Pro Wrestling

Best known as 1/2 of The Wild Samoans with his brother Afa and of course as the father of Roman Reigns. https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2024/06/25/wild-samoan-sika-dies-father-of-roman-reigns/

Bad Bones John Klinger has died at the age of merely 40. The cause of death is said to be a heart attack. Eerily enough on he same day as his idol Randy Savage. He had announced his retirement from pro wrestling just earlier this year and was still busy with his retirement tour. International fans may know him from his short stints with TNA and BJW. Down here he was a highly respected veteran and one of the go-to main eventers in any promotion. Incredibly hard working wrestler who committed 100% to the lifestyle and have a WWE-style pro wrestler look.

Fellow board member @GeneJackson95 and I are having a bit of fun taking some really bad indy and backyard wrestling from today all the way back to the 90's, sprinkling in some silly commercials and some dumb segments and turning it into a show which is a little bit old Saturday morning wrestling and a little bit MST3K, though probably not nearly as good as either one. But, we are having a good time doing it, and hopefully you'll be entertained if you take the time to watch it. If you do, please leave a message and let us know what you think! The show has certainly gotten better as we've progressed, so if you do decide to give us a shot, maybe start with a later episo…

The Retro Wrestling Re-View podcast returns with Episode #3 as an under the weather Gene Jackson is back and powers through another excellent episode with Guests Josh Briley and Richard Mullikin (of P3 Radio) to once again travel back to January 1993 for some USWA Wrestling! This week we find out that “Mean” Mike Miller has ALWAYS had a problem with women fighting over him! (and why wouldn’t they fight over “the Mean Man”?) Bert Prentice brings out “Bubba Johnson’s Wife” and you won’t believe who it is! Plus, the new Southern Champion Brian Christopher is in back to gloat, Jeff Jarrett is swinging more lumber in the studio than “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, and The Bruise Brother…

El Signo passed away yesterday. He's most famous as a member of the Misioneros de la Muerte, the superstar team that more or less made 3v3 the standard format for multiman matches in Mexico. During the prime of the original group (Signo, Negro Navarro, Texano), he was probably the biggest star of the three, but he's also the least remembered among English speaking wrestling fans today. Texano split off from the group early and had CMLL runs and a memorable team with Silver King, and Navarro had his renaissance as an indy legend, but Signo's career didn't have that kind of second act. Almost none of his prime exists on video (if any does at all), so the clearest repre…

I've come across clips of this stuff on Youtube, highly interesting. There's a high level of athleticism and invetiveness on display that doesn't seem to be far below of what the mexican guys were doing around the same time. Check out this clip, some impressive stuff here: Makoto Morimitsu apparently is a Japanese guy who learned how to wrestle in South America and he has worked there since, trotting the globe during the 2000s. His channel has more stuff, although only highlights and usually doesn't show the finish of the matches sadly: https://www.youtube.com/@makotomorimitsu6249/videos He also has clips of him wrestling in pla…

The hits keep on coming. Farewell to one of the great "big match" workers of all-time.

Some notes. 1. From about 1986 on, it seems Vince was looking for someone to replace Monsoon longterm. Jack Reynolds was brought in in September 1984 to take over from Vince presenting All-Star Wrestling -- to me, the fact he hired Reynolds in and didn't ask Monsoon, shows that for whatever reason he wanted someone else from the get go. Reynolds was not only the host of All-Star but was the first host of Prime Time with Jesse Ventura in January 1985. However, it didn't last and Monsoon had replaced him in both positions by July 1985 as well as maintaining commentary for the house shows. Maybe by 86, Vince was happy with Monsoon doing Challenge and Prime Time,…

Very interesting. It's good to see Josh Barnett bring this concept to Japan. Sumo Hall is an interesting choice for a venue. I wonder if he has any aces up his sleeve for that sort of building. Going to be interesting to see how the card shakes out. It's a shame so many shoot-style greats are either too old to do a match or retired now.

Hi all, figured this would be a fun little thing folks here would want to take a crack at: https://tiermaker.com/create/all-pwi-500-wrestling-observer-woty-and-most-outstanding-winn-15079364 (For the unfamiliar, "S Class" is a Japanese linguistic convention indicating the best of the best, something above simply an A grade) A few folks i know have made their personal lists, so i'll post them here and see if you have a read on what type of fan each person is... Exhibit A: Exhibit B: Exhibit C: And of course, feel free to post your own using whatever criteria you like!

Same style as my ROH rewatch. Are You Adequately Prepared to Rock?! - October 4, 2003 PWG Title Match Frankie Kazarian vs. AJ Styles vs. Christopher Daniels Fans of NWA-TNA will love this. To me, it felt like an above-average X-Division match or something I'd see currently on Superstars. Good but nothing special, even with some great spots from time to time. Rating: ***

Sad news, especially when it's someone so young. I saw him wrestle several times in APW, and of course he was in Barry Blaustein's "Beyond the Mat" documentary. https://slamwrestling.net/index.php/2024/04/14/shooter-tony-jones-dead-at-53/

Heart failure, apparently. Rather sad end to one of the most prolific sumo wrestlers of all time and arguably one of the biggest draws ever. RIP.

