Background Info

James Caldwell, who thanks his ancestors from England and Scotland for putting three "l's" in his last name, has been an avid wrestling fan since 1989 when the Southern style of wrestling dominated TV in the Caldwell household from 5:05 to 7:05 p.m. before WCW Saturday Night became a destination for bad television in the Attitude era. He also has fond memories of All-American on Sunday mornings after church until Tatanka lost to Ludvig Borga. He longs for the days of weekend wrestling to mean something again.

Caldwell has been a Torch staff member since July 2005 when he embarked on the 31 days of Caldwell series. Caldwell currently recaps every TV and PPV wrestling show for the Torch Newsletter, writes his The Perspective bi-weekly column, and gathers news for the WWE and TNA Newswire.

On the PWTorch.com main listing, Caldwell covers up to four weekly TV shows with "virtual time coverage" and writes Caldwell's Takes once or twice per week. He also writes the weekly Caldwell Report that is sent to Torch VIP Members every weekend with the latest news, information, and analysis on the hot topics in wrestling for the week. Caldwell also participates in monthly PPV audio roundtables and records a weekly audio discussion of Smackdown with Torch specialist Mike Roe.

Caldwell has been covering wrestling since 1997 when he opened his now-defunct pro wrestling news and e-fed website, which is now a defunct porn website after he let the rights to the domain name expire. Caldwell quickly translated the website into a hybrid news and merchandising website, where he was involved in the dot.com era of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. While living in California, he was invited by pay-per-click online media companies to Silicon Valley's finest parties for VC's.

However, the breakthrough for Caldwell's website came in the fall of 1999 when the Wall Street Journal requested an interview. Impressed that a sophomore in high school was involved in the Silicon Valley scene, the Journal interviewed Caldwell regarding an upstart company that provided third-party merchandising opportunities for websites.

Traffic increased by 1,500 percent the day the article ran on the front page of the Marketplace section of the Journal. Offers poured in to affiliate with Caldwell's website, including the once-popular UGO Network and that one website with the adbar on the bottom of the page that slowed down computers on dial-up connections for two years.

He turned down the offers and continued offering news, analysis, and columns on his website, while also covering WWE and WCW PPVs live on up to 25 websites simultaneously. He credits the years of furious typing during buffer video packages on WWE PPVs for his hand cramps at too young of an age.

Caldwell became involved with the Pro Wrestling Torch when the Torch went live on the Internet in November 1999. Caldwell provided weekly recaps of Byte This and WCW Live before leaving the pro wrestling scene in 2001 when his website crashed and four years of a full-time job running a pro wrestling website was erased. Caldwell described it as losing a loved one and wrestling reminded him too much of the pain.

Caldwell returned to wrestling in 2003 when flipping through TV stations one summer Monday night when he stopped on Raw. The "wrestling bug" bit him and he was back on the Internet looking for information on why Kane was killing his gimmick by taking the mask off. Caldwell began sending Torch Reax's for every wrestling show that was covered by the Torch. His Raw Reax became a weekly fixture on the Torch website. Figuring there was a way Stephanie McMahon could be utilized on Smackdown, Caldwell sent in a guest editorial on how to use Stephanie that was posted online. His previous attempt to explain how Hardcore Holly could be used on TV was, unfortunately, shot down.

In June 2004, when TNA Impact debuted on Fox Sports Net at 3 p.m. in the afternoon, Caldwell began covering the show on a weekly basis. Fortunately, his college schedule left a hole in his Friday afternoon available to only 0.00001 percent of Americans. After covering Impact for several months, Caldwell was offered a slot in the Lounge section of PWTorch.com to write a weekly column.

Caldwell never missed a Sunday Brunch, as his oftentimes encyclopedia-sized column was a regular fixture on the weekends. He also started the Lounge Weekend (better known as the TLW) where other Lounge members contributed previews and recaps of their work.

Caldwell's first wrestling interview came in the spring of 2005 when he interviewed Bill Goldberg prior to the release of "The Longest Yard." Shortly thereafter, Caldwell met Torch editor Wade Keller in Los Angeles for the second "Ultimate Insiders" taping with Matt and Jeff Hardy. Caldwell's bio picture is from the taping, when he was sporting the Abe Lincoln facial hair. His facial hair is that of legends, where it ranges from Abe Lincoln to the Batista flavor saver to the Christian Cage goatee. However, he's never gone for the Adam Morrison porn 'stache.

There are often misconceptions about the Ultimate Insider tapings. Caldwell was present at the So Cal Supercard in January 2005 that Vince Russo and Ed Ferrera helped booked then later taped the first Ultimate Insider with Wade Keller. However, Keller did not tell Caldwell he was going to the show and they didn't cross paths in L.A. However, Caldwell did confirm that the trio was not meeting to discuss plans for a new promotion that would be promoted in Madagascar.

The other misconception is that Caldwell picked up Keller at the airport at the second UI taping with the Hardys. Caldwell's alibi is that he was at work that afternoon and did not arrive at the taping until halfway through the shoot in a pouring rain. Caldwell actually drove Keller to the airport for his red-eye flight following the taping, while the Hardys missed their flight and remained in L.A. to do voice-overs on old footage until 4 a.m. in the morning. Still, the evidence fails to convince some people otherwise.

In the spring 2005, Caldwell began contributing to the Torch Newsletter by formatting TV show recaps. He also was seen ringside and then at the hard camera position covering PWG's top shows in 2005 at the J.C.C. in Hollywood, Calif. Always with his trusty black pen and black notebook, Caldwell's notes were legible only to himself.

