Happy New Year to all of you…
As 2011 ends and 2012 begins, it’s time for the 15th annual AS I SEE ITYear-End Review. As usual, I should note that my selections are based on whatI’ve actually seen this year, either live, online, on TV, or via tape/DVD;which primarily means North American wrestling.
In case anyone has an issue with me saying in my AS I SEE IT columns that WWE is moving toward a “Fuzzy Bunny versus Sammy Squirrel” type product; and tell me I’m overdoing it about what I say, and want Ian Rotten’s IWA Mid-South Wrestling circa 2005 to be what we see on RAW…WWE.com gave us this only hours after I put up last week’s column:
Well, so how was YOUR week? In the last week, I’ve felt an earthquake and went through a hurricane. Somehow as I write the last words of this on Monday morning, I’ve avoided flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch (then again, I AM watching RAW tonight…) to make the week complete. It seems strange that I’ve traveled to San Francisco five different times, including weeks after the 1989 earthquake…yet have never felt anything worse than fog in San Francisco. I’ve walked down their Market Street dozens of times…yet felt an earthquake for the first time while sitting in my office in Market Street in Philadelphia. Then there was Irene. I hope many of you reading this on the East Coast are safe, and have at worst suffered minimal damage or disruption. Other than scaring the shit out of me in anticipation…only very minimal effect in my part of South Jersey. There were floods in the usual areas around the Philadelphia region, but many areas seem to be getting back to normal…or at worst, have started cleaning up the effects. I was very lucky that the only thing happening to my neighborhood was a disruption in cable/internet/phone service for 12 hours.
So Matt Hardy finally won the race with his brother Jeff to get fired from TNA. He was finally fired (after being on an indeterminate suspension from the promotions, reportedly for refusal to go to rehabilitation) when he was arrested for a DUI on Saturday afternoon after smashing his Corvette into a tree.
James Haase, better known as J.T. Lightning, who was an independent wrestler and promoter of Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling for several years, died on August 4 at age 41 after a long battle with cancer. Hasse ran Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling shows for some 17 years.
A day that began bright and sunny didn’t end that way for seven wrestlers yesterday afternoon…but ended pretty damned well for one… at the “Ultraviolent Underground”… aka Markland’s Little Acres Saturday afternoon.. 600-700 fans, however, had more than their usual share of blood and guts yesterday as Combat Zone Wrestling prexented Tournament of Death 10.
Today makes 12 years since one of the darkest days on wrestling history, as Owen Hart died as the result of a botched spot from the ceiling at the Over the Edge PPV on May 23 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MS. Oddly enough, last night was the airing of the slightly re-named Over The Limit PPV
Here’s the column that followed that tragic day:
The first New Japan Pro Wrestling I ever saw was from a bootleg tape dealer (remember those things called tapes, everybody?).
I remember watching Chris Benoit and Jushin Liger working a match in the ring and and being absolutely blown away. I had a family member walk in the room this one day, who only knew wrestling as Hulk Hogan and the usual Titan Toon Adventures on Saturday mornings and afternoon (yup, folks, there was actually a time when there was no Monday Night RAW). She looked at the screen…actually stopped and watched some of their match, and said “This is really something different, isn’t it?”
Ya think?
