Today is the first time since I started writing this blog 3+ months ago that I haven't managed to account for whatever else I had going on in my life and release a new entry on schedule. I planned on doing so but when push came to shove and I sat down during the time I had allotted myself to write about this week's match, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. In the past 14 weeks, I've had times where I was so excited to write about that week's particular match that I published the entry ahead of time or others where the responsibilities of my everyday life have made it where I literally wrote the entry at the very last possible moment on a Holiday Monday, after having woken up at the crack of dawn and driven home from Seattle in order to do so. Regardless of whatever obligation I have to others or myself to maintain a regular release schedule for this project, today was a day that I just couldn't bear to sit down, watch a match whilst taking detailed notes about it and then in turn, find some sort of greater meaning or evidence of growth within the work presented before me.
As I write this, it is the evening of Sunday June 15th, 2025 and exactly one year ago, my friend of 23 years "Big Cat" Scott Henson tragically passed away, less than 12 hours after he was a part of my final wrestling match in Washington state as part of my retirement tour, otherwise known as "2024: The Year Daniel Makabe Broke." Today was the first time since all of that happened that I finally took the time to watch the match itself, albeit while walking on a slight incline at a reasonable speed of 2.5mph on a treadmill at my local Planet Fitness location. Thankfully there was nobody else situated within that close of a proximity of myself on any other nearby cardio machines as they would have seen me crying as the video file began as Scott, alongside his tag partner (and my friend of 20+ years) Sarian Soft Paws made their entrance together one final time in front of a vocally supportive crowd at Edison Squared in South Tacoma, WA.
The match itself was pretty good, although definitely not our best as time and age had definitely caught up with most of us and it was pretty clear that none of us were still in our athletic peaks; with the one exception of course being Kaden who remains youthful as ever and could still perform at a very high level to this day if he so wished to do so. The crowd was decidedly worn out, likely by what they had already seen on the show to that point and really had to push themselves to stay on board, feigning enthusiasm as best they could during some of the bigger moments in the match. While there was a lot of familiar faces and fans of mine from over the years who made the trek to Tacoma that evening to bid me adieu, I don't feel like I ever really had that strong of a connection with the new fanbase that SOS had cultivated over the years of running this new venue in a new market, having only ever performed there 3 times prior over the course of 2 years. This was after all 40 miles south of where the lion's share (tiger's share?) of our extensive history with one another took place within the confines of the much lauded Battle Palace in Seattle, WA; a building that you've probably already grown sick of reading about within the pages of this blog by now but one that I will continue to speak fondly of over the course of the 90+ additional entries I still have to write here over the next few years.
I don't want to get too ahead of myself but once I've come to the conclusion of writing this series of blogs about every single match that I had within 3-2-1 Battle, I do hope to continue using this forum as a way of further expressing myself and revisiting important moments in my wrestling life. The thought has crossed my mind of tackling the aforementioned retirement tour that took place between January and July of 2024, which of course would include this match. For those reasons, I'm not going to break this down any further at this current juncture, other than to say that I'm glad that I finally watched it and more so, I'm glad that it didn't colour my memories of that evening in a negative way any further. While we may have not been at the top of our respective games, we were still out there doing what we loved best - performing alongside one another and doing so to the best of our abilities. It was a nice epilogue to a pretty significant period in my life that started literally decades beforehand, included our first foray into Seattle Wrestling alongside one another, in addition to countless other moments, including those that were captured and suitably archived for all to see, as well as those that may have occurred amongst ourselves when the cameras weren't turned on.
I'm thankful for each and every single moment and memory that we shared with one another and for having him in my life for 23 years. Even when he annoyed me or we mutually decided it was easier to ignore one another rather than discussing and dealing with whatever issues we may have had that lead to the period over the last few years where our relationship was limited to interactions backstage of wrestling shows that we were both booked on. I like to think that I never lost sight of how important and influential of a figure he was in my lifetime and in helping to shape me into the person that I've become. He has left a legacy and giant gap in countless individual's hearts, literally the world over and I will forever lead the charge of those who considered him a friend and important part of their lives, to ensure he will never be forgotten or taken for granted.
