Zone all the way over to Universal Studios, Florida and he's gonna be getting into acting. Yeah, that's right, you whooopdedoo heard me, acting. And he's getting pretty good at it too, since his first role is going to be the understudy for the Godzilla ride. So from now on, he's gonna be eating his donuts and his cookies and his rotting bananas somewhere other than this god forsaken column…"
***Godzilla music plays, followed by "Mama Said Knock You Out"***
It's Samoa Joe! And he's coming right for Steiner!
Joe: "Now that this washed up piece of trash has been taken care of, and I'm back where I oughta be, I want everyone to chant along with me. I think you know the tune. Hit MY music!"
OLAY OLAY OLAY OLAY….
OLAY, OLAY…
THWACK!
Oh my God, no, no, it can't be! We never expected this man to be right here, right now in this very Column of Honor!
May heaven help us, it's…it's…
CHRIS HERO!
Hero: "OH HO HO! I bet you didn't expect this, did you? That's right, you internet simpletons never have a clue as it is! But don't worry, it is I, your one and only hero, Chris Hero, and I am here…to stay!
Crowd: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Hero:"No no, don't thank me all at once, I prefer to savor your monumental adulation of the one true savior of this column of stinkin honor! You see, for too long has this bastion of biased ROH reporting been allowed to exist in peace and harmony. Well, suckers, times up on peace on Earth and goodwill towards men. Excuse me one second…"
THWACK!
Hero:Now as I was saying, there will be NO MORE Olay chants, no more Samoa Joe support. From now on, I AM YOUR GOD! YOU WILL WORSHIP ME! YOU WILL LOVE…ME! And I will tell it like it is, whether you Column of Honor readers like it or not. Get ready for a Mid Column Hero's Welc…nah, wait a minute, wait a minute, I need a better name than that...ah, yes. Get ready for the New World Or…no no…that won't do…AHA! I've got it!. Next week, you simpletons, you ROHbots better get ready for Hero's Sandwich! And why is it going to be called Hero's Sandwich? Because my awesome intellect will be sandwiched between the literary textual equivalent of two loaves of heaping, steaming crap! Fear me nimrods, because things will never be the same…again!
-Well...shit.
Don't Sleep On…
Much of the time, word of mouth spreads about a mega match in ROH along the lines of Cage of Death (and of course, rightfully so) that some of the really good quality matches that would otherwise get some attention drop off the radar. So every month, I'll comment on a few of the matches that I feel deserve some more lovin' than they are currently getting. For instance:
-Homicide vs. Chris Hero (In Your Face)
Surprisingly lost amid all the attention for Homicide in his matches against Danielson (Destiny) and his role in Cage of Death (Death Before Dishonor 4) is this hell of a match that took place two months ago in New York City. Let's see…Homicide…New York City…massive crowd support…check, check, check. Chris Hero…CZW supporter…massive crowd hatred…check, check, check. There were some great control moments from both wrestlers and the fans just hated, check that HATED when Hero was winning and throwing it in everyone's face. Some good table spots and weapons spots and some definite moments where you'll gasping for breathe, hoping that Hero doesn't win the match (that is unless if for some reason, you ARE a Chris Hero fan, then there is no hope for you). Make sure you don't skip this match in favor of the three way main event…watch BOTH in one sitting and you will experience a great kind of senses overload…very euphoric.
-ROH Pure Title Match: Nigel McGuinness vs. Conrad Kennedy III (Throwdown)
Nigel's run as Pure champion had come to the point where he was now taking outside challenges from regional wrestlers, and Conrad here represented the Detroit area. This was a very pleasant technical wrestling match and Conrad gets to display not only his great personality, but also some innovative and wacky (in a good way) high impact offense. At one point he does this hammerlock spin into a lung blower, using torque to create even more damage to the opponent. Needless to say, this is a cool move. You all should be able to guess who wins the match, but you certainly should check this out for a very good wrestling contest.
