This afternoon, I was at Brooklyn’s Fun Time U.S.A. where I filmed an episode of Ring Fever. Besides interviewing the real “stars” of our show, the fans – I also interviewed WWF Superstar Chris Benoit – just twenty-four hours before his first ever WWF pay-per-view main event – a three way dance between himself, Chris Jericho and WWF Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin. Despite the fact that I have done this countless times before – I finally realized today just how much fun being the host of Ring Fever really is.

Be it my new found appreciation of my life, the fact that this year has been the best one I have ever lived through – or the inspiration that Christine gives me – but during the taping this afternoon – I really enjoyed myself for the first time – and marveled at the fact that I am actually the host of a wrestling TV show.

When I was younger, I spent almost a dozen years – and well over a few thousand dollars – on wrestling. I watched it every day, I read about it – and I attended as many local house shows and WWF shows at Madison Square Garden as I could. Back then, I would have given anything to meet the wrestlers I loved and watched so much, much less interview them. And today – I interviewed a man who will be in the main event of King Of The Ring tomorrow night.

Whenever I walk into a venue to do a Ring Fever taping, I am humbled when the fans look to me as someone, “in the business”. Considering the fact that I have been a fan of wrestling since I was six and still am – I find it hard to place myself in the same category as the people I love to watch. Yet – the fans do without a problem. They e-mail me with questions about wrestling, recognize me when I arrive at a taping – and even ask for my autograph – and no matter how many times I stand in front of a camera with a microphone in my hand – I am as excited as if I am doing it for the first time.

One of the most amazing memories of my “career” in the business is when I was ring announcing at a wrestling card in Brooklyn and a little boy came up to me and asked me for my autograph while I was in the ring during intermission. Seeing the boy’s excitement – I picked him up and brought him into the ring, gave him my autograph, and raised his hand to the delight of the crowd. I will never forget the boy’s excitement when he returned to his seat – because I know exactly what he felt like – because the same exact thing happened to me when I was a boy.

A long time ago, my grandparents took me to a wrestling show in Florida. Back then, fans were allowed to walk up to the ring and ask the wrestlers for their autographs. During the card, a wrestler named Steve Kern – who was later known in the WWF as Skinner – was signing autographs for some wrestling fans that were of college age. So being a boy of less then ten years old – I did not get my autograph because it was hard to notice a young boy while he was towered over by college kids – so when the bell rang, I began to walk away in sadness – until I felt a pair of hands grab me and pick me up. It was Steve Kern, who brought me into the ring, gave me his autograph – and raised my hand to the delight of the crowd. So to now be on the other side of the coin and bring a fan into the ring who wanted my autograph reminded me that I was once the fan who was asking for the autograph – and now I was the one giving it.

This year marks the eighth year I have been in the wrestling business. Despite the fact that my tenure in the industry I have been a fan of for the last twenty-three years is almost a decade long – I still get the same thrill today as I did the day it began. And for as long as I continue to be both a fan of wrestling and a member of the wrestling business – I will continue to be humbled – and continue to make my fans, my grandmother – and my younger self proud.