55 posts tagged with prowrestling.
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"That's gonna put some butts in the seats!"
25 YEARS AGO TODAY: Mankind (aka the Hardcore Legend Mick Foley) defeats The Rock (aka global movie star Dwayne Johnson) in a No Disqualification match for his first-ever WWF Heavyweight Championship. It's no exaggeration to say this match changed the destiny of two companies, as this match aired on the same night as WCW's infamous "Fingerpoke of Doom" [more inside]
The Art of Edith Surreal
A documentary about wrestling, art, and human rights. SLYT, 45:49 CW: blood, simulated violence, fascism
RIP Bray Wyatt (1987-2023)
The news came out of nowhere as WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque tweeted: "Windham Rotunda - also known as Bray Wyatt - unexpectedly passed earlier today". Bray Wyatt -- one of the most charismatic and creative professional wrestlers of the current era -- was 36 years old.
How Queer Pro Wrestlers Are Handling America’s Anti-LGBTQ+ Heel Turn
Pollo del Mar wants to be hated. As a bad guy (or heel) in the NWA—the National Wrestling Alliance, a professional wrestling company owned and operated by the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan (no shit!)—it’s her job to get heat, i.e. the boos and jeers and chants that separate professional wrestling’s villains from its heroes. There’s just one problem: She’s a drag queen, and it’s made her too popular. (archive.today link)
The Unreality of Pro Wrestling
SuperEyepatchWolf details Roman Reigns' journey from The Shield to The Bloodline , perhaps one of the most bizarre and disastrous stories in pro wrestling.
As God is my witness, he is broken in half!
Twenty-five years ago today, The Undertaker damn near killed Mankind. Twice. It was one of the most memorable matches in the history of professional wrestling, and now Mark Calaway and Mick Foley are far enough removed to laugh at it as they rewatch the infamous Hell In A Cell match that redefined each of their careers in an instant. (CW: premeditated violence that resulted in real injury to both participants, blood, teeth, thumbtacks)
In American Indie Wrestling, Bodies Are Cheap And Healthcare Is Not
This is the gamble every wrestler makes: that someday he or she might be the one flat on their back watching the world collapse upon them. Everyone knows this. Everyone’s seen it. Nobody stops working. (archive.today link)
UFC, WWE to Merge; Emanuel to Serve as CEO, McMahon as Executive Chair
Endeavor Group Holdings and sports entertainment powerhouse WWE made things official on Monday, unveiling a definitive agreement to form a new, publicly listed company consisting of two “iconic, complementary” global sports and entertainment brands: UFC and WWE. Endeavor will hold a 51 percent controlling interest in the new company, with existing WWE shareholders owning a 49 percent interest. [more inside]
“The crowd has taken on a more violent approach towards me."
Two pro wrestlers developed ‘The Progressive Liberal’ to be the bad guy at matches. Then the atmosphere turned far darker (previously on MeFi)
Antonio Inoki 1943-2022: Japan's "Last Fighting Spirit"
News outlets around the world have reported the death of Antonio Inoki. A student of Japanese professional wrestling legends Rikidōzan and Karl Gotch, Inoki's life would encompass professional wrestling, the genesis of mixed martial arts, and international politics. [more inside]
Vince McMahon retires from WWE amid allegations of sexual misconduct
Barely a month after the start of the latest round of allegations of bad behavior by Vince McMahon, majority shareholder in World Wrestling Entertainment, he has "decided" to "retire" from his roles as (suspended pending investigation) Chairman and CEO and (still in place pending investigation) head of creative. [more inside]
Hard work pays off, dreams come true; bad times don't last, bad guys do.
He was the man who kicked off the biggest boom period in the history of professional wrestling. Along with Shawn Michaels, he innovated the ladder match, now a staple of the sport. He wrestled a desperate battle with alcoholism for almost twenty years, and in his twilight appeared to have finally beaten it into submission, and was known throughout the business for a keen mind and for being generous towards his fellow wrestlers to a fault. Whether you knew him best as the Diamond Studd, as Razor Ramon, or simply as himself, "Da Bad Guy" was always one of the coolest wrestlers to ever set foot in the ring. Scott Hall passed away today after being taken off life support following complications from hip surgery. He was 63.
