Postal Nation

Champ Celebrates Birthday; Fans Celebrate Champ; Several Wounded
You'd almost think our readers knew that May 25th was Champ's birthday. But whatever the reason, we received an unprecedented quantity and quality of fan art and other contributions this issue. So this, the Independence Issue of the RWS Newsletter is dedicated to the world's most loveable fart machine: Champ.

I'm sure you all remember Ricsi's contributions in previous installments of this newsletter. He's a gifted young Hungarian who has a truly fertile imagination and an appropriately Postal bent.

Well he's back with more great stuff…

I Was Driving With Scissors and Look What POP'd Up !
In an issue full of wildly creative efforts, two contributions still managed to leave us with our jaws significantly slackened.

First came a POP display, of all things. Now for those not versed in marketing lingo, POP means Point of Purchase and POP units are the specially-designed displays you often encounter at aisle ends at your local supermarket. Whether designed to sell liquor or lollipops, you've no doubt encountered POP displays pretty much your entire life.

POPs are really cool when done correctly and when done with a combination of skill and passion they come out looking like… THIS! Check out the accompanying note from designer Greg Pruitt

Hi, I wanted to let you know that I have been working on a Point Of Purchase display for the POSTAL 2 game and I just finished it and wanted to let you guys see it. See, I'm a graphic designer/web designer at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and I had to choose a product that I would like to design a P.O.P for and the only product I wanted to design was yours. I love the game and play it all the time. Anyway this point of purchase display has a running waterfall of blood that looks like a wall that's bleeding and has many elements from the Running With Scissors logo. Check it out and tell me what you think of it. I was told by others it looks amazing.

Thank You,
Greg Pruitt

Thank YOU, Greg – this is absolutely incredible. It almost brings a tear to this old Gimp's eye to think of the time, effort and ingenuity you applied to this project. We've said it before and we'll no doubt say it again but no other company in the world has fans like ours – and don't think for a second that we don't appreciate it.

So, just when we figured we had seen it all, Tony Morrealle and Custom Krew Paint blew our remaining doors off with this Postal On Wheels set of violently wicked vehicles that are running on some serious shit, daddy! Stay tuned to find out if they'll be breaking the traffic law in a neighborhood near you!

MOD Squad Keep Firing Live Rounds
Of course, an issue featuring this much player participation would hardly be complete without a contribution from the POSTAL Modmen. This issue Paul Lines has a great site that POSTAL fans everywhere (even Australia !) should check out. Lazzerman offers a POSTAL2 Deathmatch Server while Paul also posts stats, offers map downloads as well as MODs info on the New Zounds Triggers. He will also be hosting Unreal Server and Posting Stats as well as Downloads of Stats updated daily. Highly recommended.

And while we're on the subject, I have a personal project I would dearly love to see some MOD master tackle. The idea would be to take a small, residential area of Paradise and add in some dirty snow as well as holiday decorations of all types from pagan to pop culture. Huge Chevy Chase/Griswold-type displays all of which are delightfully destructable! And imagine the fun you'll have taking machine gun – or better still, a boomerang machete – target practice on an elaborate row of Christmas lights!

I was able to persuade Vince to do a "Santa" patch on the original POSTAL and Postalmeister "Wicked" Steve Wik agrees that "an updated version of the P1 Santa patch would be cool!  ' Rudolph ! I can't feel my legs!'"

So? Will some wizard of MOD wetwork step up and take on this challenge and give us a reason to look forward to the holidays this year?

RWS SPOTLIGHT Fan of the Month: Dr. Mike Lano

Every day we are amazed at the range of fans RWS has acquired over the years. As a result, Vince has decided that we should focus on one such player each month and talk to them about the interesting lives they lead.

