It's the end of the year, or beginning. Either way, it's time for my annual year in review column. As I usually do, I'm gonna go through the year in wrestling, and hopefully some hilarity will ensue. Hopefully. We'll also have some best of the year type thing at the bottom. Yeah, this is gonna' be good.

The year started off with me not being able to watch much wrestling since I was up in New Jersey without a tv. Some PPV had Rikishi v. Undertaker v. HHH v. Austin v. Rock v. Angle in a cell. That sounds pretty cool. Wait, that was from 2000, I think. Possibly 1999. I really don't remember much before last week, so bear with me. Anyway, Rock won the Royal Rumble, but Big Show complained about it, which started a feud between them for about a week. I think they fought, but don't know. I'm not quite sure what everyone else was up to at this time. Jericho was probably feuding with Regal and making fun of Stephanie McMahon, as that is about all he did until this November. I think Benoit started feuding with Angle. I'm not sure how this started, but it culminated in Angle's medals going down Benoit's pants, which is how every feud should end.

HHH and Austin feuded for a minute or two, which resulted in some crazy ass gimmick match. I wanna see it. Then everything started to build to Wrestlemania. "My Way" was played so often that it stopped making sense to me. Not that it really did in the first place. Wrestlemania X-7 was hyped as being the best show ever. And it basically delivered. Test got his legs tied up in the ropes, Rhyno put his face in Edge's crotch, Big Show burst through a wall like the Kool-Aid guy, Raven drove a golf cart into Kane (or vice versa), and Steve Austin SOLD HIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL HIMSELF!!! MY GAWD!!

Yes, Steve Austin sided with Vince McMahon to beat the Rock. The next night on RAW, Rock was suspended for some reason. Austin and HHH teamed up and started to win every title. I really don't remember this point in time. I know that Benoit and Jericho teamed up, and eventually won the tag titles, and that HHH injured himself. Oh, and the InVasion began. Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that McMahon bought WCW, but, in a swerve, Shane somehow bought it from underneath him. I worked in a title insurance office for 2 or 3 years, and nothing like that ever happened there. Nelly did buy his house out in the county through them, though, but I had left well before that. He paid in cash. Fo sho.

I think Smarks were supposed to be upset about WCW getting sold, but I could have cared less. Since the WCW storylines changed every week, if I missed it once I never knew what was going on. And it didn't help that the only show I saw on a regular basis seemed to be Worldwide, which was always about 3 weeks out of date. ECW also folded around this time, and Paul Heyman took Lawler's commentary place. Immediately, Smarks claimed to miss Lawler, as Smarks seem to have to disagree with everything. Except Russo. It's okay to bash him. Anyway, ECW was gone, and WCW was owned by WWF. However, rather than launch a WCW InVasion right away, the WWF had more important things to do, like tease at pushing Rhyno, then job him out to Albert.

Eventually, the InVasion did start. And did it ever. Lance Storm ran out one night and kicked Saturn, or somebody. The next week, Hugh Morrus moonsaulted Bob Holly, or somebody. The gauntlet had been thrown. Iacta alea est. This gave the APA something to complain about, and every time some WCW midcarder came out, a whole parade of WWF midcarders came out for the beatdown. Also, Vince McMahon was getting a divorce, and Linda said she wanted to have WCW matches on tv, and it happened. Never having been married, and conversely, never being divorced, I can only assume that this is how these things really work.

The first WCW match on WWF tv was Buff Bagwell vs. Booker T. for the WCW title. I don't think they could have chosen a worse match or a worse crowd to hold the match in front of. Jesus. And during the whole painful ordeal, we kept cutting to Vince trying to get it on with Torri Wilson or somebody. Gawd. The WWF fell hard from their previous highs a few weeks earlier, when Angle wore that little cowboy hat. That fucking ruled all.

So, WCW InVading seemed to be crap, so everything changed. One amazing night, ECW reformed on WWF tv. Scott Keith threw a fit. A hissy fit, at that. At the end of the night, it was revealed that Stephanie McMahon bought ECW, and she was teaming up with Shane to form the Alliance(!). A lot of people seemed upset by this, but I didn't care that much. I was too busy looking at Steph's new and improved breasts to realize what had happened for about a month. Why does every WWF stable choose a synonym for "group" for its name?

