Geez, I feel a bit egomaniacal writing this retrospective on wrestling and me, but the Z-Man did ask me (among others), so here goes nothing...

I first discovered CRZ sometime in the spring of 1999 when I happened upon Wrestleline after a Yahoo! search for "pro wrestling news" gave me that particular hyperlink. I originally went to WL in search of insider scoop and whatnot, but quickly found myself reading CRZ's recaps and Thumb to the Mind's Eye. I found that I really enjoyed his recaps because (like the man says) if I didn't get to see the show, or see all of the show, reading his recaps seemed like the next best thing. And believe me I always missed some parts of the shows because being a Special Ed teacher (at that time) and trying to stay awake until 11:10 EST was a challenge. The detail was awesome and the jokes were funny. I followed the link and the bottom to [slash]wrestling where I found that he had his own site complete with -surprise-his recaps and other people's opinions. I especially loved that [slash] had no ads. Doubleclick and Adcontroler are not my friends.

Around the same time, someone (I can't remember who) over on WL plugged pwtorchdotcom. I began reading the Torch, WL and [slash] daily. After a while, I began to send PPV feedback to the Torch. They actually published a few of my thoughts. Next, I sent in a guest editorial on Triple H. They published it. I found that I actually enjoyed writing down my thoughts about wrestling (okay, I'll admit it-and seeing them published). At the same time, I read CRZ's "Join the Crew" letter and got to thinking: Why send my thoughts to Keller and hope he publishes them, if the Z-Man is offering a free and unedited forum. Plus, I appreciated the fact that Z actually responds to e-mails (sometimes ;-) ). So after a SmackDown! visit in Baltimore and an e-mail where I told CRZ I was too busy "drinking beers and marking out" to give a detailed report, this column was born.

I started watching wrestling with my grandfather way back when Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson were the tag team champs, have been watching wrestling off and on for years and still enjoy it, although only having one promotion to write complain about certainly makes writing a regular opinion column a lot more challenging. Let's face it WCW and its existence, failing or otherwise, gave all of us a lot to talk about. Today, I still visit [slash] and the Torch daily, 411 when Hyatte has something new up and WL about three times a week (although I admit to only reading WL so that I have a clear understanding of why exactly everyone is bitching about Scott Keith at any current moment). The majority of the "free net time" is spent here and on the EZBoard where Y-Pac hounds me for not posting enough.

Looking back over the past 8 months or so of writing "...And Marking Out" I can honestly say that I don't know what to think. The column still seems to be in flux to me, much like the overall Professional Wrestling landscape in general. The column has gone through many transformations as I have attempted to find its identity; it started as a single subject opinion piece, changed to a blatant rip-off of CNNSI's Peter King's 10 Things... and has recently returned to its original state after the demise of WCW. I am most proud of two columns in particular: The Great Triple H Debate and Raw meets X-Men. I feel that these columns were more concentrated and focused, unlike some of my more random offerings which seemed to occur when WCW was still in operation, albeit barely. Anyone noticing a pattern here?

If I could choose two moments where I really put my foot in my mouth one would be an e-mail reply I sent to a reader where I swore that Kurt Angle was going to turn face (I had even written a column where I outlined how it could happen) and the other would be my tone in my first few columns where, looking back, I come off as rather obnoxious. That honestly was not my intent. I won't point those out with hyperlinks, go find 'em yourself if you must. * I've enjoyed my brief run here on [slash] and hope to continue writing for CRZ for the foreseeable future.

Thanks again to the Z-Man for being kind enough to post the thoughts and rants of ANYONE who cared to write and e-mail him. And thanks to you fellow fans for reading "...And Marking Out" and especially to those of you who take time to give feedback. I really appreciate it.

And, oh yeah: Happy Anniversary Slash!! See ya 'round next year.

Drop