When you hear the phrase “indie wrestling,” what exactly does it make you think of? You may be picturing a show in a high school gym, rec center, Knights of Columbus Hall, or something like that. Some promotions might be lucky enough to make a deal with the local minor-league baseball park and pack in a few thousand…
When you’re around pro wrestling fandom for a long time, you become familiar with various talking points that have, over the years, become groupthink. One, specifically, has bordered on self-parody at times: “Push the cruiserweights.”
Last week, WWE recorded the opening rounds of their inaugural Mae Young Classic—an all-women’s tournament that will air on WWE Network next month—in Winter Park, Fla. The shows, which featured a mix of talent from the WWE developmental system and the independent and international scenes, were well-received by those…
Professional wrestler Jose Alberto Rodriguez, better known as current Global Force Wrestling Champion Alberto El Patron and formerly Alberto Del Rio in WWE, is being investigated for possible domestic violence Sunday at the Orlando International Airport. Citing witnesses who said they saw an argument he escalated, TMZ…
Eight years ago and counting, Samoa Joe was done—or at least it seemed that way.
Recently, Netflix released the first season of GLOW, a dramedy based on the production of Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, the comedic late ’80s women’s wrestling promotion that was, ever so briefly, a smash hit in syndication. Many reviews have focused on how a gifted, majority-female cast and creative team have…
When I take my mind back 10 years to the days and weeks right before and right after Chris Benoit murdered his wife and son, one thing in particular always jumps to the forefront of my thoughts.
When you watch WWE programming for a long time, certain patterns emerge, ranging from production quirks to how matches are laid out to certain tropes that consistently recur in the storytelling. One of these is the way WWE lets show its utter contempt for its audience. Hell, it showed up recently when, in the “Bayley:…
This week, much has been made of the main event of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual Dominion event, which took place on Sunday. IWGP heavyweight champion Kazuchika Okada and challenger Kenny Omega went to a 60-minute time-limit draw, the hallmark of classic title matches for decades. It came five months after their…
Last week, Dramatic Dream Team, the largest independent pro wrestling promotion in Japan, pulled off one of its most ambitious events ever. Sanshiro Takagi, DDT’s promoter and one of its top stars, headlined the Tokyo Dome against New Japan Pro Wrestling star Minoru Suzuki. However, there were two key differences from…
To understand what Frank Deford, who died at 78 this past week, did for professional wrestling, you need to go back to one of his most famous articles, one which profiled what was, at the time, the other most popular entertainment sport in America. “The Roller Derby,” which was published in the March 3, 1969 issue of …
This Sunday night’s Backlash show marks the beginning of a new era in WWE, one that would have been shocking even two years ago. For the first time in its history, the world’s largest professional wrestling promotion is attempting to turn a Japanese wrestler into one of its top stars—the top star, in fact, of one of…
WWE champion Randy Orton is normally not much of an interesting follow on Twitter. Sometimes he’ll express a thought of his own, but for insight into his personality, you’re not usually getting it there. That changed over the weekend.
Depending on the specific argument you’re making, you might say that the National Wrestling Alliance, pro wrestling’s oldest governing body, ceased being relevant as much as 35 years ago. So it was definitely surprising last week when Billy Corgan (yes, that one) bought its remnants from Bruce Tharpe, a lawyer and…
There are a few different ways to experience WrestleMania these days. The most basic distinction to make is between is watching at home versus taking a trip to the host city. From there, there are further distinctions. Some fans only check out the WWE offerings, and some take in the numerous independent shows that run…
Throughout its entire existence, the pseudo-sport of pro wrestling’s presence as a subgenre in Japan has been consistently defined by how much harder-hitting it is there than it is elsewhere in the world. Hard hitting can take a lot of forms. It can mean hard shots in safe places; it can mean laying everything in even…
Hard as it may be for long-time fans to believe, this month marks 25 years since Vince Russo first emerged as a presence in pro wrestling. All these years later, the former WWE, WCW, and TNA storyline writer and television personality is best known for his role behind the scenes in the Attitude Era and for having…
Jonathan Coachman is either a liar or an idiot.
When former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts started writing his new book, Best Seat in the House, he had no idea what part of his autobiography would end up getting attention and coverage from wrestling fans. After all, the Instagram teaser post he put up in November is almost unwaveringly positive, even if it does…
This Sunday’s WrestleMania is not your father’s, which is both the sort of thing World Wrestling Entertainment would say to promote it and true—if not quite in the way they would like you to think.
