If you don’t know, that suite of websites consists of the blog that you are currently reading and a variety of professional wrestling websites. When I was younger, I was a big professional wrestling fan. However, as I was in college and then graduate school, I began to grow apart from watching the sport. Plus, I was a big fan of the old World Championship Wrestling (WCW) promotion and once it was bought up by Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) group, I gradually stopped watching the shows. Once the wrestler that I hated watching the most married his way into the McMahon family and, essentially, wrote the scripts so that he always won at the end of each feud, I was turned off to professional wrestling completely.

And then this upstart promotion out of Nashville and Orlando started putting out a product. I watched here and there, but my watching habits were nothing worthy of merit. Then about two years ago I started watching that TNA Wrestling promotion more and more and more and you know what? It began to grow on me. It reminded me of the old WCW and the old Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and it was fun to watch. More than that, though, it made me want to get back into the business of professional wrestling websites. When I initially started making websites back in 1996, I was making primarily professional wrestling websites (The Balrog’s Lair, The Brood, and Wrestle Universe were the three wrestling-themed websites that I worked with back on the old GeoCities platform).

But this entry isn’t supposed to be a history lesson, so I’ll get on with it!

These days I own three professional wrestling websites – TBLWrestling.com, XHeadlines.com, and TNAStars.com. Of the three, I actively manage and operate the TNAStars.com website. TBLWrestling.com has been around the longest as it has existed in one incarnation or another since 1996. XHeadlines.com was the next site that I created and I think that, for a long time, it was my best work in terms of laying out the design of a professional wrestling website. However, I began working on TNAStars.com on and off during the summer of 2008. Once it was announced that Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff were moving to TNA Wrestling during the fall of 2009, I kicked the development of that site into high gear and we went live completely live on January 1, 2010.

On the first day that TNAStars.com was live back in January, it received 2 hits. And believe it or not, that is where this success story begins.

Viewership on the site gradually increased as the news articles were picked up by the various search engines. By the middle to end of January 2010, TNAStars.com was routinely pulling in around 500 hits per day and I was really pleased that the site had a decent presence with less than a month of existence underneath its belt. However, my goal for all of the new websites that I start is for them to be at 1,000 hits per day on a consistent basis – then grow from there. Sometime in March 2010, TNAStars.com began generating 1,000 hits per day, but then the summer months came on and – as has been my experience with professional wrestling websites – the hits began to go down until August, when they started to pick up again.

But I’m always looking for a consistent 1,000+ hits each day and I knew that TNAStars.com was so close. I’m not sure what it took to make the jump, but sometime around the end of September the website began consistently generating 1,000+ hits per day. Then on October 1, 2010, TNAStars.com generated 1,989 hits in a single day – the most in the site’s history. I was very pleased!

Until October 7, 2010 (last Thursday), when the site drew in 3,189 hits in a single day. I was floored at the great response, but knew that hard work always pays off in the end. Last Thursday I began to wonder – how high could this thing go? Then on Friday, the site drew in 3,147 hits – only a small decrease from the day before. But it didn’t stop there…

On Sunday, October 10, 2010, TNAStars.com drew in some 5,017 hits in a single day. Phenomenal! I was convinced that this number was going to be the high mark in the series of banner days for TNAStars.com. Then yesterday came around and wouldn’t you know it, but the website drew in some 8,500 hits in a single day!

Let me put this in perspective and explain why this is significant and worthy of celebration. The most hits that any of my websites ever received in a single day was on June 26, 2007 when TheBalrogsLair.com (which eventually became TBLWrestling.com) received 25,305 hits due to its thorough coverage of the Chris Benoit double murder suicide. Not really something to go screaming around about, but it’s true. The next highest day of hits in the history of my suite of websites? That would be the day before – June 25, 2007 – when the Chris Benoit coverage began. Blech. The story is the same with the third highest day in my suite of websites’ history – June 27, 2007 – Chris Benoit coverage.

You have to go to the fourth highest day in the history of my suite of professional wrestling websites to find a banner day in terms of visitors that were not drawn to the site because of a tragedy! And that day was Monday, March 15, 2004 when TheBalrogsLair.com took in some 7,299 hits in a single day due to its excellent coverage of WrestleMania XX. That was a good day for my professional wrestling websites.