In addition to being a long-time fan of the POSTAL franchise and RWS, Dr. Mike Lano is a world famous figure in the world of pro wrestling. No, he's not one of those phony wrestling "doctors" – in fact, he was an extremely successful dentist who became legendary in wrestling circles for his free work on the mouths of countless grapplers dating back to the 1968, when he journeyed to Mexico for a legendary match between Lou Thesz and Mexican superstar Canek (the last man to pin Hulk Hogan before Hulkster returned to America, became a star in the AWA, moved to the WWF and wasn't next defeated cleanly until the early '90s). He's worked in the mouths of Mick Foley, The Sheik and his nephew Sabu, Abdullah the Butcher, Ray Stevens , Kenji , Mitsu Arawaka , Roy Shire and his policeman John Swenski who was a former NWA Jr. champ among many others. His success as a photographer paid his way through dental school and later enabled him to retire at a young age and follow his muse exclusively – to photograph pro wrestling, boxing and, more recently, mixed martial arts (MMA) – the world over. This photo-journalist took ringside and backstage photos for Jeff Walton in L.A. in 1966 and later worked for the famous Stan Weston magazines. In 1974 he made his first of many trips to Japan to shoot Jack Brisco first losing then recapturing the then-revered NWA title from Antonio Inoki . He's snapped wrestlers in Australia , New Zealand and England as well as virtually every major arena in America ever since.

Enough intro, let's hear from the host of his own LA-based cable TV and radio show, Dr. Mike Lano :

Q:  Mike , how did you wind up with your fingers in so many wrestlers' mouths?

A: Wrestling photojournalism paid my way through dental school and I'd always promised to give back to the boys by donating free dentistry to wrestlers and boxers. Woody Farmer and Pepper Gomez were my patients during the board exams.

Q: Who had the worst teeth?

A: Sheik and Abby [Abdullah the Butcher] since both had ground them down and Abby had to wear a partial plate over his existing teeth he'd somehow filed down. I don't think he did it the way Blassie did [filing his teeth into vampiric-looking fangs on a plane trip to Japan] with a metal file for the cameras, it was just through wear and tear.  Sheik – and I mean the REAL Sheik ( Eddie Farhat ) had a molar knocked loose that was also periodontally involved and I extracted it backstage in '90 at a Joel Goodhart show.

Q:  You've been a major wrestling fan, journalist, photographer since the early 60s -- so who's your favorite wrestler of all time?

A: Well I started in the early 60s doing a fan club for the Sheik, primarily because I enjoyed doing the monthly newsletter. Later,  John Arezzi and I took over for my L.A. territory boss Jeff Walton in running Blassie's fan club, and in '73 I started one for the Tolos Brothers [ John and Chris ]. The latter series of newsletters that friends like Jim Cornette and Eddie Gilbert subscribed too had worldwide coverage, sort of predating the Wrestling Observer [currently the most popular wrestling newsletter]. I'd reprint articles and photos from Japan Gong magazine and reported on TV, angles and results from all over the globe, getting cues from Tom Burke and the late/great Ron Dobratz .  They were my gurus.  And Bill [Kunkel] and Arnie [ Katz ] too, who were wrestling's multimedia men on the Right Coast !

Q:  You do a lot of traveling, guygene – how many times have you been to Japan and do you have any good stories?  Do you enjoy Japanese culture, you Western Barbarian you?  I can't get used to not being able to read their magazines backwards...

A: That just became second nature to me. I had to learn Spanish to get guys like Mil Mascaras, el Sicodelico and Solitario to pose in L.A. and took Japanese lessons in the 70s before the first trip to Japan . I've kind of lost count, but I've been there maybe 19 times total and the women there are so beautiful. It's a great culture, the people are gentle, the wrestling as you know is state of the art fantastic.  I won't talk about the time Sabu paid for ladies of the evening for several of us. Sabu has always been a great friend that Georgiann Makropoulos and I constantly worry about since he's really beaten his body for years since the Onita/FMW days. One of my first times backstage at the Madison Square Garden of Japan – Korakuen Hall – I was told I could leave my camera case open, even with my wallet and pre-paid phone cards sitting there while I was out shooting ringside and nothing would be touched. And it wasn't. Ever. If it was Jersey or Philly, all my stuff would've been gone in a few seconds. And that's not disparaging all my friends and family there; Jersey and Philly have been the wrestling capitols of the U.S. for over 20 years [and I remember] all the great Goodhart, Coraluzzo, Tod Gordon and ECW shows I've been lucky enough to have covered there. That was the real ECW.

