Season 3 Officially Underway Tonight!

Season 3 at the site is about to kick off officially tonight with WWE's Unforgiven and I wanted to shoot out a message before the season starts to give my thanks to everyone who's helped me mold this site into what it is today. Yeah, the site is still small potatoes to the extreme, but this is my hobby and knowing that so many wrestling fans are enjoying the site right along with me really helps to alleviate the stresses of every day life!

I couldn't start off thanking anyone without first mentioning my one true wrestling home. And that's Wrestlehut 2000, part of the SomethingAwful forums, where I've been a member since 2003 (and a lurker even longer before that). Sure, I was always the one causing responses like "oh my god would you PLEASE shut up about your fantasy booking ideas?!", but participating there from when we had the Raw discussion threads in GBS all the way up to where it is now really helped keep wrestling enjoyable through times when the booking really didn't warrant much enjoyment. I can't name all of you, and I hesitate to name even a few of you because I don't want anyone to feel left out - but any of you who've directly communicated with me in any way should know you have my utmost appreciation. I'm only going to throw out two names - Baggins and HulkaMatt. Baggins runs the official Wrestlehut prediction game threads and has done an amazing job at it. I wouldn't doubt that seeing how much fun it was when he started those up helped inspire me to create this site. And HulkaMatt, the hulka-hulka-hulka-est moderator around, has always been extremely supportive and may have even surpassed me when it comes to whoring my site at WH2K. :) Again, those of you I'm not naming, it's not because I'm forgetting your names, but it's because I hope you already know how thankful I am for the help you've given and the comments you've provided. And the ones who get on my case about whoring my site out in threads - don't worry, I've always understood where you're coming from, I'm a goon too. Never any hard feelings when it comes to that, and I mean that to anyone at any forums who've gotten on my case for posting links to my site. I'm new to "promotion" of any kind, so it's certainly not one of my strengths. :)

Secondly, I'd like to thank two guys who run two of the biggest and best wrestling sites around.

First off, Dave Scherer, who runs PWInsiderElite.com. He's someone I've been following since the days of 1Wrestling dating back to probably 1998 (which I actually did some web development on when I was 16 years old, little trivia there!). I've never gone to anyone else for my news and opinions for all things related to wrestling, and he and his crew have never let me down. Dave has always been incredible when it comes to responding to emails I've sent, whether the emails were general wrestling questions, ideas I wanted to bounce off of him, or questions about the logistics of running a wrestling website. And he's definitely got great taste when it comes to who he's chosen to contribute at PWInsider. Both Buck Woodward and Mike Johnson deserve a ton of credit as well, because they've had a huge part in keeping wrestling fun for me through the last 10 years. When I say I only get my wrestling news from that trio, I mean it.

Secondly, Bryan Alvarez, who runs Figure Four Online (now Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online). Like I said above, I never went anywhere else for news because I had come to depend on PWInsider, but once I tried out F4W for their audio shows, I was extremely happy that I did. I want to thank Bryan because he has always been gracious when it comes to allowing me to promote my site through shout-outs on the audio shows, and he's allowed me to continue to post at THE BOARD~ every time a PPV is upcoming and that definitely is appreciated. And hell, he's got an awesome site!

And just a side-note: Both of the above-mentioned sites are sites that you really should consider becoming paying members of. PWInsiderElite.com, which I've been a paying subscriber of since it opened, apparently has a bad rep in some circles because people have only visited the free site which is filled with ads. But it's very cheap to join and the audio they provide is always the first audio shows I listen to when I load my iPod up. It's not like ad revenue is a magic pot of gold, so to even have access to the content they provide for free (even dealing with the ads), is something I think everyone should appreciate. And subscribing to Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online is also a tremendous value - there are so many shows to choose from that I really don't know how they manage to do it all!

And while I'm giving a little free advertising, I'll mention one other site - Between The Ropes. I've been a listener of their radio show for at least the last five years. Seriously, out of all the wrestling audio shows out there, this is the absolute top in terms of professional quality. You might not get the breaking news you may find in PWInsider's audio, or the variety in content you would find in F4W's audio, but Between The Ropes is the type of show I can listen to a week after it originally aired and I'm not going to feel like I'm listening to something outdated because they are just so good. I recently subscribed at their site as well, and started listening to their shows dating back to 1998 - talk about a nostalgia trip! It may be something a lot of you would enjoy - especially if you have been a fan since the late 90s, and I'd definitely suggest signing up with them and taking a trip back in time with some of the best discussions and interviews I've heard. It's a show I wouldn't be embarrassed if someone else happened to hear me listening to (which I'll admit I might be with some other wrestling shows), and I'd say that's high praise considering the flak wrestling fans get from people who wouldn't dare watch a second of Raw.

So, with those guys outta the way, let's take a small break with the people who've helped me technically in the building of the site. Ben Nadel is a ColdFusion developer that I had the pleasure to work with for about two years, and his site is definitely one of the best resources (if not the absolute best) for a ColdFusion developer. He's definitely been a big help, both professionally and when I've needed help with issues building this site. Simon Free is another ColdFusion developer that I've worked with for going on three years now and he's also been a big help anytime I've had questions. He also helped me in my studies to become an Adobe Certified Expert in ColdFusion 8, how awesome is that? In terms of graphical design, the main site logo and the main banner ad that I use was created by .random of the SomethingAwful forums. The site logo really helped me pull the site together, so I'm really grateful for that. And the latest help I've had was in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) - and that was provided by efexeye. He helped me get to the top of the ranks in the keywords I was optimizing for and that's one of the toughest things to accomplish these days. I absolutely appreciate all of the help these people have provided!