AEW Acquires Ring of Honor
Last night on AEW Dynamite, All Elite Wrestling CEO Tony Khan announced that he has acquired the indy promotion "Ring of Honor" from former owners Sinclair Broadcasting. [more inside]
Amanda Huber Remembers Her Husband Jon
Amanda Huber, of All Elite Wrestling's Community Outreach Team, shares her memories of her husband Jon, aka Huberboy #2, aka Luke Harper, aka Mr. Brodie Lee. Who, by the way, really had a gift for extracting comedy from a rolled up bunch of paper.
[$Your_Favorite_Wrestlers] to AEW, confirmed!
Til We Make It
Be the Locker Room Diplomat. Solid advice on how to navigate tense professional situations, whether you're a pro wrestler or not. [more inside]
Shakedown Smackdown
Last week, WWE presented its second Crown Jewel event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This was the fourth of 20 planned biannual events in the Kingdom, for which the House of Saud was allegedly ponying up as much as $2 billion. The deal is part of Saudi Vision 2030, a program by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin-Salman to modernize the Saudi economy and improve the repressive regime's public image. That PR effort probably wasn't helped when flight delays held most of the wrestlers on the ground for more than 24 hours... or possibly the wrestlers were hostages in a disagreement between WWE owner Vince McMahon and the Crown Prince over payment. [more inside]
'I am really shy'
“and GOOD NIGHT, BANG!”
Kenny's Quest [YouTube] “Undertale creator Toby Fox’s latest project is something of a surprise: a match promo video for New Japan Pro Wrestling star Kenny Omega. The wrestler teamed up with Fox to promote NJPW’s upcoming pay-per-view event, Wrestle Kingdom 13, but according to the video’s Star Wars-esque opening crawl, “circumstances beyond [the creator’s] control” will prevent it from airing officially.” [via: Polygon]
RIP Professional Wrestler Leon "(Big Van) Vader" White
It's still an important shared experience to me, damn it!
When news broke that WWE would be bringing back the Starrcade name, a lot of people took notice. When it turned out it was going to be only for a house show (i.e. not televised), there was more than a little grumbling and head scratching. Uproxx writer Brandon Stroud wrote about Starrcade, what it meant to him and his family growing up, and what it meant to see the revival of the show with his parents. [more inside]
“On Nov. 9, 1997, the professional wrestling industry changed forever.”
Twenty years later, Shawn Michaels reflects on the Montreal Screwjob. [ESPN] “In the midst of the most heated days of the "Monday Night Wars" between World Wrestling Entertainment (then the WWF) and World Championship Wrestling, money and contract issues led Bret Hart and Vince McMahon to an impasse. McMahon needed to get the title off of Hart before he left for WCW, and Hart refused to lose the title to Shawn Michaels, his most bitter rival, in front of a pay-per-view crowd in Montreal, feeling that a loss in such a Canadian stronghold would be devastating for his on-screen persona. In the lead-up to Survivor Series, there were several different ideas thrown around as solutions. Hart suggested he could instead lose to Steve Austin, or perhaps drop the title to Michaels at a live event in Detroit the night before. But once it became clear that they couldn't come to terms on a solution, the wheels were set in motion for a moment that would forever alter two companies, countless wrestlers' careers and, ultimately, set the WWE on a path toward becoming a multibillion-dollar brand.” [WWE][Autoplay Video] [more inside]
And I was like, “I got it, just jump.”
Britney Young speaks with UPROXX's Brandon Stroud about learning how to appreciate and perform professional wrestling.
A Pro Wrestling Newby Liveblogs Wrestlemania 33
The Lost Royal Rumble
The Royal Rumble is a unique form of the "battle royale" in pro wrestling. Instead of beginning the match with all participants in the ring, the Royal Rumble has a new entrant running in to the ring every two minutes, adding up to anywhere from 12 to 40 total participants.
But it almost never happened, because Vince McMahon thought the idea was "stupid." [more inside]
The Superfly Flies No More
WWE Hall of Fame Pro Wrestler Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka passed away yesterday at the age of 73. [more inside]
The Great Fall of Chyna
Seventy percent of what we think about on a daily basis is pro wrestling
Pro-Wrestlers' Mortality Rates are Nearly THREE TIMES Worse Than Normal
The BBC asks, "Why do wrestlers so often die young?" After aggregating the multiple studies of professional wrestler mortality, a Manchester University researcher points the finger at "cardiovascular disease". One of the studies he examined was a grim University of Eastern Michigan mortality study of 557 former wrestlers which showed that wrestlers aged between 45 and 54 had a mortality rate 2.9 times greater than the rate for average men the same age. And the prognosis for professional wrestlers is even worse when compared to athletes in other American sports. Even when compared to NFL football. [more inside]
RIP Professional Wrestler Tommy Rogers (of the Fantastics)
Professional wrestler Tommy Rogers (real name Thomas Couch), best known as one half of the tag team The Fantastics, has passed away at the age of 54. According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, Rogers "...had been having legal troubles in recent years stemming from fighting. He was to be sentenced tomorrow over a fight with police officers and feared a long prison stay." [more inside]
If you can't see it, you can't be it
With WrestleMania 31 mere hours away, let's talk about representation in pro wrestling. And really, lessons that apply for any form of entertainment.
