Has anyone on here ever ran a pro wrestling website?

[radiantsilvergun]

If so, can you share any stories and experience? It seems like it could be fun, challenging and rewarding to run a website dedicated to pro wrestling.

[wgdj]

I ran a site called wrestling-oz.com. From memory it was originally wrestlingoz.com but we let our domain name lapse for like half a day and a rival website (a dodgy one at that) bought it. We actually scooped a few big stories pertaining to Australian wrestling back in the day, and it was through my involvement with that site that I got to go to the WWF's press conference in Melbourne back in 2001 or so. It was pretty cool.

I was something like 13 when the site started. The other two guys were 12 and 17. Nobody knew how old we were. The 12 year old was great at coding websites (although we were all pretty good), the 17 year old was great with graphics and had heaps of contacts, and I was a bit of an all-rounder but was the strongest writer and made sure everything came off as being professional and not written by a bunch of teens.

[hbkid718]

If you don't know, I have a wrestling website darrenswinloss.wordpress.com.

[radiantsilvergun]

Jan 29, 2016 14:48:38 GMT -5 hbkid718 said:

If you don't know, I have a wrestling website darrenswinloss.wordpress.com.

Cool stuff! Win/loss records are glossed over heavily nowadays but you got them on lock.

[radiantsilvergun]

Jan 29, 2016 6:59:39 GMT -5 wgdj said:

I ran a site called wrestling-oz.com. From memory it was originally wrestlingoz.com but we let our domain name lapse for like half a day and a rival website (a dodgy one at that) bought it. We actually scooped a few big stories pertaining to Australian wrestling back in the day, and it was through my involvement with that site that I got to go to the WWF's press conference in Melbourne back in 2001 or so. It was pretty cool.

I was something like 13 when the site started. The other two guys were 12 and 17. Nobody knew how old we were. The 12 year old was great at coding websites (although we were all pretty good), the 17 year old was great with graphics and had heaps of contacts, and I was a bit of an all-rounder but was the strongest writer and made sure everything came off as being professional and not written by a bunch of teens.

Holy shit what a story! You said ran, so you guys lost interest eventually and stopped working on it? Or lost interest in the wrestling product of the time?

[Shark]

I used to work for a site. We ran more opinion based content though. Every day we'd rotate these big opinion pieces about several topics of the day and give our thoughts on the story. We didn't so much as report news and discuss it. I also cohosted the weekly radio show. That was fun for a while.

[hbkid718]

Jan 29, 2016 15:20:19 GMT -5 radiantsilvergun said:

Jan 29, 2016 14:48:38 GMT -5 hbkid718 said:

If you don't know, I have a wrestling website darrenswinloss.wordpress.com.

Cool stuff! Win/loss records are glossed over heavily nowadays but you got them on lock.

Thanks.

[wgdj]

Jan 29, 2016 15:21:09 GMT -5 radiantsilvergun said:

Jan 29, 2016 6:59:39 GMT -5 wgdj said:

I ran a site called wrestling-oz.com. From memory it was originally wrestlingoz.com but we let our domain name lapse for like half a day and a rival website (a dodgy one at that) bought it. We actually scooped a few big stories pertaining to Australian wrestling back in the day, and it was through my involvement with that site that I got to go to the WWF's press conference in Melbourne back in 2001 or so. It was pretty cool.

I was something like 13 when the site started. The other two guys were 12 and 17. Nobody knew how old we were. The 12 year old was great at coding websites (although we were all pretty good), the 17 year old was great with graphics and had heaps of contacts, and I was a bit of an all-rounder but was the strongest writer and made sure everything came off as being professional and not written by a bunch of teens.

Holy shit what a story! You said ran, so you guys lost interest eventually and stopped working on it? Or lost interest in the wrestling product of the time?

Thanks!

We did it for a couple of years, I think. I don't remember exactly why we stopped. Part of it was that we had managed to get a really good deal on hosting through the 17 year old's contacts and that fell through. I seem to recall he was doing graphics and design for an international wrestling website and as part of the deal he cut with them we were able to use their hosting service. That website either folded or he no longer worked for them... can't remember which. Between us -- with basically no income -- we couldn't afford to pay for our own hosting, which tended to be quite expensive back around 2000, especially as we wanted to maintain quite a bit of multimedia on our site. I had a TV capture card, so we were able to post local news bulletins that featured wrestling, etc. Long before YouTube, I was responsible for getting video of Mick Foley on Australian TV onto the web! ;-)

There was also the fact that we'd all basically lost interest in both the local and international product. I was the one who mostly went to shows and reported on them, and it was almost as if the local product got less interesting at the exact time the WWF did.

I had kinda forgotten about the site until this thread. Years ago I tried to find it on archive.org but I could never find a decent version. I might sniff around the 'net and see if I can find any traces of it. Then again, maybe the reality will be nowhere near as cool as my memories of it, LOL. 

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Nope, but I super briefly wrote for one once back in, like 96 or so. Maybe had like 3 or 4 articles, got an email from someone mistaking me for HBK and wanting tickets, for some reason. The website closed, not sure how many people besides me and the few people who wrote there ever visited it, but I did it.

