WRESTLING
David Bixenspan Feb 7, 2022. 6 minute read
GCW Took Its Place in Wrestling History at the Hammerstein Ballroom
On May 19, 1915, a purported “international wrestling tournament” commenced at the Manhattan Opera House in New York City. Over the next year or so, such tournaments would feature future legends of the pioneer era such as Wladek Zbyszko, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Roller, The Masked Marvel, and Ed “Strangler” Lewis.…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Feb 3, 2022. 6 minute read
Between the Bells, CM Punk and MJF Got It Right
It’s been a rocky road getting here. I’ve written before about how I didn’t love the much-lauded CM Punk/MJF promo from last year, but what I failed to mention was how effective I found the opening angle to the entire rivalry to be. Punk brushing off MJF felt like the…
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WRESTLING
mer Feb 2, 2022. 5 minute read
Brothers Til the End: Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins Still Got Beef
The general reaction to this year’s Royal Rumble has been unfavorable; it dragged much of the night, and only served to highlight the massive problem WWE has in connecting with any kind of an audience. Despite featuring wrestlers who are on TV every single week, nobody gave a shit about…
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WRESTLING
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Colette Arrand Jan 31, 2022. 8 minute read
Tony Schiavone Receives a Telegram (1997 Week 4)
Two weeks ago, I wrote a little about “meaningless wrestling,” specifically how to pry something from a match whose worth to the larger context of professional wrestling’s rich history is the labor performed by the men and women who won it. This week, the thing I am most excited about…
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WRESTLING
Kath Barbadoro Jan 28, 2022. 5 minute read
Wrestling and Jackass: Two Silly Approaches to the Pain of Being Alive
This Sunday, less than a week before the premiere of Jackass Forever, Johnny Knoxville will enter WWE’s Royal Rumble. As a 23 year veteran of the Jackass franchise, in which he has been concussed by a bull, thrown from a motorcycle, and KO’ed by Butterbean himself, entering the Rumble is…
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WRESTLING
David Bixenspan Jan 28, 2022. 8 minute read
Just How Much of an Asshole WAS the Hulk Hogan Character, Anyway?
30 years ago this week, what’s now World Wrestling Entertainment held the fifth annual Royal Rumble in Albany, New York. While the 1992 event is best known for Ric Flair’s marathon performance en route to capturing his first World Wrestling Federation Championship, it arguably wasn’t even the biggest news coming…
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WRESTLING
Miles Schneiderman Jan 27, 2022. 9 minute read
What Is the Legacy of NXT’s Black and Gold Era? (Part 2)
NXT WarGames, which took place on December 5th, 2021, was the first major NXT event to not carry the “TakeOver” name since NXT Arrival in 2014. That would have been significant in and of itself, but the main event of the show also saw “Team 2.0” defeat “Team Black and…
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WRESTLING
mer Jan 26, 2022. 4 minute read
Back in the Divas Groove: Natalya and Summer Rae Reignite 2014
I didn’t experience the WWE Divas era live, which feels simultaneously like a blessing and a curse. Women’s wrestling has come a long, long way in WWE even just in the past 5 years — if we’re being honest, they have much further to go. But there was never a…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Jan 24, 2022. 9 minute read
Dawn of the Sad Rafter Clown (1997 Week 3)
I watched a frankly modern amount of wrestling this week. Raw was an hour. ECW was an hour. WCW, damn them, ran a Nitro, a Clash of the Champions, and nWo Souled Out, a whopping six and a half hours of content strung along, like most WCW programming, on the…
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WRESTLING
Lizzy Flanagan Jan 21, 2022. 6 minute read
Tragically Mismanaged, It’s No Surprise Mustafa Ali Wants a Release
Mustafa Ali found his way to WWE through his entry in the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic tournament. Despite losing in the first round, Ali was later able to find a place in WWE’s 205 Live brand, where he became one of the top babyfaces in the cruiserweight division. He wowed fans…
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WRESTLING
mer Jan 19, 2022. 6 minute read
What’s a Beast to the All Mighty? Bobby Lashley Hunts Brock Lesnar
Raw aired from Philadelphia last Monday, making it only the second-worst sports news for Philly fans in recent days. WWE has continued to produce their same 2020 level content as they kicked off 2022, offering the occasional solid match sandwiched between two hours of rambling promos that we’ve all heard…
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WRESTLING
Miles Schneiderman Jan 18, 2022. 8 minute read
What Is the Legacy of NXT’s Black and Gold Era? (Part 1)
June 20th, 2022, will mark the ten-year anniversary of NXT – the wrestling promotion, not the scripted reality show. NXT as we knew it, however, isn’t making it to that milestone. The first week of the new year made it abundantly clear that “NXT 2.0” wasn’t just a change in…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Jan 16, 2022. 10 minute read
Steve Austin “Wins” the Royal Rumble (1997 Week 2)
About a quarter of the way through an interminable tag team match pitting Goldust and Marc Mero against Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Jerry “The King” Lawler, I paused the episode of Raw and said “This is going to be hard” to myself. Not watching wrestling; watching wrestling is easy, even…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Jan 13, 2022. 8 minute read
Jonathan Gresham and the Rebirth of the ROH World Championship
Best in the world. At its peak, the ROH World Championship represented those four words to many professional wrestling fans. It’s a reputation forged by the efforts of generational talents such as Low Ki, Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson, and many more. Through much of the 2000s, being part of the…
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WRESTLING
Geoffrey D. Wessel Jan 12, 2022. 5 minute read
In a NJPW vs. NOAH Clash, Four Generations Put On One Great Main Event
On Saturday, January 8, 2022, New Japan Pro Wrestling ran the third night of Wrestle Kingdom 16. After two fair-to-middling nights in the Tokyo Dome earlier in the week, two things made this particular show stand out. First, this was the first time a Wrestle Kingdom event happened outside of…
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WRESTLING
Oumar Saleh Jan 11, 2022. 4 minute read
William Regal Was a Key to WWE NXT’s Greatest Era
Like many, I was first drawn to NXT during the summer of 2015, a year that has since been derided as one of the WWE’s absolute worst. Lamenting yet another long Daniel Bryan layoff and the creative tomfoolery that plagued Raw and SmackDown at the time, I opted to check…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Jan 10, 2022. 5 minute read
Headbutts and Revenge: “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson II
First thing’s first, it’s not as good as the first one. Really, it’s almost unfair to have expected this pair to hit that level again. Outside of doing something radically different or just extending the time limit out further, there’s really no way that Page and Danielson could top the…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Jan 9, 2022. 8 minute read
The Greatest Year in the History of Our Sport (1997 Week 1)
I was nine years old when wrestling was cool. The thing is, I didn’t know it was cool back then; it was just wrestling, just something I watched. Now that I’m older, I still don’t know if it was cool. It was popular, but it was approached less like Nirvana…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Jan 6, 2022. 5 minute read
Jade Cargill’s TBS Championship Victory Was Her Best Match Yet
Jade Cargill is the first TBS Champion. Despite the moment created with her family, I found myself deflated when the bell rang, a second rope Jaded felling Ruby Soho. Jade being a heel, I’m supposed to be deflated when she wins a major match like this, but that deflation wasn’t…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Jan 5, 2022. 6 minute read
Matches On WWE Day 1 and Raw Showed What Brock Lesnar Brings to a Match
Brock Lesnar once again holds the WWE Championship. In other news, the sky is blue and grass is green. I understand the frustrations that people have with the result of the WWE Championship match at Day 1. In spite of his recent face turn, Brock Lesnar still represents the status…
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WRESTLING