If you don’t use positive representation to speak to new fans who look different, who act different, who have new ideas, you’ll never have new fans at all.If You Can't See It, You Can't Be It: The Importance of Representation in Modern Day Wrestling [more inside]
You got your kayfabe in my bad lip reading...
From Wrestling Legend to Double Amputee, Kamala Keeps Fighting
The name Jim Harris probably doesn't mean much to many pro wrestling fans, however, most would be very familiar with his alter ego, Kamala. Billed as hailing from Uganda, Kamala, who never spoke, was portrayed as a dangerous, cannibalistic savage. After debuting the Kamala gimmick in Memphis in 1982, his career peaked in the mid-80s when he had a main event level feud with the biggest star of the era, Hulk Hogan. Unfortunately, as detailed in this article from the Bleacher Report, the past few years have been challenging for Harris both medically and financially, but he maintains a positive outlook. [more inside]
RIP Stone Crusher
1-0 lifetime record, defeated Daniel Bryan, all around badass Connor "Stone Crusher" Michalek, has passed away. Connor met Bryan around Christmas last year, where he put Bryan into the "No" Lock and made him tap out.
The Granddaddy of 'Em All
This weekend, the WWE Universe descends on the Superdome in New Orleans for WrestleMania XXX, the annual pay-per-view* that serves as the Super Bowl of professional wrestling. [more inside]
The King Of New Orleans
Lost Dog: The Search For A Forgotten New Orleans Superhero
On a recent Friday night in the Harahan Community Center, the master of ceremonies had the capacity crowd’s attention. “This here,” he promised, “this tonight is gonna be some old-school professional wrestling.” All of us cheered. “Some of you may remember– folks my age, a little younger– the kind of old-school wrestling New Orleans was famous for. I’m talking about a certain Bill Watts. I’m talking about the Junkyard Dog.” Some jumped to their feet, howling in approval. “Junkyard Dog!” they shouted. Most just clapped politely. When I spoke to people outside during the show’s intermission, no-one younger than forty had much to say about Junkyard Dog. Of the younger attendees, a few knew he was from here, but to the majority he was just another name, a minor figure from the distant days of Hulk Hogan. Thirty years ago, Junkyard Dog was a New Orleans demigod.[more inside]
Darren Young: gay and happy
Professional wrestling's relationship with homosexuality and non-heteronormative presentation has long been downright hostile: from Gorgeous George in the 1950s, to "Pretty Boy" Pat Patterson in the 1970s, "Adorable" Adrian Adonis in the 1980s, Golddust in the 1990s, the infamous Billy and Chuck in the 2000s, and even Orlando Jordan in the 2010s, wrestlers who present as effeminate or who "might be gay" have always been portrayed as heels, drawing boos from the crowd. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the suggestion of female homosexuality has been called upon only to titillate.
And although former performers like Patterson and the late Chris Kanyon publicly acknowledged their homosexuality after their active careers had ended, and though the WWE recently hired openly-gay retired professional golfer Jane Geddes as VP of Talent Relations, there hasn't been an active, out WWE Superstar until now, when Darren Young, asked if he thought there was a place for a gay wrestler, told TMZ that he's "gay ... and happy."
CHIKARMAGEDDON: Is this the end for CHIKARA Pro?!
