Pro Wrestling

Link: https://www.espn.com/professional-wrestling/story/_/id/43584536/the-wrestling-club-wwe-aew-wrestlers-brooklyn-kipp-amp Tremendous article!

At the People vs GCW show tonight, PCO won a battle royale and said he wanted to do something for a while. He brought a sledgehammer and a chair into the ring and proceeded to bash his TNA Digital Media belt while saying he's the best merch seller in TNA until the ring announcer and GCW crew wrestled the mic away and the show cut to a video package. The story is PCO told GCW the stunt was part of a storyline for the next TNA tapings, but they realized halfway through the segment that it was not authorized TNA is saying they were surprised about it and that he was set to wrap up on the next tapings. So putting two and two together it seems like PCO feels TNA cheated h…

Considering that is full time career is ended, how would you judge Bryan Danielson's historical importance? If he never existed how pro wrestling history would have been different? Without Kind of Indies Tournament in 2001, would have ROH ever existed? And without ROH, would have AEW ever existed? What is his role in that? I'm not asking you about his quality, but about historical importance

With AEW streaming on MAX and Raw on Netflix in 2025, it feels like we've crossed the Rubicon in terms of traditional TV being the primary source of income for national promotions. Especially when WWE's all but said they'll probably want to have Smackdown on Netflix at some point, streaming is going to the focus of the next media deals when they come up for renewal. It's a fitting bookend to how programming from the local rasslin' territory was the way a lot of early TV stations filled their airtime up cheaply.

Rick "Black Bart" Harris passed away at age 76 after long battle with cancer. He wasn't the biggest star but he was a guy who always showed up if even for a little bit in pretty much every promotion I watched as a kid.

Bonne Annee! My wife & I are spending a holiday week up in lovely Quebec City, my third time, her first and Lo & Behold, there’s a Quebecois pro wrestling exhibit at the Museum of Civilization! If you’re in the area or have always wanted to go to Quebec City, now is the time. They did a fantastic job covering the Quebecois Golden Age from the 50s to the 80s. Highlights include: Clips of Killer Kowalski vs Yvon Robert from 1950s with English commentary. The finish was included. Clips of Carpentier vs Destroyer from 1971. Great interviews with Rick Martel, Raymond Rougeau, and Gilles Poisson. Lots of great memorabilia: Pat Patterson, Ri…

Watched the first episode. It's good, but I've got to say it's a highly fictionalized account of Dump Matsumoto's life. I hope people don't view it as a history lesson. Some of the scenes are based on actual events, but almost nothing happens the way it occurred in real life. It's a dramatization so that's understandable. I just hope fans don't get confused by it. The wrestling choreography looks great. They use a lot of sound effects, but the actual wrestling is better than I expected. For the most part, they get the retro stuff correct, though it's difficult for them to create the exact atmosphere of the wrestling matches. There also exterior scenes that are clear…

Wrestling in the Pacific Northwest right now is pretty hot, and one of the hottest promotions is BOOM! Pro Wrestling out of Vancouver. BOOM! is a family friendly, silly and out there but in ring serious promotion that emphasizes story, characters, craziness, and solid in ring Canadian Pro Wrestling. It's a breath of fresh air to the healthy world of Indy wrestling that has too much "Fight Forever" and is lacking in "Yay! and Boo!", and time traveling Abe Lincoln. It's also run by some good friends of mine. I even got to be the Ring Announcer at their second show a few years ago . It was their first Halloween show "We Want Candy" in 2022. Here's "We Want Candy" 2024! …

I've been watching since it launched a few weeks back, and it's been quite an interesting show. You have young unknown guys in one match, Col. Robert Parker managing a team of bleach blond fat guys who look like they fell out of a time machine from 80s Memphis, Pentagon vs Fenix, all announced by Tony Schiavone. The first thing that you realize immediately that Tony sounds 30 years younger not being burdened down by WCW bullshit. He even threw in an "folks, we're outta time" at the end of the first episode. It's amazing to see someone who had the passion beat out of him seemingly able to find it again.