Also in Japan , I remember Vader taking Meltzer [ Dave Meltzer , editor of Wrestling Observer] and I out to dinner at an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place. We were both starving since the portions are so small in Japan and the costs high. When we went out with one of the cutest girls ever in the biz – Debbie Drake/Malenko – at Ripongi's Hard Rock (in the American district) hamburgers and fries were like $39 back in 1991.  I can't imagine what it costs now for microscopic hamburgers.  With the Universal group of big lucha stars like Asai, Santo Jr , Perro, Villanos, Brasos; we also got stuffed going to a Kyoto Dennys.

Q:  What are the best strip clubs you've been to in the many cities you've visited?  I hear Cleveland is pretty hot. 

A: Never been there, but an all-time fave is Mons Venus in Tampa where we went with a ton of historian fans like Harry White . I went with the Undertaker, Curt Hennig and Ted DiBiase to the Dollhouse in the early 90s.  Jeff Osborne , a major wrestling and MMA promoter pal also took me to some great clubs in Nashville and Memphis . The ones in Vegas are the worst. Montreal and Toronto had some hot strip joints. Never been to any in Cleveland although I shot some great NWF/J Powers stuff there in the early 70's for Wrestling World magazine. Publisher Lou Sahada still owes me money and his kid (now in TNA) still hasn't made good on it!

Q:  Name some of the famous Divas you've photographed and which one did you like the best?  And the least?

A: Well, I liked Mimi and Madusa, who I dated. Hey, I'm not just a wrestling writer and photographer for nothing! Debbie Combs was one of the sharpest and a second-generation star. Sheri Martel has been a pal over 20 years. Also another girlfriend who's still one of my best pals, wrestling or otherwise, is lady wrestler Brittney Brown who promotes, does p.r. and leads a normal, regular life. That's it for any former girlpals though save for an unknown valet or two on the Left Coast, and some of the rats [wrestling groupies are known as "ring rats"] the Valiants and Black Jacks were done with. I will never forget the 1975 WFIA convention in where there were some great groupies. The Valiant Brothers ruled back then; the girls were just drawn to them like crazy. Definitely the women's pets and the men's regret, as they used to say.

Jeez, I can't name any who I don't like. Today's young wrestling talent includes perhaps the best I've ever seen athletically in Sara Del Ray who's toured Japan and Mexico constantly. I wouldn't call any of these ladies divas, but athletes. WWE-wise, since they're not really wrestlers,  Stacy Kiebler always was nice backstage; even during the WCW years when she dated David Flair . The little Nitro Girl Spice who became a chiropractor was just the greatest and always gathered the girls backstage to pose for me, despite Doug Dillenger [head of WCW security] having fits about cameras back there.  I think the women work harder than the guys, and any time I've been lucky enough to have photographed the Japan women's groups like AJW, I counted my blessings. Mariko Yoshida , an 18 yr superstar who's been sent over by her own company to work a few indies in the U.S. just got CAC's [the Cauliflower Alley Club, a group of ex-boxers and wrestlers who meet once a year in Las Vegas ] Future Legend award and is an incredible athlete and person.  She broke down at the podium, showing zero diva tendencies. Another nice girl with her head on straight is Ivory, formerly of WWE.  Francine [formerly of ECW] is a great friend and one of the nicest people on the planet.

Q:  What do you think of pro wrestling today? Still follow WWE? What about TNA (Total Nonstop Action), ROH (Ring of Honor), etc.?