-Four Corner Survival: Samoa Joe vs. Delirious vs. Davey Richards vs. Jimmy Rave (Throwdown)
Two matches later on the card is a great Four Corner Survival match. Now it's hard to tell one 4CS from another these days since there is almost one on every card. However, this particular 4CS has some great combinations of wrestlers duking it out in the ring and a nice build up to the conclusion of the match. We also get our first clashes between Davey Richards and Samoa Joe in ROH (they have fought elsewhere) and Jimmy Rave is just all sorts of awesome in his heel work as he totally bags on Davey but then forgets that he is quite outnumbered in this match and gets trashed himself. Delirious shouldn't be forgotten about as well, as he is still in top form in this current run in ROH.
-ALL of Chi-Town Struggle
Yes, I know it's cheating to nominate an ENTIRE show as something not to sleep on, but hear me out. This show was released at the same time as Throwdown and again right in the middle of two really great shows in In Your Face and Death Before Dishonor IV. HOWEVER, if you think that makes this show eminently skippable, think again. This is one hell of an entire card, highlight by an incredible double main event of KENTA vs. Austin Aries (which somehow managed to out awesome the incredibly awesome KENTA vs. Strong match from the night before) and Danielson vs. Cabana. However the entire card delivers in a way I did not expect. Everyone seems to be in top form on the card. The Briscoes are really spot on in their performance, Samoa Joe delivers a helluva contest against Delirious (D slams JOE! It's a moment that rivals Hogan-Andre from Wrestlemania III) and even Irish Airborne are in tip top condition. And Jimmy Rave gets possibly the BIGGEST TP party EVER...no joke--this went on for like two minutes and everyone went bezerk for it. Nana, Shelley, Daizee, Conrad and Rave's reactions are priceless even moreso than usual. That TP throwing battle may be worth the price of admission alone. Not only are the matches delivering on this show, but the sound and the camera work are great and when you notice things like how good a certain angle is during a move, you know it's really great.
Short Takes
-This was pointed out to me by my buddy Chris (oh, SPOILER ALERT for those of you playing at home)
…with Homicide's upcoming tag title win in a certain company, does anyone else find it interesting that he won a belt there before he did in ROH? And he's only been there for like nine months, and he's been in ROH since the BEGINNING! Not to say there's anything to it, but it is interesting to consider. I do think Homi will get his just deserts with a title win in ROH sooner rather than later.
(END SPOILER)
-You know, James Gibson brought the confederate flag to the ring with him several times when he was in ROH and he was a beloved figure. Why would The Briscoes be treated any different when using that flag on their shirts and new gear? I do have to say though that they have been absolute great in their recent show promos telling everyone to MAN UP BOY, YEAH MAN UP! I have no idea why it works, but they are hysterical when they do that.
-What is with the recent trend of people licking their hands before they chop someone? Does it actually have some extra impact or does it just make their opponents body a little stickier than before. Maybe these wrestlers like the taste of their hands and just can't wait to indulge themselves. I don't get it.
-Finally got the long awaited Alex Shelley "Freeze Sucker" T-shirt in the mail the other day. Along with it was an autographed 8 X 10 of Shelley to make up for the delay in the shipping, which was very cool of them to do. It was even signed "To Ari." Fortunately, the photograph did not also include the messages "shut the fuck up fatboy" or "I liked humping your mother last night."
-Speaking of personal claims to fame-if you check out Claudio Castagnoli's entrance on the In Your Face 6/17 DVD, that is yours truly in the balck shirt and sporting the glasses and goatee that Claudio pushes aside in the front row in order to make his entrance. Then Chris (in the Man U shirt) spends a good amount of time insulting the quality of Claudio's suit. A brief but fleeting moment of fame for yours truly.
ROH Preview: Return to St. Paul—August 25th, 2006, St. Paul, MN
St. Paul Armory
600 Cedar Street, St. Paul, MN 55101
8:00pm belltime
ROH World Title Match- 2 Out Of 3 Falls
Bryan Danielson defends against Nigel McGuinness
This is Nigel's last shot at the World Title during Danielson's title run. Nigel has been taken to the absolute limit of his abilities by American Dragon. While Nigel has made very good showings in both title matches, he has not solved the Dragon. He won the first match on through trickery and was knocked out in the match last week. Neither man has a pinfall or submission victory on the other, but that could change in this match. At the least I say Nigel can pull out one fall by using his brains and tricking Dragon into beating himself, but I don't see how Nigel can take two out of three from Dragon at this point.
