I just visited the Wrestleline website, and learned some sad news: after 2 years, the site is now over.

I've been a follower of Rick Scaia's writing ever since he ran the News from Dayton wrestling news site. When it became Online Onslaught, then moved to Wrestleline, I joyously followed, and the newer site became a daily read for me.

I hope Rick will land on his feet and start elsewhere, and soon. For now, I'll be visiting Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer and Pro-Wrestling Torch more often, but it just won't be the same.

I watched Smackdown! on UPN Thursday night. Even though I was present at the taping, I picked up some things I missed:

As many have said, Stephanie McMahon's voice isn't only shrill and annoying, but we couldn't understand her live. On the TV, I finally understood what she said.

I also actually saw what Edge did. At the tapings, we only saw his interview, and nothing further, so we had no idea what was meant to happen.

Finally, I saw where Kurt Angle got cut open. When he started to bleed at the Molson Centre, my friend and I just had the same reaction: "Again?" Now, I understand that RVD messed up, something he seems to be doing far too often.

For what it's worth, I think Vince is making a mistake by taking a top star away from the Alliance. They'll need big draws when they eventually spin off on their own. If you take away all the best drawing guys, you'll also take away the sizzle they need.

The tapings Tuesday night here in Montreal were top notch, which right off the bat is a major improvement from the Survivor Series in 1997... I couldn't care less about what happened with Bret Hart - the fact that we actually had pyrotechnics and full decor this time, where Kane's corner pyro was all we had then, is a major plus in my book.

Montreal fans seem smarter, more into giving heat than any crowd I've seen on TV. What was interesting though was how we uniformly boo'd supposed faces (we all seem to dislike Billy Gunn and the Rock for instance) while cheering certain heels (Tazz and Kanyon come to mind).

I won't give a full recap here, as I said, but I'll share some thoughts:

- how to know a guy is over 101: even Rob Van Dam's video promos got cheers.

- the pyrotechnics were LOUD

- not only does Stephanie have an annoying voice, I'll have to watch the show just to hear what she said.

- as in Ottawa, Earl Hebner wasn't here.

- Raymond Rougeau is definitely Jacque's brother... he came out with a huge balding top.

It was a fun night, and I can hardly wait to see if we got on air Thursday.

In a little more than 24 hours, I'll see my first Smackdown! tapings... even more significant, as I'll know all the wrestling for the coming week, post-RAW.

I will share some of my impressions here. I won't post an entire set of spoilers though; those I'll be saving to send to Rick Scaia of Online Onslaught fame. We all need our 15 minutes more of fame. :)

I just added a comment feature to this Weblog. Now you can share your views (and likely flames) about what I post.

Small bit of news to mention here, but large in significance: on Heat tonight, Linda McMahon announced that the WWF will be giving Mayor Giulyani a million dollar cheque for the relief effort Monday.

I'll bet you're really eating more crow for swearing the WWF has done nothing for the relief efforts, eh Goldberg?

Last week, I read a borrowed copy of Pure Dynamite, the autobiography of "Dynamite Kid" Tom Billington.

The first thing I got from reading it was that he really wasn't a nice man. He came off as incredibly mean and brutal. Part of that can be attributed to the steroids, but you can't pin everything on it.

Davey Boy Smith comes across as a total git - but then, he is from everything I've heard, so that comes as no surprise.

Dynamite also seems to stay entirely in kayfabe; reading this book, you get the feeling that wrestlers do beat the crap out of each other often, and most of the older guard are mean drunks and thugs. Maybe they are, and we just didn't know it.