A: I still follow and cover all groups, but my real passion is for the indies.  ROH and PWG are just out of this world fantastic and as good as it gets. The kids today do so much more... I love both promotions. And I'm very excited about the new MTV project that got the green light as a weekly start I believe this September. I'll be working for a longtime friend and the mastermind/genius for that: Kevin Kleinrock .  Can't wait; the pilot taping was great.  We also had some great indie talent at the CAC. Les Thatcher's training event this past week with Mariko Yoshida , the 18 year old All Japan Women, etc veteran was a highlight. I'm intrigued and giving the new WWE-produced ECW a chance – at least it's breathing new life into them as is the reconstituted Dx. HHH seems revitalized for however long this works. TNA has some of the greatest talent out there in Samoa Joe, Austin Aries , Christopher Daniels and more. Wish Frankie Kazarian was back in TNA.  I could do without the retreads in Scott Steiner and such but I guess they want the name power recognition. But with a Low Ki vs Samoa Joe, how can you get better than that? Japan and EMLL still are great to cover. EMLL has some of the best wrestlers on the planet as usual. And I've shot CAC since '82, so my real passion still remains the legends.  I marked out meeting Frey Tormenta [a legit wrestling Mexican friar and the obvious inspiration for "Nacho Libre"] at this year's CAC. Sitting next to old pals Mil Mascaras and The Destroyer at CAC still gets the juices going too.

Dr. Mike and the legendary Mick Foley

Q:  What do you think of MMA?

A: I've covered it since the Sayama defection days from New Japan and enjoy it a lot. I kind of like the more wild UFC days of the early 90s with Royce Gracie , but enjoy all the programming they do. I think on several levels, they've surpassed WWE. Their live events sell out quickly, they get name celebs like Carmen Electra and Nick Cage to their events which doesn't really occur at pro wrestling unless they're paid. I really hope Pride comes through because they've been awesome for years. K-1 too and I had the honor to shoot the first Strikeforce sellout show in San Jose from ringside and they had well over 18,000 paid (no papering as 3500 were turned away I'm told) and out-grossed the San Jose Sharks hockey team in their own venue. A really exciting show with Frank Shamrock , Cesar Gracie , Dan Puder and the amazing Cung Le.  I've taken my TV show to film at all the Gracie dojos in SoCal, and Ken and Frank Shamrock are old pals. Ditto Tito Ortiz who's done my radio show several times.  Really great athletes all, guys like Don Frye , Chuck Liddell , and Quinton Jackson who I just interviewed, do better promos than most pro wrestlers these days.

Q:  Could pro wrestling ever end up like Roller Derby?  Dead, that is?

A: Well, that's how my old friend Bruno [Sammartino] says it should be to get things more ethical and back to basics. He'd like to see Vince fold and then the territories return in new style. I do miss the old days when the promoters weren't pimply-faced marks but mostly old school cigar-chomping old men, former wrestlers who were gruff and ruff. Nothing beat the experience of bugging Verne Gagne to allow me to shoot ringside as a punk in the 70s, or a [promoter like] Papa Gust Karras or Paul Boesch .  So many great ones.  I've also covered Roller Games (TBirds since the late 60's) and roller games (SF Bay Bombers) and remain friends with many of their great stars. It was hard seeing Derby 's plug pulled by owner Jerry Seltzer in 1973. Ann Calvello was a great friend who often was the cohost of my TV show for 13 years. I talked to her several times a month and miss her dearly. When I'd introduce her at functions as the "Moolah of roller derby and games" she'd always correct me and say "she's the Ann Calvello of pro wrestling."  They'll never be another Ann Calvello .  But personally, I'd rather not see pro wrestling go away. Just improve, get off the bigger-is-better kick since most of the steroid body stiffs can't do jackshit, and get back to what ROH is pushing. Pure athleticism. In my day, someone in the early 70s like a Dory Funk Jr. or Harley Race had no body but could legit go and fully entertain for 90 minutes.  We couldn't give a shit about what a guy's body looked like. Fast forward to the steroid age and the guys "Up North" who couldn't do anything with their leaden feet like a Warlord or poor Dino Bravo or Don Muraco when they "had to get big."  Before that in the 70s, Bravo and Muraco were amazing, particularly Muraco when he left S.F. and Hawaii for Florida and had that amazing series of matches with Jack Brisco . But once these guys are subtly told to "get bigger"  you can forget them being able to have good matches anymore.  That nearly killed wrestling with the mid 90s Dept. of Justice trial [where they went after the WWF] and could've killed the biz with the sad, needless death of beloved Eddy Guerrero . I first met Eddy in 1976 when his family came in for Mike Lebell to replace John Tolos and Fred Blassie (tough shoes to fill but L.A. was going almost all lucha) and Eddie's passing almost killed off wrestling for many of us. What a great guy. I don't mean to get off topic, but I miss Eddy and Art Barr to this day.  And the 40 or more kids who died far too young, for no reason.  All these kids dying under the age of 35 and 40 including Rhonda Singh . It should never have happened. We didn't take care of our own although it's tough to "fight the power" if you know what I mean.  Eddie Gilbert , Gary Albright , Pillman, Davey Boy, Spicolli--these were all terrible and needless losses.

