AS I SEE IT 1/1: 2006 ends and 2007 begins...

AS I SEE IT
Bob Magee
Pro Wrestling: Between the Sheets
PWBTS.com

In 2006, PWBTS.com had 3,891,729 page views, with readers from 95 nations and territories including (in order of visitor frequency): United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Japan, Netherlands, Mexico, Argentina, Poland, Denmark, New Zealand, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, South Africa, Russian Federation, Ireland, Israel, Sweden, Austria, South Korea, Finland, Philippines, Taiwan, Brazil, India, Singapore, Spain, Norway, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Greece, Iceland, Czech Republic, Panama, Croatia, Malaysia, Hungary, Chile, Turkey, Thailand, Lithuania, Romania, Colombia, Estonia, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Qatar, Lebanon, Slovakia, Pakistan, Slovenia, Kuwait, Morocco, Ukraine, Costa Rica, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Ghana, Burundi, Bermuda, Albania, Honduras, Jordan, Syria, Latvia, Lao People's Republic, Cyprus, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe, Myanmar (Burma), Kazakhstan, Iran, Guyana, Cuba, Burkina Faso, Vietnam, Macedonia, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venzeuela, Algeria, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and Indonesia.

In noting the countries above, I can see countries like Kuwait and Qatar...and assume there's a good possibility that some of those PWBTS.com visitors are from the US military. According to AddFreeStats, I already know there have been 3,800 separate visits from military hostnames. For those of you in the military, wherever you're serving, thanks for taking time to read PWBTS.com. I hope we've given you some enjoyment in the middle of your difficult task, especially during this holiday season we're winding up today.

In other milestones, AS I SEE IT also begins its eleventh year with this column. Additionally, PWBTS.com, its flagship site has now reached over 31.5 million page views during its 10 year plus history.

As I've said in New Year columns past, that means that 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, Wrestleview, Puroresu Power.com, NOdq.com, Gerweck.net, Insiderwrestling.com, Inyourheadonline.com, Big News Network, Obsessedwithwrestling.com, and The Wrestling Voice.

  • From Japan, KENTO! Japan....

  • Wrestling promotions including Ohio Valley Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Combat Zone Wrestling and its fansite CZWfans.com, Jersey All Pro Wrestling, Impact Zone Wrestling (Arizona), NWA Virginia, NWA East/PWX, Chaotic Wrestling (Connecticut), Blue Water Championship Wrestling (Michigan), IWA Mid-South Wrestling, Heartland Wrestling Association, PCW (Iowa), Impact Wrestling Federation, Ring Wars Carolina, Independent Wrestling Revolution (Detroit), NWA Hawaii, IWA Puerto Rico, World 1 Wrestling, Blackball'd Wrestling Organization, Empoire Wrestling Federation, and NWA Shockwave...

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

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

  • Official websites of wrestlers such as Dory Funk.com, SamoaJoe.com, Gregvalentine.com. Stevecorino.com, Robbieellis.com, Jonny Storm, Billymaverick.com, Frankie Starz, Rockinrebel.com, Fabulousfrederick.com, ICP's Faygoluvers.com, KennyBolin.com, Masonraige.com, Wrestlingandy.com, and Sean-casey.com...

    In 2006, AS I SEE IT and PWBTS have discussed various issues concerning independent wrestling, as well as puroresu, lucha, and WWE, including such subjects as:

  • The newly enacted WWE drug testing policy being thrown to the curb after the debacle of six or more wrestlers with "elevated liver enzymes" on the Smackdown roster, many of whom were quietly brought back...

  • TNA's drug policy being no better, as Kurt Angle was signed away from WWE following well-publicized behavioral and drug dependency issues, even after Angle admitted that WWE's schedule and his own injuries had driven him to a dependency on painkillers...

  • Watching Rob Van Dam and Sabu turn "ECW" into Extreme Cannibis Wrestling after their arrests on pot possession turned WWE and WWECW booking upside down on the July 4 weekend...

  • WWE's continual tastelessness including "lunchtime suicide" as humor on a storyline created solely for its WWE.com website (after one showing of the skit on a PPV drew major criticism), followed by Vince McMahon booking God on a PPV as the tag team partner of Shawn Michaels...topped by the continued use of Eddie Guerrero's corpse to try drawing money, which received even bigger fan hostility, along with wrestlers who were finally ready to openly criticize the continued use of Guerrero...

  • The nauseating spectacle of Boogeyman barfing worms, eating "tumors" off people's faces...and the even less explicable attraction of people to the gimmick, sending me nasty e-mails when I mentioned how nauseating it was...

  • The hopes of wrestling fans being raised, then dashed as Vince McMahon "brought back ECW", only to present a glorified Velocity in its place that we all know better (and don't love) as WWECW...

    The human side of the business, with such stories as:

  • Reminders of tragic anniversaries, such as the first anniversaries of the death of Eddie Guerrero and Christopher "Chris Cash" Bauman, the seventh anniversary of the death of Owen Hart and Brian Hildebrand...and the twelfth anniversary of the passing of former WWF referee Joey Marella...

  • The very real life effect that Memphis wrestler Sputnik Monroe had on ending racial segregation in seating of sports and entertainment events in the city...

  • The passing of Victor Quinones, Antonio Pena, Bob Orton, Sr., Ricky Romero, Johnny Grunge, John Tenta, Huracan Ramirez, Sputnik Monroe, El Texano, Emory Hail, Jackie Pallo, Kay Noble, Sammy Steamboat, Bull Ramos, Prince Pullins, Crazy Luke Graham, Tiger Khan, Donald Lortie, Karl Von Stroheim, Ricky Gibson, Joey Maggs, Ill Kim, Tiger Conway, and Don (The Spoiler) Jardine

    Finally there were great personal wrestling memories such as watching the CZW-Ring of Honor storyline this winter, spring and early summer, seeing that independent promoters CAN work together and CAN make money...and even better can produce a five month storyline that had a blowoff that resulted in the largest crowd Ring of Honor in Philadelphia ever drew.

    In 2007, 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.

    One final note, coming next week will be the TENTH annual AS I SEE IT Year-End awards. I thought that this year, along with my own picks; I'd add a fan vote for certain separate awards to add to my picks.

    Here are the categories I selected for fan votes:

  • Best US wrestler (not your favorite, but the most talented)
  • Best US independent promotion
  • Best match of the year/independent
  • Best match of the year/WWE or TNA

    Your votes MUST be marked with "AS I SEE IT anniversary awards" in the subject header and your category; and submitted by the morning of January 5th (EST). All others will be discarded. Votes can be sent by e-mail to bobmagee1@hotmail.com.

    Until next time...

    If you'd like to add advertising on PWBTS.com (the flagship website of this column), banner ads are available for $400 for one year. These ads would appear on each newspage appearing on the newsboard. Cube ads are available for $200 for one year, which would be placed on the main newsboard page.

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

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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)