On behalf of the Wrestlezone staff I’d just like to wish all of you awesome readers and all our supporters from around the world a very happy New Year. We hope you had a great start to 2017, and we are looking forward to all the new things we have planned this year to make our coverage of this awesome industry better than it’s ever been before!
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On a personal note, I’d just like to thank everyone who visits our website for continuing to allow me to do what I do every single week. We may not get the chance to say it very often, but everyone who works for Wrestlezone is absolutely in love with this business, and we all love this site and appreciate you all so much. Whether you like me or hate me, agree or disagree with what I have to say, it’s a privilege to be able to interact with all of you and have this space to discuss and celebrate this ridiculous thing we call pro wrestling.
I think I speak for most of us when I say, 2016 was a pretty terrible year for a lot of people. We have lost so many great performers and entertainers, so many childhood heroes and idols, to make no mention of the personal losses and struggles of many hurting around the world.
I’m not going to waste your time with a big rambling look into my personal life, but I will say that 2016 has been by far the worst, most challenging year of my entire life. In a very real way, I came close to not making it through the last 365 days. In retrospect, I’d like to offer the following: To those of you who suffered losses this year, and to those of you struggling with mental illness – be it bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression or otherwise – you are not alone. We love you. We support you. We are all here because of wrestling, in all its different shapes and sizes, and at the end of the day no matter what brand you support or who your favorite wrestlers are, this business continues to bring us all together night after night.
I’m grateful to Nick Paglino and the WZ staff for letting me step away from the site after five years at the end of 2015 when I needed to go, and to all the awesome people who followed me and kept me sane during those months, and I’m so very thankful to be back here doing this again. This month marks six years for me here, and I’m very excited about year number seven. I’ve been a fan of pro wrestling for 20 years, and I can honestly say I have never been more excited about where it is going. I have never been more in love with wrestling than I am today. We are at this incredible place in history, because of evolving technologies and changing trends in the industry, that it has never been easier to pick and choose what you support. Every style and virtually ever major promotion is now available at the press of a button, and if you don’t like one thing there is another totally different thing waiting to be explored. There has never been a better time to step outside your comfort zone and figure out what you really love about pro wrestling, and to support those things with your time, and your hard earned money.
My goal for 2017, for as long as I’m around (not that I’m planning on going anywhere) is to continuing offering some of those alternatives. To celebrate all the branches of pro wrestling, including WWE, and to make our coverage of it as comprehensive and global as we can. Thanks to all the people that came with me on my journey to bring New Japan shows to our live coverage lineup every month; that’s just a small part of what I would like to do more of this year. If there is something you think we’re missing – tell us. We’ll listen. And if it’s something we can do, we’ll do it. We want to be better, every single day.
Thank you all! Have a very, happy New Year!
