Mall of America Edition

Yes it’s true! I was at the Mall of America while I was in Minnesota for F1rst Wrestling.

 

In case you missed the event, you will have to check it out on Smart Mark Video when it comes out! Why? Well because there were lots of great matches, including another one in the Castagnoli vs. Quackenbush saga and a good one at that (me winning). Plus the finals which will include some stuff you’ve never seen before.

 

I’m Claudio Castagnoli and I approve and guarantee this statement.

 

Now onto my ramblings for today. Actually there aren’t going to be many ramblings, but many pictures! Mainly because I haven’t updated pictures in quite a while and I just like to believe that you guys enjoy those.

 

So here we go:

 

This is actually from my last trip to Canada last weekend. I saw the amazing Sun Chips mobile! Well if you like Sun chips like I do, you just have to love that mobile!

 

Yes, that’s a Swiss cookie that I got from a fan (Alex) at the CHIKARA show in Easton! Presents from fans are always awesome and this one was especially awesome since it tasted so good!

 

First thing that happened on my trip to MN was my rollerbag breaking! Samsonite are supposed to be super long lasting and high quality. So I was surprised when all of a sudden a wheel broke off when I was pulling my bag like 2 feet while standing in line for the security screening. Good thing is that I already brought it to the Samsonite store and they’ll fix it. However for the whole weekend I had the leaning Bag of Claudio (that’s a word play on “leaning tower of Pisa” for those of you who didn’t catch that)

 

Alright, now into the meat of my trip! Well, you know the main picture part! The Mall of America or MOA. Not to confuse with the DOA.

 

A rollercoaster in a mall? Yes, apparently nothing’s impossible at the mall of America.

 

I love Lego. And this might be one of the coolest Lego stores out there. Mainly because it’s built out of giant Legos and it has cool Lego stuff all around it!

 

Like this guy. I normally don’t like Byonicles but this one looks quite cool. And to me he’s just holding a flame. Well not really a flame, but in my mind he’s charring the torch for the 2010 winter Olympics! Ha, now he’s cool.

 

The best “overlook” picture I took of the amusement park. They also have a wild water ride, which is quite amazing. Not the ride itself, but that they have a water ride.

 

I wanted to get this shirt but they didn’t have it in my size!

 

Caribou Coffee and Starbucks each have 4 locations at the MoA but when I walked around I only saw 1 Starbucks and 3 Caribou Coffees. So I tried Caribou and I fell in love. Amazing coffee! I had a Depth Charge which is great! I wish they’d have more of them out here.

 

Now I must say that I was super disappointed with the so called Flag store.  They had all kinds of flags and flag related merchandise. And while they had one or two Swiss flags, they had no other Swiss merchandise. No T-Shirt, Cap, Magnet, etc. Epic fail!

 

I might update later in the week with a more story telling blog, but for now this looks, and feels and quite honestly reads great! Right? I’m glad we agree :)

 

Tschüss,

Claudio

Got to love the mall of america! Too bad i had information overload the minute i entered

Druids

The price is right

Well, let’s put it this way, if I write, it can’t be wrong! What’s up guys? Well I’m sitting here with my favorite coffee mug (one cup, two cups, three cups, ah, ah, ah) and writing this masterpiece here.

 

Not Chris Masterpiece, just a masterpiece. If it really is a masterpiece will be up to you to decide, but since I’m writing I can call it whatever I want.

 

What do they call that in the USA? In German they call that “Dichterische Freiheit” I think.

 

My weekend started on Thursday already because I went to work out with a buddy of mine before hitting the road to Collinsville, IL! I saw lots of old friends and got the perks of that (free tanning) and enjoyed my time a lot.

The 14 hour drive to Collinsville flew by thanks to Mitch Hedburg (We estimate you’re angry!) and other fun stuff. Like this BIG AZ poster that I found in a gas station somewhere in PA.

 

Arriving at 7am in St. Louis is awesome, especially when the top of the arch is hidden by clouds. It just looked awesome. Like if you go to heaven you go up the arch and that’s your entrance. You think about some crazy stuff when you’re tired.

