As always 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. These two are very different talent and had two very different careers while they worked in this great business. Also sometimes we encounter those that deserve to be remembered and acknowledged. I would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating their special day today and especially to the one featured below. ​

For those who might be unaware there was a time when I was "helping" out another site not only get off the ground, but remain functioning. Unfortunately due in part to the financial feasibility that comes with maintaining a website the sports site known as OTBsportsnetwork.com went to the website graveyard. However, as the old saying goes when "one door closes another opens" and that is exactly how we got here as the next step for not just OTB, but Wrestling Express has arrived. I know I don't mention it here but thank you to everyone who has invested into this project with me I appreciate you more than you know as you made this possible. 
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Recently on social media I have been teasing a "major announcement" pushing the end to a mystery that only few people know about at this point. The reason that only a handful of people know about what the announcement is based on the fact that they are involved in the project. But after months of hard work I think it's time to finally explain what exactly we have been working on and why. Basically following the end of On the Bleachers as a website I decided that we could move everyone over to blogger just to allow both OTB to continue and give those who still wanted to write the opportunity to do so. Now I did bring the OTB_WWE to my wrestling site, but that's just because it was easier for me to have her go there instead of here as it would help me. Either way though we getting away from the point a little while after the new OTB started I found a way to put together a magazine where it wouldn't be super expensive.

From there I got on sending DM's to the former writers to try and get an idea on how many people would be interested in writing about sports in a magazine. Surprisingly a decent number of people were interested in writing and though it was a little much at first it got easier once I took it one thing at a time. I wrote a number of articles to balance out the others that my fellow writers came up with but with me writing it was difficult to give much direction to those who needed some help and it suffered. But things changed and in reality started to snowball once I got my articles done and could start to focus on other things and now we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Before I continue let me explain something as some of you might be wondering why I just picked a random assortment of people to help with the magazine instead of having a process. 

Though I have tried to defend World Championship Wrestling even the bad booking the company went through during the weakest time for the company. But much like the Junkyard Invitational match the company had at Bash at the Beach 1999 this event had one of the hardest matches defend, because of how poorly executed it was. The San Francisco 49er's match was an interesting concept for a match and also fit the favorite gimmick type for the booker at the time. 

However, the reality is that this match was terrible and really gave too much of a nod and wink to the small percentage of fans that paid attention to the dirt sheets. Fact is that the amount of things that went wrong in the course of the match and adding the finish into the situation just made matters worse in my opinion. Looking at this card in particular it is a reflection of how mixed up WCW was at this time with the lacking direction and the fact that you see a change in booking during the show. At first I just noticed that Jarrett & Booker fought in the main event but they competed against Sting & Steiner earlier and Goldberg competed twice in one show as well fighting Meng & the Harris Brothers. 

Overall looking up and down the card there are a number of questionable decisions that where made with the action. However, this in my opinion is another example of why having a long term booking is important and one of the main things that work. Seeing the Hardcore Title match end in a DQ is also a reflection of how mixed up the finishes were at the time and how they were just tossing things at the wall to see what sticks. In reality from mid 1999 to 2000 we saw Eric Bischoff, Vince Russo and other creative writers or bookers grasping at straws to try and figure out how to set the company straight and get back on track. Unfortunately it was clear that some writers were really never given a fair chance to try and make things work in their attempts to right the ship and fix World Championship Wrestling. 

WCW Monday Nitro

Konnan & Rey Misterio, Jr. def. Alex Wright & Disco Inferno tag team ladder
Reno def. (DQ) Sgt. AWOL WCW Hardcore Title (title change)
Shane Douglas def. Mike Awesome 
Goldberg def. Meng 
Booker T. & Jeff Jarrett def. Scott Steiner & Sting 
Kevin Nash & Mike Sanders def. Elix Skipper (c) handicap tag WCW Cruiserweight Championship (title change)
Goldberg def. Don Harris & Ron Harris handicap tag
Booker T. def. Jeff Jarrett San Francisco 49ers WCW World Heavyweight Title (title change)

As always 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. These two are very different talent and had two very different careers while they worked in this great business. Also sometimes we encounter those that deserve to be remembered and acknowledged. I would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating their special day today and especially to the one featured below. ​

As always 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. These two are very different talent and had two very different careers while they worked in this great business. Also sometimes we encounter those that deserve to be remembered and acknowledged. I would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating their special day today and especially to the one featured below. ​

As always 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. These two are very different talent and had two very different careers while they worked in this great business. Also sometimes we encounter those that deserve to be remembered and acknowledged. I would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating their special day today and especially to the one featured below. 

As always 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. These two are very different talent and had two very different careers while they worked in this great business. Also sometimes we encounter those that deserve to be remembered and acknowledged. I would like to wish a very big Happy Birthday to all who are celebrating their special day today and especially to the one featured below. ​

Right after the territory era ended the WWE had the opportunity to run unopposed where they were the biggest game in town. Now I know that the WCW was still in business, but the company was having far too many problems to be looked at as a serious competitor to Vince in the early 1990's. However, once things started to around and the perception of the company started changing a momentum swing was upon us in wrestling and no that swing didn't that happen with NWO like most would think. In reality the momentum started changing in September 1995 when the green light was given for the start of WCW Monday Nitro. 

From the start of the show Eric Bischoff wanted to figure out how to be different then what Vince had on his show. The first thing he thought of was having the first Nitro at Mall of America which was something totally different and hasn't been done since then by any other promotion. One thing that some fans may remember from the first Nitro is Sting vs Ric Flair which headlined the last Nitro. A misconception is that it didn't headline the first one as Big Bubba Rogers & Hulk Hogan took that distinction with the "Total Package" returning post match. 

Overall this show was nothing special and other than the Lex Luger shocker nothing really worthwhile happened on the broadcast. The one thing that did change because of this event though was that the WWE wasn't unopposed anymore and actually had competition again for the first time in around a decade. Looking at this event it is crazy think how one simple event could lead to the whole wrestling business turning on it's head within less then year of the show's debut. This my friends was where the "War" began!!