Caldwell's penmanship also came into question during WrestleMania 21 weekend when he covered every WWE and PWG-related event, except for WrestleMania itself, that long weekend. He often times couldn't read his notes on two hours of sleep each night.

Caldwell's workload increased in July 2005 when he was hired on as a full-time staff member. He embarked on the "31 days of Caldwell" journey, while balancing a full plate of summer school in the middle of his senior year of college. Caldwell benefited from a busy month of newsworthy events, or he would have ended up writing about Mike Graham's contributions to Florida wrestling, as Bruce Mitchell told him at the end of July.

After writing a piece about WWE's decision to air a terrorist-related angle involving Muhammad Hassan and The Undertaker following the London bombings in July 2005, ESPN the Magazine interviewed Caldwell for a piece on WWE's history of xenophobia.

In the beginning of 2006, Caldwell began his "On Point" interview series with the top non-WWE names in pro wrestling. Caldwell has interviewed So Cal Val, Chris Hero, Dory Funk, Jr., Booby Roode, Austin Aries, Chris Harris, Don Muraco, Chris Cruise, J.J. Dillon, Simon Diamond, and Bruno Sammartino in a 90-minute interview recapping the top moments from his career.

Caldwell is an avid fan of Houston and Texas-related sports. He realized his dream of the Univ. of Texas winning the National Championship in football at the 2006 Rose Bowl, making his early childhood, teen-age, and college years of agonizing through horrible teams, near-misses, and Chrissy Simms worth the wait.

His first struggle between wrestling and Houston sports came at the 1994 King of the Ring when the Rockets played the Knicks in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Caldwell was drawn to the PPV by the intriguing Bret Hart vs. Diesel World vs. IC Title match. Fortunately, the Rockets won Game 6 and went on to win Game 7 and the first professional championship for the city of Houston. Well, if you don't count the Aeros in the defunct WHA.

Upon moving overseas to Saudi Arabia in January 1996, Caldwell found wrestling in the oddest places. Stricken with a serious illness in 1997, Caldwell watched Savio Vega on Shotgun Saturday Night from the waiting room of a hospital at 1:00 a.m. On the resort island of Bahrain, Caldwell was pulled away from the sun and fun when WWF Mania (later, LiveWire) showed up on a satellite sports channel in the hotel room.

Caldwell also devoured Apter Mags that popped up in the Safeway supermarket and often found WWF Magazines on his desk as monthly presents from his mom. He remembers reading about this guy named Vic Venom and this concept called electronic mail.

Caldwell missed the very beginning of the Attitude era until full episodes of Raw and Nitro began to air in Saudi in early 1997. With TV delayed by four weeks, Caldwell was lost when he returned to the States for vacation every summer. However, he fondly remembers watching the build up to Starrcade 1997 when Sting beat Hulk Hogan and WCW jumped the shark.

Caldwell currently works at a real estate law firm where he reviews legal documents prior to loans closing on real estate transactions. Caldwell has reviewed documents for famous sports athletes in Houston. His previous jobs include scorekeeping for Little League baseball, putting his paychecks back into JCPenney when he worked in the men's clothing department, the Robbins Brothers engagement ring store, and Office Manager for the Rec Sports department at his university.

In the summer of 2006, Caldwell graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with an emphasis in Accounting from Cal Poly Pomona before returning home to Houston in December 2006 because it was too expensive to live in California and he missed Houston weather. (Seriously!) He expects to pursue graduate course work in journalism, law, or business in the fall of 2007 after taking a full year off from college.

In The Office, Caldwell has an expansive and meticulously catalogued library of books, videos, and DVDs spanning wrestling, sports, politics, and Christianity. He is most proud of his Student's Study Bible, which has more highlighting and notes in the margin than any of his college textbooks combined.

Caldwell's brother, Jordan, is a sophomore at the University of Texas and often sends Torch Reax, continuing the Caldwell tradition. A bump machine for powerbombs and chokeslams in a previous life, Jordan is now the tallest in the family. His father, Jim, has proudly boasted that he's only attended one wrestling show in his life - one of Paul Boesch's cards at the old Sam Houston Coliseum when he was in law school at UT in the '70s. All he remembers is that Wahoo McDaniel chopped somebody that night. His mother, Sue, will never be caught watching a second of wrestling, but she still reads over Caldwell's bi-weekly Torch Newsletter columns and offers criticism that only a mother can honestly provide. His cat, Plucky, is often found roaming The Office in search of something to rub against while Caldwell works late at night completing weekly articles for the Torch Newsletter.

Caldwell envisions the Torch expanding to a giant newsroom in a true Torch Towers. He found his inspiration for this vision while watching "All the President's Men" one Friday night. Perhaps, spending the majority of 2006 in a law firm where there are hundreds of filing cabinets with thousands of files has prompted him envision the same type of hustle and bustle collecting and reporting news on the intriguing and amazingly inane world of professional wrestling.

Caldwell's Selected Work from the Caldwell Library

- WWE is a lawsuit waiting to happen (Mar 3, 2005 - Lounge)
- Help Wanted: TNA needs strong leader (Jun 5, 2005 - Lounge)
- TNA X Division could learn from Johnny Valentine (Oct 22, 2005)
- Eddie Guerrero's death should prompt change in wrestling (Nov 19, 2005)
- TNA Year-in-review 2005 (Jan 14, 2006)
- WWE Wonderlic Test (Mar 18, 2006)
- Reaching the growing Hispanic Market (May 13, 2006)
- UFC overtakes WWE in domestic PPV market (Aug 5, 2006)

- Contact James Caldwell.