Ballots were sent out to us over the weekend: This is our ballot for the 2024 Hall of Fame. This ballot is being sent out to major wrestling stars, past and present, major management figures in the industry, writers and historians. If you are getting this, you are being asked your opinion on who should be inducted into this year's Hall of Fame class. The criteria for the Hall of Fame is a combination of drawing power, being a great in-ring performer or excelling in ones field in pro wrestling, as well as having historical significance in a positive manner. A candidate should either have something to offer in all three categories, or be someone so outstanding…

In something that seems to have gone largely under the radar on wrestling news sites that I've noticed, Al Derusha passed away recently at the age of 88. He was more or less the Kevin Dunn of the AWA behind the scenes (minus the dizzying editing), and would occasionally appear on screen as well. His son Gary was also a ref in the AWA, which always stood out to me watching as a kid as I couldn't ever figure out why that was the only ref they seemed to go out of their way to mention the name of.

https://x.com/noah_ghc/status/1823207884857221529 No special retirement match, event, or even a press conference despite having nearly wrestled 40 whole years. Very in-character for one of the most underrated wrestlers of all time that he'd remain modest until the end. As someone who was always excited for the few times a year he'd forgo the neck injury and actually put on a clinic (like with the Kaito/Ridgeway matches) it's gonna feel weird not having that around now.

More news as it comes along.

Ol' Billy has been teasing a new era for the NWA, and along with announcing they are bringing back the territory system starting with EC3's promotion they also signed a deal wth the CW to carry NWA Power. The CW has new ownership that has been making several deals for sports programming and this seems like a good fit with their plan. NWA gets on network TV and the CW gets more programming to fill their non primetime hours.

https://x.com/miruhon/status/1833239234175775165?s=46&t=jd8qInMnXwQK1iDk12oCWw Per Weekly Fight Twitter. Hot take, maybe (less of one in these parts) but I thought he was Sayama's best opponent. Also had an incredible brawl with Masanobu Fuchi that I still think is slept on despite making the old AJPW '80s set.

This one hurts. https://www.facebook.com/gunnar.eudy/posts/pfbid021MBVJD3wGyLCjacvecHu4nNsUbuEgdJZS7hWD8PcDb7rYGzAY8i4qKb6UjdTL6Jwl

CMLL broke the news today that he passed few days ago.

Sorry for the double post - the apostrophe glitch really needs to be fixed. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/indies/mauro-ranallo-returning-to-commentary-for-scott-damores-new-promotion/

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/indies/mauro-ranallo-returning-to-commentary-for-scott-damores-new-promotion/

There were rumors this week, which were premature, but it looks like Afa is really gone now. From Afa's Facebook page: Afa the Wild Samoan 8m · This afternoon, just a very short time ago, I received the phone call from my mom that my beloved father, the center of my universe, passed away. My heart is so full of his presence and strength. I got to spend the vast majority of my life right there by his side, through the best of times and the hardest of times. Thank you, Dad, for every priceless life lesson you taught me. Thank you for being someone who cared, always. I've been preparing to say goodbye to my Dad since January, when he had those two h…

Link: https://www.wwe.com/article/kevin-sullivan-passes-away One of my favorites and a guy ahead of his time. His Florida stuff is legendary, but I always LOVED his team with Cactus Jack in WCW. Jack would try to sneak in reading a book during their matches and Sullivan would slap him to get him to focus but Cactus LIKED being slapped. RIP

I'd never seen this before. It's an interesting television documentary that maintains kayfabe while at the same time putting a French spin on things yet still provides a glimpse into what life was like for the AJW wrestlers and some of the personal problems they had at the time. You also get expert commentary from Flesh Gordon.

Pretty simple concept. List your personal MOTY for every year you can think of. It can be your favorite match, the match you think is objectively the best, or whatever other criteria you like. I need to do some rewatching, but here are my picks for every year I'm reasonably certain of. 1975-Antonio Inoki vs. Billy Robinson, 12/11 1976-Giant Baba vs. Billy Robinson, 7/24 1977-Billy Robinson vs. Jumbo Tsuruta, 3/5 1978-Mark Rocco vs. Marty Jones, 7/26 1979-Bob Backlund vs. Pat Patterson, 7/30 1980-Dynamite Kid vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, 2/5 1981-Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk, 3/23 1982-Jerry Lawler vs. Dutch Mantell, 3/22 1983-Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee, 6/6…

Just saw this. Not a lot of footage to judge, at least as far as I know, but he was held in very high regard by a lot of folks, including Bret Hart. Worked extensively in his home area of the Maritimes, wrestling was the family business, and also Stampede of course. Looks like the Carolina's were his main US home (as Bobby Kay). Also helped train a lot of future wrestlers

Word seems to be getting out that Osamu Kido has passed away. Osamu Kido was an NJPW original and a NJPW dojo trainer during the 2000s. He was a brilliant wrestler. Never became a main event guy but always had great matches throughout his career and was a key part of the big UWF vs NJPW feud during the 1980s. He was also a student of Karl Gotch and Gotch spoke highly of him. Some said Gotch favored him the most and that he was like a son to him. RIP. Edit - Nikkan Sports has more info on this. Kido has been battling cancer for the past several years and underwent chemotherapy. He was 73 years old. https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/news/202312140000643.html