News

The wrestling world has lost another legend with the death of WWE’s “Leaping” Lanny Poffo. The 68-year-old’s cause of death is not known at this time. Poffo, a Canadian-born American citizen, began his wrestling career with the All-South Wrestling Alliance in 1974. He won a Tag-Team Championship alongside his father, Angelo. The younger brother of the late Randy Savage, Poffo’s wrestling career was highlighted by a victory over Hulk Hogan. The WWE paid tribute to Poffo on their website, writing, “Arriving in WWE in 1985 alongside his brother, ‘Leaping’ Lanny Poffo was one of the first high-flyers in WWE. While he achieved some success as a fan favorite reading his own poetry and throwing Frisbees to the crowd, he reached new heights as The Genius while managing Mr. Perfect [Curt Hennig]. WWE extends its condolences to Poffo’s family, friends and fans.” Lanny’s last Instagram post appears to...

Following my list of the Ten Best WrestleMania Matches of the 1990s, I was sent down a rabbit-hole of watching every WrestleMania again and figured it might be cool to do the same for the 80s. Now, the 80s doesn’t have as many matches to choose from like the 90s did, and the 00s and 2010s will, but there’s still five WrestleMania events to dive into, so I thought it would be cool either way. Plus… there are some damn fine matches to be found in those first five Mania events. Sure… the workrate in many areas of the WWF during that time wasn’t as great as it would become, but there’s still plenty of iconic and entertaining matches, many featuring the same group of guys. So, here it is, my top ten of the best WrestleMania Matches of the 1980s.

10. Hulk Hogan & Mr. T (w/Jimmy Snuka) vs.

Welcome to this week’s Friday Night SmackDown review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have Bray Wyatt and that stupid mask. I don’t care if Tom Savini made it or not…it looks stupid. Jean Renoir knows “The Rules Of The Game” and SmackDown starts…when-ever you start watching it.

Match #1: Naomi def. Bayley (Disqualification) The following is courtesy of wwe.com:

The Glow attempted to get one back on the self-proclaimed role model tonight… but she’d have to contest with The Boss, too. Yes, Sasha Banks returned to Friday Night SmackDown in her hometown of Boston, standing in Bayley’s corner for this rematch. Well, she stood there for a brief while, until Naomi began to pick up some steam against Bayley, prompting Banks to bull rush the ring and attack The Glow. The two-on-one wouldn’t last for very long though,...

Harley Race, Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee and 8-time Nwa World Heavyweight Champion, died of lung cancer on Thursday at the age of 76, according to WWE and a statement from his Twitter page.

“Today at 12:50, we lost the man that fought up until the very last of his existence. More information will be released soon, but just know that he loved pro-wrestling and the fans that loved him,” read a statement from Race’s reps.

Born in Missouri in 1943, Race overcame polio as a child and began training as a wrestler under the tutelage of famed champion brothers Stanislaus and Wladek Zbysko. His early career was filled with many obstacles, including his expulsion from the Zbyskos’ school after a fight with a student and a car accident that nearly led to his leg being amputated and required months of physical therapy to recover.

Also Read: Russi Taylor, Voice of 'Minnie Mouse' for 3 Decades,...

A second professional wrestling legend has passed away this week as Larry “The Axe” Hennig died today at the age of 82. Hennig follows the passing of former WWE tag team champion Dynamite Kid. Hopefully, the Law of Threes does not rear its ugly head this weekend. For those unfamiliar with Larry Hennig, he is the father of the late Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig and the grandfather of current WWE superstar Curtis Axel. When Axel took on his name, Paul Heyman introduced it and said that it was to honor his dad Curt and his grandfather, The Axe. On behalf of […]

The post Another wrestling legend dies: Larry ‘The Axe’ Hennig passes away appeared first on Monsters and Critics.

February 10th, 1989 is an important date in professional wrestling history as that is the date that Vince McMahon, in testimony to the New Jersey State Senate, admitted that professional wrestling was not a sport but was in fact sports entertainment. The term they used in the wrestling business, kayfabe, giving the audience the illusion that what you were seeing was real and not staged, was officially dead.