Watch:
Daniel Makabe/Kaden Talbain vs. "Big Cat" Scott Henson/Sarian Soft Paws [6/14/24]
As I write this, it is the evening of Sunday June 15th, 2025 and exactly one year ago, my friend of 23 years "Big Cat" Scott Henson tragically passed away, less than 12 hours after he was a part of my final wrestling match in Washington state as part of my retirement tour, otherwise known as "2024: The Year Daniel Makabe Broke." Today was the first time since all of that happened that I finally took the time to watch the match itself, albeit while walking on a slight incline at a reasonable speed of 2.5mph on a treadmill at my local Planet Fitness location. Thankfully there was nobody else situated within that close of a proximity of myself on any other nearby cardio machines as they would have seen me crying as the video file began as Scott, alongside his tag partner (and my friend of 20+ years) Sarian Soft Paws made their entrance together one final time in front of a vocally supportive crowd at Edison Squared in South Tacoma, WA.
The match itself was pretty good, although definitely not our best as time and age had definitely caught up with most of us and it was pretty clear that none of us were still in our athletic peaks; with the one exception of course being Kaden who remains youthful as ever and could still perform at a very high level to this day if he so wished to do so. The crowd was decidedly worn out, likely by what they had already seen on the show to that point and really had to push themselves to stay on board, feigning enthusiasm as best they could during some of the bigger moments in the match. While there was a lot of familiar faces and fans of mine from over the years who made the trek to Tacoma that evening to bid me adieu, I don't feel like I ever really had that strong of a connection with the new fanbase that SOS had cultivated over the years of running this new venue in a new market, having only ever performed there 3 times prior over the course of 2 years. This was after all 40 miles south of where the lion's share (tiger's share?) of our extensive history with one another took place within the confines of the much lauded Battle Palace in Seattle, WA; a building that you've probably already grown sick of reading about within the pages of this blog by now but one that I will continue to speak fondly of over the course of the 90+ additional entries I still have to write here over the next few years.
I don't want to get too ahead of myself but once I've come to the conclusion of writing this series of blogs about every single match that I had within 3-2-1 Battle, I do hope to continue using this forum as a way of further expressing myself and revisiting important moments in my wrestling life. The thought has crossed my mind of tackling the aforementioned retirement tour that took place between January and July of 2024, which of course would include this match. For those reasons, I'm not going to break this down any further at this current juncture, other than to say that I'm glad that I finally watched it and more so, I'm glad that it didn't colour my memories of that evening in a negative way any further. While we may have not been at the top of our respective games, we were still out there doing what we loved best - performing alongside one another and doing so to the best of our abilities. It was a nice epilogue to a pretty significant period in my life that started literally decades beforehand, included our first foray into Seattle Wrestling alongside one another, in addition to countless other moments, including those that were captured and suitably archived for all to see, as well as those that may have occurred amongst ourselves when the cameras weren't turned on.
I'm thankful for each and every single moment and memory that we shared with one another and for having him in my life for 23 years. Even when he annoyed me or we mutually decided it was easier to ignore one another rather than discussing and dealing with whatever issues we may have had that lead to the period over the last few years where our relationship was limited to interactions backstage of wrestling shows that we were both booked on. I like to think that I never lost sight of how important and influential of a figure he was in my lifetime and in helping to shape me into the person that I've become. He has left a legacy and giant gap in countless individual's hearts, literally the world over and I will forever lead the charge of those who considered him a friend and important part of their lives, to ensure he will never be forgotten or taken for granted.
Watch:
Daniel Makabe/Kaden Talbain vs. "Big Cat" Scott Henson/Sarian Soft Paws [6/14/24]
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