On the eve of their 4th internet pay-per-view extravaganza, rumours abound of a cataclysmic denouement for the unique independent wrestling company. With wrestlers prone to accidental time-travel, dimensional warping and mind-control by ancient, cursed artifacts (not to mention outbreaks of goblins vs balloons and international games of duck-duck-goose whenever Osaka Pro come to visit), the Chikara workplace is stressful enough, but under the power-crazed directorship of Wink Vavasseur, and purported backstage strife, the promotion has been hemorrhaging talent for several months... [more inside]
The Author of Pro Wrestling's Weekly Bible
Frank Deford, a 50-year veteran of Sports Illustrated, once labeled Meltzer the most accomplished reporter in sports journalism. “You could cover the Vatican or State Department,” Deford said recently, “and not do as good a job as Dave Meltzer does on wrestling.”For nearly 30 years, Dave Meltzer has published the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, featuring weekly behind the locker room door insight into the business of professional wrestling. How far reaching has Meltzer's impact been? In one famous incident, Hulk Hogan, frustrated by what he perceived as consistently negative coverage in the publication, burned a copy of the newsletter during a live Pay-Per-View event.
In Memory of Paul Bearer
Bill Moody, best known as professional wrestling manager Paul Bearer, passed away Tuesday at the age of 58. [more inside]
"Six little tiny shoes, all at one time!"
CHIKARA Pro Wrestling is notable, in the wrestling world, for taking the position that intergender tag matches should just happen whenever men and women want to fake-fight one another - but perhaps this is just part of CHIKARA's particular worldview, which is one that includes a time-traveling knight from medieval times who came to the present day and then formed a tag team with another version of himself from three weeks later who also traveled in time to the present day and the Super Smash Bros., who are very defensive of the original Nintendo Entertainment System. At this year's King of Trios three-day super-event, two all-female teams competed, including the Sendai Girls from Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling. The Sendai Girls made it to the semifinals where they competed against Team Ring of Honor in what was subsequently deemed by many wrestling fans to be the best intergender match yet wrestled in North America. This week, Chikara put the match up free on Youtube.
"This never happens during MY matches."
Some folks in CHIKARA Pro were having a wrestling match, and a baseball game broke out.
Thiiiiiiiiis iiiiiiiiiiis aaaaaaaaaawwwwwwesooooooooooommme
Hoooooooooo!
Hard Gay was a Japanese pro wrestler turned TV personality popular in the mid 2000s. Like Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno, he is a cartoonish gay foreigner portrayed by a straight person, but has come under considerably greater scrutiny for his more minstrelsy than satyrical approach. The BBC has profiled Hard Gay as part of their series, Japanorama. [more inside]
It's still real to me, dammit!
Secrets of Pro Wrestling (1987) What happens when these two wrestlers get a raw deal from their chosen profession? They don't get mad, the get even! (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Trailer) [more inside]
Is Professional Wrestling Legend Ric Flair Becoming a Real-Life Randy the Ram?
While Hulk Hogan may have been professional wrestling's biggest box office star of the past generation, from a critical standpoint, Ric Flair is widely regarded as the most talented wrestler of the modern era in terms of actual in-ring ability, as well as being known as one of the best promo men (the ability to give entertaining interviews promoting upcoming matches) in the history of the business.
In recent years, however, Flair's legacy has been tarnished, with his name more likely to be making news for any number of embarrassing out of the ring incidents and dire financial situation as for his in-ring exploits, to the point where comparisons to Randy “The Ram” Robinson are not out of place. Grantland explores Ric Flair's fall from grace in "The Wrestler in Real Life".
This match is scheduled for one fall.
Spencer Baum's self-published first novel One Fall explores the world of professional wrestling through the eyes of an up-and-coming star, a taken-for-granted women's division wrestler, a head booker with no authority, and an internet fanboy, all trying to navigate the line between fiction and nonfiction. Baum is now releasing the novel one chapter at a time as a Creative Commons audiobook. The book closely parallels the Monday Night Wars, with sly references to infamous reality-blurring events like the Montreal Screwjob (the subject of an excellent National Film Board documentary you can now watch online) and Bash at the Beach 2000. (mild spoiler inside) [more inside]
Metamania will run wild over you
Botchamania is a series of fan-created, professional wrestling video mashups that showcases the physical slip ups, bad commentary and interviews, and bizarre aspects of wrestling.
First Goddess of the Squared Circle
RIP Fabulous Moolah. 84 year old Lillian Ellison died in Columbia, SC Friday. She was a wrestling champion for 28 years until losing her crown to Wendi Richter in 1983 in a match involving MTV and Cyndi Lauper. More here, here, and here, with obligatory YouTube link here.
Sugar and Spice and OH NO! PILEDRIVER ONTO THE EXPOSED CONCRETE!
Meet Obasan: Adorable demon-possessed little girl and Japanese professional wrestler for the horror-themed Triple Six promotion. More highlights: (1) (2)
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