2001: A Wrestling Odyssey

The Nitro Girls

Chiquita - Naughty-A - Starr - Syren

Who's Running the Asylum?
Mike Sanders has been the WCW Commissioner for a few months, and his reign of terror has been crippling to several of the enemies of the NBT. One of which was former Commissioner Ernest Miller, who has been chasing Sanders relentlessly.

Triple H has run away with awards for Wrestler of the Year for 2000. The WWF practically walked away with most of the WON and PWI awards this year, with WCW basically only getting all of the awards that have "worst" in the name.

We are two weeks away from the WWF Royal Rumble. And at this juncture, only two matches have officially been set for the card. With only four main shows left until the pay-per-view, there are not even half of the Rumble participants announced, and only the WWF Tag Team championship match announced. We can only wonder if how far the WWF have been pulling away in the Monday Night War from WCW that some level of complacency may be setting in, and the ratings have been showing that.

Vince McMahon's XFL is taking shape. With the first official game airing within a month from now, at the start of February, many wonder how this will turn out. It could either become a massive success, or quickly become the next WBF.

New Japan Pro Wrestling crowned a new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Capping off a tournament, Kensuke Sasaki defeated Toshiaka Kawada to win the vacant title. This marks Sasaki's third reign with the championship, and the second time in a row that he has won it at this event (his second title run had started at Wrestling World 2000 and ended when the title was vacated this past October).

Box office hits stay (mostly) unchanged through the holiday season. Despite a huge rise from the Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones crime drama Traffic making a big move into the #2 slot on the list, unsurprisingly Cast Away remains the top grossing film as we move into the new year. There are several big movies in the works for 2001 however, including two high fantasy first parts of books that will release towards the end of the year. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is gearing up to be the hot summer blockbuster this year, and with an actress like Angelina Jolie and a ready-made fan base of video game enthusiasts, how could it possibly go wrong?

Early reviews are in for The Mummy Returns. Most are wondering how long The Rock will stick around wrestling now that he's gotten a taste of Hollywood.

World Championship Wrestling has officially gotten a buyer. As of next week, paperwork is going to be signed to put the company in the hands of Eric Bischoff. His financial backers are not known at this time but we will have to wait and see how fast he can destroy the company this time without Turner money behind him. Eric has already been in touch with Ed Ferrara and Johnny Ace, so expect the taping for Nitro and Thunder as well as this Sunday's WCW Sin pay-per-view to have "Uncle Eric's" fingerprints all over it.

ECW, meanwhile, are still looking for a golden ticket. Paul Heyman has been overheard saying that he feels ECW right now are "too big for small time, but too small to be considered big time" and that he is looking to sell most of all of his share of the company. Gabe Saplosky and Tommy Dreamer have been handling most of the workload as of late as Paul tried to find a new home for the promotion on television, but the writing may be on the wall.

Wrestling video game fans have many choices this holiday season. But fans have made only one decision. With WWF SmackDown 2: Know Your Role, WCW Backstage Assault, and ECW Anarchy Rulz all releasing within the past few months, the WWF showed it's dominance in the market by blowing the other games out of the water in both reviews and sales.

Destiny's Child remains at the top of the music charts for their eighth week in a row. This writer thinks these lovely ladies definitely have something going for them, and could be a powerful unit who stays together forever.

Road Dogg was sent home and his contract quietly ended. This was following a showing during a tag team match on the syndicated shows where he was clearly sloppy and embarrassing in the ring.

Mark Madden's WCW contract, meanwhile, was loudly ended. Madden has been speaking long and loud to anyone who will listen about how he was given the runaround when trying to find out why he was suddenly let go, and most are pointing to his heat with DDP as the reason, especially when Page's best buddy is about to become the owner of the company.

ECW Guilty as Charged is in the books. The show was held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan in front of 2,500 fans. The Sandman won the World title from Steve Corino in a three way Tables, Ladders, Chairs, and Canes match that also involved Justin Credible, but immediately he was attacked and challenged by TV champion Rhino, who won the title within two minutes. Rob Van Dam appeared, without Bill Alfonso at his side, to have a stare down with the new double champion, but Jerry Lynn interrupted, leading to an impromptu new main event between the two longtime rivals. The match, won by RVD, was serviceable, though not as great as their series from 1999. Elsewhere on the card, Tommy Dreamer won his "I Quit" match over CW Anderson, and Doring/Roadkill retained their World Tag Team titles by defeating Hot Commodity. The Unholy Alliance won a three way dance to be named #1 contenders to those very titles, but at this point they may never receive this shot as the company may not be running many more shows. Everyone was surprised to see Van Dam show up, as many had assumed that he was negotiating to get out of ECW as soon as he can.

Steve Corino has made it clear he needs to get paid. Despite setting up an angle to team with Credible following Guilty as Charged, Corino walked out of the building telling anyone who would listen that he won't be back until he gets the money owed to him by the promotion. Word is that he is on his way to WCW sooner rather than later, but the company is currently on a hiring freeze so this may just be him trying to sound important.

Apple unveiled it's new iTunes application at the Mac world Expo in San Francisco. Most experts are thinking this "digital media" nonsense is just a fad that will pass soon.

The WCW championship seems to have disappeared. Eagle eyed viewers noticed that the classic "big gold belt" was replaced by an all gold recreation of the title as of late. Several of these gold casts were given to some of the key roster members last year, and it looks like Scott Steiner has been carrying his around instead of the regular one. Whether this gets noticed and/or punished by the new management is yet to be seen.

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I missed you and your masterful writing so much, old friend.

Alright, alright! My previously reserved posts are all filled in now, which means I will be all set to actually start shows soon. Can't wait to get things going here, and I'm glad to see both some new and some familiar faces popping up to watch!