That did not mean the death of the industry. In fact, it opened the flood gates for many other promotions to set up shop. Most importantly, it allowed the superstars themselves to finally tell fans stories of what happened back stage.

With the rise of podcasts, wrestling fans have plenty of shows to choose from, whether it be analysis of the current state of wrestling or stories of life behind the scenes. There is something for everyone. The following are some of my...

WWE

If you’re still a Dolph Ziggler fan in 2016, you’ve just sat through a year of storylines involving him being an actual home-wrecking bastard while dressed like Kip Winger’s wardrobe from 1984 threw up on him, and you still think he’s a babyface.

If you’re still a Dolph Ziggler fan in 2016, you’ve become used to disappointment, to perusing online wrestling fora for the dirt on why this latest push has been derailed, or the latest justification for why he’s being ‘buried’.

If you’re still a Dolph Ziggler fan in 2016, you’re a glutton for punishment – rather like the man himself – but I feel for you. I’ve been there. Eight years on from Nick Nemeth’s debut in the WWE under that name, there’s a lot wrong with Dolph Ziggler.

In many – well, ten – ways, I might actually hate Dolph Ziggler (kind of).

Here’s why…...

WWE.com

Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. Mention his name to a wrestling fan, particularly an old school one, and you can guarantee that person will smile. Over an illustrious career that spanned over five decades and saw Heenan work as a wrestler, manager, color commentator, TV host and more, Bobby was a part of literally hundreds of moments and memories in wrestling. Enough for him to fill two biographies which, incidentally, are both worth checking out if you haven’t already.

Heenan was an integral part of what is still considered to be the greatest wrestling attraction of all time – Hulk Hogan vs Andre The Giant at Wrestlemania III. When the babyface Andre first walked out onto Piper’s Pit with Heenan at his side, prompting a devastated Hogan to ask “What are you doing with him?”, the road to WrestleMania officially began. Andre’s association with ‘The Brain’ was...

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The announcement earlier this week that WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart is currently suffering from prostate cancer stunned both wrestling fans and those in the wrestling business. Now, one of the places where Hart achieved some of his greatest successes is paying him tribute.

Madison Square Garden in New York City was the site of some of Hart’s greatest triumphs during his wrestling career. When one thinks of Hart and Msg, his victory over “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig at SummerSlam 1991 immediately comes to mind. In that match, Hart won his first singles title in the WWE, the Intercontinental Championship. Two and a half years later, at WrestleMania X, Hart captured the WWE Championship for the second time when he defeated Yokozuna for the strap in the show’s main event at Msg.

On Wednesday of this week, the venue honored Hart on their world famous marquee...

WWE.com

In this regular feature I intend to put my quarter-of-a-century of wrestling viewing to good use by helping to educate and inform the modern fan about the greats of a generation they missed out on.

Curt Hennig was a great worker, famous for his bumping ability, tremendous selling and ability to get the best out of anyone he worked with. Curt was a generous performer in the ring, putting his own body on the line for the benefit of his opponent. When he passed away in 2003 the wrestling world lost one of the greats, and chances are many of the new generation of wrestling fans have never had the pleasure of watching him wrestle.

It would be easy to randomly select seven great Curt Hennig matches, and lists of that ilk are readily available for those who want them. Everybody knows about Hennig’s classics with Bret Hart...

WWE.com

World Championship Wrestling has been dead and buried for nigh on fifteen years now, and its corpse has been mined repeatedly for DVD sets, retro t-shirts, and premium video game Dlc.

WWE has never been afraid to tell us about their departed rival, but their version of WCW history is skewed to say the least. We hear about Goldberg, the nWo, and maybe the cruiserweights, because that’s what WCW was doing during the period they were beating WWE, but there’s literal decades of strange, wonderful wrestling that barely rates a mention according to them.

This list goes beyond the obvious, and well as outside WCW’s most successful periods, to paint a more accurate portrait of what was once one of the greatest promotions on Earth.

