Reported by Jon Minners of WrestleView.com
On Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 11:47 PM EST

Hey yo! It has been awhile since I wrote last. The Chris Benoit horror story had a greater affect on me than I thought. But there have been other issues leading to my announcement today. This will more than likely be the final Badseed's Bottomline.

I write this with mixed emotions, because I have been doing this for over a decade, but after Chris Benoit's death and even dating back to Eddie Guerrero's death, wrestling lost its appeal. They were the last guys to make wrestling interesting and fun. After their deaths, I find myself no longer as interested as I once was. Wrestling really has lost its appeal for me over the last couple of years.

But there are other reasons. I am 31 years old this Sunday. I am old. I want more than what I have. I want to raise a family and I want to own a home one day. But to do so, you need money. So, I have to work that much harder to earn that money. This led me to stop dropping money on my own website. I have owned two, YBFREE and G-Pop, but I just couldn't keep up the work to keep them going. And as I began looking for more freelance work to make money, I find myself lacking the time or drive to write a column about a sport that has just lost its way over the last few years.

I remember getting into writing this column. Stone Cold Steve Austin was just making a name for himself. The Nitro recaps on various sites were just way too complicated and I think I got a lot of my wrestling information from the AOL boards. My need to find out what happened on Raw led me to Wrestleview one night and I toyed with an idea for a column. I eventually asked them if I could write one and Paul let me write a column.

Initially, I would just write it in the post box, which caused me so many headaches, since I was on AOL and using a dial-up connection. When the site went down, I would lose all my work. It actually didn't dawn on me to copy and paste from work for some time. I just loved the crude style of writing a column and in honor of that, I am actually writing this column right in the post box as I once did. I keep copying after every paragraph just in case, but with high-speed Internet, what's the worry.

When I wrote, I never watched the show on cable. I didn't have cable. I actually posted based on recap sites and recap shows. I don't know if Paul knew that at the time. He probably would not have hired me. I would post a column every Monday night after the show on his hypermartHitman316sharpshooter site he had before wrestleview and I would post after every PPV. I would post as much as I could, whenever I wanted and would post the column at other sites until Paul asked if I wanted to go exclusive. Since he gave me my first break, I did and Wrestleview has been my only home ever since.

Things changed. I started getting tapes from my boss so I could watch the shows every week and then eventually I got cable and even though I had quicker access to the shows, the column became just a weekly edition. It helped get me the notice of Frank Goodman who allowed me to announce on several USA Pro Wrestling shows. That was cool of him. Of course, the site hurt my chances of getting a job with the WWE when executives wasted my time calling me in for a job interview they know they were going to tank...not me. Grilled because I insulted various wrestlers in my column, I held my own and was honest, but after hearing the sarcasm and elitist attitude from the duo interviewing me, I no longer wanted the job. The fact that I would have to work late hours in Connecticut where there apparently wasn't train service at certain hours also helped in my decision. They also wished me luck on all future endeavors in a phone call sometime later. The call was made by the coolest of the people who interviewed me. Very nice guy. Too bad his associates were such assholes...allegedly.

But I never was upset with Wrestleview for not getting the job. It was a good thing I didn't get the job. Any place where people fear criticism and wrestlers cry about having their talent questioned is not a place for me. If I wanted to satisfy crybabies, I would work for Kleenex. I enjoyed writing for wrestleview so I continued to do so.

But wrestling changed. The Rock, Steve Austin, HBK, HHH, The Undertaker - they all made the show interesting. Their speeches were unscripted. That was awesome. I really enjoyed it. Even Val Venis got over and so did the Godfather. The Brood was amazing. Now what have we got? John Cena went from cutting edge to script reading stooge. Hornswoggle is shitting lucky charms all over the cruiserweight title. The tag-team division has become a joke. Snitsky and Big Daddy V are getting pushes while Val Venis gets squashed every week even though he is actually a much better wrestler. Eugene is still a joke. The women are only as good as their boobs even though Lita, Trish, Ivory, Molly and Victoria proved that it didn't have to be the case. ECW was resurrected so they can tarnish its image. Wrestlers are dying left and right. Vince McMahon was killed and resurrected. He has been ECW and WWE world champion. HHH and HBK hate each other and now lover one another, creating a DX that was nothing like it used to be. TNA went from being groundbreaking to being just like the WWE. It's just hard to watch the show sometimes.

