r/SquaredCircle • u/JonBarberCHIKARA • Dec 23 '15
I'm Jon Barber.
My name is Jon Barber. You may know me as:
- a referee for CHIKARA, CZW, or WWN's China tour
- doing behind-the-scenes work for Extreme Rising, Urban Wrestling Federation (There's some great UWF stories.), CHIKARA, PWG, Highspots, Kayfabe Commentaries, World Wrestling Network, and more
- the co-creator of Botchamania
- being featured in the book "Chris & Nancy: The True Story of the Benoit Murder-Suicide & Pro Wrestling's Cocktail of Death"
- or you may not know me at all.
Probably the latter.
I have multiple people who I don't like and who I really do like a lot.
You can find me on twitter at @csapservice.
Please support chikarapro.com, chikaratopia.com, highspots.com, highspotswrestlingnetwork.com, wwnlive.com, dgusa.tv, and kayfabecommentaries.com.
Ask me anything!
14
u/Maffewgregg Dec 23 '15
How did you get into Chikara and become a ref?
4
u/PsychoSidSoftball Dec 26 '15
He pays to train as a ref (lol). Won't be fired until tuition is paid.
3
10
u/JonBarberCHIKARA Dec 23 '15 edited Dec 23 '15
A lot of things fell into place that had no business falling into place. I met a relative of Mike Quackenbush, who introduced me to Mike, who just so happened to be accepting students at the Wrestle Factory, which just so happened to be near me.
6
u/Aqeelk Dec 23 '15
The Urban Wrestling Federation was one of the most bizarre and amazing things to happen in wrestling, could you share some stories from your experience with them?
6
u/JonBarberCHIKARA Dec 23 '15
Haha! The first time I met Steve Karel was bizarre. I had heard so much about him, but had never met him in person, so I didn't know what he looked like. At the Hammerstein Ballroom, I would go up to anybody who looked important and introduce myself, and none of them were Steve Karel. Finally, I'm standing around the ring and a bodyguard shouts at me in a deep voice, "You! Come here!" I couldn't make this up if I tried. I point at myself and he nods "Yes," so I go over to him and he says, "Mr. Karel will see you now." I'm thinking to myself "What the fuck?" Then he calls over another guy and we are both led up the big steps of the Hammerstein Ballroom into a shower room, a.k.a. Steve Karel's office. He proceeds to look at us and tell us to do this and this. Then he says, "Go to Staples and get a bunch of water bottles." He is silent then for a few seconds. To break the awkward silence, I say "Yeah, I passed that on the way." He looks up at me and says "Can I speak without you interrupting me?" I just stare at him and he says "Thank you." Fast forward to the next tapings in December, which I was in a bad mood for because I had been on the road already for four days of CHIKARA JoshiMania and hadn't been home in more than half a week. Steve walks in late and all the wrestlers suck up to him. "Mr. Karel, it's so nice to see you." "Mr. Karel, how are you?" Then he gets to me: "Hi, Steve." He looks at me like I have four eyes.
Later in the talent meeting, he proceeded to say something like "When WE were doing ECW, we did" this, this, and this. Joker was right next to me and he scoffed at that. Steve shows a video that looked like it was made by a third grader and I shit you not, it has testimonials about how awesome the UWF was from...nobody's. The most famous person was Bryan Alvarez. Everybody else was just posts on their facebook page. I'm shaking my head at how pathetic his intro is.
Also, Tony Mamaluke looked younger then than he did in ECW 10 years ago.
1
u/JonBarberCHIKARA Dec 24 '15
One more thing about Urban Wrestling Federation. That was my best payday. I got triple digits for ring crew.
2
4
10
u/RefDan Dec 23 '15
Hi Jon, it's Dan Yost.
Do you miss Thr Barber Shop as much as I do?
Hope you're well!
→ More replies (2)
13
u/Maffewgregg Dec 23 '15
What was your contribution to the Benoit book?