20. WCW’s Musical Renaissance – 1999-2000

WWE.com

After 1999, it became harder and harder to find things to like in WCW.

2K

WWE 2K16’s roster has been leaked on wikipedia. However, it looks unlikely to be the actual roster. Names like Kurt Angle are featured as a WWE Legend, which would be a surprising inclusion given his major active role in Tna Impact Wrestling. The rest of the list is reasonably plausible, albeit with a few other unlikely names.

The list in full is can be read here. The WWE names are Bret Hart, British Bulldog, Brock Lesnar, Doink the Clown, The Great Khali, Goldberg, John Cena, Sasha Banks, Seth Rollins, Sting, Sheamus, Steve Austin, Roman Reigns, Rosa Mendes, Rusev, Ultimate Warrior and Zack Ryder.

In addition, there will apparently be an Ecw roster. That will include Rhyno, Sabu and Sandman.

There’s then a WWE Legends section, with Kurt Angle, Mr Perfect and Sid.

It is doubtful that this is the real roster. For one, why would Bret Hart...

WWE.com

When discussing any topic, the negatives usually get more attention than the positives. It’s just part of human nature to critique what we don’t like more than what we appreciate, in the hopes of making whatever is wrong better. With regards to the WWE, the largest professional wrestling promotion in the world, there are many who think that it has its flaws.

While no company can ever truly create anything that’s 100% perfect (sorry Curt Hennig), some of the more casual fans look at the WWE as the standard for professional wrestling. However, like any company, WWE has good years and bad years, and 2014 has, so far, been a very bad year.

Due to a combination of bad business decisions and poorly-timed injuries, WWE has been going through a hard time in 2014. Things were bad from the beginning; from the terrible fan reaction to Batista winning the Royal Rumble match,...

WWE.com

Twenty years ago, the pro wrestling landscape was in a completely different place. Take a look at July 1994 and where mainstream pro wrestling was. WWE was in a transitional period; moving away from Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage to pushing new stars like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was acquiring mainstream talent, like Hogan and Savage, that shifted momentum in the world of pro wrestling into their direction. Meanwhile, a little promotion in Philadelphia, Eastern Championship Wrestling, was on the verge of taking things to “The Extreme.”

Here we are in 2014; taking a look back into the annals of pro wrestling history with just one major company in play. While Tna & Ring of Honor are doing what they can to make a splash, WWE is still the mark of excellence in professional wrestling; overcoming the onslaught of competitors along the way.

WWE is the place to be.

wwe.com

When Bret Hart signed a deal with WCW in late 1997, he inadvertently changed the face of professional wrestling forever. His employer at the WWF, Vince McMahon, went on to screw Bret out of his last match with the company, and subsequently gave rise to the Mr. McMahon character.

One of the most unfortunate things to come out of the whole ordeal (aside from desecrating on one guy’s career and putting a black mark on it forever) was the fact that Bret Hart was no longer able to feud with the burgeoning talent pool that the WWE was beginning to amount. Sure, Hart went to WCW, which was filled with guys of similar build and style like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Curt Hennig, and Dean Malenko, but he was thrown straight into the nWo and never really worked with any of those guys a great deal.

Plenty of...

WWE.com

Back in the day, Summerslam was considered the second-most important pay-per-view event of the year, right behind Wrestlemania. Summerslam has provided wrestling fans with many great memories and great matches from legendary performers who showcased their talents on the big stage of the World Wrestling Federation (and later, World Wrestling Entertainment).

But what about those matches and moments that we’ve shoved away from our minds? How about the matches that were so incredibly terrible or awful that we would rather pretend they never happened?

Those are my favorite kinds of lists.

You see, anyone can make a list of great matches or moments because they are so easy to remember. We all know that Bret Hart and Curt Hennig put on a classic for the ages in 1991 or that the Rock and Triple H had a career-defining ladder match in 1998.

However, it’s tougher (and, admittedly, more...

South Korea’s Mirovision has sold Kim Myung-gyun’s Mr Perfect to a slew of Asian territories including Twin for Japan.

