Let me take you back, fans...

In 1997 OUR so-called SPORT existed as a weekly email sheet, back when such things were in vogue. Our format was mostly full-length recaps of the shows at the time: WWF RAW and War Zone, ECW Hardcore TV (pre-TNN), and those abominable three hour WWF Monday Nitros. General laziness ended that incarnation of OSCS, but if I'm to be believed, I gave up on the recap format when I found wrestlemaniacs.com.

Besides the well-written and insightful "smart" comments by Rick Scaia, there was some guy named Christopher Robin Zimmerman doing full-length recaps of RAW and Nitro. The thing that struck me the most about this Zimmerman guy was that reading his recaps was as much fun as watching the shows themselves. He transcribed promos. His attention to detail was impressive. And he was funny. He "got" it before there were ever advertisements and television commercials sporting that tag line.

Well, the writing was on the wall. Zimmerman was around, what was the point of OUR so-called SPORT then? Zimmerman made it very easy to quit the email sheet business. He did us a big favor there, just by existing. So thanks, CRZ.

Fast forward another couple of years. WrestleLine started up, Scaia and the newly dubbed "CRZ" made the jump. Meanwhile, for us silly kids on Boston, the fortune and glory of humorously writing about wrestling proved too alluring to resist. Thus, OUR so-called SPORT was reborn as a free website.

I don't know exactly how well we were doing in page hits those first few months, but I do know we weren't exactly setting the internet on fire. Now, I don't exactly remember how it happened, but CRZ found us. I believe his exact words in an email regarding our take on the Hulk Hogan Yappapi strap-ation promo was "Holy crap! This stuff is funny!" Suddenly, we got plugged on slashwrestling.com. Suddenly we had readers, lots of them. All because someone from the established internet wrestling crowd had given us the rub. Best of all, it was CRZ. Whenever we get plugged on slashwrestling.com, our page hits go up. Thanks for the rub, CRZ.

Last summer, Jeff and Rob went on vacation, leaving me in charge of the site. I botched it something fierce. Couldn't get the damn thing up and running. It was a Friday night, when normal people are out carousing. I was home fretting about my damn website. Taking a shot in the dark, I emailed CRZ and asked for help. To my surprise, CRZ responded within a half an hour and bailed my ass out by placing OSCS content on slashwrestling. Not quite as earth-shattering as those WCW matches on WWF television, but it was cool of him. See, that's the kind of guy CRZ is. He'll help a brother out. (And like me, he's home on a Friday night.) Thanks again, CRZ.

Currently on OUR so-called SPORT is a Fun Things feature on our Favorite Nitro Memories. What isn't on there - what should be on there - were it not for a severe oversight and dumbassedness on my part, is a credit to CRZ for his role in cobbling that thing together. Not only were CRZ's recaps invaluable in our research and memory-jogging, CRZ researched those shows himself for us and pointed us to the right recaps. This man just keeps on giving.

While I'm at it, I might as well mention that CRZ helped carry the banner for our late, lamented WOW. I don't know if CRZ ever did get an email from Lana Star, but if anyone deserved one, it was him.

Anyway, there's a party going on here at slash and I wanted to make an appearance, represent my little so-called corner of the internet, and raise a glass to our man Chris.

Over the last 2-plus years, slash has become a haven and melting pot for "smart" fans in the best sense of the term. There's a real community here and it's a good one. CRZ loves wrestling, and he created a place to convene and interact for those of us who love wrestling too. This is a great place we have here, and we're lucky.

One more time, with feeling: Thanks, CRZ.

Happy 2nd anniversary!