Pro Wrestling

Meltzer has confirmed his death. What a terrible day. RIP

https://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=119222

A Memphis mainstay. From B. Brian Blair's Twitter: Damn. As if the death itself wasn't bad enough, to find out it's because he had no insurance and could only take pain meds while waiting out the rest of his days is downright tragic. I wish the Cauliflower Alley Club could have found out sooner. They do great work for retired pro wrestlers.

joeg made a good point in the "Comments that don't require a thread" thread: It seems that the Performance Center is functioning more as a finishing school for guys who wrestled elsewere to get the needed polishing to go to the main WWE roster. Yet WWE itself claims that the PC is where all this homegrown talent is coming from, something that really hasn't borne fruit as of yet.

Recently I've been doing a watch project for the year 2010, and in the middle of it I kind of lost the ambition to continue, but within in the past couple of days I picked it back up. Now on my spreadsheet I had an ongoing list of the best matches, but since it had been a while since I had watched them, I felt maybe it wasn't fair to compare them to the matches fresh on my mind. That led to me re-watching quite a few matches, but the one that stunned me was the one 5 star match I originally had for the year, Daniel Bryan vs. SHINGO from DGUSA. I remember absolutely loving the match, and even comparing it to Bryan vs. KENTA from ROH, but I wanted it to be fresh on my mind.…

Over the years, we've seen number of mysterious wrestlers using the mist for various circumstances and we've seen our share of different colors for that mist. I like that still today, when I look at wrestlers like Rosemary or Su Yung, it's still used since it can be a very effective weapon to build the aura of a gimmick but I've always wondered if historically, there have been some references to some colored mist being more destructive than another. I know my question might seem confusing at first glance but this is something that I've always been curious to know if that has been discussed before.

PWO Monday Match Madness Rules: I'll start by posting a match with a write-up for everyone to watch and leave their thoughts. Anyone is welcome to participate. At the end of the weekend, I will nominate a poster who rated my match to post a match of their choosing for the next week's pick. At the end of of that weekend, the nominated poster will choose another user to take over and so on. Hope that all makes sense. Also, always include a link for the match that you will be nominating. Week 3 (as nominated by joeg): Leon Spinks vs Atsushi Onita (Martial Arts Cage Match) (FMW 5/24/92) I thought I'd go with a very, ve…

Has anyone seen this? It was given a one-night "Fathom Events" theatrical screening on Thursday. No word on a home video or at least digital release, but that has to be inevitable IMO. It's very impressive just how many wrestlers were interviewed for this project. Unfortunately, some of them died before the documentary could be released (it was filmed over a five-year period). Through smaller stories and soundbites from various wrestlers, the filmmakers are able to paint a much larger picture about the wrestling industry as a whole. It covers the topics you'd expect: the amount of time wrestlers spend on the road (that's where the title comes from), in…

And the sad news just keeps pouring in. Rayo de Jalisco is an absolute legend of lucha libre. He was a contemporary of El Santo and Blue Demon, and like them he also transitioned into making movies in the 1970s. He was 85 years old.

This is a list I'm putting together to represent a sort of "snapshot" of 80s wrestling around the world. Essentially, it's an attempt to capture a look at what was perceived to be the best matches of the time, what were the best matches at the end of the decade, and what were the best matches with a little revisionism and new footage thrown in thirty+ years later (or, the present-day). Instead of approaching this with my own personal preferences and picks in mind, I've decided to use qualifiers to select what matches to include to present an "unbiased" view. These are: Contemporary View: These are any matches that finished in the runner-up lists of the Wrestl…

So for this week's podcast, we're attempting the massive task of Rebooking WCW from July 1998 (after the Georgia Dome Nitro and Bash at the Beach), and would love to get your thoughts on what you'd have done to try and steer the company at a point when the Monday Night War was still neck and neck. If you had to take control in July 1998, what moves would you make at this pivotal time to prevent the fall that was? You have Goldberg as the new champion, a enormous roster filled with established star power, future superstars and underneath fodder to work with - what would be your priorities? Who would you push? Who would you de-emphasise and how? What feuds and angles …

I used to review everything for my blog, and even with a $100+ cable bill a month, it didn't cut the mustard. To review the same stuff I used to review, I could easily see a near $200/month bill if I count cable plus various wrestling streaming services. Right now, these are some of the companies with streaming services: - WWE - ROH - NJPW - Stardom - DDT(Upcoming) - FlowSlam - IIRC Chikara has one - Plus a whole host other companies. While I really like the idea that you can buy or stream any show at any time, I think the various companies are asking a lot for what they give. $10/month for a show or two isn't that much, but on …

According to Jim Ross' Twitter, he passed away today. I'd have no reason to believe Ross would report something like this erroneously.

