I'm kinda loving Del Rio's face turn just happening out of nowhere and now he's a good guy who slapped hands with a fan on the way to the ring on RAW.

I also like how he seems to be going back to his roots and doing planchas out of the ring as a technico now.

Jump on this my North American friends in case of it being taken down

 

When Wrestling Was Golden: Grapples, Grunts and Grannies (BBC - 2012):

Thanks for sharing man. It was a really enjoyable look at an area of wrestling I knew next to nothing about. I especially liked the parts on Street and Nagasaki.

Yeah the flying stuff is pretty cool. He'll probably be fine as a face once he gets out of that silly program he's in now.

I hope Del Rio grows a Pedro Armendariz mustache and gets inspiration from the leading men of the época de oro del cine Mexicano. Maybe study some Ignacio López Tarso to help get more sympathy when he's selling.

An oral history of the WWE relaunch of ECW

 

http://t.co/vyvov7l8

Obviously the idiots on WWE.com have been reading too much Grantland and thought they had a brought idea to rip it off, and do it poorly. A contrast to how these are better done:

 

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/761231...y-malice-palace

 

FWIW, I did enjoy WWE.com also ripping off the old Bob.com tactic of breaking a *small* article across a slew of pages.

 

John

I wouldn't call it ripping off when Joey Styles still runs WWE.com.

I was thinking about Mike Shaw's perils of showing up when he did in 93 (I know. The things I think about). Earthquake was on his way out, yes, and Typhoon soon after, but the roster had Yokozuna, Bam Bam, Kamala, Hughes, with Mabel about to come in. What the heck COULD they do with him but something like Booger. It made me think of the diversity of the roster, mainly, and the complaints over the last five years that WWE had a huge deficit in that area.

 

This made me wonder: have we finally hit the point where people can no longer reasonably complain about the WWE roster being full of guys who all look the same?

Guys this is exceptionally special take the time to click on the following links and try not to get glassy eyed in the process. 5 year old with cancer got to finally meet Daniel Bryan after a youtube campaign:

 

http://withleather.uproxx.com/2012/12/wwe-...r-no-lock-video

 

 

The unedited video of the meet:

http://www.wpxi.com/videos/news/pittsburgh...-hero-wwe/vkdYf

You hear stories about pretty much every wrestler and how they're a jerk (or worse) at some point. I can't recall anyone saying anything bad about Bryan or Kane. They really seem like genuinely good people.

Not every day I can send a link to friends & family and say this is why I'm proud to be a wrestling fan. Today is one such day.

Shelton Benjamin has requested and received his contract release from Ring of Honor reports Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com. While the belief is that he may not be completely done with ROH, rumors of WWE considering to bring back former talent makes this timing very interesting.

Shelton & MVP are both pretty much WWE bound in 2013

Here's something you guys might enjoy The Great 1,024 Wrestler Tournament

That'd actually be a cool concept if it was better organized & not on facebook

 

Yeah, it's not perfect. Maybe we could adapt the idea for a thread here or something.

 

 

Weirdly enough, Online Onslaught is running one as we speak, the two seemed unconnected. I have been voting, but there is a strong WWE bias. With many "knowledgeable" voters not knowing who Tenryu or Hashimoto were and Michaels & Angle heavy favorites to take the whole thing. My favorite thread so far was debating the merits of Sandman vs Tommy Dreamer. I thought it was Sandman in a walk, but Dreamer squashed him like 39-2, but it was a fun thread. Explaining to a bunch of indy wankers that KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji are not the end all be all of puroresu was not as fun.

 

The best part of the first round is usually those paired have a connection and the guy usually tries to find a humorous connection. His masterpiece so far is Chris Benoit vs Brain Damage.

Shelton & MVP are both pretty much WWE bound in 2013

MVP I could get behind coming off his run in NJPW, but why Shelton?

Shelton & MVP are both pretty much WWE bound in 2013

John Morrison too.

 

MVP I could get behind coming off his run in NJPW, but why Shelton?

They want these grizzled vets ( ) to teach the young roster how to work and to do TV programs/jobs.

Great, three guys I never wanted to see in a WWE ring again.

 

They should be brought in to feud with 3MB

Morrison and Benjamin teaches young guys how to work is the most unintentionally funny thing I've heard in a while.

"Here's how to execute offense so that it looks like it wouldn't hurt an amoeba."

 

"Here's how to horribly botch a hilo and almost die"

What Dave wrote in the Observer today:

There has been talk of bringing back some veterans from the past (such as Shelton Benjamin, who has not been signed but they are in talks with, and who asked for and got a release from his ROH contract 12/16 to allow him to legally negotiate a deal), who wouldn’t get a big push, but would be names on the card who can work with a lot of the younger guys and help put them over.

Mike Johnson said the same thing. This is actually the plan. Far cry from the Finlays, Steamboat's cameo matches on house shows and the Jerichos.

Like when they signed Smothers and Tony Anthony. Except for, y'know more like signing Tom Brandi.

I'm trying to think of relatively young, unsigned guys with no star potential who would be better in that role, and I'm struggling.

Are Masters and Gallows in TNA? I can't keep track anymore.

Gallows is, Masters is to CMLL I think.