AS I SEE IT 12/31: A year ends

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

In 2007, PWBTS.com had 3,942,687 page views (as of 5:54 am December 31), with readers from 97 nations and territories including (in order of visitor frequency): United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, France, Mexico, Italy, Netherlands, Argentina, Belgium, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Germany, Sweden, Portugal, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Spain, Denmark, South Africa, Peru, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Switzerland, Korea, Philippines, Austria, Finland, Romania, Chile, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Taiwan, Brazil, China Czech Republic, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Greece, Colombia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Thailand, Guatemala, Pakistan, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Indonesia, Lebanon, Estonia, Morocco, Costa Rica, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Panama, Croatia, Kuwait, Ghana, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Puerto Rico, Liechtenstein, Ukraine, Guyana, Albania, Nicaragua, Syria, Iceland, Slovenia, Latvia, Fiji, Dominica, Burundi, Ecuador, Oman, Tonga, Nepal, Mauritius, Maldives, Ivory Coast, Bermuda, Benin, Belize, Bahamas, Albania, Bolivia, Venezuela, Algeria, Iraq, Uruguay, and South Korea .

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 35,400,000 page views during its 11 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, SHIMMER, Derby City Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Combat Zone Wrestling, and its fansite CZWfans.com, Jersey All Pro Wrestling, Impact Zone Wrestling (Arizona), NWA Virginia, NWA East/AWC, Chaotic Wrestling (Connecticut), Blue Water Championship Wrestling (Michigan), IWA Mid-South Wrestling, Heartland Wrestling Association, Impact Wrestling Federation, Ring Wars Carolina, Independent Wrestling Revolution (Detroit), Blackball'd Wrestling Organization, Empire Wrestling Federation

  • Websites covering regional wrestling such as Socaluncensored.com, Oklafan.com, and Michigan Independent Wrestling Central...

  • 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...

    There is also an anti-thanks that goes out to the Pro-Wrestling.com website that has been stealing PWBTS.com's news content, as well as puro websites Puroresu Power and Strong Style Spirit (aka PuroresuFan.com), and others; apparently using something called an automated PHP-based script that is capable of electronically 'scraping' content off sites.

    They have not responded to e-mails telling them to stop this activity, nor to repeated demands by Puroresu Power.com. So...if you are a reader of my PWBTS.com website, Strong Style Spirit, or Puroresu Power, and would like to offer your comments to this site for what they're doing, contact them at (877) 746-4866. This is the customer service number of the DVD/tape site they run, Wrestlingemporium.com. We'll see if that helps.

    In 2007, AS I SEE IT and PWBTS have discussed various issues concerning independent wrestling, as well as puroresu, lucha, and WWE, including such subjects as:

  • Sadly, we had to discuss the double murder-suicide, that resulted in the deaths of Chris Benoit, Nancy Benoit, and Daniel Benoit; with all the press coverage the story received over all too many weeks

  • The efforts of independent promotions to try and do something about the drug use of their workers; then, much later, WWE efforts to do the same

  • The 15th and largely unobserved anniversary of ECW's first show

  • The various escapades of TNA, its blatant spreading of corporate manure, its Russorific booking, its troll...er, fans; poor treatment of Alan Wojcik, the dismissal of critical fans at the live shows in Orlando by getting into "seeing the black helicopters coming paranoia" mode, claiming critical fans they are no more than "smart marks trying to take over the show".and of course, the hiring of felon Adam "Pacman" Jones (not to mention the deliberately false booking of him in TWo separate PPVs as a wrestler).

  • Government investigations into steroid use, and purchases of growth-enhancing drugs by well-known wrestlers from Internet pharmacies, including such substances as horse steroids and insulin.

  • The interesting world of Tijuana, its respect for lucha libre, and its open sales of sex and drugs

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

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

  • The passing of Scott "Bam Bam" Bigelow, Mike Awesome, Bad News (Brown) Allen Coage, Alejandro Cruz (Black Shadow), Ernie "The Cat" Ladd, Arnold Skaaland, Angel Azteca, Abe Coleman, Mephisto Lephanto, Sonny Myers, Sandy Barr, Sensational Sherri Martel, Shane "Biff Wellington" Bower, Nancy Duas Sullivan Benoit, Daniel Benoit, Boogie Woogie Brown, Chris Benoit, John Kronus, Ronnie P. Gossett III, Killer Tor Kamata, Karl Gotch, Bronko Lubich, Brian Adams, The Missing Link (Byron "Dewey" Robertson), Karloff Lagarde, Enrique Torres, Isak Rain, The Fabulous Moolah (Lillian Ellision), Juan Chavarria Galica (El Gran Markus), Dave Sheldon, "Mister" Gillis, Flash Barker, Cowboy Lang, Cocoa Samoa, Bob Luce, Ray Stern , Black Shadow, Devil Bhudakhan, Eugene Stezycki, Scotty Williams, Frank Butcher, Frank Fozo, Billy Darnell, Sean Evans, and Tammie Hamaoui.

    In 2008, 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 ELEVENTH annual AS I SEE IT Year-End awards.

    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)