I feel like this is a board where this tidbit of news will brighten some people's days. Here's all we know at this point, believe me I've searched, a quote from Lawler on his latest podcast. "“We did a pilot episode of our classic wrestling show here in Memphis. And it got picked up! September 9, we are going to get Bill Dundee back in the studio and we are going to shoot the first episode of Jerry Lawler’s Classic Memphis Wrestling. The Memphis wrestling that everybody grew up here in Memphis watching Saturday mornings. That’s going to be a weekly show coming up in Memphis on Channel 30, CW 30 here in Memphis.” Lawler and Dundee being on local Memphis TV on a wee…

I've heard the shoot-style scene has been experiencing a revival over the past few years on the US and Euro indy circuit. Could someone fill me on what's been going on and what the must-see matches are? I just watched this match and was blown away. Only found it because the channel also had Ikeda/Honda lol http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3gwba9

Matt Cappotelli was only 38 years old (younger than many of us, including me) and died after two long bouts of brain cancer. That sucks. From his wife's Facebook page: Hey Team Capp...I've been struggling with what to say and how to say this, and I'll probably end up rambling, but here goes. Today my love-my strong, sweet, beautiful love-took his last breath at 3:30 a.m. and went Home to be with Jesus...exactly one year after his brain surgery. You think you can be prepared for this when you know it's coming, but you just can't. The only person who's comfort I want right now is the one who can't give it to me. I miss him so much. I know where he is now is so mu…

It was confirmed in his twitter page. May he rest in peace. One of the greatest bigs in wrestling history.

I have been thinking about the tag team scene in WWE lately, and how awesome it was from the moment the Shield stepped onto the scene in late 2012 until almost the moment they broke up. Every week seemed to have multiple quality tag and trios matches that got ample time and focus. Tons of good teams were hanging around and lots of makeshift combos gave TV trios tons of variety and kept things fresh. I want to know, for point of comparison, what other 18 month or 2 years stretches rival this one in terms of tag team quality? Late 80s NWA? I am sure there are plenty of other candidates out there, but just curious what others hold in high esteem. I am planning on revis…

With the recent poll on the Flair-Steamboat trilogy, this one seems especially appropriate as well. It's not up to their level, but I've heard strong advocates for each set of matches, so let's see how things shake out when it's put to the polls! In case anyone doesn't know or is confused from my poll: SB 3 strap = Sting/Vader Superbrawl III match, non-sanctioned, strap match Cade 92 = the Starrcade 1992 match between Sting and Vader, for King of Cable GAB 92 = Sting vs. Vader for the WCW world title at Great American Bash 1992 edit: Not sure if this is the proper forum for this topic. If not, plz merge and move it, mods

Since these posts will all be gone in the morning, who has some ridiculous nonsense to get off of their chest? For example: I preferred it when Bryan Danielson wore plain burgundy trunks, knee-pads, and boots. I think the flashy new burgundy, white, and black gear is too fancy-dan for his character. I would be OK with it, however, if he went with a claret-and-blue look, like soccer clubs Aston Villa and West Ham United wear/wore. I went with that colour combo for my Fire Pro edit of Billy Robinson because the Lancashire-based Burnley F.C.wears those colours. I have to say, it looks pretty sharp.

G1 CLIMAX 28 First day at Korakuen looks dope, same as the 1st night in Osaka, all from Block B of course. Really interested in what they draw for night 1 at Budokan. How much people can Tanahashi vs Okada keep drawing? It's the only real option they had in that block too. Night 2 at Budokan is very solid. Kenny vs Ibushi and Naito vs Sabre fighting for a spot in the finals. The more predictable outcome is Okada vs Ibushi with Okada winning, with Nato beating Kenny on night 1 of their block, securing a title shot for Sep. or Oct. Is Gedo really gonna do the Tana/Okada storyline again (this time for Naito/Okada) just 3 years after he originally booked it? We'll…

When Honky shoved Liz and the Mega-Powers formed, man, I seriously expected to see it on the 6 o'clock news the next day. A big deal. I was 7 and this show was just the greatest thing in the world. During the era of quarterly PPV's and squash-match heavy tv, SNME was genuinely special. I had no understanding of the "dark weeks for SNL" scheduling then, and was always suprised by the announcement (usually an ad during WWF Superstars "Tonight on CHCH channel 11 at 11:30...") and excited for the rest of the day. Was never a problem staying up that late... though I do recall setting the primitive VCR we had just in case I fell asleep. I'd watch those tapes over an…

Good afternoon. I opened this topic to compare Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles about in ring ability. We talked about them in the last topics, but now I'd like to talk about specific aspects, like selling, storytelling and in ring psychologhy. First of all what is the real meaning of in ring psychologhy and storytelling? What are the criteria of judgment? Who is better in these specific aspects, trying to be more objective as possible, not only judging as fans but as impartial critics? Why? What do you think about Danielson's selling, in particular I'm talking about his selling during his indy run, because it's obvious that, for example, WWE imposed him to not s…

Finally binge-watching some Lucha Underground. I guess this isn't the hot new thang anymore since there has been zero talk about it in these parts. Or maybe all happens on Facebook/Twitter now. Anyway, I don't care Meltz decreting it had jumped the shark and going nowhere, I'm glad to have Dario Cueto back on my TV, ridiculous spotfest and funky gimmick matches, with those B-movie, luchaxploitation vignettes ! Rey Mysterio vs Pentagon Dark was quite a main-event for a season debut too. And damn, La Catrina !!! Let's see if this season really is losing all the fun like it's been said from people following the spoilers.

This is the topic that has been obsessing me recently, when I think about Pro Wrestling. Thanks to my participation in the Armchair Booking 1983 Project, I have been watching a fair bit of mid-1980s wrestling footage from around the world. What really stands out to me in the bulk of that footage, and particularly when compared to the small amounts of recent wrestling I have watched, is this: Bad guys consistently do bad guy things in the ring. They preen and strut, they distract and lie to the ref, they gouge eyes, choke, pull hair, pull the tights, use the ropes illegally... Good guys consistently do good guy things in the ring: They play to the crowd, they s…