[corndog]

I honestly can't remember if I got to write articles for a newz site or not. I remember going to a message board in 97/98 and talking to a guy who ran a site about doing articles. I went to 7pac's wrestling news board a lot, and I want to say it was off shoot of that or the site itself. I also briefly had an angelfire site, that failed miserably. I think for a wrestling site to work, you really need a few different writers for alternative perspective. Also someone good with graphics, which obviously I am not.

[radiantsilvergun]

Jan 30, 2016 1:37:02 GMT -5 wgdj said:

Jan 29, 2016 15:21:09 GMT -5 radiantsilvergun said:

Holy shit what a story! You said ran, so you guys lost interest eventually and stopped working on it? Or lost interest in the wrestling product of the time?

Thanks!

We did it for a couple of years, I think. I don't remember exactly why we stopped. Part of it was that we had managed to get a really good deal on hosting through the 17 year old's contacts and that fell through. I seem to recall he was doing graphics and design for an international wrestling website and as part of the deal he cut with them we were able to use their hosting service. That website either folded or he no longer worked for them... can't remember which. Between us -- with basically no income -- we couldn't afford to pay for our own hosting, which tended to be quite expensive back around 2000, especially as we wanted to maintain quite a bit of multimedia on our site. I had a TV capture card, so we were able to post local news bulletins that featured wrestling, etc. Long before YouTube, I was responsible for getting video of Mick Foley on Australian TV onto the web! ;-)

There was also the fact that we'd all basically lost interest in both the local and international product. I was the one who mostly went to shows and reported on them, and it was almost as if the local product got less interesting at the exact time the WWF did.

I had kinda forgotten about the site until this thread. Years ago I tried to find it on archive.org but I could never find a decent version. I might sniff around the 'net and see if I can find any traces of it. Then again, maybe the reality will be nowhere near as cool as my memories of it, LOL. 

Let us know if you find it! Always cool to look through old websites. It's like going through abandoned places and thinking about all the people that used to walk through

[JIMBOB]

Hey PhilParent, didn't you used to do Q & A for PowerWrestling.com? Whatever happened to those guys? Still keep in touch with them?

[Joe Neglia]

I ran Weird World of Wrestling over a dozen years ago. Didn't last long as its own site. Paid my initial $20 hosting fee and by month two or three, they were trying to charge me two grand for all the hits the site was getting so I said screw it.

[wrestlingrecap]

I currently run www.wrestlingrecaps.com It's loaded with wrestling reviews from the major promotions and articles mostly highlighting old school events and whatnot.

I enjoy it a lot.

[TOK Hehe'd Around & Found Out]

I was the TNA beat reporter for wrestletaint.gov until I was threatened by an enraged AJ Styles wielding a chainsaw and yelling homophobic slurs. 2010 was a crazy year.

[Phil Parent]

Jan 31, 2016 13:01:41 GMT -5 JIMBOB said:

Hey PhilParent, didn't you used to do Q & A for PowerWrestling.com? Whatever happened to those guys? Still keep in touch with them?

WOW, I never expected anybody to remember that.

Yes that was me doing the Q&A for PowerWrestling.com. I did it for a long while too, even as the site became apart of FOXSports.com.

I didn't stay in touch with the crew. I remember Kevin Gregg was a cool guy, he loved his wrestling but he had an even bigger passion for turtles, he had a bunch of them and we used to talk about them.

Good old days, before Youtube/Wiki/ maybe even Google.

I used to add a lot of nonsense on there to fill space. Including my All-Star Baseball game on PS2! Today, wrestling Q&A would have to be an opinion based deal where people ask you what you think about something because the answer to absolutely every question you could ask is online now.

[JIMBOB]

Feb 2, 2016 18:33:42 GMT -5 Phil Parent said:

Jan 31, 2016 13:01:41 GMT -5 JIMBOB said:

Hey PhilParent, didn't you used to do Q & A for PowerWrestling.com? Whatever happened to those guys? Still keep in touch with them?

WOW, I never expected anybody to remember that.

Yes that was me doing the Q&A for PowerWrestling.com. I did it for a long while too, even as the site became apart of FOXSports.com.

I didn't stay in touch with the crew. I remember Kevin Gregg was a cool guy, he loved his wrestling but he had an even bigger passion for turtles, he had a bunch of them and we used to talk about them.

Good old days, before Youtube/Wiki/ maybe even Google.

I used to add a lot of nonsense on there to fill space. Including my All-Star Baseball game on PS2!

Oh yeah, I forgot it was a FoxSports.com affiliate near the end.

[captaincheapshot]

Here's the archive to my site from 98-99. If you go to the Magical Thoughts Archives it's me live Tweeting Raw and Nitro before that was a real thing. Most of the links still work but none of the pictures and logos I made are gone.

[Squirrel Master]

I helped with the copying and mailing of the '90s dirt sheet Wrestling Chatterbox edited by Georgianne Makropolous.

[jp49er80]

I did, but it wasn't very good.

Two of my columnists fell out because one kayfabed (or believed it was real) and he took slight offence to someone suggesting Undertaker should retire. He responded with a rant that basically said he shouldn't because of a bunch of kayfabe reasons...