I started back in 1999 when Kirik’s “The Underground” was The Wrestling Observer, then moved over to The Underground. I posted often in the early days when all the UFC fighters posted. I was “MessiahBrain” early on but got banned by Kirik for trying to buy a UFC tape on VHS from a poster named “Wraygun” who used to sell these on the forum. They were hard to obtain back then! So I changed my screen name to HarlanEllison.
Big UFC names would routinely post. I remember saying “I’d love to see Mario Sperry fight Tito” back in Tito’s prime and Sperry responded “I’d like to see that too”. We had the Lindland-Baroni exchanges and so many other cool threads. I stopped posting about 10 years ago when The Underground degenerated into guys hijacking every thread and calling each other “homo” etc. for 50 posts. This new forum looked cool so I signed up again.
How many guys on here go back 25 years? I see some old friends like OnePunchJD but not sure how many originals are still around. Anyhow, greetings gentlemen and I’m looking forward to some good discussions. Oh and please no “Hi KKM” replies for those that remember that.
I first discovered the OG from sherdog. The fighter highlight videos they posted were awesome.
The OG had more action thought. I originally joined in 2000 right before there was a username conversion that showed user sign up dates. I was an 00’er which carried status as time went on.
I remember KKM, OMA, Caligirl, ArtVanderlay, emcee’s Wolverine claws, and many others…. I just remembered being on the forum during 9/11, and the many “civilized”, and “well reasoned”political threads during Bush V. Gore election…. and the eventual Iraq war “discussions”.
I didn’t interact directly with many members. I just constantly refreshed posts to read. I didn’t comprehend the extent of all the drama that was going on at the time. Internet forums were still new back then. I liked the original frames site. Times were simpler then.
After a while the comicground sub forum and OG were the main reasons I continued to visit here. MMA hasn’t been the same since the PRIDE days in my opinion.
In closing, I would like to thank @Onikage for keeping the OG alive. This place has been, and continues to be a great hideaway to get a few moments of peace from the complexities of daily life.