World Tag Team Title Match
Austin Aries & Roderick Strong defend against Samoa Joe & BJ Whitmer
Joe is still looking for that ever elusive tag title win so that he can officially be one of the very few (maybe only) wrestler to claim he has won the ROH Triple Crown (World, Pure (even though its likely defunct) and Tag). Whitmer now has the rep of going out there in the match and giving it his all as well as taking it all. Surviving CZW's worst has made him tougher to kill. Meanwhile, Aries and Strong are just now beginning to show the wear and tear of their amazing nine month run with the tag belts. Aries is hurt and Strong was taken to the limit again by Danielson at the last ROH show. They are the very definition of "prey" in this match—but their high impact offense and innovative double teams may help their cause.
Special Challenge Match
Christopher Daniels vs. Claudio Castagnoli
Daniels wants a measure of justice for giving up his handshake to the man who betrayed Ring of Honor. ROH fans still love chanting for Claudio so I don't think this will have the heat behind it that it really should (and really, the booking for Daniels has been all over the map this year that this really doesn't come off as a heated issue or grudge). Good wrestling match at The 100th show, and I expect another good one here.
Rematch From Reborn Stage One
Matt Sydal vs. Delirious
Each has come along way up the ranks of independent wrestling together and even through Ring of Honor together. When they fought on the Do or Die card, they were doing so to impress the crowd and make their way onto the main shows. Now this time around future rankings and bookings are at stake and a win is even more important than before.
Tag Team Grudge Match
Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Irish Airborne
I liked their match at Death Before Dishonor 4 a lot and this should be a hell of a back and forth contest, IF we see the Irish Airborne from that match. If we see the Irish Airborne that fought at In Your Face and Fight of the Century, we may be in for a bowling show ugly bumpy ride.
**The Independent Buy In**
Support independent pro wrestling, ROH or non ROH, I don't care. But if you out there are spending so much time complaining about how WWE sucks, then dammit, spend some money so you won't have to spend so much time complaining. This list stays in the column and will be added to as the year goes on. Remember: don't bow out, BUY IN!
Recommended for purchase:
**IWC No Excuses (Styles vs. Matt Hardy, John McChesney vs. Claudio Castagnoli, Jason Gory vs. Shima Xion)
**FIP New Years Classic (Strong vs. Joe, Homicide vs. James Gibson)
**Hardcore Homecoming (2 Cold Scorpio vs. Kid Kash, 3 Way Dance Barbwire Match Funk vs. Douglas vs. Sabu)
**TNA Lockdown (AJ Styles vs. Abyss, Daniels vs. Skipper, Lethal Lockdown 6 Man Tag, AMW vs. Team Canada + Bonus Chris Candido tribute)
**ROH Fate of an Angel (James Gibson vs. CM Punk, Christopher Daniels vs. Matt Hardy, Roderick Strong vs. AJ Styles, Samoa Joe vs. Jimmy Rave)
**TNA Anthology: The Epic Set (available only through Walmart and Walmart.com at a ridiculously cheap price) (Victory Road 2004, Turning Point 2004, Lockdown 2005)
**ROH Redemption (4 Way Title Elimination—Punk vs. Gibson vs. Joe vs. Daniels, Matt Hardy vs. Homicide, Gen Next of Aries, Strong and Sydal vs. The Embassy of Rave, Shelley and Abyss)
**ROH Punk: The Final Chapter (CM Punk vs. Colt Cabana plus post match celebration, Matt Hardy vs. Roderick Strong, Samoa Joe and Jay Lethal