Hi, you may know me from some of my previous works (which can be found somewhere on this site) and from my posts at Wienerville as Tha Puerto Rican. But today, I'll put that all away for a moment as I talk about one of the sites that turned me into a smark and no longer an impressionable mark.

Ah, 2000. Has it been two years since January of 2000? Yes it has, but the point is that we lived in a different world at that time. Clinton was president. George Bush Jr. was still viewed as a retard (which he is IMO.) Pop music (ugh) ruled the airwaves. Elian Gonzalez was the top story. And a 13-year-old Queens boy was a mark watching the torture that was WCW and the relief that was the WWF.

Yes, I knew wrestling was fake. What I didn't know was that pro wrestling was actually a business filled with scandals, surprises, and sadness. I had the Internet for about a year and did my occasional wrestling searches on Yahoo.com. I also read WOW magazine and in January of that year, there was an advertisement for a popular wrestling site called Wrestleline.com. Being that I would go on any site that had wrestling in it, I checked it out. And when I did, I became hooked. This site was above any other site I ever went on. (It was apart of CBS Sportsline but we'll ignore that)

On that site, I learned things about the sport I loved that I never knew before. I learned that Hulk Hogan and Shawn Michaels were backstage politicians. I learned of the clique and of Montreal. I learned of phantom title changes. I learned that I was a smark. I learned what job meant. I learned workrate, blade, and shoot. I learned that Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Eddie Gurerro, and Ric Flair were gods among wrestlers. I learned a lot of things and loved all I read but what I looked most forward too was to the Monday Night Recaps by CRZ and the pay-per-view retro reports by Scott Keith.

I liked Scott Keith but loved CRZ. His Monday Nitro and RAW and Smackdown! Reports were filled with sarcasm, criticism, and comedy. His witty nicknames and opinions blended into the reports along with play-by-play and time counts were brilliant and different from what other internet writers T.V. reports. I even went back to his 1999 reports and laughed as he criticized WCW with comedy. His WWF reports of 2000 were hilarious. I still remember the nicknames: La Roca, If Ya Smellllllll. Treble H, Stephanie Ono, That Slut Chyna, Skippy, Weelllllllll, Ghostrider, Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'.com, Three fourths of the Hollywood Squares, and Mr. Party Time.

His year-end quotes had me laughing each sentence and it got even better when I found out he had his own site at Slash Wrestling.com. I loved (and still do) reading other people (just like me! J) opinions on the current wrestling product and it felt great that CRZ allowed basically anyone to write in on their opinions of the wrestling scene allowing even me to write in. To tell you the truth, I felt honored that I got an email from CRZ several times as I, a kid from New York, got an email from someone known and respected in our little alternative universe that is wrestling. When CRZ left Wrestleline in June 2001, I was sad and worried that I would never read his reports again, but I was relieved that he would continue them at Slash. I became hooked at Slash reading it everyday and it became one of my favorite daily sites along with Rage Against The Machine.com, WWE.com, 411wrestling.com, TheSmarks.com, and the forums. It is now 2002, three years since Slash Wrestling was born. George Bush Jr. is president (stupid decision but I'll save that for a political site), we narrowly escaped total destruction after September 11th, Pop music is dying (thank GOD!) in favor of hip-hop and R&B, Rap-Metal is the newest trends, and wrestling itself is in a slump. I think it sucks that CRZ abandoned the witty nicknames for weights but that is okay because atleast he tries to be unbias unlike Scott Keith who criticizes EVERYTHING the WWE does and has become unfunny these past few months. (I still read his reports though weird huh?) No matter how bad or good the WWE becomes I'll always thank CRZ and Scott Keith for getting me hooked into the inside of professional wrestling.

Thank you Christopher Robin Zimmerman. Thank you Scott Keith. Thank you for hooking me into wrestling and making me a smark which I love being.

HAPPY THIRD ANIVERSARY SLASH WRESTLING.COM! :)