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Tim Livingston

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BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Hello to all you guys. My name is Tim, and I'm from the bay area up her in Sonoma, CA. I did write for the now defunct www.gwpwrestling.com. I did the SmackDown! reviews. I've watched wrestling since I was four. That was when I saw Hogan vs. Andre at WM 3 for the first time. I was fucking hooked. I always wanted to stay up late and watch the WWF Programming on Mondays, but, of course, I had school the next morning, so I couldn't.

When I was five, I still watched wrestling, but these guys were different. They were from a company called WCW. They had this guy named Sting, who when I saw him hit that splash, I marked out like a little school boy. From then on...I was hooked.

Of course, I look back and remember Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter going at it when the Gulf War happened. I remember after Sting won the World Title, that he faced this big guy named Big Van Vader, and he had that creepy mask that made him look like a bull elephant.

All these images of my wrestling experiences as a kid, they got me into the sport. Now at 18, 14 years since I started watching wrestling...I've seen the best (Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Sting, Hulk Hogan), the worst (too many to mention), the strange (The Black Scorpion angle, Naked Mideon), the unique (The Undertaker, The Great Muta, Rob Van Dam), and some stuff that made my head spin, (the nWo, the InVasion, almost everything in ECW). All in all, in these last fourteen years, I've been able to look forward to almost everyday by being able to watch the strange world of wrestling unfold in front of me...

But HE wanted too much...

Vince, put simply, after his father's death...wanted way too much for his own good. Of course, he started Hulkamania, blah blah blah, turned wrestling into a PPV-driven sport with weekly TV shows, and made it mainstream...but Vince...hindsight being 20/20 and all...look at was has happend since I started watching.

Hogan is still wrestling, because Vince wants him to.

He brought back the nWo, just because they were good a few years back.

He still thinks the WWE style is better than all, which in reality, to the people who know of different styles, is not the case.

He thinks that 6'6" 300 lbs. is better than anybody under 6'2" and 250 lbs. Look at your champion right now...look who is the #1 contender at SS, and look at who is gunning for the championship...but just remember that Angle is only there for heat.

He still thinks that working a little stiff now-a-days is not good, which in reality, it probably isn't, but then again, he thought that The GobbleyGooker and Terry F'N Taylor as the fucking Red Rooster were good ideas.

He thinks that what happens outside the ring should dictate what happens inside the ring, when idealy, it should be the opposite.

And he still lets family members have all the hierarchy positions.

He bought out WCW...he made ECW bankrupt...he took over the pro wrestling industry. Vince McMahon is king of the hill...

But if you watch closely...an old foe, 13 years since it's apparent disappearance, has reappeared as a promotion on the rise...

Vince, I hope you know what you are doing. Holding down people just because your "Bigger Than Life" appeal is your thing doesn't mean that they can't wrestle. If you haven't noticed, (I don't care if it was Philly) Rob Van Dam is your most over face on RAW. Brock Lesnar...he's not Goldberg...he's not Hogan...he's not anybody you want him to be. MAYBE if you let BROCK LESNAR be...hmmmmmmmm, BROCK LESNAR, and let him be the wrestler that he was in OVW, MAYBE, JUST maybe, he could be the man that takes the WWE into the next millenium. Vince, just because he's big doesn't mean he's all power. Ever see his Shooting Star Press? I have...and I think Billy Kidman needs to find a new finisher pretty soon.

Vince, you need to realize that there are people other than The Kliq, other than your family, other than Gerwitz, other than all those people who influence your decisions backstage.

In the interest of fairness, you should listen to the fans...ALL the fans, "marks" and "smarks" alike. Vince, the man whose website this commentary is going on...well, he's a lot smarter (to me) than some of the people who work under your nose.

CRZ is one of the best writers on the internet. He's unbiased, he knows his shit, and he knows that it doesn't take a great story line to put on a great match.

CRZ, you've had a local boy reading your shit since the Wrestleline days. Been a reader ever since. I'm glad that you have been able to keep such a simple and yet kick-ass site going for three years. Thank you for giving me the honor to chime in on what wrestling means to me. I really hope that this site goes for THIRTY more years, and that Vince hasn't destroyed the product too much.

But, maybe I'm wrong...

Maybe Vince knows what he is doing. Maybe Vince is doing the slow build for a lot of guys...

Vince, just know that guys like CRZ, myself, and others, who know that wrestling can be one of the coolest things to watch on TV, still want you to succeed. We just hope that you make some right decisions.

Like this column, Vince, it's better late than never...

Tim Livingston
freelance

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