To be fair to Mikey, I was going to help him a lot more with the coverage, especially out west. But I took out a Bambi the first week of the season and was without my car for almost three weeks. On January 22, I will be attending the Omaha Burke Invite, but the rest of those weekends I will be doing what I can to help make NWI's western coverage the best it can be.

First, in regards to the poll - thanks to the 11 (as of 5:30) who voted for the first or last option (for the record, even I gave last year's coverage the nod over this year).

Second, to the one individual who went with option 3...thanks for inducing a chuckle out of me.

Thirdly, Lance...If you are in the Big O area this weekend, give me a yell so we can bash out some details.

And finally...to help explain some of what the heck is going on right now, I left this for all to consider on the NWI website:

Note to the Nebraska Wrestling Family

Thanks to all for their understanding and patience...

Mikey,
I'm out in God's Country this weekend so any details/questions/etc. just send me an e-mail...same addy as before but change it to yahoo instead of hotmail.

By the way Mikey, if you decide to take the soft taco filler job, can you hook a bud up with some deals???

Glad to hear Mikey. Thanks for the update.

For those who actually care, we understand and are looking forward to 2005. Those who count are behind you 100%.

The rest will yowl just to hear themselves yowl...

Besides, you know I can't just abandon a fellow Red Head!!



BTW, you might want to check out the Insiders Forum.

Quite frankly, I look at many sites(concerning wrestling) and the NWI and Huskermat are 2 of the better ones around. Continue on with the good work !!

Keep deleting the posts...but NWI is still in the worng. He has not provided the covereage that we have paid for. He should give everyone a free year or donate our money to a worthy cause! You guys protect each other and now you are losing credibility HB! That is a weak excuse for why we have not received the type of coverage we have paid for!

Personal attacks have nothing to do with HB's credibility. It has everything to do with my responsibility as a moderator.

Mike's e-mail address is in his profile if you want to send a "nasty-gram" to him but it won't be tolerated here.

You are welcome to your opinion but keep it civil and no personal attacks.

Red Rocker,
Personal attacks...are you kidding me? This guy uses this forum for his personal purposes and puts his life on display in here and when someone chooses to respond...it is a personal attack? You are not a moderator but a censor. Mike has taken advantage of people and used the subscriptions for his personal gain. That is a fact. He has not delivered on his promise to cover wrestling and when HB allows him to use his website to take advantage of people, then he does in fact lose credibility!

Mike talks about his troubles with sexual abuse, drugs, alcohol and gambling in here, but when someone questions whether he should do that you censor it! This guy is out of control and he should get his life in order! The forum is for wrestling, not Ann Landers!

I am canceling my subscription to this site as well as NWI! Both are losing ground and have become a joke!
Sign me...
P.O. Coach!

People have every right to be upset about the coverage provided by Mike and NWI...however, blasting him for his personal issues is unneeded and uncalled for. Mike is trying to get his life in line, and I for one applaude him for that. As someone who has had his own struggles with addiction, I stand behind Mike in his attempt to conquer his deamons. I'm sure with time he will get things straightened out and the coverage on NWI will rise to the level you expected. Until then, either quit attacking Mike, or find the appropriate place to do it.

Mikey is one person attempting to cover the entire state. Censor, if you know so much about wrestling then get to writin' them articles and postin' them results and help out. Either you are part of the solution or part of the problem.

I have never claimed to be the great article writer. I do pay a service charge to have someone else write. That is why I subscribed to his magazine. The truth is that he has done a very poor job this year and he needs to refund people thier money! Plain and simple! I do know about wrestling and it is offensive to me that a person would put his personal business on this web site for kids to see. He is not a good example and until he gets his orders in line, he should ban himself from this site and others. If he were really into do the right thing, he would immediately cease all conversations about his problems here and seek professional help!

If you are so knowledgable, then you should know wrestling is all about personal struggles. From weight loss, to wrestle offs, to competing one on one on the mat. I would hope someone who claims to know so much would be a little sympathetic towards someone in our sport who is still battling with personal struggles.

While I am not a 100% supporter (we've had our differences in the past) Mike works his tail off to promote our sport all across the state to the best of his abilities. Mike has a lot of "irons in the fire" professionally and deserves our thanks for all he has done. It just goes to show how high HB and Mike have raised the bar for Nebraska wrestling coverage that this can even be questioned.

PO Coach,

Tell you what...you send an e-mail to me with your username/password along with your name and address and I will be more than happy to refund your money. I've got too many things going on in my life and too many happy, understanding and classy subscribers in my corner to worry about an unhappy subscriber, so you get that done and a check will be in the mail to you the following day.

My e-mail is mikeyc@nwimag.com.

Have a nice life.

quote:

---

Originally posted by PO Coach:
I have never claimed to be the great article writer. I do pay a service charge to have someone else write. That is why I subscribed to his magazine. The truth is that he has done a very poor job this year and he needs to refund people thier money! Plain and simple! I do know about wrestling and it is offensive to me that a person would put his personal business on this web site for kids to see. He is not a good example and until he gets his orders in line, he should ban himself from this site and others. If he were really into do the right thing, he would immediately cease all conversations about his problems here and seek professional help!

