GWA Day 2025
The Year the Library of Congress Said "Yeah, This Counts". Two Years In: A Celebration of Getting Legitimately Weird with It
Pop the champagne, folks. Or at least crack open a Monster Energy. Because two years ago today, I took a photo of a plastic wrestling figure, and now I'm an ASCAP-registered songwriter and publisher with an ISSN from the United States Library of Congress for a quarterly magazine about a wrestling promotion that never existed.
Oh, and I've released 14 tracks across 4 different musical personas on actual streaming platforms. And people are listening. And Streaming services are cutting me checks.
If that sentence doesn't make you smile, you're reading the wrong newsletter.
IT'S GWA DAY, BABY. LET'S CELEBRATE.
The Official Legitimacy Hall of Fame
You know what's wild? A legitimate governing entity has now validated my late-night wrestling fantasies. TWICE. And the streaming platforms validated them with actual money.
ISSN 3078-831X - Western Wrestling Chronicles is officially cataloged by the Library of Congress. Researchers can cite it. Libraries can catalog it. The permanent record now includes my fictional quarterly about the 1974 Harlem Hurricane/Outlaw feud.
ASCAP Membership - I'm a registered songwriter AND publisher with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. That's right—the same organization that represents actual, real musicians also represents my fictional record labels and entrance themes for wrestlers who never existed.
14 Releases Across 4 Personas - Eddie Lamont & Great Western, The Breeze Bros., Mariachi Sleepover, and Tape Drift all exist on Spotify, Apple Music, and everywhere else you stream music. Real songs. Real streams. Real royalty payments.
Rodeo Reverb Records has paperwork AND revenue, y'all.
What We Built This Year (A Greatest Hits)
Let's talk accomplishments, because GWA Day is for CELEBRATING:
The Publications
📰 Western Wrestling Chronicles - Three issues of long-form wrestling journalism that treats readers like they have brains. Issue 2 drops THIS MONTH. The Hurricane/Shogun saga might be the best story I've ever conceived, and it's about two wrestlers who switch roles like in a Greek Tragedy.
📝 Wrestling Under Western Skies - Our Substack home for deep dives, occasional updates, and the kind of wrestling theory that makes you rethink how stories work.
The Audio Universe
🎙️ The Sagebrush Sessions - Podcast conversations about wrestling, the West, and why any of this matters. Because some stories need voices.
📻 Building Western Worlds - Live worldbuilding on Twitch. Come watch me construct elaborate fictional narratives in real-time while trying to remember which spreadsheet has which character's birthday.
The Music (OH THE MUSIC)
This deserves its own section because PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY LISTENING TO THIS STUFF.
🎸 Eddie Lamont & Great Western - Authentic Western swing and honky-tonk. Multiple releases. Actual streams. Real entrance theme energy.
🎤 The Breeze Bros. - Hip-hop trio sampling GWA promos. They're on Spotify. People added them to playlists. This is real life.
🎺 Mariachi Sleepover - My actual band, using AI-generated music because irony is delicious and I contain multitudes. Also streaming. Also earning.
🌊 Tape Drift - The sonic companion to Sun-Bleached Tapes. Mick Harper's lost recordings, now found on streaming platforms.
14 releases. 4 distinct musical personas. Actual royalty payments. The fictional record labels are generating real income. Wrap your head around that.
🎵 HeartlineHits & Rodeo Reverb Records - The production infrastructure behind it all. With ASCAP paperwork. With streaming distribution deals. Because we do things properly in this alternate America.
🌊 Sun-Bleached Tapes - Mick Harper's 1995 Port Meridian story expanded into its own transmedia universe. Different portal, same truths. Now with actual music you can hear.
The Infrastructure
🌐 GWAWrestling.com - Completely rebuilt from the ground up. New design, new navigation, 36 years of fictional history at your fingertips.
👥 43 New Characters - That's 43 fully-developed wrestlers, managers, and crew members added to the roster this year. We're at over 250 total characters now. Each one with their own story, motivation, and reason for existing.
🎨 New Grapple Gear - Fresh merchandise designs because fictional wrestlers need fictional merch.
The Numbers Don't Lie (But They Do Surprise)
Looking at what actually got built this year:
- 23 of my top 50 documents are direct GWA creative development
- 10 more support music/audio production
- 8 outline corporate strategy and infrastructure
- 7 handle e-commerce automation
- 14 music releases across 4 personas on all major streaming platforms
- 250+ total characters in the GWA roster
- 1 ISSN from the Library of Congress
- 1 ASCAP membership (songwriter AND publisher)
- Actual revenue from streaming royalties
Translation: I'm not just building a wrestling promotion. I'm building the entire supply chain. The record labels. The merchandise systems. The corporate structure. The philosophical frameworks. And it's beginning to generate actual income.
Redwood Carson would be SO PROUD.
What's Next? (EVERYTHING)
Western Wrestling Chronicles Issue 2 drops later this month. The Redwood Carson stories are coming—moments where the GWA founder made uncommon choices. How respect became strategy. How innovation honored tradition.
More Sagebrush Sessions diving into Soviet strength training regimens that informed character development. Celebrity Pro-Am Vegas golf disasters. Dusty border towns where territory lines blur.
More music. More releases. More personas. More entrance themes. Because apparently people want to listen to this stuff, and I'm more than happy to keep making it.
More characters. More storylines. More ways for you to find yourself in this universe.
Because whether you're drawn to the gritty 1970s wrestling narratives, the Western Americana aesthetics, the transmedia experimentation, the AI-assisted creative process, the actual streaming music, or just really love reading about fictional wrestlers—there's a door into this world with your name on it.
A Real Talk Moment (Just One, I Promise)
Building something from nothing is hard, and that includes community. The algorithm doesn't care about elaborate alternate histories. The artist formerly known as Twitter doesn't reward philosophical frameworks. Instagram wants fifteen seconds, not fifteen thousand words about narrative structure.
Thank You (The Fun Version)
To everyone who's been part of this, an my, journey—whether you've been here since the plastic wrestling figure photo or you just discovered us today—THANK YOU.
We make this real.
It's GWA Day, Y'all
Two years. Over 250 characters. 36 years of fictional history. One ISSN. ASCAP membership. 14 music releases across 4 personas. Streaming royalties. Countless late nights building Americas that never existed but probably should have.
And we're just getting started.
From the West Hollywood hills of Laurel Canyon to the backrooms of Las Vegas casinos, from Soviet training facilities to Texas border towns, from Spotify playlists to Library of Congress catalogs—the West is best and today we celebrate.
So raise a glass (or a Monster Energy can, no judgment). Put on some Eddie Lamont. Grab an issue of Western Wrestling Chronicles. Pull up your favorite GWA character profile. Tell someone about that one storyline that hit different.
It's GWA Day, and everybody's celebrating.
Happy GWA Day! 🤠🎸📻