Incidentally, the fifth and sixth highest traffic days in the history of my suite of sites are both Chris Benoit double murder suicide. Annoying.

But all of that changed over this weekend when TNAStars.com’s Bound for Glory 2010 coverage took the number one traffic spot away from the original TBL’s post-WrestleMania XX coverage. And it changed again when the post-Bound for Glory coverage pushed TNAStars.com ahead of one of the Chris Benoit coverage days back on the original TBL.

I hope that the momentum stays with TNAStars.com as it’s a great little website that isn’t bogged down with crap and annoyances. If you’re into professional wrestling, I highly recommend heading over there and seeing what we’ve done. Here’s hoping that the days of growing hits continues for the entire suite of professional wrestling websites that I own!

I don’t want to sound like I’m hating on WrestleMania XXV since I’m sure all of the guys in these matches will put on tremendous performances. However, it’s just not the type of event that I’m looking to spend $50 on to watch. Plus, I won’t be around tomorrow night since I have to run out to a meeting to make a quick award presentation.

For those of you who are wrestling fans, you’ll want to run over to TBLWrestling.com and XHeadlines.com for the very latest information on WrestleMania XXV as well as the best in wrestling news and rumors. All I know is that The Undertaker’s undefeated streak better stay intact. Enjoy!

Enjoy!

The first comment that I have about the show is that the crowd was HOT! They were going bonkers over every back body drop and punch that was offered by the wrestlers. I’ve never been in a wrestling crowd like that before and I’ve been to RAW, Smackdown!, WWE’s ECW, SummerSlam, and a variety of independent shows. One of my roommates who was with me commented that the crowd was very similar to an old ECW crowd. My only complaint is about the trio of morons sitting behind me who felt the need to let everyone in the immediate vicinity know their wrestling knowledge. For example, at one point one of the wrestler’s threw on the crossface and the dopes behind me immediately started chanting, “You’re not Benoit!” Yes, dummies. We know that Benoit used the crossface. Congratulations, you know a wrestling fact.

It only got worse when they started chanting “Joe can’t sell!” during the Booker T./Samoa Joe bout. Yes, idiots. We understand that Joe has been working hard to make his opponents look better in the ring. Congratulations, you read websites like mine. I wouldn’t have been so upset about these guys if they weren’t sitting directly behind me screaming the worst chants ever at the top of their lungs for the ENTIRE night. My right ear was ringing all day Monday because of them. Speaking of people sitting around us in the stands, my roommates and I were pretty sure that the guy sitting next to me was asleep the entire time or that he had one eye (probably the latter). The poor guy jumped square out of his seat during the opening pyro which, I admit, was incredibly loud. The kid sitting at the other end of the row was from Brooklyn and came to the show with no ride home. His first question to us as we sat down was if we could give him a ride home (no way!). Also, this kid was a major WWE fan (complete with replica spinning belt) and hated on a bunch of the TNA guys. He was comical because whenever a “TNA! TNA!” chant broke out, he would quietly speak-chant “WWE. WWE.” Weird.

By the way, would you go to Trenton from Brooklyn to watch a wrestling show of a promotion that you don’t even like…with no ride home?!

Final comment before the match reviews – Ice T. was advertised as appearing with F.I.L.T.H.E.E. and he was no where to be found when the rap group opened up the show.

TNA X-Division Championship
Petey Williams def. Consequences Creed
– The crowd was hot for Williams in this one, which may have surprised the TNA folks as Creed had been billed as the face and received huge love from the crowd two days earlier in Asbury Park. Williams is an amazing wrestler and Creed has a great future ahead of him. This match featured lots of chants of “Let’s go Petey!” and a great cheer/boo segment with both competitors trading blows. I don’t do “star” rankings because I’m not that pretentious, but this was a great opening match. To show you the fickleness of a wrestling crowd, as soon as Abdul Bashir came out, the fans were behind Consequences Creed. Don’t you love it?!