---

How is he not a good example! He admitted he has a problem and is working towards getting rid of it. You are telling me that if you have a problem, you should seclude yourself from other people to help solve the problem? Mikey holds a public position being a writer, so of course some of his personal life will mix in with his professional job!

It's funny too, PO Coach, these same kids that sit here and read this stuff are the same kids that watch tv.....I'm completely sure that there is a hell of a lot more offensive people on TV than on this website. I'm so sick and tired of everybody on this website bashing each other, whether it be the Skutt debate, HB, Mikey, or just other general comments... people take stuff WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to seriously on here.

About refunding the money, yes I am a little disappointed in the lack of coverage SO FAR this year, but I would gladly let him keep my money for those first two years that he ran the magazine without ANY subscription money. I'm confident Mikey will do a better job after the holiday season is over with!

Hey PO Coach, if you're going to take that ol' moral high ground, how about remembering "let he who is without sin, cast the first stone".

And take a good hard read of pick125's signature line, while you're at it.

Pick...actually, it was FOUR years without subscribers, but I appreciate the vote of confidence.

As for PO Coach and the rest of you anonymous critics out there, a word of warning...six years ago when I conjured up the idea of an online wrestling magazine, I had SEVERAL people tell me it wouldn't fly. Whether it was the newness of the technology, the questioning of my ability to get it done or the opinion that wrestling wasn't a sport worthy of such coverage, these individuals made one huge mistake...they lacked the understanding or the knowledge of the passion, talent and intensity of one Mikey C.

As for the personal gain garbage, here's a little inside info for you: this whole project was orginially started without a business plan, and the only funding came from the magic of the plastic cash. From a business perspective, using a credit card(s) to start up a business is, to put it in kind terms, insane. But I put my personal finances at risk because I believed in the idea, I believed in the people who would help me achieve this goal and...most important...I believed in the people who make up this great sport and was committed to giving them the kind of coverage that this sport has so desperately needed on a statewide level.

I have, like many of the wrestlers, parents and coaches, sacrificed greatly to achieve this goal. Last night, I sat down and figured up my personal debt load, and the figure is so staggering that I ALMOST ended my now-153 day dry spell. So when you say I'm doing this for personal gain, you obviously are so absolutely clueless about my situation that it is laughable.

What you don't understand is that taking up server space, equipment, hotel expenses, gas, food, time spent interviewing and writing and all the other things that have gone into making NWI (and Huskermat, for that matter) all have one thing in common: THEY ALL REQUIRE THE PAYMENT OF MONETARY FUNDS TO MAKE THEM HAPPEN. The subscriptions and advertising allow us to continue doing what Ross and I are doing with our websites, and neither one of us is gaining from a personal financial perspective on these ventures (as last night's number-crunching festival proved conclusively).

As disappointed as subscribers are about the way things have gone so far this season, their level of frustration is nowhere near what I am dealing with. I have spent the last several months in the kind of personal funk that I hope you, PO Coach, nor any of your anonymous jelly-spined buddies never have to go through, whether it's public or in the privacy of your own hole in the wall. I place a standard on myself that nobody else can even begin to try and place on me, so these last few months have been hell on earth as far as I'm concerned.

In the past few days, though, things have gotten better for me. The moment of clarity has taken effect, and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting a little brighter every day. Things will be returning back to normal on the website soon, and I don't think those of you who subscribe to the website will be disappointed with the end result.

Of course, PO Coach, you won't be able to see the end result because you want to cancel your subscription. That's your choice, and I'm more than willing to make sure that you are happy and that you find a place to get the kind of statewide coverage that you will be missing out on.

Mike, as Rocker stated previously; those who count are behind you 100%; to which I'll add, in every way! These others have absolutely no clue what it takes to accomplish one iota of what you have done for our sport, its sad that their ' contribution ' to this forum only exposes their ignorance. Regardless, NWIMag.com is worth every penny to a subscriber simply by offering a free, central headquarters for Nebraska wrestling results; occasional articles and photographs are purely a bonus we should be thankful for. You've already given more than these yowling 'so called ' subscribers have paid for. If you really think returning the subcription fee is warranted I suggest you consider requiring it be donated to a charitable cause; these guys will still take advantage the free results and other occasional free offering of NWI.

If Mikey spent as much time on his mag as he does writing on here maybe he could get something done. I don't want excuses, JUST DO IT ! He also has a hard time responding with out calling other people who disagree with him names, how about working on the things that you said you would when people subscribed to your mag. I don't care about the past, I don't care what it cost you to start this site, if you need more money charge more.Hey we all take chances we all have debt, you say you are getting things in order, you speak of passion,talent and intensity, we will see. People are upset and they have a right to be. Now go ahead Mikey and tear me apart.

Sorry, "guest"...I'm too busy taking care of business right now. Maybe later...