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By Daniel MacMillan

Went to New York City last night, to the famed Madison Square Garden, to see the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) sponsored event "Monday Night Raw", and even though this site is all about professional wrestling on an independent level, this is as good a place as any to share some thoughts. Especially being that the WWE stage is the big time, the blue sky, the prize at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box that so many on the independent wrestling circuit strive for. With this being my first WWE event since January of 2002, I was excited at the prospects of taking in the big show (no pun intended) under the big tent with the lights, the explosions, the high octane that flashes across my tee vee set every so often. But most of all I was looking forward to seeing a couple of the young guys that finally made it to that center ring of the circus, to see them ply their trade at the national level- this is Madison Square Garden right? Honestly, the show was a huge let down for me, which shouldn't be too terrible of a surprise seeing that it's reasons like these that kept me away from the product since 2002. By ten thirty I had seen a total of 4 matches, with one being a woman's match, which looked more like an exhibition more than a match, and another that was more of a quick comedy routine with Santino Marella taking his clothes off. The rest was pretty much filler that didn't connect with me. It seemed to connect with my row mates though, four grown men from South Jersey who spent the evening enjoying the benefits of Bud Lite, and annoying the people in the row in front of them. Each one sported his own replica WWE Championship title belt that he wore proudly as if he'd won it during a parking lot brawl in between collecting shopping carts. One wore the spinarooni belt, one even had the Rated R Superstar title belt. But it was the leader of the pack who wore the big WCW belt that Flair wore during his storied career. At one point I wondered what Flair would have thought if he'd seen these boys. But then I remembered that Flair lost the real NWA Championship belt that he, Jack Brisco, Harley Race wore so proudly when the belt was put up as collateral for a loan that Flair would later default on. Good one Ric. Wooooo!

During this RAW event, I was reminded of a column that Devon Storm wrote not too long ago for the DOI. In it, Storm made reference to the amount of spots on a roster for a professional ball club, be it football or baseball, and compared that to the amount of spots on the WWE roster. There might be a few hundred in a professional league with millions of kids out there competing for those few precious spots, and in professional wrestling there's less than 1/4 of those spots to compete for. With a big total of 5 or 6 matches on Monday Night Raw, it seems like there's even less.

Well it looks like the Rahway Rec Center, long the home for Jersey All Pro Wrestling, will now also be the birth place for EVOLVE, and in case you've been living under a rock the past few weeks, the same rock that houses the people who haven't a clue about Dragon Gate USA, then you should know that Gabe Sapolski has done it again. The Willy Wonka of independent wrestling has opened up the doors to his chocolate factory, and is set to release his newest Everlasting Gobstopper on the wrestling public. And believe me, with what I saw in MSG last night, this is a welcome! So far Davey Richards, Ricochet, Louis Lyndon, Flip Kendrick, Mike Quackenbush, Hallowicked, and Jigsaw have been announced as it's first competitors. Richards is gold as far as I'm concerned. I've yet to see him in a bad match. Look for EVOLVE to make it's mark on January 16th, 2010.

By the way, this bit of news is making it's way around the internet, and what a bombshell to say the least.

ACE has a new champion in the "King Of Old School" Steve Corino. Corino took down Dan Maff earlier this month in Union City. I wasn't able to make the match, but from what I've heard it was a dandy. A lot of the folks who follow ACE had grown tired of Maff and incredibly, found his act stale. How a guy who's been gone for four years could be stale after a few appearances is questionable, but it is what it is. After going through some stiff competition in Kenny Omega, Colt Cabana, Bruno Marciano, and Corino himself, Maff was eventually tripped up. But if you're a Maff mark, no need to worry, as Maff will receive his rematch this coming December 5th at the ACE Arena in Union City. They're saying that this one will be a Lumber Jack match to keep these guys in the ring. That will be music to the ears of the ACE fan base as one of their biggest complaints about Maff is that he can't keep it in the confines of the squared circle. Either way, this rubber match will surely be one of the promotions best matches of the year.

Big time congratulations go out to the winners of Snapmare.com's first issue giveaways! They are as follows.

The Colt Cabana Headband- Milton Martinez of PA - Hey Milton, make sure to wear that thing with pride during Thanksgiving Dinner!

The WSU Excellence DVD- Alec Johnston of Texas- Who actually entered the last day of the contest!

Dragon Gate USA tickets- Bianca Mountford of PA- See you at the show Bianca!

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Snapmare is pleased to announce that Jon Harder and Lauryn Nolan have decided to joined the staff of Snapmare. We look forward to all of their contributions in the future. If any one else is interested in writing, or sending in photographs, please feel free to contact us at help@snapmare.com Thanks go out to all of those who have sent in words of encouragement. Hopefully we'll keep chugging along! Snapmare would also like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate it, and if you don't- enjoy the time off!