December 31, 2001 Observer Newsletter: 2001 retrospective, more
2001 will never be looked back upon as being a great year for wrestling. Wrestling always has its ups and downs, but usually there is someone doing well when someone else isn’t. This past year, with the exception of the Pride promotion, nearly every company did worse than would have been expected one year ago.
Sometimes, like in 1993, when wrestling was at something of a creative lull with some of the major companies, new promotions with new ideas (UFC, K-1, Pancrase, ECW, Michinoku Pro) form and spark the business to a stronger rebound. This year was the year of the creative lull, but instead of new promotions, we saw WCW and ECW fold once, and then the fantasy versions of them fold a second time in an angle so botched that in many people’s eyes it forever removed the tag genius booker and replaced it with one very lucky SOB on the Vince McMahon resume. We saw RINGS on the brink of going under.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.