Powell's Blog: Is this thing still... five years later?

By Jason Powell

Prowrestling.net was launched on February 11, 2008. It's amazing to think about some of the things that have happened during that time. The Rock returned to pro wrestling. C.M. Punk became a household name. Ric Flair retired. Shawn Michaels really retired. I saw Brett Favre's final game in person (maybe). WWE officials and Paul Heyman agreed they would never work together again...until they did. Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff joined forces with TNA. Vince Russo left TNA.

Adrian Peterson blew out his knee. Adrian Peterson won the MVP Award. Ring of Honor was sold. The rights to Star Wars were sold. We launched an ad-free members' version of the website. We launched free apps. Bruno Sammartino swore thousands of times he would never enter the WWE Hall of Fame. Bruno Sammartino accepted the invitation to enter the WWE Hall of Fame. I joined forces with Wade Keller for the PWTorch Livecast audio shows on Tuesdays.

Triple H took over WWE developmental. OVW became the official developmental territory of TNA. Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack on live television and returned just over two months later. Jim Ross returned to television and was actually treated with respect. My girlfriend (a/k/a The IGF) and I moved twice. We adopted two amazing Boston Terriers and added fish to our little family. Most of the fish died, but the dogs are thriving. My former co-workers at Fanball all turned a negative into a positive by moving on to bigger and better things. That a-hole Jared is still employed as the face of Subway.

I begrudgingly launched a Twitter page and claimed I would not ruin timelines with nonsensical tweets. I lied. I mean I really, really lied (see NFL season). I launched a Facebook page and haven't done nearly enough with it (sorry). I was lucky enough to become an uncle four more times. The economy collapsed, but we are still standing thanks to you. Christina stuck with me for five more years (it will be 16 glorious years on Thursday) and is and always will be the true love of my life.

Thank you to the current staffers (Will Pruett just celebrated two years recently) for their hard work and reliability (unless Ryan Kester's real job gets in the way or Jake Barnett's daughter Ruby is sick - how dare she?). Thanks to newcomers Jeff Lutz, Darren Gutteridge, and Zack Zimmerman.

A very special shout out to Chris Shore for everything he does for the site, being a great Dot Net Weekly co-host, and for quickly earning my confidence to the point that I don't spend my time off worrying about the state of the website. That's no small feat. Thanks to the UIE team for all of their hard work on the apps and technical matters. Thanks to those who are content to work anonymously behind the scenes on the technical side of the business so that I can focus on what I do best. Screw you, old server.

Thank you to the Dot Net Members for their patronage and for being such a great group in the forum (unless you are Q&A cheaters - and you dirty, rotten, filthy, stinking cheaters know exactly who you are). Thanks to all website and app users. Whether you are new to the website or have been with us since the initial "Is This Thing On?" blog that started it all five years ago today, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this small business successful and for allowing me to perform a dream job.