In February 2007 I joined Inside Pulse as a writer for the TV section. Four years and countless posts later, it’s time for me to hang up my keyboard and bid farewell.
Four years is a long time, but it doesn’t feel like it. A lot of things can happen in this time frame, and both the TV and wrestling scenes are very different today from what they were like four years ago. Even the stuff I wrote about changed. My first duty on the wrestling section was to cover WWE’s web shows – The Dirt Sheet, Santino’s Casa, Word Up and WTF – none of those web shows are even on now, but at least I got to witness closely the rise of John Morrison and the Miz from being “the greatest tag team of the 21st century” and hosts of WWE’s best web show ever to the current and future WWE champions.
Let’s talk briefly about TV. I reviewed several shows during my stint on the TV section. My first ever column was an episode review of Studio 60 on the Sunset strip, an underrated masterpiece by the genius Aaron Sorkin. That show is no longer on the air, and the same goes for all the other shows I reviewed regularly, including veterans like LOST and ER.
As for wrestling, while many like to complain that it’s been stuck in a rut, the situation is anything but the same as it was four years ago. It’s easy to look at the top guys like John Cena, Triple H, Randy Orton and Edge and say that nothing has changed, but a lot has changed. I’m writing this on Royal Rumble weekend, so I’ll use this event as an example. 26 of the wrestlers who appeared on the 2007 Royal Rumble event are no longer with WWE. Sadly, a few of them have died since then (Including the one who must not be named), but the majority were simply future endeavored, many of them migrating south to Orlando. 24 of the confirmed participants in this year’s Rumble match were not with the company four years ago. And how about the four participants in this year’s event’s title matches? Four years ago, The Miz was a joke who was not considered by many a real wrestler, let alone a future WWE champion and one of the best heels in the company. Four years ago Dolph Ziggler was in OVW, being repackaged after the Spirit Squad fiasco. Four years ago Edge and Randy Orton were hated heels who teamed together as Rated RKO, going mostly after DX (Including the now retired Shawn Michaels).
And where were guys like CM Punk, John Morrison, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan and Alberto Del Rio four years ago? Some of them were not even regulars on WWE TV back then, and they are already established main eventers and others are on the verge of reaching this status.
Over on TNA, let’s look at who fought for their championship recently. Four years ago, Mr. Anderson was a WWE midcarder, Jeff Hardy was tagging with his brother Matt as they fought MNM on WWE TV, RVD was part of the ECW originals on WWE TV and Matt Morgan was working Japan and the indi circuit, after being released from WWE. So actually, in TNA everything stayed the same – take former WWE workers and turn them into main eventers. (It wouldn’t be a real column without poking some fun at TNA’s expense, would it?)
But all jokes aside, I kept on writing regular columns and hosting pre-PPV roundtables for two reasons – I love wrestling and I love writing about wrestling. I especially love this time of the year, the RumbleMania period, and it’s even sadder for me to leave just when it’s being kicked off. Sure, there are things that I don’t like about in WWE and TNA (The little I saw from ROH was very good) but as whole, I love this form of entertainment. Two years ago I fulfilled a lifelong dream as I traveled to Wrestlemania 25. I still watch WWE regularly and whenever I travel to Europe or the US I try to catch a wrestling show. Because this is the one thing that brings us all – the writers and readers of this site – together, we all love wrestling.
I want to thank the editors at Inside Pulse for giving me the opportunity to do what I love. I want to thank my fellow writers here the Pulse and most of all I want to thank you, the readers, because what would be the point of writing if no one is reading? I might still show up from time to time, perhaps in some of the roundtables or commenting on news items and columns, but no longer as staff member for Inside Pulse. Good bye.