vs Low Ki and Homicide, Austin Aries vs. Jimmy Rave)
**IWC Summer Sizzler 2 (AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe, Steve Corino vs. Shirley Doe, Glen Spectre vs. Chad Collyer, Shima Xion vs. Nigel McGuinness)
**ROH Glory By Honor IV (Dragon vs. Gibson, Styles vs. Rave, Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal) **ROH Joe vs. Kobashi (Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi, Christopher Daniels vs. Matt Sydal vs. Azriael, Gibson vs. Yang)
**TNA Best of the X Division MATCHES Volume 1 (Joe vs. Sabin, Ultimate X AJ vs. Williams vs. Sabin, Ironman match: AJ vs. Daniels)
**FIP Bring the Pain (Punk vs. Danielson 2/3 Falls, Aries vs. Strong)
**OVW October 2005 Television Showcase (Ken Doane vs. Brent Albright III, Johnny Jeter vs. Matt Cappotelli, and CM Punk, CM Punk, CM Punk, CM Punk)
**OVW November 2005 Television Showcase (CM Punk vs. Ken Doane (c)—TV Title, CM Punk vs. Brent Albright, Matt Cappotelli vs. Johnny Jeter (c) II-Heavyweight Title)
**ROH Unforgettable (Samoa Joe / Low Ki vs. Homicide / Kenta Kobashi, Dragon vs. Strong, Daniels vs. Yang, Cabana vs. Evans)
2006 List
*ROH This Means War (Bryan Danielson / Roderick Strong, AJ Styles / Austin Aries, Claudio Castagnoli / Alex Shelley)
**ROH Vendetta (Bryan Danielson / Roderick Strong, Eight Man War: Generation Next + AJ Styles / The Embassy, Samoa Joe / Christopher Daniels)
**ROH A Night of Tribute (Bryan Danielson / Christopher Daniels, Aries + Strong / Joe + Lethal, Colt Cabana / Homicide, Claudio Castagnoli / Milano Collection AT)
**OVW December 2005 Television Showcase (CM Punk (c) vs. Ken Doane vs. Brent Albright—3 Way Dance TV Title, CM Punk vs. Brent Albright—TV Title)
**SHIMMER WOMEN'S ATHLETES Volume 1 (Cheerleader Melissa vs. MsChif, Sara Del Rey vs. Mercedez Martinez, Lacey vs. Daizee Haze)
**TNA Bound For Glory 2005 (Iron Man 2: Styles / Daniels, Monster's Ball 2, Joe / Liger, 10 Man Gauntlet, Jarrett vs. Rhino)
**TNA Genesis 2005 (Jarrett & AMW / Rhino & Team 3-D, Styles / Williams, Elimination X: Joe, Daniels, Shelley, Strong / Sabin, Dutt, Aries, Bentley; Christian Cage Debuts)
**ROH Steel Cage Warfare (Generation Next / The Embassy, Dsanielson / Romero, Joe / Lethal, Corino / Homicide )
**ROH Final Battle 2005 (Low Ki / KENTA, Danielson / Marifuji, Claudio / Nigel, 4CS: Daniels / Joe / Lethal / Whitmer )
**ROH Tag Wars 2006 (All three Trios Tournament 2006 matches, Generation Next / Danielson and Lethal, Low Ki / Christopher Daniels )
**BCW International Incident (Jarrett / Raven, Daniels / Sabin, Petey Williams / Jerry Lynn, Bobby Roode / Abyss)
**SHIMMER WOMEN'S ATHLETES Volume 2 (Four Way Elimination Match: Daizee Haze vs. Sara Del Rey vs. Lacey vs. Mercedes Martinez / MsChif vs. Beth Phoenix / Alison Danger vs. Rain)
**PWG Astonishing X-Mas (December 16th, 2005) (Super Dragon vs. Kevin Steen / Eight Man Tag / Strong & Evans vs. Human Tornado & El Generico / Colt Cabana vs. Scorpio Sky)
**ROH Fourth Anniversary Show (Generation Next / Styles & Sydal, Danielson / Rave, Homicide / Cabana Ghetto Fight, CZW all out brawl)
**ROH Best In The World (KENTA/ &Marifuji / Joe & Dragon, Strong & Evans / Briscoes, Shelley / Daniels, Shimmer 4 Way)
**ROH Dragon Gate Challenge (Daniels / Joe, Generation Next / Blood Generation, Styles & Sydal / Dragon Kid & Horiguchi)
**PWG Battle of Los Angeles 2005 (2 DISC) (Steen/Dragon, Styles/Evans, Dragon/Reyes, Romero/Kazarian and tons more)
** ROH SUPERCARD of Honor (Danielson / Strong III, Do Fixer / Blood Generation, AJ Styles & Matt Sydal / Austin Aries & Jack Evans, Joe / Jacobs / Daniels)
**ROH Better Than Our Best (the whole damn card. No really, the whole damn card)
**SHIMMER Women's Athletes Volume 3 (Knox / Danger, Del Ray / Haze, Cheerleader Melissa / Shantelle Taylor)
**FIP Big Year One Bash Night 1 (Strong / Gibson, Spanky & Rinauro / Rave & Lethal Homicide / McGuiness)
**IWC Super Indy V (Low Ki / Abyss, Sydal / Petey Williams, Delirious / Sydal, Shelley / Reyes, Gambino Bros. Moving Co. / Burning River Brigade—M Dogg 20 and Josh Prohbition)
**Hardcore Homecoming: November Reign PLATNIUM EDITION. (Lynn / Polaco Cage Match, Douglas / Pitbull Gary Wolfe Dog Collar, Matt Hyson / CW Anderson. Bonus DVD: Sabu / Al Snow, Chris Benoit / 2 Cold Scorpio, Psicosis / Rey Mysterio Jr., Lynn / Polaco)
**UWF-TNA Hardcore War July 9th, 2006 (Styles / Joe / Daniels, James Gang / AMW / Team 3-D (No Finish), Jarrett / Rhino, Lynn / Williams, Lethal / Dutt, Abyss / Runt)
**UWF-TNA Monster's Ball July 10th, 2006 (Rhino / Joe / Abyss, AMW / Daniels & Styles, Homicide / Lynn, Lethal / Jarrett)
**Colt Cabana's European Vacation II - World of Cabana
This was Larry's pick last week when he filled in for me and I will second it. Although I haven't gotten through the entire DVD yet, there is plenty to like about what I've seen so far. The Cabana-Cam, quick interstitials of Cabana's interactions in the UK, are priceless and hysterical (including the one with the Big Show fan). I've only seen the first two matches, Cabana vs. Johnny Kidd and Cabana vs. Doug Williams vs. American Dragon. The Kidd match is good but I liked the triple threat more. Kidd is very excellent as far as technical British wrestling, but it's a European round match and I take to that UNlike a duck to water. I also HATE the smaller European rings—too small to really get some speed or momentum and too claustrophobic for me as well (yeah I know I'm not wrestling in them, but even watching it I get the heeby-jeebies). The triple threat from France is very cool and has familiar faces for ROH fans. I'd say get this if you're a fan of Cabana or the UK and consider if you're just looking for something different and entertaining.
I don't like to recommend DVD's outright if I haven't finished watching them, but I'd like to also mention the SHIMMER Volume 4 DVD, which is very good and worth picking up just from the three matches I've seen (the top three—Rain vs. Sara Del Rey, MsChiff vs. Cheerleader Melissa Falls Count Anywhere and Daizee Haze vs. Rebecca Knox). The promos still need to be improved in quality but the in ring action of these matches are definitely worth the price. Official recommendation to come soon.
And now we go ALL OUT RING OF HONOR DVDS! It's been a while since I've added to the list, so here we go:
**ROH The 100th Show (Team ROH vs.Team CZW, Danielson / Delirious, Aries & Strong / Homicide & Reyes, Daniels / Castagnoli) (NEW ADDITION)
**ROH Ring of Homicide (Homicide / Necro Butcher, Aries & Strong / Briscoes, Daniels / Sydal, Danielson / Delirious, McGuinness / Lethal) (NEW ADDITION)
**ROH In Your Face (KENTA / Joe / Danielson, Homicide / Hero, Whitmer / Jacobs, Richards / Rave) (NEW ADDITION)
**ROH Chi-Town Struggle (Danielson / Cabana, KENTA / Aries, ROH vs. CZW, Briscoes / Rave and Kennedy III) (NEW ADDITION)
If you need further explanation why all of these DVD's are awesome and worthy your time and money, then you haven't been paying attention. Why are you reading an ROH column anyway? Go play in traffic!
