AS I SEE IT 1/5: 2003 PWBTS review and hopes for 2004

by: Bob Magee

A happy New Year to everyone...

In 2003, PWBTS had 3,881,924 page views with readers from 87 nations and territories including (in order of visitor frequency): United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Italy, Netherlands, France, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Finland, Austria, Singapore, Malaysia, Israel, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Poland, US and British Virgin Islands, Sweden, Taiwan, Switzerland, Cook Islands, Russia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Argentina, Brazil, Niue, Spain, Philippines, Costa Rica, Greece, Hong Kong, Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Thailand, India, Croatia/Hrvatska, Cyprus, Estonia, Samoa, Turkey, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Trinidad and Tobago, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Pakistan, Indonesia, Peru, Romania, Bermuda, Columbia, Guatemala, Iceland, Chile, Puerto Rico, Yugoslavia, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Egypt, Latvia, Lebanon, Nepal, Panama, Qatar, Slovakia, Zimbabwe, Aruba, Bahamas, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Fiji, Republic of Korea, Tuvalu, Madagascar, Syrian Arab Republic, and Venezuela.

In other milestones, AS I SEE IT also reached the milestone of its 300th column in late July 2003, as well as PWBTS approaching 20,000,000 page views, which it will reach at some point in mid-January 2004.

As I said in 2003's New Year column, that means PWBTS has visitors from every part of the world... from every time zone...and from languages and cultures too numerous to count...reading about wrestling on our flagship site.

To all of you... wherever you are from, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read PWBTS's mix of wrestling news and opinions.

Thanks also go out to those websites that link to PWBTS and provide us with a wide variety of visitors such as:

  • Wrestling news sites from around the United States including A1wrestling.com, SEN Network, Wrestleview, Wrestling Scene, Wrestling Xpress, Wrestlenotes.com, Wrestling Nation, WrestleDown, Impact Wrestling Online, Wrestledown.com, NOdq.com, and Feelthepain.net...

  • Wrestling news sites from Europe, the UK's Wrasslin.com and TotalWrestling.co.uk, as well as Germany's indywrestling.de and Picksi's Puroresu World...

  • From Japan, KENTO! Japan....

  • Wrestling promotions including Ohio Valley Wrestling, Combat Zone Wrestling and its fansite CZWfans.com, Jersey All Pro Wrestling, 3PW, Madmar Entertainment, MLW's official fansite, mlwfan.com, NWA Virginia, IWA Championship Wrestling (Reading, PA), NWA-Wildside, Heartland Wrestling Association, PWF, and Prime Time Wrestling ...

  • Websites covering regional wrestling such as Socaluncensored.com, Greater Cincy Wrestling, and Chicagowrestling.com...

  • Companies providing wrestling products such as Smart Mark Video, Wrestling Belt World, and Bodyslam.com...

  • Official websites of wrestlers such as Stevecorino.com, Robbieellis.com, and Sean-casey.com...

  • Last but not least, are fan sites such as CJmarsicano.com, Eddiegilbert.com, Wrestling Pictures by WHACKS, and Myvalentina.com...

    In 2003, AS I SEE IT and PWBTS have discussed various issues concerning independent wrestling, as well as Japanese puroresu, lucha, and WWF/E, including such subjects as:

  • The epidemic of deaths within wrestling due to past or current drug and alcohol use...

  • Independent wrestling, including NWA-TNA's survival through 2003, and the incredibly active and sometimes chaotic independent scene in Philadelphia...

  • The continued problems with WWE house show/TV taping/PPV attendance and the questionable booking by WWE that made it happen...

  • WWE's blaming of online wrestling media for "spreading false news"; and again did another of their "media blackouts", claiming the only WWE news you could trust would be found on their site.

    The problem, of course is that WWE threw all websites together...both the responsible websites like 1wrestling.com, Pro Wrestling Torch, and the Wrestling Observer, which operate with some journalistic standards... along with the kiddie "newz" sites like wwe.newzistole.com and pixofwwechix.com (actual site names changed to protect the guilty).

    Of course, it's easier for WWE to blame those running a fan-based or professional website than to deal with the problems they've had in 2003 with their TV ratings, buyrates, house show attendance and product.

  • Memories of wrestling's past, with a column on my introduction as a seven year old to wrestling courtesy of The Sheik...fan memories after the death of Curt Hennig...the tenth anniversary celebration of the ECW Arena...and seeing Freddie Blassie's last night in a wrestling ring at a RAW in Philadelphia...

  • The human side of the business, with such stories as Charlie Haas's fulfillment of the dream that he and his late brother Russ had for years (and sadly, that only Charlie was able to fulfill)...or allowing a young girl to get her wish to meet Terry Funk and Raven...as well as a sadder part of the human side in the columns I wrote about a Michigan independent promoter who committed suicide after falling victim to the wrestling "sickness".

    Here's a list of New Year's resolutions that many of us hope certain people in wrestling make in 2004:

  • For HHH and Stephanie McMahon (personally): that they have a happy and fulfilling marriage in 2004...

  • For HHH and Stephanie McMahon (professionally): that they resolve to allow some of the other talent working for WWE to progress on their own considerable merit and to create new stars, so ALL concerned will make money...

  • For WWE to stop treating their cruiserweights as bastard stepchildren, and instead to actually use these talented workers to attract an element of the audience that wants to see them...

  • For NWA-TNA: to obtain a financially practical TV deal which allows for national exposure...

  • For Jeff Jarrett: to quit imitating his equivalent in WWE...

  • For independent promoters in general: that they decide to spend more time promoting their OWN products as opposed to starting problems for other promoters who run in the same market...

  • For Ring of Honor: to continue its slow growth, and to not be tempted to be the "next Vince McMahon" overnight, and to continue producing their quality Japanese style WRESTLING product...

  • For the Dover (DE) City Council...spend more time dealing with issues like crime and drugs, and less time playing pseudo-moralistic busybodies telling adults what kinds of wrestling shows they can and cannot see...

    In 2004, as every year, here's hoping that AS I SEE IT gives you a lot more chances to make you think... that it can comment and report on many more moments of enjoyment... less moments that I feel moved to criticize... and FAR less where I have to report on or think about someone in wrestling that we've lost...and that it serves as the viewpoint for one longtime fan to share his opinions with all of you.

    Until next time...

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    If you have comments/questions, or if you'd like to add the AS I SEE IT column to your website, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)