Some Random Thoughts
When thinking how I was going to start working on this site, I thought about it a lot. I opted for giving my opinion of what I see in the wrestling industry, from its promoters to the magazines. Send your feedback on what you really think.

Before I start, let me salute Jesse "The Body" Ventura who is now the governor of Minnesota. I hope he puts politicians on a head lock.

World Wrestling Federation
Lately the WWF has been full of comic strip action material. Gangrel comes out with his vampire persona. The Brood give other wrestlers a blood bath. The Undertaker looks more and more weird with his living corpse persona. All these theatrics were acceptable for Slayer's Live Undead album, not for wrestling.

The best thing that has happened to the WWF is Mankind winning the heavyweight title, with a little help from former two-time title holder Stone Cold Steve Austin. Unfortunately at the Royal Rumble Mankind lost the title to Rocky on an "I quit" match so Mankind is out of the WWF. The next day Rocky defended the title against HHH on the same kind of match. The hired goons from the Corporation came out to interfere on the match. Kane was about to choke slam Chyna. HHH gave up to save her just to get hit in crotch by Chyna afterwards. She sold out to the Corporation. In the less than 48 hours, both Mankind and HHH are no longer part of the WWF (commercial gimmick). If they are out, what is the next stop WCW or ECW?

Sable is a fairly good performer. Why is she the woman's title holder? Why doesn't she defend such title? Either Luna or Chyna should be given a chance to mop the floor with Sable head. If Luna is not given a chance for whatever cheap excuse, Chyna should get a shot at the title. Either one of these two can beat WWF male wrestlers.

Did anyone hear of a tournament for the Hardcore Title? One day Vie McMahon brings a destroyed belt and gives it to Mankind. I thought that it was a joke on Mankind. Later that week or month, he was on the ring defending his title, which he lost to the Big Boss Man. Big Boss Man later lost it to the Road Dogg. Surprisingly Road Dogg has had some very good fights to defend this title. He even won a hardcore tag team bout with Al Snow as his partner on RAW (01.25.99). What's next in the WWF, a hardcore tag team championship tournament? It smells like the introduction of ECW nationwide done by the WWF about two years ago has paid off. Both the WWF and WCW have adopted more drastic measures to entertain customers.

As for the tag team championship is concerned, Owen Hart and Jeff Jarrett won the titles from the Big Boss Man and Shamrock. Personally I don't care much for either one of the champions, but I know they are good wrestlers. For a change the belts look good on a better team. Now if we could know who the Blue Blazer is, things could be better.

Aside from selling out venues, WWF has released a third album through Edel records. There is even a heavy metal collection with Steve Austin on the cover, entitled Stone Cold Hits.
 

World Champion Championship
I was happy that I paid for the Starcade pay-per-view. Kevin Nash beat Bill Goldberg for the heavyweight title, with a little help of his buddy Scott Hall. It was about time someone would beat Goldberg. Then very next day Kevin Nash gave away up a three year road for the WCW championship. Why did he give it away to Hulk Hogan?

By the way what did WCW do to the tag champions? Sting and the Giant were the tag champions. They quarreled and fought against each other for both belts. Sting won both belts and the very next day handed one to Kevin Nash. Later on, Rick Steiner and Kaos had the titles. I can't remember whom they won the belts from. Does anyone care? Now WCW is going to have tournament for the belts, because the last title holders couldn't defend them due to Rick's shoulder injury.

Why are the Nitro Girls in wrestling? As I read in a magazine, nobody knows and nobody actually cares. I think that they are a good excuse to waste time on a such a long show as Monday Night Nitro. The three-hour show can be a bit tiresome. That is why I tape the re-run. I usually watch it through out the week, normally Tuesday and Wednesday, the days without wrestling.

When a wrestler ends up out of the WWF, he jumps to WCW. When he leaves WCW, he goes to the WWF. When he is not accepted in either, he ends up in ECW. What's the introduction for? Two great stars the British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart are not given the expose that they were used to, or actually the expose that we are used to. Because Bret Hart quit the WWF and went to WCW, his brothers-in-law followed. They work for WCW but, if we see them, they are mid-cards. Why doesn't WCW either let them go elsewhere or give them the recognition that they deserve?
 

Extreme Championship Wrestling
I am glad that ECW is back in NYC on the MSG Network. From late August to January we had no ECW after channel 31 dropped ECW changing its format to become PAX TV. At least the cable company was kind enough to offer the PPV events. I thought the quality of November to Remember 98 was very good as Wrestlemania III, no nonsense. Unfortunately, since I didn't know what had happened for almost three months, I missed part of the fun.

Speaking of PPV events, Taz is the new ECW champion, but I believe that Shane Douglas is more charismatic. Douglas proved that he was a great champion when he had a return bout for the title on 01.16.99. Even though he lost the fight, he got an ovation from the audience at the ECW Arena after being applauded by Taz himself.

The WWF put out a handful of albums distributed by Sony in the early 80's with the wrestlers singing. WCW put out an album of Hulk Hogan in the early 90's. These albums just mentioned are no longer in print. The WWF has recently put out three albums distributed by Koch International. The first one was recorded by real metal bands and the wrestlers, which had fair sales. The other two only have entrance themes, which have sold over half a million copies domestically. All these releases do not compare to the quality of ECW's Extreme Music, which is simply outstanding. Surprisingly sales have not been very good with the ECW album. If you like ECW, support the release of this album.
 

Ultimate Fighting Championship
Ultimate Fighting Championship is not wrestling. It is usually more exiting and brutal than extreme wrestling locked in of course in the octagon. Please rent any UFC tape. Watch how Dan "the Beast" Savern has won his titles. Watch how Ken Shamrock has won his titles and how his younger brother Frank is one of UFC's best. UFC was banned from New York State some years ago and the cable companies do not even list their PPV events. The only way to follow all this excitement has been to rent or buy their tapes.
 

Lucha Libre
Wrestling in Mexico and most of Latin America is called Lucha Libre which loosely means free fight. It is available on Galavision. Some of the organizations are CMLL (Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre), EMLL (Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre) and Triple A. Most wrestlers wear flashy body suits and masks, which represents their tradition. Mexican wrestling is very different from what is performed here in the States. Dangerous moves and acrobatics are very important part of their style. This style is commonly referred to as high flying. Some of their style has influenced WCW. Their fights are divided in three bouts, which I don't understand. If one wrestler beats the crap out of another on a bout, the one standing one should be the winner instead of fighting two more bouts with the loser. No offense is intended to any Mexican promotion and its wrestlers.
 

Other Promotions
I used to watch wrestling from Puerto Rico. Those wrestlers really gave me a thrill of hardcore wrestling in the early 1980s. It is a pity that I can't remember the name of the promotion or of any of the wrestlers. Back then there was a small promotion named Global Wrestling Alliance or GWA for short. Of course there was also GLOW or Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. I found a tribute site. It was practically a bad joke, but I was glued to the TV set every Saturday morning. I wonder what happened to these promotions.

Surfing around I found some sites, which I have included on the links. I wish that we could see some of this action in venues in NYC or at least have access to it on TV. I would be happy if these promotions had programs on TV that gave us a better idea of what their competition is like. If promoters wanted to capitalize on wrestling, they would have NWA television programming uniting all the divisions and running it probably on Saturday afternoons or evenings nationwide.