With only a few hours left before the New Year we have time to reflect one more time on the past 12 months and all the great moments and memories that have been made in what has been a great year for wrestling. The rumors have already began to fly about what we can expect next year in 2017 and thus far next year has the makings of being better than this year and we have only heard about the first four months of the year. 

Thank you for another great year, I am more humbled everyday by the support that you guys and gals give this site and YouTube channel. This wouldn't be as much fun if you guys weren't a part of it and  I look forward to sharing the next 12 months with all of you. Thank you and Happy New Year!! 

Since the end of the Attitude Era the WWE in particular they have become more protective of stopping talent from writing or having much input into their own promos or talking segments in general. Over protection and over writing is something that the WWE has been guilty of for a long time especially in the case of top guys but other companies have done the opposite for talent.

​The company that comes to mind that has always been good about giving talent freedom in devleoping their characters. For example, Matt Hardy has developed his broken gimmick from the ground up and has been given complete control of the gimmick and all that has to do with it. A lot of people in wrestling have touted Matt's creative proess over the years and have always said how he could make it as a booker after he hung up the boots, well this is the first time we are actually seeing that on a large scale. Plus this is a good indication of the positive effect that giving talent freedom can have rather than being over protective.

​It is worth mentioning that I don't like the "Broken" gimmick a lot. I don't mind it, but it's just that I feel like it's a little over the top; I do however feel like it is doing good for TNA which is something that I have wanted to happen for a while. As far as this concept goes well the talent is very different then it was back in the 1990's as now they are more skilled in the ring and back in the day it was more about carrying a good promo. But now all or most of the talent seem plain and a lot of the promos are the same, nobody sticks out well except the Broken one. Overall, I think giving the talent more open freedom would help them become more unique and less the same as all the other guys. Wrestling is all about being able to rise above and stick out from the pack and that is why I think Matt has stuck out so well. I don't see WWE suddenly changing their philosphy anytime soon, but maybe 2017 will bring back the slogan of "Anything can Happen in the WWE."

A new year means a few things for one it means that the newest installment of the WWE gaming series. Last year was I believe just the second game fully designed by Two K Interactive after over a decade with THQ holding the rights to the WWE game. Seemingly since 2K took over the gaming rights a couple of years ago they have had a special name to build the game around like The Ultimate Warrior, and Steve Austin last year I would figure that Goldberg would be in that position this year.

​It was reveled on Monday that "The Beast" Brock Lesnar will be this years cover athlete. I'm just unsure if they will build the game around this year like they did with last year's cover athlete in Steve Austin. In my book I think that Goldberg would be the better choice as I have always said that WCW is an untapped money tree that the WWE hasn't taken enough advantage of thus far. This is just the first of what is likely many updates to come for this game is the release date draws near in the fall.

I actually mentioned this series in the recent edition of Indy Spotlight, I just published with Roger Malcom. With that being the case I decied to share the most recent episode of this series with you as it actually caught my attention cause I feel like it covers a different facet of the business from what the first two episodes did which can show someone how deep the wrestling business goes and where ideas can come from. I mean Raven is the man behind the Dudley Boys gimmick so he knows what he is talking about at least I think so: 
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Wrestling gives us both great memories and memories we try and forget, but with the amount of moments worth remembering that have happened we are bound to forget some. The same could be said about some talent that were very much underrated during their career or never at the top of a company during a run this unfortunately makes it easier for fans to forget certain talent. Both Mark and Junji Hirta have quite a past in Japan as big names and even bigger draws for their respected companies. In many Junji Hirta is a legend in Japan just like Coleman is in the MMA, but for those who may not be aware Coleman actually did spend time in NJPW at the beginning of the 2000's. His last match on record is in 2010 as a part of Inoki Genome Federation.
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For the last couple of weeks I have graced you all with my "State of Address" for every major American wrestling company. Now I move to the last company I wanted to speak on and by far the hardest company to talk about. This time last year the talk of the wrestling world was Jeff Jarrett and Global Force Wrestling and the fact that they would be next big company in the United States well that never happended and things have still improved. But things have almost come to a sandstill with GFW in recent months as very little news has come out.

Since there isn't a lot out there about GFW I am going to base things off what we know and that is that Jeff tried very hard to find a domestic TV deal, but as far as I know didn't find anything and the closet he had gotten to being on TV is the GFW invasion of TNA from last year. This I think did more good for TNA than Global, because it seems to me at least that TNA may have used this "Invasion" as a shot in the arm because soon after it they start getting a little more serious with plans and the future of the company.

However, I am not saying that this didn't benefit Jeff as it did, because it expanded the exposure for GFW even if it was for just a little bit of time and not permanately. See if they had gotten something lined up after the TNA story was over then the momentum could've kept building, but it didn't and slowly but surely the momentum died and was completely lost. I feel that this is the biggest issue for Global that they have no momentum and are putting too much weight on the fact that they don't have a TV contract.

Now things aren't all bad in GFW as there is no doubting that Jeff Jarrett does know one thing very well and that is how to build new stars from nothing considering that is exactly what he did for the first 5 years of TNA's existance to much success I might add. So I am not worried about GFW, because I have faith that Double J can build winner it will just take time and something to give him some momentum to build on and get the fans interested again.

We are back again with I guess the birthday messages for some wrestlers this time around. Honestly this has been one of my favorite series to do every time, because I love to give the spotlight to random wrestlers from both the present and the past. So now like always I would like wish all those who have birthdays today a very Happy Birthday and very special wishes to those who will be featured below:

Now with three awards out of the way we will move on to the final award I will be giving out this year and that is in a way the most important award. Last year I included both men and women in the voting for this award and that's what I will do again this year. However, the voting for this award will not opne until tomorrow due to voting still being open for the Tag Team of the Year. But either way below are those names that I feel deserve to be included in the voting for the Wrestler of the Year:

This used to be a series I would put out every now and again in the past but like a lot I have done on this site it slowly faded after a while. But now it's rearing it's ugly head again after a little time away and I actually have a reason to do this type of post. Disclaimer this is the series once known as Nerd Note, but trying a fresh name to see if maybe that changes my opinion on the series.

Now most of us know that it was back in 2001 when Triple H got hit with his first torn quad to be specific he got injured on May 23 episode of Monday Raw. The significance of this show is that 1 week later would be the start of the WCW/ECW Invasion. Heavy rumors during that time suggest that Vince wanted to keep both companies active giving WCW it's own show on a different night and channel. Vince would even take this idea far enough to shop WCW programing to networks and almost got it on a Viacomn channel but with three WWE shows they didn't want another wrestling show on their docket. The rumors also suggest that if this got off the ground it would've been very close to the brand split we actually got.

However, a lot of people point to Hunter's injury as the defining moment for the angle and think that they rushed to change plans because of the injury and how the future plans were patterened out. The television thing is actually true, because that is the reason why WWE took so long after the Last episode of Nitro to begin the Invasion as they were trying to find a new home for WCW to keep it on TV.

In a year with so many great matches we have seen our share of great tag team matches from some of the top teams in the world. It doesn't matter where the team is from or what company they frequent I will say that Tag team wrestling is in the mindst of somewhat of a golden age in the world of tag team wrestling. Now with the years end coming up around the corner its that time of that year to give out the awards for the top teams for the year.

​The teams up for the award:
- The Revival
- The Addiction
- Young Bucks
​- Hardy Boys
​- New Day
​- DIY
​- The Wolves
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​These are the teams that I think had the best years overall and are now up for the chance to become the top Tag Team of the year. The choice is up to you!!