Wait wait, come back! I need the hits!
Okay, thank god. Hey, do you want something to drink? Something to eat? Maybe a danish? No? Ok. Let's continue.
ROH @ 411
Brad Garoon in the man in the room with his review of FIP X Factor, a.k.a. Sean Waltman made it out of that hotel room alive. Also today we get his take on Fallout 2005.
Stuart Carapola vs. AJ Styles:. America's Benevolent and Democratic Super Hero vs. The Greatest Known Master of Tyranny of All Time. No contest—Stu mops the floor with that hatemonger. To quote Mallrats: "Textbook closet case self-loather. Can't be comfortable with his own sexuality." So, no, AJ Styles is not someone you'd want to spend a vacation with. Go with T.S. dammit! DO IT DOUG!
Larry Csonka, 411's answer to John Steinbeck, gives us more writing and more wrestling with his 3R's for the week and his TNA Hard Justice R's. Stop abusing that letter, Larry! How about you pick on "S" or "T" sometime?
Ask 411 is a lot like Ask Jeeves, except Clarke will not clean your room or serve your dinner for you.
Thanks to Bryan Alvarez over at Figure 4 Weekly for reading my "shout out" that I dedicated to my grandfather (see below). It meant a lot to me that he read it on his August 15th Bryan and Vinny Show (available free on Podcast). Bryan is actually getting back in the ring to wrestle his co-host Vinny and there is already some very entertaining video up there with both of them training and getting ready for the fight. I'd absolutely, positively recommend you check that out as well as his audio shows and newsletter.
Friends, if you're looking for any more Ring of Honor talk, you should stop right here. I'll be back next week with results from the St. Paul show and a preview of August 26th, 2006 in Chicago, IL. Delirious will be back as well, and a few more features thrown in for good measure. Thanks for reading, I'll see you then.
If you're still around, I'd like to spend the rest of the column talking about my grandfather, his life and the circumstances of last week.
This past Sunday at 12:06 a.m. my grandfather Carl (whose Hebrew name is Chaskel, which is derived from the phrase Yeh-Chaskel, which translates to "God gives him strength") passed away, one week shy of 94 years of age. He was never really the same after his hospital stay in February, although except for the last week of his life he was always very lucid and independent as he could be. After my grandmother passed on in 1987, he lived on his own in an apartment in Coney Island. He would make his own dinners, adapting recepies his wife used to make. He would take walks to the sidewalk mall across the street, or walk to the fruit sellers in Brighton Beach. Sometimes he stubbornly wouldn't let us pick him up and took the bus to our house to visit—that's actually two buses and an hour long commute. Not too shabby for a man in his 70's, 80's and even his early 90's (luckily most of the time mom was able to convince him to let us drive him home).
Since January, he had trouble standing up and would fall down. In fact, the nights I stayed over during the last two weeks I vividly remember waking up with a start multiple times because I was aware he was on the move, trying to get to the bathroom. I mus have stopped him from losing his balance at least a dozen times. That was one of the hardest nights of my life—grabbing what little sleep I could on the living room couch while listening to his moans of pain and trying to pay attention to his needs and his movements.
While we had nurses for him in the morning and the evening, and were planning on moving him into our house, for a while back in February and again this summer, my family and I essentially became a third live in nurse.
We had to send him to the hospital twice this week, once for falling and the second time because he was incoherent. As I mentioned at the beginning of the column, initially mom, dad and sis were upstate, so it was just myself and my uncle taking care of him. Those hours in the hospital were some very traumatic stuff; I dunno if I made the right decisions, asked the right questions, did the right thing for my grandfather. I don't want to get into details, but there were some nervous moments there and the decisions I made… I don't know…I think I should have been better for him, but everyone says I shouldn't blame myself—that I did the best I could for him. I don't really know—I'll be thinking about that day for a long time to come.