And now, onto the leagues!

Of course, the first league here was Wrestlehut, from the community I belong to. I've already thanked them here but I'm never gonna stop thanking them because this site would have never happened if it weren't for their support in the early stages.

The second league was F4W, and again, I have to thank Bryan Alvarez for allowing me to reach out to his community to see if they would want to get involved. I'd definitely like to thank those members of that community who've continued to play since the site's inception - heck, Goldberg of F4W just won the overall ranking for season 2 here at the site! I'd certainly like to see more of the community come over and play, since they've got a wild and wacky edge you don't find in many of the other wrestling communities, but thanks to those of you who are playing!

The third league, which I have to give tons of credit to, is the /wooo/ World Order. I still remember the day I was checking Google Analytics and saw a ton of referrals from a site I hadn't even heard of, and went to investigate. I believe they found the site through Wrestlehut, and the person who heads up the /wooo/ World Order league, Sage Freehaven, really took the league to the level I was hoping to see one day. Not only did he help me refine a lot of the functions on the site (especially the way leagues work - when he became the league administrator, the only ability he had was to approve new members and nothing else!), but he's pretty much set the bar when it comes to showing how a community can come together and share predictions and really see it as a true competition. My vision for how the prediction games would benefit a community by providing a platform for users to post their predictions ahead of time and comment on each others' ideas has been realized with the /wooo/ World Order. I would have to think the traffic at their forums has increased due to the interest in playing the game, and it's the kind of thing I wish would happen with every other wrestling community that would like the opportunity to prove they know wrestling the best of any community out there. Watching the discussion threads at their forums when PPVs are approaching has made all the time I've spent building this site worth it, and I appreciate every single person there for the fun they've provided me by watching it all unfold.

We also have had a PWInsiderElite league for a while, which seems to perform pretty well - considering only about 10 users have joined up. I'd love to get more of you guys over here since I have a feeling PWInsiderElite members would predict PPVs extremely well. But, such is life. :)

And the newest leagues that have joined up with the site deserve mention as well. 3 Count Wrestling is a great community that I was lucky to find. It's a smaller community compared to some of the others, but in a lot of ways, that means the people who are active there are people you know have a real passion for following and discussing wrestling. Final Verdict is the owner of 3CW and is doing a great job with it. I'd suggest checking it out if some of the larger communities seem daunting to you - it's not the kind of place you'll be afraid of making a mistake when you're learning the ins-and-outs of posting on a wrestling forum, and at the same time, it's leaps and bounds above the types of forums you'd find doing a Google search for "wrestling forums". I'd really love to bring aboard a couple of other leagues that have between 15-45 members, because a league that isn't stacked to the moon with 100+ members really has to depend on every member predicting well, meaning a league like that that ranks well seriously knows their stuff!

Wrestling-Radio, another of the new leagues, is one I hope ends up being a powerhouse in the same sense that I see 3CW being. Ben Kerin is the owner of that site, and it's another site that I think looks great and looks to also have another solid community. Unfortunately, they already run a pretty extensive predictions league within their forums, so while I'd love to get them involved here at fourdown so they can compete with other communities, it's yet to be seen if any of them would like to jump over here. Personally, I think sites that do their own prediction games should continue their own (much like we do at Wrestlehut), and join in on the games here at fourdown so they can also compete with other wrestling communities. Plus, hey, I do give out prizes! :) But regardless of if their community ends up joining up, I'd suggest checking them out because it's definitely a site that caught my attention.

I also certainly can't forget the WWE Fan Nation league. My group at Fan Nation has grown to over 10,000 users and quite a few have also decided to join up here at the site. I definitely appreciate every single one of you that wasn't afraid to make the jump over here! And of course those of you who joined the group at Fan Nation - we've been the largest and most active group since the first month the Fan Nation site opened! A few splinter leagues from Fan Nation have also been created - D-Generates, John Cena Thugz, and League Extreme. Those are more for fans of particular wrestlers, and not representing communities, but I'm all for that also - so people who don't run communities but would like to have a league set up for any reason, I'm always open to it!

Anyway, that was REALLY long, but I just wanted to thank all the people who've helped me get the site to where it is, and everyone who has joined the site and given it a try. I'm always open to suggestions on improving the site - so never hesitate to contact me with ideas! I made this site because as a fan I wanted a site like this, and anything you can think of that sounds fun for you is probably something I'd find fun too! The site is still but a tiny blip on the radar, but imagine a time when you're predicting WrestleMania in 2010 with over 20,000 fans with a grand prize of $500+ going to the winner! That's the point I'd like to get to, so I'm gonna keep working at it!

Thanks again for all the support, and good luck in season 3!

Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online
PWInsiderElite
Between the Ropes

Wrestlehut 2000's Website
The /wooo/ World Order's Website
WWE Fan Nation's 4Down Website
3 Count Wrestling's Website
WWE Fan Nation D-Generate's Website
Wrestling-Radio.com's Website