11
u/JonBarberCHIKARA Dec 23 '15
6
2
u/chiiild Dec 23 '15
Question for anyone: Did they ever solve that whole Wikipedia edit thing, or is it still a weird mystery?
Too much to coincidentally be a fake death edit vandalism, from someone who happened to live in Stamford, on the weekend she happened to die?
→ More replies (3)5
10
u/AllMyOwnStunts Dec 23 '15
What's your favorite Jon Moxley CZW match and why?
10
u/JonBarberCHIKARA Dec 23 '15
3-way with Gage and Ego.
9
u/JonBarberCHIKARA Dec 23 '15
Oh, I forgot to answer the why of the question. It was crazy. I remember them brawling all over the ECW Arena.
9
u/TLKiller990 Dec 24 '15
It looks like there is a lot of hate between you and some people around here. I participate in AMAs rarely but your case has interested me. Why so much hateful questions? What did you do to these people? Did you piss in their drinks? What? And why.
4
4
u/perhapsaduck Dec 23 '15
What was doing the WWN China tour like? How were the Chinese fans? Any different from American?
→ More replies (1)
19
u/BronsonLee Dec 23 '15
Yo, why the hell did you barf in my car on the way to a show
→ More replies (2)
12
u/GattonBalls Dec 23 '15
When we first met outside of the bathroom at some King of Trios first you refused to smile for the pic and second we noticed you wandering in and out of the ECW arena bathroom. You Lookin for "d"?
→ More replies (3)
4
u/thecodenameduchess Dec 24 '15
Has anyone told you, you look a little bit like a smaller Shaggy from Scooby Doo?
→ More replies (3)
2
u/Jesse31101 Dec 23 '15
I go to a show in Oakland monthly called Hoodslam that has been described as "R rated CHIKARA", have you heard of it and if so, how do you feel about that description?
→ More replies (1)
12
u/KyleR007 Dec 23 '15
Hi Jon.
Why is Dan Yost, a quite good referee no longer used by Chikara?
Why is it that in matches wrestlers seem visibly irritated about your poor officiating, including Mike Quackenbush chastizing you at KOT 2012?
Why is it that your story about Botchamania always changes, you were creator, now co-creator, and have no proof of it?
How did Lizzy Borden's panties smell?
Why are you proud of helping X-Pac find drugs during a period where he was recovering from addiction?
Why did Mike Quackenbush lie, and continue to lie about why Chikara was shut down?
→ More replies (14)
7
u/Newishhandle Dec 24 '15
Hey barber, just a quick question. Did it take a while to eliminate all semblance of emotion from your face during a match? It must be hard not to react in any way when high spots are taking place 3 feet in front of you
→ More replies (2)
5
u/infinitehallway Dec 23 '15
Does it bother you that you've become the new "chew toy" ref in CHIKARA since Sabato's departure?
Did you get any sort of advance notice before CHIKARA "shut down", or was it kept secret from you as well?
Favorite CHIKARA moment?
→ More replies (15)
14
u/ExplainsYourShitpost Dec 24 '15
I feel like I might be needed here, but I only have my apologies - I'd have no idea how to explain any of this.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/MrHoarr Dec 23 '15
LFC sent me a Bret Hart book without any actual talk about myself being a fan of his or CHIKARA -- is he really a nice guy in real life or is there some sort of long con in play here with him?
→ More replies (2)
6
4
u/Maffewgregg Dec 24 '15
I've seen a lot of posts and details about the XPW book...was it ever released?
→ More replies (1)
2
u/tomgraham98 Dec 23 '15
hi! if a wrestler forgets to kick out do you stop the count or count to 3 (inlight of the Eva match)
→ More replies (2)
4
u/shinelamont Dec 23 '15
Are we gonna see a lot more intergender matches in Chikara?
→ More replies (1)
9
u/infinitehallway Dec 23 '15
Is Quack the sole creative force in CHIKARA, or do guys like Bryce and LFC have input too? Or the wrestlers?
Thoughts on some of the more notable departures from CHIKARA, like Donst and Jigsaw?