The coming-of-age comedy drama has also gone to Vietnam (Lotte Vietnam), Taiwan (Cola Films) and Malaysia (Hwayea Multimedia). The film, about a golfer and his relationship with his manager, stars two rising actors from Korean TV dramas, Yoon Si-yoon and Yeo Jin-goo.

Mirovision is also launching sales on Roy Lee’s Melo, a ‘hardcore melodrama’ about a woman who becomes unhinged when her lover’s ex-girlfriend shatters her happiness. The film stars Kim Hae-na and Victor Lee.

WWE.com

A lot of people have been talking about Benjamin Morris’ 538 piece, “Are Pro Wrestlers Dying at an Unusual Rate?”

Like Morris, I am neither an actuarial scientist nor a demographer. So, our interpretations of the data should be taken with a grain of salt. My results were somewhat different from Morris’ due to a difference data set and changes in how we calculated actuarial predictions.

Differences in methodology from Morris

I also used Social Security Actuarial Life Tables, but my “expected mortality rates” for the age groups were not the same as Morris’. For each wrestler, I calculated what their age would have been as of today. Then, based on gender, I looked up the number of lives (out of 100,000) that were expected to still be alive and converted that to a percentage. His analysis looked at wrestlers who were on 20+ WWF PPVs through 2002. I went with a...

WWE.com

When third-generation wrestler Windham Rotunda (son of Mike Rotunda, grandson of Blackjack Mulligan, and nephew to Barry and Kendall Windham) debuted in June 2010 as Husky Harris on Nxt, it was almost as if he was doomed to failure. Similar to Joe Hennig (song of Curt Hennig, grandson of Larry “The Ax” Hennig) being repackaged as Michael McGillicutty, denying the historic lineage of these competitors seemed ridiculous, as it denied them an obvious route to initially creating a connection with the WWE Universe. As “Husky Harris,” Rotunda’s run in WWE lasted just under six months, the brawler largely gaining a following among internet fans who found him to be surprisingly athletic for a man well weighing well over 300 pounds.

However, just over three years later, Windham Rotunda is Bray Wyatt, and as one of WWE’s most compelling characters developed in the past decade, may have the ability...

As I write this we are only a couple of weeks away from the thirtieth WrestleMania event, which is being held on April 7th 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The excitement for wrestling fans, and more-so, WWE fans, often reaches it’s height in the weeks leading to the so-called “showcase of the immortals” and what was once, prior to Vince McMahon feeling like it made the event sound “old”, “the grand-daddy of ‘em all”.

I started watching wrestling in 1992 and the first show I ever watched was WrestleMania 8, held at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. The show featured two spectacular matches, being Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper and Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair. Randy Savage would remain my favourite wrestler of all time from this event on. Looking back on this event in 2014, and these matches still hold up today. Great selling, wonderful story telling, and top notch wrestling from these four men.

Yes, yes, January is a fresh start, but it also means going back to school or work, long nights with no more promises of presents, and things getting even colder than they already have been. Unsurprisingly, it's about now that we fancy finding someone to cuddle up with.

And what better place to do that than the set of Take Me Out, which returns on Saturday? As Paddy told us, the show's already produced two weddings, two babies and an engagement. So we braved the overpowering scent of hairspray, took a sneaky look at the back of the love lift, cowered at the thought of walking down the stupidly steep steps in heels and marvelled at the canopy erected to protect the girls' hair and makeup on the short trip from the dressing rooms to the studio and decided that actually we'd quite like a go too please.

But what...

Wrestling is virtually synonymous with terrible tragedy. All of my childhood heroes are dead – Rick Rude, Mr Perfect, Big Boss Man – to name but a few. The life of the pro-wrestler is a hard one. On the road for most of the year and incurring injuries from their time in the ring, expected to have an Adonis like physique, the temptation is to fall into steroid use (a very contentious issue in the sport) and alcohol and drug abuse.

You know that things are in a bad state whenever you hear of a wrestler’s death and you think “another one bites the dust” – it has become so commonplace. But since the Chris Benoit incident, there has been a general trend of ‘cleaning up’ professional wrestling. Hopefully this will reduce the terribly high mortality rate.

