Best of 2008
Below are the my best articles for the year 2008, listed in chronological order. If you didn’t get a chance to see them when they were first posted, you may want to check these out.
Previous articles are always available through the Archives box on the right, the Category selection, or the Search box.
- A Killer Bee and Me (Dec ‘07): My experiences with former AWA and WWF Superstar “Jumpin” Jim Brunzell.
[Ok, technically this was posted in Dec 2007 but I'm including it in the year-end list because I didn't have enough content to do this in 2007]
- One Degree of Separation? (Jan): A follow-up to the previous Brunzell article, where I talk about my potential as a celebrity look-alike.
- Circling the Bowl? (Jan): My opinion of the downward spiral of the TNA wrestling product
- Hey, I Recognize Those… Eyes (Feb): Whenever a local wrestling talent signs with a major promotion, they might not be recognizable at first. It took me a while to figure out who TNA’s Payton Banks was.
- I’m with the Show (Mar): The importance of the referee in a wrestling match.
- That Action Figure Looks Familiar (Mar): Finding the Daivari action figure in a local Target store.
- The End of an Era (Apr): My thoughts on Ric Flair’s last match.
- Wait…Back Up a Second (Apr): The first appearance of Bam Neely (known locally as Hellraizer Gutz) on WWE TV.
- “Bam Neely” Video (Apr): Video of Bam Neely against myself in Fridley, MN.
- Gimmick Matches (May): My thoughts on why I’ve never been a big fan of gimmick matches.
- Lenny Lane vs. The Great Sasuke (Jun): This was a match I saw live, and the phone number on the back of the program was how I got started in wrestling.
- TV Wrestling “Quality” Measurement (Jul): July was when I started measuring how much time I spend watching wrestling to see if I was enjoying it more or less over time. The latest data can always be found on the TV Viewership Stats page.
- Wrestling Training (Jul): This was the first of 3 posts on my experiences in wrestling training camp. You can get to the other two from this link.
- Daivari (a.k.a Sheik Abdul Bashir) in TNA (Aug): For Shawn Daivari’s first appearance in TNA, I posted a reformatted version of an interview he had done locally for the Upper Midwest Wrestling Newsletter.
- Colt Cabana (a.k.a. Scotty Goldman) (Sep): Colt Cabana showed up on WWE TV as Scotty Goldman. I posted a reformatted in I posted a reformatted version of an interview he had done locally for the Upper Midwest Wrestling Newsletter.
- Enough with the Matt Morgan Already (Sep): One of several rants on the on-screen character known in TNA as Matt Morgan.
- WWE Push into Japan – A Good Thing? (Oct): Is it a good thing that WWE is looking to take over more of Japanese wrestling?
- Eddie Sharkey Video (Nov): I came across a documentary of one of my trainers, Eddie Sharkey, that I had forgotten about.
- H.O.W. Interview on Trash Talking Radio (Dec): Local wrestler from Superior, WI builds a promotion from the ground up.
2008 was a weird year, but at least there wasn’t a huge negative story like 2007 with Benoit.
I saw Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” movie earlier this week. Damn if Mickey Rourke doesn’t look like Bruce Willis trying to look like Jerry Lynn every time he puts on his reading glasses. If the weather isn’t too bad, I might catch it in the theater next weekend.