God It Took Me Forever!

While Tony made his wish list for 08... I will look back ever so briefly on 07. It may have been the worst year for Pro-Wrestling EVER. I mean that quite literally. The industry hit its lowest this year inside and outside the ring.

Now every year you have all these websites (ones like ours but more nerdy) coming out with their best of and this that and the other. I honestly cannot think of one memorable match, one memorable angle or one memorable worker that stands out to me as the So and So of the year. Wrestling on the whole has been on the down swing and I like Tony used to (don't know if you still do buddy.) feel like the best wrestling in on the indy scene. Is it cause I work there? Probably. Much like everything else you always think that what you are doing is better than everything else. Heck I thought Danny and Zack was the best radio show ever. But I just see so much more creativity on the indys. People more able to push the envelope and more willing to do so. While you're hard pressed to find more then 10 suplexes on any given WWE show you can go to an RoH show if that's your thing and see 100 different variations in one match. Now let's be real indy wrestling ain't all that. But neither is WWE and GASP nor is TNA. Although I prefer the later to most everything else.

But what was the one thing that everyone will remember from 2007? Chris Benoit. Now anyone who has just stumbled across this blog may know about wrestling and may know that respect is a big thing. We here at steel cage radio while we may practice that in all of our own various trips "behind the curtain" don't really give a fuck about it when we're blogging, or waxing philosophical on the mics as we used to. But I'm not gonna make any jokes. I will show restraint. Because I'd like to be taken at least minorly serious for a bit.

The Benoit thing may have been the worst thing to EVER happen to the industry. Wrestling was down as is. In ring product suffering, angles stale, workers shitty at best... and then this comes along and all the critiques of the biz can pick up their burning torches and pitchforks and head towards the gigantic billionaire dollar monster that is Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Chris made out to be the ultimate family man was now and murderer and GOD DAMNIT wrestling made him do it. Feuding with MVP may have that result for a lot of people so be careful Matt Hardy. It brought the industry down SOOOOOOOOO low. It was thought that it may never recover.

It has. A little. But alot of fans were lost and a lot of heat was unnecessarily lumped on. No doubt the industry is tough. But Chris is a big boy and makes er made big boy decisions. He could have invested better and not needed to put his body through that schedule. While I realize both the pills et al and the industry can be addictive plenty of people have made it out a live. Sure plenty more have died but at what point does the industry stop (or start) being culpable and people are held up to higher standards? I certainly do not have that answer. I don't think wrestling is a killer. I've been involved on and off for about 10 years and I've never killed anyone. Wrestling did cause me to commit a felony but thats only cause I absolutely crushed a parked car with the ring truck once and really did not feel like facing the consequences. I only mention this cause: a. it was parked and b. i'm relatively sure the statute of limitations is up on that accident. If not I'm pretty boned. Just like the wrestling business was in 2007.

See that segue there. As for 08 what I'd like to see:

1. TNA getting more exposure. You need to give it a chance New Blood. Ya really do. The announcers suck and the six sided ring is still GAAAAAAAAAAAAY but the product is fun. It has great wrestling. Quirky stupid little storylines. Nice deep long running storylines. And it has some great personalities. Something lacking from WWE.

2. I much like Tony would like a reason to watch WWE. I'm going to watch the Rumble because I love the Rumble... But I don't know what else. Routinely I have conflicts on my DVR and RAW always loses the battle. ECW has been dropped from the DVR rotation and SmackDown never made it. I just don't enjoy the product any more. I'm sorry but I don't need to see how Ric Flair is gonna cheat death this week. And although Jeff Hardy has shown he's more than just a stunt man. I've seen EVERY ONE OF HIS MATCHES before. They don't change all that much.

3. A push for Santino Marella... off a ledge. What the fuck do you guys see in this dude?

4. The establishment of a serious tag division in WWE. Tag team wrestling is amazing... why is it so neglected by the E?

5. WWE loosening up on their list of banned moves which I believe they are.

and finally...

6. A new WWE developmental territory in Connecticut... I know just the place. I'll See See ya.

-Hack