My Wrestling Year

Hello, and welcome to the latest instalment of The Two Sheds Rreview. This will be the last piece from me for a couple of weeks. I know this will be disappointing to the seven people who are fans of mine, but hey, I need a break! Next Wednesday, I'm off to Bruges in Belgium for a few days. I'm really looking forward to tis short break, I won't be watching any wrestling, but hopefully I'll be able to see the England/Italy game on some Belgian TV channel.

This week's piece will be a little different. Many of you writers will probably be doing a year end review in about six weeks, but as it was my 29th birthday last Wednesday (thanks to those who sent best wishes to me), I thought I would take a look back at the past year, between my 28th and 29th birthdays. Here goes...
 

The 1999 Survivor Series saw two major things - Austin getting "run over" and needing vital neck surgery, and The Big Show becoming WWF champion, this joining the ranks of the few that have held both the WWF & WCW(NWA) titles. Thankfully, Austin is nearly back to his best, but The Big Show? It's amazing that someone who reached the top has fallen to the bottom so quickly.

We saw the McMahon-Helmsley era, and the reformation of DX. Princess Stephanie's whiny, shrill voice praising Triple H was really starting to get on my nerves.

The Olympic Hero, Kurt Angle, finally made it onto television, defeating the man who bugs (literaly) people, Shawn Stasiak. Kurt would later go onto in the European, Intercontinental and WWF title within ten months. Many have applauded him for being the first to do this, but didn't Kevin Nash win tag-team, IC and WWF gold in his first year as well?

The Kat became the first woman to reveal her puppies willingly on WWF television. However, she wasn't the first - British fans remember Jackie a couple of years back, don't they?

Bill Goldberg basically ended Bret Hart's career by kicking him in the head. My opinion of Goldberg went downhill afterwards, but my opinion of Bret went up after reading his retirement statement. If only other wrestlers had hung their boots up when their bodies started to give.

With my newfound ability to e-mail, I joined an e-fed (hi to Dave and Steve Green out there, e-mail me if you see this.) This was a damn good game that was ruined by the player's lack of imagination, and the fact that most of them were 14. A few (Chris Lee, Calum Hirtle and Basil Richards, again, e-mail me if you see this!), had some great ideas. The game sadly closed down, just as my man Austin was about to get a title shot! People from the game suggested that because I had some great ideas, I should start my own e-fed. The idea appealed to me at first, but then I changed my mind.

Vince Russo proved that, despite rumours to the contrary, he is not God, and couldn't turn WCW's fortunes around in six days. Having been replaced and then reinstated, Russo did succeed in doing something that I am very pleased with - getting Hulk Hogan off my television. Good work, Vince.

Yours truly, having written for years, and having written about wrestling since late-98, was finally published by a wrestling fanzine. My ass was later fired by a jealous editor when I told him I had been asked to write for an e-mail newsletter. This is a long story, so I won't go into it now.

I started taking more of an interest when Bravo began to show recent ECW shows. I earned a respect for the likes of The Sandman, Justin Credible, and in particular, Rob Van Dam. Bravo's contract to show ECW runs out early next year. If they don't renew, then I'll get Paul Heyman to send Rhino and the boys around.

The nWo reformed agan, but it didn't have the clout of four years ago.

Yours truly proved that he is a damn good Playstation wrestler by becoming champion on the WWF Smackdown and WCW Mayhem games. This proves one thing to me - these games are too easy. I look forward to Smackdown 2 in December.

Chyna became the first female IC champion. Not long afterwards, Madusa became the first female Cruiserweight champion. Keeping up with the Jones, perhaps?

Wrestlemania, although applauded by many, was not really my favourite Wrestlemania. There was only one one-on-one match on the entire card, and that was between The Kat and Terri. It seemed like they were trying to put everyone on the roster into the event, and although it had some good points, it was a bit disappointing.

WCW had umpteen championship changes this year, including David Arquette. I said at the time this was a big mistake. If you are going to let an actor become champion, at least get one with an athletic background, someone like Jackie Chan or Jean-Claude Van Damme.

I saw perfection, and it was the Van Daminator.

Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddie Guerrero jumped from the sinking boat that is WCW to the luxury cruise liner that is the WWF. While Benoit and Guerrero have had great success, Ssaturn and Malenko have found it tough going. I really hope that they get something going soon. Perhaps re-forming The Radicals, as a sort of WWF version of The Four Horseman, is just what they need.

On a related subject, Kevin Sullivan showed that he couldn't run an orgy in a brothel by running WCW further into the ground.

The Undertaker returned as the American Bad Ass. Having seen this new incarnation in action, I was not really impressed. But was it conincidence that he started using his top rope walk again just a couple of weeks after I wrote about how we don't see it any more?

Yours truly got a copy of the Zeus e-fed program (thanks Jordan) and began tinkering with his own fed, casting myself in the Vince McMahon role. At the moment, the United Kingdom Wrestling Alliance is still going. Tazz is my world champion, The Undertaker my British champion, and The Hardys have just regained the tag-titles from the Dark Angels, Vampiro and Gangrel.

Yokozuna, aka Rodney Anoai, died in a hotel room in Liverpool. One question about his death must be answered - if Yoko wasn't considered fit enough to wrestle in America, why the hell was he considered fit enough to wrestle in Britain?

The lawsuit surrounding Owen Hart's tragic death was settled. It's a shame to see what these events have done to this fine wrestling family.

Bravo started to show WCW Nitro, and I began to watch WCW regularly again. I can only name a few wrestlers I enjoy watching on Nitro - Vampiro, Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, and perhaps Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner and Crowbar.Davey Boy Smith's life went from bad to worse. As a long-time fan of this British Bulldog, I really hope he gets his life  back in order really soon. Same goes for Scott Hall.

And speaking of British wrestler, William (formerly Steven) Regal returned, looking fitter, better, with a new gimmick. I a fast becoming a fan.

Triple H and The Rock both showed that they could carry the burden while Austin was on the shelf, and could stay the pace even when Austin returned. Rikishi was named as the man who ran down Austin, surprising everyone. The best thing he did was kicking the asses of Too Fools.

ECW stalwarts Raven and Tazz made their way to McMahon-land. They've tinkered with Tazz's gimmick too much, although he did throw a couple of suplexes recently. The jury is still out on Raven.

Chyna posed nude for Playboy. So?

Vince McMahon opens negotiations to buy WCW, thereby causing many WCW employees to invest in large amounts of toilet paper. My view? Well. to be honest, I don't really have one at the moment. I'd rather wait and see.

Both Mick Foley and The Rock released their life stories. I would have to say that by far, Foley's book was much better. After all, he has wrestled for countless companies all over the world. The Rock has only really wrestled for the WWF (yes, I do know he wrestled for the USWA, but they were only really a feeder outfit then.)

There is much more that I could write about, but sadly, my limited TV e-mail system only allows me to write documents of 1600 words in length. Perhaps I will follow this up with a similar article when I get back from Belgium.

Before I go, I'd like to thank everyone who has given me feedback on my work in the past year, both good and bad. And to all you Yanks - have a happy Thanksgiving. See you after the Survivor Series.