Hey yo, so I got married recently and we are taking our honeymoon to Japan. I cant go to Japan and not see 1-2 wrestling shows while I am over there. Not to worry my wife is going to AEW Big Business in March and both nights of WrestleMania, she has definitely become a fan during the course of our relationship. So I had a couple questions about seeing pro wrestling live in Japan. 1. How do you see when & where upcoming shows will be? I figure my best bet to see wrestling is in Tokyo or Osaka. We will also be going to Kyoto, which I assume is not exactly a pro wrestling hotbed. So I know I cant be picky if New Japan is not running in Tokyo or Osaka when I w…

Mamma Mia! https://411mania.com/wrestling/mlw-interested-mauro-ranallo/

https://www.f4wonline.com/news/other-wrestling/ajpws-yutaka-yoshie-passes-away-following-match-in-takasaki Apparently he fell ill after having a to be televised match (in his hometown, no less) and passed away before he could get to hospital. Incredibly sad news all things considered. Not sure if AJPW will still upload the event as-is or will omit the match altogether. Either way, RIP.

Vince just sold 5.3 million shares of TKO stock for $411,950,000 dollars. That’s only 1/4 of the stock he owns. I’m sure there is some type of noncompete agreement in place, and I’m definitely not saying he should with all the legal and moral issues. But the question still crossed my mind.

Ricky Morton announced Ole's passing on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/C31FoQvJptD/?igsh=NXR2Y2ZsNmhmOGt2 He was 81. Say what you want about the guy, but anyone who hated Vince McMahon as much as he did had to have something going for him.

I knew after Virgil died another wrestler would pass away shortly. Never fails Butcher and Mad Dog drew big money as a team in the 70s. He body slammed Andre. Had a memorable wedding on an early TNT

SlamWrestling is reporting the passing of Virgil. "Mike Jones, who wrestling fans knew as Virgil and Vincent, has died. The news was confirmed by Pittsburgh referee Mark Charles III who had one of many who continued to look in on Jones as his health failed. Charles III posted to Facebook on the morning of February 28, 2024: My dear friends, it is with great sorrow that I bring news from the Jones family of the passing of our beloved Michael Jones, whom we know and loved as Virgil, Vincent, Soul Train Jones and more. Virgil passed peacefully at the hospital this morning and I ask that you pray for him and for his family. May his memory be eternal!" Res…

It had been a while since I browsed through the wrestling book category on Amazon so I started clicking through the other day. Man, there are a shitload of wrestling books (and e-books) out there that I've never heard of! Does anyone have any recommendations for under-the-radar titles that are worth reading? By under-the-radar, I mean stuff besides the autobiographies from well-known superstars, Cornette's stuff, etc. Something that deserves to stand out among the clutter, but maybe hasn't had a spotlighted shined upon it. I'll recommend one to start: I'm halfway through "Kamala Speaks" and it's really good. The writing is substandard, but not bad enough to derail…

Every time I hear about Herb Abrams' UWF I can't escape the idea it had the potential. Abrams himself had a stellar track record as a businessman before starting the company. They had rather considerable funds on hand -Abrams had 2 million that he expected to last 5 years. They were on a nationwide channel, Sportschannel America, which was covering production cost for them and they had genuinely recognizable stars from the 80s i.e Paul Orndorf and Steve "Dr Death" Williams. Sadly Abrams' personal issues got in the way but his version of the UWF stands out to me as a true "what if?" of pro wrestling. My question to you reader is, if you were in Abrams' position, …

Young Rock is the first mainstream network show about wrestling that treats it seriously and with reverence, while still being funny. (GLOW did the same thing for streaming on Netflix before being unceremoniously cancelled because of Covid.) It's great nostalgia, great fanservice, and *gulps* the potential beginning of The Rock's campaign to become President of the United States. What does PWO think of the show?

Okay so basically I wanna attempt to put together a master list of all existing pre-1970 footage from various promotions, I wanna cover WWWF, CWC, EMLL, JWA and tons of other places like Fred Kohlers Chicago territory and the IWE, I've decided to place all updates here in this post so the listings are easier for everyone to locate, I'll still be posting the normal way too so whenever anything new is added to the list people will know. CAPITOL WRESTLING CORPORATION (1953 - 1963). 1958 1) Johnny Valentine interview (Wrestling From Capital Arena - June 12th, 1958 - Wrestling's Greatest Matches: "The Golden Era"). 2) Fabulous Kangaroos int…