My mom and the rest of the family made it back the next night and for a while my grandfather was better—more lucid and more aware of where he was (initially he didn't even know he was in a hospital—despite my uncle and I saying so about fifty times, it didn't take). The one thing he got to me was when he said "I don't know Ari—maybe, in a few days, I die." My grandfather never talked like that. I tried to put it in the back of my mind, keep a stiff upper lip, but I was worried. At least my family was back and my mom was able to tend to her dad. We fed him what little we could—he already had been willfully eating less and less at home—oatmeal in the morning, a bowl of soup for lunch and dinner—really, what kind of nutrition was that? He was going away little by little, even before the hospital stay.
On Saturday, August 12th, I went to a Brooklyn Cyclones game in Coney Island with Chris—ostensibly to take my mind away from the last four days of pain and sadness. Mom wanted me to go, to have fun because I had been there in the beginning of the week and was reeling from dealing with everything. The rest of my family visited my grandfather in the hospital. He died three hours after they left.
My last words to him the day before were "Zeigizunt Zaida (see you later, grandfather). I love you."
My grandfather went in because he had a urine infection; he died from congestive heart failure—the same reason he went into the hospital at the beginning of the year. They had changed his meds in the hospital back then to a medication that sped up his heart (he had a fast beating heart as it was) and my mom caught it and made them change it back. Despite telling them not to change his meds, they did it again; who knows what the effect of that had been on him?
Nevertheless, he died peacefully, just one day and a few minutes from the death day of my grandmother, so maybe it was fitting after all; he was ready to go back to her after living so many years apart from her. Maybe it was a fitting way to go for a man who lived in a lot of pain over the last few months. He escaped from troubles of the Holocaust in a war torn Poland, with two brothers and two sisters in America but the only one of seven children and his mother and father still in Poland able to escape the Nazi's alive.
He always told me and my sister the story of his escape—it was multi-chapter saga, involving luck, fate, espionage, love, hate and an iron will to survive. It always began with my grandfather in Poland in 1939, at the onset of the Nazi occupation of the country. A Polish police officer who was in with the SS was collecting Jews and spotted my grandfather. The SS officer knew him, but before anything could happen the officer was called away. My grandfather went home and told his mother what had happened. At that moment, his mother told him he had to go. She bought two loaves of bread, a change of clothes and wrapped it all together. She tucked it underneath his arm, and told him "Leave!" My grandfather did not want to go; he wanted to stay and protect his mom and his dad and his sisters. This was a natural reaction for a person like him. Still, his mother sent him out—and he went. It was the beginning of a years long travel—on the move from danger. Along the way my grandfather helped many other Jews to escape and to make a living, whether it was in the factory towns of Russia or in the newly reborn Israel. My grandfather had become a sort of leader of men and he did the best he could to make sure everyone in his group stayed safe. He later discovered that his family back in Poland had died in the Holocaust.
He spent time as a refugee in Russia where he met his soon to be wife, Goldie. They had two children--my mom and my uncle--and traveled to Israel and America, where he settled down and took roots in New York, first upstate in Troy, then in Brooklyn. The story is much more involved with danger and risk than these simple descriptions; I could probably write a book on it all. Suffice to say, my grandfather was a wonder of a man; possibly the best person I've ever known. He was amazing.
I have been torn up over the past two weeks but I am thankful to have spent most of his last week alive with him. Sometimes in writing this column and trying to make my deadline I would have to miss out on visiting him; I tried to make that up during the weekdays whenever I could. Sometimes I would go in the middle of writing this column anyway and hope that when I came back home I could finish the column. For some reason, I always thought there would be more time—but as it turned out, I had fooled myself pretty well and good.
At the very end of his life, at least we were all there. My sister was supposed to go back up to Cornell on Saturday night, but decided against it at the very last minute. My uncle, who works in Angola two months on and one month off, was able to get an extension of a week to stay here in America. I guess my grandfather has a great sense of timing, because we were all there to take care of things when he passed. As God as my witness, I will not forget seeing his dead body—his face did look peaceful-and he was ready. I don't think we were though—I know I wasn't.
His living ensured the creation of my own life, and he also in a very major way influenced my becoming a wrestling fan. I love him and miss him dearly.
Thanks everyone for reading and making it this far. I'll see you next time.
--Ari--
