A welcome to this list of recent additions to the list of websites running AS I SEE IT, which includes:

* The Wrestling News Network at this URL

* 989Wrestling.com atthis URL

* 3 Strand Wrestling atthis URL

* WrestleForeverUK at this URL

* Wrestlingslam.com at this URL


This week's column is, given the season, more or less a Christmas (and Hanukkah) wish list for people in and around wrestling. Ironically enough, as I was writing this "wish list", Wade Keller wrote one also.

Wishes for ECW...

For the wrestlers and fans of ECW: financial stability for the company, a money manager, a national TV deal, and a return to the kinds of storylines and product style that once changed the entire North American wrestling industry...and full back pay.

For Tommy Dreamer: freedom from pain, and a reward for so long being the conscience of a promotion whose owner doesn't have one...such as a road agent job with the WWF.

For Christian York and Joey Matthews: a program with Lance (Simon Diamond) and Johnny Swinger for the ECW titles...and an end to having to moonlight in certain jobs reported by Mark Madden because they aren't being paid by ECW.

Wishes for WCW...

For Bobby Heenan: the send-off from WCW that he deserves, not just to be dismissed like yesterday's garbage.

For Booker T., Jeff Jarrett, and Lance Storm: an owner, a booker and storywriters with the good sense to use their great talent properly (and the longevity in power to actually implement their ideas).

For Bill Goldberg: the chance to be the star he can be, the good sense to avoid the politics of WCW, and the good sense to avoid making ill-advised comments about other talent as well as comments that are used by extremist organizations.

For Scott Hall: two gifts... First, sobriety. Only after that, a chance to show his talent and charisma on a major league level one more time.

For Bret Hart: peace of mind and body...and the ability to let go of the wrongs done to him, both real and imagined; as well as to make right the wrongs done by him.

For Mark Jindrak & Sean O'Haire: the gift to not have anyone in WCW screw with them...and to get some time with Thatcher and Malenko to polish their great natural talent (preferably before working with Billy Gunn sends Les and Dean into early retirements - see above) to make them the talents they can potentially be.

For Lex Luger: see above, plus a tape of Tom "Mega-Man" Magee's greatest matches to see what could have been....yeah, I know....

For Mark Madden: the chance to do some more of the good, opinionated writing he's capable of...rather than just be limited to playing heel stooge on a show that fewer and fewer people are watching.

Wishes for the WWF...

For Mae Young (and for all of us): a long and dignified retirement, far away from any further attempts to depict her as a horny, drunken woman chasing Mark Henry.

For Road Dogg: a reminder that white Southern ex-marines don't make good rappers.

For the (not so) "One" Billy Gunn: six months training with Les Thatcher, and six months with Dean and Joe Malenko. After that, maybe we let him watch a match with Chris Benoit, not work one.

For Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit: In 2001, elevation to the top tier, preferably including some time with the WWF title.

For Mick and Colette Foley: a happy healthy child, and time together away from the grind of professional wrestling....

For Vince McMahon: a list of a year's worth of the weekly ratings the WWF achieved on USA Network, to remind him that his product needs to be over the top to gain the ratings success, and that he shouldn't tone it down to attempt to satisfy the Parents Television Council.

Wishes for others...

For L. Brent Bozell: a copy of the United States Constitution, so that he can see what the Founders of this country intended...freedom of expression and individual choice... so that Mr. Bozell can see that, in a democracy, he is free to comment (truthfully, that is) about entertainment deemed inappropriate by his standards as we are to view entertainment that we find to our liking.

For Reverend D. James Kennedy and Donald Wildmon (of the American Family Association)...the two religious right allies of the "Parents Television Council": a copy of Ahmed Rashid's book "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia" so they can see what a theocracy is really like...when a particular type of religious dogma is imposed upon a country as civil law and prevents people from making choices as simple as what forms of entertainment they can watch.

For talents like Ric Blade, Chris Daniels, Low-Ki, Scoot Andrews, Mike Quackenbush, Chad Collyer, Michael Modest, Robert Thompson, Jardi Frantz, and Steve Bradley: the chance to show their incredible abilities on a larger stage in 2001.

For certain independent promoters: an opportunity, much as was granted Ebenezer Scrooge of myth, a chance to view the results of their unfair treatment of in-ring and office workers, and change their conduct before it becomes too late to do so, and they are forced to deal with the consequences of their actions upon themselves.

For independent wrestlers Jeff Peterson and Nicole Bass: a year free from illness, the continued courage to hang in there, and a return to being in the business they enjoy.

For wrestling fans everywhere: three creatively and fiscally healthy national promotions in the United States with different product styles that can be viewed nationally on TV, on PPV, or at house shows.

And a reminder that, until there are, there are still lots of independent promotions they can go to see the stars of the future...