The Steel Cage

I remember the first time I was "published" for writing about wrestling. It was 1991, and Wrestling Superstars magazine had recently run a piece about a fantasy tournament of wrestling greats. The first bracket included a match between my idol at the time, The Ultimate Warrior, and George Hackenschmidt, who began his career in the 19th century. "George Hacken-who?" I thought at the time. This should have been a cakewalk for my face-painted hero.

Alas, in the ultimate outrage, the Warrior was defeated in the fantasy bout. The miscarriage of justice led me to put pen to paper and fire off a letter to the editor. It was published some months later.

Indeed, it was my peculiar obsession with pro wrestling that led me down a career path to journalism. In fact, when I interviewed for a job at Newsday, my writing samples consisted largely of obituaries for dead wrestlers that I wrote for some Internet sites.

Over the years, I have written at length about pro wrestling, including on many occasions for Newsday. But it was always something of a career goal of mine to convince Newsday editors to dedicate some regular space to this unique hybrid of sports and entertainment. I knew it could be a popular feature, especially considering Long Island's rabid wrestling fanbase.

Eighteen years since I voiced my displeasure over the Warrior being jobbed to some guy whose name I couldn't pronounce, here it is - a regular feature on pro wrestling, published by Newsday. We may not have made it into the newspaper yet, but this is definitely progress.

Seth and I are both very excited and motivated about this project. Using a lot of the sources we've developed over our careers, we hope to bring you loads of exclusive news, interviews, insights and other unique features. If you're a wrestling fan, you'll definitely want to stop by here every day.

Just don't remind me about George Hackenschmidt. What a travesty.