Q: Thank you, Dr. Mike .

A: My pleasure, Bill .

Mixed Messages

Stefan Kudszus , creator and editor of The Dude Magazin, the beautifully Postal German-based site has got some great new stuff to tell us about. He writes: "I'm working hard to create database content for The Dude(n) database, but I am going forward with the release of the new database content on my nextGen edition of 'The Dude(n)' – which is now called only 'Dude(n)'. Here you will see some brand new shots (and it looks much better than the older RC1 release version, I think). After releasing it, I will release tons of database content for the project for Postal, Postal Plus, Postal 2…

Anybody who missed the classic Daily Show "Player Haters" segment shouldn't do that. Steve was good enough to upload it to the site to download at your liesure... The funniest part of the skit was listening to lawmakers (98% of all incumbents win re-election, leading to some of the stupidest chuckleheads you've ever seen) talk about videogames. Or, as Jon Stewart put it: "...the House of Representatives is filled with insane jackasses..."

Letters, Blogs & Sites From the Postal Nation
Kyle Smith writes:

Just wanted to say thanks to everybody at RWS for making one of the most fun games I've ever played. Keep it up, and anyone doesn't like it, fuck 'em. You don't need me to tell you that RWS has some of the most loyal and supportive fans in the world. And there are a couple of things I'd love to see in Postal 3. It'd be cool to have a magnum handgun, some ludicrously big revolver that would pop someone's head open like a melon with one round. Also, I think having more clothes could add an interesting element to the game. For example, you could break into the house of someone who worked at say, a fast food restaurant. You could look in their closet and find their work clothes, then merrily skip off to the local place of business and not get hassled when you go to the back and start pissing on the tacos. And speaking of piss, I think it would be cool if the cops, instead of taking you to jail, took you to the asylum if you weren't actually threatening or killing anyone. Fer instance, if you just walk around all day with your junk hanging out pissing on people, the cops would probably think you stopped taking your meds or something and ship you off to the asylum. Just ideas I had. Anyway, I can't wait to play Postal 3. Please continue to produce great games, and thanks again.

THE GIMP RESPONDS: There are some truly incredible plans afoot for POSTAL 3 and I'm not just blowing smoke on that one. Check upcoming issues to learn about the virtual actors and actresses, cool new features and a guaranteed videogame first that I'd tell you about but then I'd have to shoot myself.

Holy abortionist, Batman! Check out this clothes hanger art
submitted by GTA500!

And that's a wrap for this issue. We want to thank everyone who contributed to this Very Special Episode of the RWS Newsletter – you send 'em and we'll print 'em. In the meantime, we'll be back next month with more news on POSTAL 3, the POSTAL movie, the POSTAL Babe DVD, Music to Go Postal By and another installment of the Dude's cool new comic by Steve "Postalmeister" Wik and Chris Holm (with some kibitzing from yours truly).

POSTAL League Sites:
Elite Bastards   http://purepostal.com/EB/
The Darklight Team  http://www.darklight.wb.st/
Bitches With Attitudes  http://www.bitcheswithattitude.net/
Bringers of Doom  http://purepostal.com/forums/index.php

And that's all for this month. Remember, it's even more fun if you participate! So send us something cool, dammit!