I leave you with some thoughts:

Lance Cade will be a future star one day. In fact, if I was the WWE, I would take Ric Flair and Arn Anderson and have them lead a new group of Four Horsemen that would include Lance Cade, CM Punk and Randy Orton or that new kid from Tough Enough who has yet to debut and have them feud with Dusty Rhodes, Cody Runnels, Trevor Murdoch and I would have said Dustin Rhodes, but that seems out of the question.

If wrestling really wanted to take a cue from the UFC, they would put more of a focus on the cruiserweight division and allow it to flourish. The UFC does so much with so many different divisions, you would think the WWE would be able to do a lot with at least two weight classes.

Watch MSG Classics, it explains everything that is wrong with the WWE today.

TNA is the alternative to wrestlers who do not want to work a lot of dates...but didn't TNA say they wanted to increase the number of non-televised shows this year. If the goal is to be just as good, if not better, than the WWE, those wrestlers who enjoy not working so many dates are going to find their newfound luxuries slowly diminishing. To be successful, you have to tour. Will Kurt Angle be able to withstand that kind of impact?

I am jealous of Teddy Long.

Chavo Guerrero is a talented wrestler and I am happy he gets an opportunity to shine every once in awhile even though the WWE soon forgets him every time they begin to push him. His match with Rey Mysterio really helps pack the Summerslam card.

I knew Umaga was turning good after the Night of Champions PPV. The fans cheered everything he did to Santino. But who would have thought that Santino would also steal the show during his heel turn. Very good idea. I think Cody Rhodes needs a run as a heel, too. It's not working.

Is Mark Henry still being pushed?

Why is Test with Sting and Abyss? How does that make sense?

I love that Abyss talks now and I like how they kept him with Sting. This is a good, prolonged storyline that outside of all the gimmicks, actually makes sense.

I can't wait for Chris Jericho to return.

You can hate him all you want, but Konnan makes perfect sense with everything he says.

I love this list of dead wrestlers going around. All these so-called journalists attacking the list because it has so many names on it and exclaiming that they know it has to do with the drug lifestyle of being a wrestler. Adrian Adonis is on the list. He died in a car accident that was not wrestling related or even WWE related. Owen Hart did die in the WWE, but it had nothing to do with drugs. There are so many people on that list who did not die of the reasons they are saying. I love how you don't have to follow a sport to think you know all there is about it.

How many times is the Undertaker going to come back only to get injured? How many injuries are going to lead to title changes? How many times does Khali have to wrestle before the WWE realizes he shouldn't be wrestling for the WWE, let alone be a champion?

Let Cena last a year as champ. Don't give the belt to Randy Orton just yet. And please don't just give the belt to Orton so HHH can win it back. Cena has not been fed Snitsky or Big Daddy V yet. Cena's character fits that of a new age Hulk Hogan with a cast of strange monster heels with opponents like Lashley, HBK and Randy Orton thrown in. HHH does not suit that role. His feuds should only be with guys like King Booker, Randy Orton and Carlito. He's not the guy who should be fighting Umaga, Khali and others like that.

That whole Hogan divorce drama lasted only one episode. Are you serious? The show is so shot like a sitcom. It's certainly scripted, which is ok. In fact, after watching the Two Coreys, I found out it is better to tell people the show is half scripted and half improv, because it adds to the drama of figuring out which is which.

The Boogeyman vs. Big Daddy V feud is gripping television that is very reminiscent of the old ECW. Note sarcasm.

I can't wait until the New Hart Foundation makes their debut.

Where is Sonny Siaki?

I hope Rosey loses all that weight so he can come back to the WWE and they can call him Rosey or better yet S.H.I.T.

Can Matt Morgan and Brother Ray feud with one of their matches involving some sort of stuttering gimmick?

Can wrestlers ever work like Benoit or Eddie Guerrero and sound like the Rock, Rowdy Piper or Steve Austin?

Will wrestling ever be fun again?

I hope so. Wrestling does work in cycles. We never know when those cycles work out in our favor, but after over 400 Badseed's Bottomline columns, the cycle of this column is at an end. Thank you for reading and following my work every week. Thanks for the great emails complimenting me and insulting me. I loved them all. Thanks for making my opinions matter. I hope to write for you all once again one day. You are the greatest and that's the bottomline cause Badseed said so. Peace