 

So I went to sleep in the comfortable hotel bed. After waking up I decided I’d check out the hotel gym and looky look, they had a treadmill. I don’t care for the cheap hotel treadmills though so I tried the elliptical machine. And as much as it squeaked and I though it would break under my weight any minute it didn’t. So I had a good time doing cardio, singing German songs (sie ist weg! WEG!) and staring at the clock in front of me.

 

Thanks to Bill at this point who took me and a mysterious other individual out to some food and then the building. And after dropping us off there he even had the goodness in his heart to take me to Starbucks, which he gets extra props for.

The Show went well and I was able to secure victory thanks to my über-smartness.

 

After the show I took my Stake and Shake Salad to go and back to the hotel I went. After an uneventful night (sarcasm) I tried my luck on the elliptical again and it was good to me for the second time. If you’re determined you can have a good workout pretty much everywhere!

 

Indianapolis was on the program for Saturday and so we went there. Thanks to bringing all my food on the road with me I was able to take a little walk to my favorite coffee place while my friends got food.

 

Btw. One of you guys who’s reading this must work at a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or some other Coffee place. If you do, email me!!

 

But I digress. I’m not a big fan of the Indianapolis Fairgrounds but the crowd gave us a great response, so that made up for it!

 

What also made up for it was that I went into the kitchen at the building we were at to look for a microwave. Chef Jim informed me that in true chef fashion, he doesn’t use microwaves. But he would get me one so that I could fix my rice.

 

Five minutes later I had a microwave! So I asked if they also served coffee… guess what happened? Five minutes later there was a gigantic coffee dispenser in the locker room complete with cups, spoons, sweeteners, sugars etc! Chef Jim and the staff ruled!

 

Now everybody will agree that I should have won Survival of the Fittest simply based on the fact that I actually am the fittest, but sometimes stuff doesn’t go like planed or how it was supposed to. All you can do is smile back (I love Gladiator).

 

On the way back I found those two movies in a movie bin at a rest plaza. Yes, that’s “Lions for Lambs” and “Beer for my Horses” amazing I thought.

 

After driving the last leg of the trip and getting home I enjoyed some HIIT workout and then grocery shopping including cookies! White chocolate macadamian nuts is where it’s at!

 

Also for the first time ever I had Starbucks Ice Cream! Java Chip Frappuccino! AMAZING! Is all I can say.

 

I enjoyed all that while watching “Year one” with Jack black which was entertaining, nothing more nothing less.

 

I really loved “The brothers Bloom” movie! Amazing, great movie and if you haven’t seen it, you should check it out!

 

If you’ve seen it, let me know what you thought!

 

With those words I say ciao,

 

Claudio

Für meine Internationalen Fans! Para mis aficionados internacionales!

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CHIKARA Sampler DVD now available to fans worldwide!

"Without a doubt, CHIKARA is the most entertaining product in the world."

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   Fans of professional wrestling are hearing more and more about CHIKARA - the Philadelphia based independent that is unlike anything else in the wrestling performance genre! Advancing the artform with fresh characters, new kinds of storytelling and a unique in-ring style, CHIKARA is fast becoming a favorite of serious fans and casual viewers alike. It's time for you to find out why!

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Or you can see us live at any of these upcoming events:

An Optimistic View of a Pessimistic World

10.17.2009 - Saturday Evening

Live @ The Palmer Center!

4100 Green Pond Rd.

in spacious Easton, PA!

The action starts @ 7:00 pm!

Cibernetico Increible

10.18.2009 - Sunday Afternoon

Live @ The (ECW) Arena!

7 W. Ritner St. (corner of Swanson!)

in clean South Philly, PA!

The action starts @ 4:00 pm!

Throwing Life's Instructions Away

11.21.2009 - Saturday Evening

Live @ The Palmer Center!

4100 Green Pond Rd.

in spacious Easton, PA!