With this article, it is time to examine the ten worst tragedies in professional wrestling.

Sorry for the lack of write-up last week, but here we are for a new results and review of this weeks’ episode of WWE Raw.

Last week’s event was held in the UK and Cena was attacked by Del Rio, Big Show attacked WWE Champion Randy Orton and slammed him through an announce table and the show ended with The Shield, The Wyatt Family, The Uso’s, Daniel Bryan and Cm Punk brawling in the ring.

Tonight’s Raw is being billed as WWE Raw Country, a themed Raw based on the fact that tonight’s show is being held in Nashville, Tennessee. Florida Georgia Line, a country band, will be playing live later apparently.

The show begins with Triple H’s music playing and The Game walking to the ring with his wifey, Stephanie McMahon. The two have smiles etched on their faces. Triple H talks about how...

Night of Champions begins with a nice video package that resembles the ones from the 90’s and early 00’s. Triple H makes his way to the ring and talks about how the PPV would be a huge night and that there was no interference allowed in the main event between Orton and Bryan. Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel interrupt “The Game” and argue with him, attempting to cancel their match with Cm Punk. Instead, Triple H books an impromptu match with Axel’s Intercontinental Title on the line. His opponent is Kofi Kingston, who comes out to little or no reaction from the, currently, tepid Detroit crowd. The fans chant “boring” at Axel and fail to react to much of the match. The match itself isn’t bad, with the signature moves and holds from Kofi and Axel all being performed accurately. That’s the problem, it’s accurate, but it isn’t exciting.

WWE 2K14 hits UK shelves on November 1st this year (Oct 29th in the Us). Before the release date, I am taking a walk down wrestling memory lane and providing a look at how the WWE franchise has evolved over the years. Last week I posted my first look back at the Complete History of WWE video games, (Read Here) which focused on the early years of the franchise from 1987-1995.

The last few games in that article came at a time when the 16-bit era of games was coming to an end and gamers and developers alike were preparing for the next highly anticipated generation of gaming. New games franchises were being created, along with major upheavals to existing ones, with wrestling games being no different. Join me again in this retrospective of WWE gaming and relive how WWE games adjusted to the new “3D Era,” and paved the...

Ah, the joy of saving six dollars. There’s nothing quite like it. Downloadable content in games has become wildly popular for most titles worth playing over the course of this generation, and despite a few instances of broken promises and shattered dreams, season passes usually stand to save the player at least a little bit of cash. This phenomenon holds true for WWE 2K14 as well.

2K has announced that its wrestling title will recieve “at least” three Dlc packs, all of which will be covered by the $19.99 season pass. The first pack, a $9 bundle slated for a November release, will be all about the Nwo fighters – Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Macho Man (ooh, yeah!!), and Curt Hennig will be included, to name a few. As a kid I used to collect pro wrestler action figures, and I never realized how weird it was to name a wrestling division the “New World Order.

Goldberg was one of the most dominant and talented individuals ever witnessed in sports entertainment, exploding onto the scene by amassing an epic win streak of 173 matches. Throughout his WCW career he defeated legends such as Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Diamond Dallas Page. As he crossed over to the WWE, this powerhouse continued his dominance taking on such Superstars as The Rock, Triple H, and Brock Lesnar among others. This compilation features some of the biggest matches in Goldberg s impressive career and showcases why his legacy will forever be cemented in sports entertainment.

Bill Goldberg debuted in World Championship Wrestling in the September of 1997 and defeated Bill “Hugh Morrus” DeMott. It was on that night that the famous Goldberg undefeated streak began and it lasted 173 wins. Goldberg was even the first wrestler to ever win the World Heavyweight Title whilst in the midst of such a streak. It was all this,...

This past Monday on Raw, the roster rose up against their corporate oppressors to help out Daniel Bryan battle against the Shield. The ripple effects of this and the treatment of Dusty Rhodes carried over into the Main Event and gave hints of crossing over to future events of Nxt as well. Let’s talk about the Main Event first.