So, the Judgement Day or some other Paper View was changed to InVasion, which was to culminate in THE INAGURAL BRAWL!! 10 WWF guys vs. 10 WCW/ECW guys. Or was it 5? 5, not 10. Anyway, at the PPV, Stone Cold turned on the WWF and joined the Alliance. Kurt Angle then became a face. Austin also started saying "What?" It was pretty funny back then.

The Inagural Brawl came and went, and nothing changed. Now every week we saw some WWF guys fight WCW guys, for no apparent reason. This went on and on, with guys jumping back and forth, until November. I mean October. No, wait, November. Jeez, I'm a moron. In November, the Survivor Series main event was essentially what the Inagural Brawl was supposed to be. After months of smarks bitching about how the WWF fucked up the biggest angle in the history of wrestling, the WWF listened to them and decided to end it. You know that's how it happened. Why else would you post on the messageboards if the WWF didn't read it? I think that Christmas Eve episode of RAW shows that they read the Weekly Visitor message board.

Also, Jericho began turning HEEL at this point, feuding with the Rock. Smarks everywhere rejoiced as they claimed to have been saying he should turn HEEL for some time now. I don't remember reading it anywhere until he started turning HEEL, but what do I know? Anyway, we had Inagural Brawl part II, and Angle turned on the ALLIANCE, giving team WWF the win. All the Alliance guys were out of a job, save for those few with a title, and Test, who won an immunity battle royal. WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON RAW TOMORROW NIGHT?!?! TUNE IN TO FIND OUT!!!

Not much. Lawler came back, and Ric Flair turned out to be half owner of the WWF. Wackiness ensued. Trust me, it did. A few weeks later, Jericho became the unified champ, and Gunn and Palumbo won each other's hearts. That brings us up to today, where we eagerly await the return of HHH so that the WWF can begin doing stuff again. And so smarks everywhere can complain about him holding people down again.

God. It wasn't as boring as it sounds. Really, it wasn't. To prove it, here are the TOP TEN WRESTLING THINGS IN 2001:

10). Hurricane's Titantron thing. This is so amazing. You need to see it in person to fully appreciate it, as on tv Lawler is always squealing about the upcoming 2 Girls In Some Nasty, Slimy Food Substance Match. Seriously, that eggnog was gross. It looked weird as all get out. Call me old fashioned, but there's nothing erotic about getting food all in your hair.

9). Kokushi. Nothing beats Keiji Mutoh's newest character. Well, I guess there're 8 things better. Regardless (I use that word a lot), Kokushi rules. His white mist rules. Other stuff associated with him rules.

8). Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon at King of the Ring While I have yet to see this match in its entirety (entirity. Something.), what I saw on that New Year's eve match ruled. Shane falling on his head was sick as hell. Everything about it was sick. I hope it had Angle missing his moonsault at one point. This is a .5 match. Beautiful.

7). Kurt Angle vs. Benoit in the Cage on RAW from sometime in May Another amazing match from these two. Angle missing the moonsault from the top of the cage is awesome. Everything about it is awesome. .5, again.

6). The Santa Claus match from the 12/24 RAW HAHAHAHA! Seriously, I thought this was a damn good match. I'm not kidding. That last one was a joke, but this isn't. I'm watching it as I type this. This match gets .

5). Kurt Angle and Steve Austin wearing cowboy hats and being goofy back in June/July I don't know what else to say. Not that this speaks for itself, I just don't really feel like saying anything else about it.

4). RVD's promos with Austin and Angle I like to listen.

3). Some match on Smackdown over the summer where Rhyno gored Rock. Rock acted like he got hit by a train when Rhyno gored him. That ruled.

Woah. I really haven't been thinking this out at all, as I don't have a favorite thing that happened this year. This is embarassing. Slightly more so than this column is in general. Well, I am going to leave on this rather dissapointing note. Better luck next time.