6-Knockout Match
Gail Kim, ODB, & Taylor Wilde def. Awesome Kong & The Beautiful People
– Unlike a WWE Women’s match, this was not a throwaway event. ODB has enormous crowd support, but Awesome Kong had just as much. By the way, even though we weren’t too close to ringside you can tell that The Beautiful People really are quite stunning. Gail Kim performed pretty well, but I thought that Taylor Wilde could use a little bit more time rehearsing some of her spots. All in all this was a good match that the crowd was into for the entire time.

At this point there was some type of vignette with Team 3D in the rafters (these were all pre-recorded because the thousands of us in attendance kept looking to the rafters during these segments and saw no one). The only comment that was audible in the arena was about a black bat, though not Brother Devon’s black bat. Thanks Brother Ray.

TNA Tag Team Championship Match
Beer Money, Inc. def LAX
– Though I was surprised by the outcome of this match, I found it enjoyable. At one point the crowd was slowly wavering away from the match, but when Hernandez threw Homicide over the top rope on to Beer Money, Inc. the place erupted. The beer bottle shot to the head was heard crystal clear throughout the arena. Good work on everyone’s part. I didn’t particularly care for the LAX entrance with F.I.L.T.H.E.E. It was a bit much, though watching Salinas dance around was sweet.

Tuxedo Chain Strap Match
Jay Lethal def. Sonjay Dutt
– Well, if you watched this on pay-per-view I’m sure the “Fire Russo” chants were as clear as day. What an abomination. On the one hand, I admire Lethal and Dutt for putting up with this crap, but on the other hand it might be time to get Russo in check. A tuxedo strap match? What a waste of two incredible talents. Early on the crowd wanted to get excited to see these two go at it, but the stupidity of this match was clear and present. There were also loud chants of “Boring” which is a shame because I think these two could really tear the place apart if given the opportunity.

Jersey Street Fight
Rhino & Christian def. Team 3D
– This is the match where the internet reviews have pissed me off the most. Not only was this a good hardcore match, but the crowd was completely into it for the entire duration! The comedic spots went over well live and the high spots went over even better. When I read dummies on the internet write about how the crowd fighting got boring after a while I cringe because it definitely was not boring. The crowd was electrified to begin with – this match only turned up the juice a bit. Christian Cage is an even better wrestler in person, though Rhino may want to hit the gym a little bit. The Abyss run-in went over huge with the live crowd, too.

Last Man Standing Match
AJ Styles def. Kurt Angle
– I want to say that this match was perfect, but there was one problem – the Last Man Standing rules! Most of the people in the crowd were confused about the pin/submission followed up by a standing 10-count. Does WWE own the rights to a generic 10-count Last Man Standing Match? One of the kids sitting next to me made the point that it should just be a 13-count. Why not? In any event, this was the match of the night complete with high spots and great technical wrestling. The dopey online writers may not give this match the kudos that it deserves, but this was the best live match that I’ve ever seen. Crisp movement in the ring, a hot crowd outside of the ring, two of the best wrestlers in the world fighting it out – you can’t go wrong. The crowd popped for Sting before realizing that he took out AJ Styles.

TNA World Heavyweight Championship
Six Sides of Steel with Weapons
Samoa Joe def. Booker T. w/Sharmell
– I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cage match live before so this was sort of special. As a quick aside, did you know that they hold the TNA steel cage together with zip ties? Amazing, huh? Both of these men put on a good show, though it felt a little anti-climatic to not have a Sting appearance at some point. Anyone can see that Russo is going for a Sting vs. the new generation of stars type of angle – or at least that’s what it is now. Knowing Russo he’ll change the entire thing next week if he reads that one person has figured out his angle. Booker T is really a lot better in person than I thought he would be (I’m not a big fan). Samoa Joe did a good job of keeping up with Booker, though I thought that we would see more of an aggressive side from him. The guitar shot at the end of the match was alright, but I can think of better ways to bring Jeff Jarrett back into the show.

As I said earlier, this was the best live event that I’ve ever attended. The next time TNA is in your area I encourage you to go and check them out – the next time they’re in New Jersey, I’ll be there!

For 162 pictures from the show (including some of the people sitting around me), click here. Enjoy!