The action starts @ 7:00 pm!

Three-Fisted Tales

11.22.2009 - Sunday Afternoon

Live @ The (ECW) Arena!

7 W. Ritner St. (corner of Swanson!)

in clean South Philly, PA!

The action starts @ 4:00 pm!

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Bonjour!

Comment ca-va? Come si, come si, come si, come ca… Who knows that song? It just popped into my mind right now. I heard another awesome (or well at least notorious) song yesterday, Coco Jambo by uh… I forgot his name… It' wasn’t Captain Hollywood… Let me go look it up.

 

Mr. President! Put me up, put me down, put my feed back on the ground, put me up, take my heart and make me happy! Big hit in Germany, Europe and apparently South America. It peaked at Billboard number 21 here in the US in 1997. Now that’s a little pop culture for you!

 

For that fan who yelled at me during Saturday’s RCW show, yes I watched the soup on Friday night. I always watch the soup if I’m home Friday nights.

 

What else did I do this weekend? Well Friday I saw the Joker. Well I didn’t really see the Joker. But I saw him getting ready to rob a bank! Yes every time I see a bunch of school busses in a row I think of Dark Knight. Does that make me a nerd? Maybe. Is it funny? Most definitely!

 

Now on Saturday I did an autograph signing at United Check Cashing in Fairless Hills PA! And it was great! There was a radio station there too and I plugged the place like crazy. So not much more of that here. Reckless Youth was also there and it was a lot of fun listening to his stories and signing some autographs.

 

Oh, how could I forget! Let me jump back to Friday here. I have the artistic freedom to jump back and forth in time when I write here. It’s like back to the future Claudio style. Friday I went tanning and then looking for a Starbucks. Why? Well they had the VIA taste challenge this weekend where you got coupons for free coffee. So I decided to hit up as many Starbucks as I could and get as many free coffees as possible. Which averaged out to a stunning one a day.

 

But I made sure I’d be home to catch SmackDown because I wanted to see The Rocks promo on the anniversary edition of SmackDown. Yes I’ve seen it on Youtube before, but I just wanted to see it on my TV. And WOW it was awesome! He still got it and proved why he’s still the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. My favorite minute was the first when he made fun out of the scripting and messed up the lines. The rest was gold too and I was one happy TV viewer!

 

Back to Saturday now. After the signing I was able to drive by the Starbucks by King of Prussia to claim my free coffee of the day (after enjoying one by McDonalds earlier in the day) and then went on my way to Baltimore.

 

I didn’t know what my match was going to be until I was at the building and I found out that I’d wrestle Jerry Lynn and 2Cold Scorpio on a 3 way! Heeey! Go me! Good times ahead. Good times also seeing some people I haven’t seen in a while!

 

It got even better when I walked through the hallway and somebody went “Hey, you like coffee right? I’m going to Starbucks, do you want something?” Well I couldn’t say no, and got me another coffee! Thank you again from here for bringing me the coffee. You know who you are.

 

If you’re living in the Baltimore area you should definitely check out http://www.realchampionshipwrestling.com/ and come see RCW on January 16 (if I remember correctly)!

 

Sunday was relaxing day with gym, coffee and cookie and movies. By the way, how “Very European” does that picture look? Very would be the answer. I got my coffee for the price a cookie which made me happy. I also got a fresh cookie which tasted unbelievable. Uh, you’re unbelievable, oh, du du du du dudu duuuu… Yeah another cheesy song!

 

To end the day I watched Inglorious Basterds and I thought it was awesome! Double awesome because I didn’t have to read any subtitles. I enjoyed it so much that I’m sure I’m going to watch it again. I forgot how much I miss watching German spoken movies. Till Schweiger was the man (yes I know him from back in the day) and Christoph Waltz pretty much stole the show. The movies was long but the time flew by. So if you haven’t seen it, check it out!

 

So yeah, that’s about it. I’m going to be in Collinsville and Indianapolis for ROH next weekend so come check me out!

 

Until then, tschüss,

Claudio