This week Main Event came from my surrogate hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio . Alex Riley, subbing for the decimated Miz thanks to Randy Orton, sat alongside Josh Matthews to call the action. Interesting enough, they did not replay the footage of the attack on Monday.

The action begins with the spiritual son of Curt Hennig (Dolph Ziggler) versus the biological son of the WWE Hall of Famer Curtis Axel. The third-generation athlete came out along with Paul Heyman in a wheelchair with Ryback following behind. It’s really interesting to see...

WWE Night of Champions began before it began, as WWE once again provided fans with what has now become a regular occurrence, it’s pre-show. The pre-shows so far have been hit and miss. Some have provided viewers with a decent free match, some have been advert-filled half hours with nothing-matches. Night of Champions was one of the okay ones, featuring a tag-team turmoil match, with the winning team being granted the opportunity to wrestle for the Tag Team Titles on the main show. It was a quick match, with 3Mb, Tons of Funk and The Uso’s being eliminated in that order, leaving The Prime Time Players and The Real Americans to fight over their number one contendership. The fans seemed to be supporting Antonio Cesaro above anyone else in the match, though The Uso’s were incredibly over. The Prime Time Players won the match via pinfall, allowing...

This week’s Smackdown begins with the WWE roster standing on the stage area, as has become usual in the last couple of weeks, and Triple H is in the ring with Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox, which is guarded by the three members of The Shield. Hunter talks about the “firing” of Cody Rhodes that occurred on Raw, he then asks for the WWE roster to speak up, open up to him and tell him how they truly feel. The roster sheepishly looks around, only a couple of guys speak up. Kofi Kingston and Rob Van Dam. We also hear Ryback, Damien Sandow and Heath Slater sucking up to “The Game”. The segment ends with Triple H announcing that Daniel Bryan will have the chance to pick any member of The Shield to wrestle later on in the show. Kofi Kingston versus Curtis Axel and Rob Van Dam versus...

The Best of WWE at Madison Square Garden is an interesting release from WWE and it’s nice to see them going into the massive video library at their disposal and putting together a compilation of matches and segments that is a little different to the usual things they put out.

The DVD is on three discs and the Blu-ray, which I will be reviewing, is on two discs. The quality of the picture improves as the matches progress, with earlier matches from the 1970’s being a mixed bag in quality of sound, picture and match content. We see early matches with the likes of Bruno Sammartino, The Iron Sheik, Bob Backlund and Billy Graham which vary in terms of entertainment value but are good to see as a history lesson. The Sheik/Slaughter boot-camp brawl is a fun watch but I imagine many of today’s casual wrestling fans...

It all used to be so simple. What worked for the territories would work for the WWF: crown your biggest draw the champ and feed him a succession of supporting players from further down the card. Don’t worry if the challenger isn’t particularly over; the rub from the champ will make him look like a star for the couple of months he spends above his regular place further down the card. It’s a model that made Hulk Hogan the biggest thing the sport had ever seen. But that was back in the day of television squash matches and only a handful of Pay-Per-Views a year.

Come the turn of the millennium, an increased production schedule necessitated the building of an extension on the VIP lounge, and it became standard practice to maintain a top-tier line-up of multiple workers, all potential custodians of the big gold belt. The Rock,...

WWE reinvigorates its pay-per-view line up with a fresh new concept that will answer the question, how far will the Superstars of WWE go for payback? Following on the from the events of Extreme Rules 2013, WWE Payback features WWE roster of superstars try to settle their long simmering grudges and set the stage for the sizzling road to SummerSlam. And with all the major championships on the line including the revamped WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship, Payback looked set to be one hell of a pay per view. But was it? In a word. Yes!

Finally the WWE get it right with their latest PPV, Payback, with a concept and execution that work together well to sell the new format and provide some truly great matches – something which cannot be said of some of the WWE’s other recent pay-per-views.

Thankfully the matches are great from the get-go...

As fans we’ve seen wrestling go to some extreme measures that led to some epic encounters over the years. From Hell in a Cell to Last Man Standing, there have been many stipulations over the years that push the boundaries of brutality and the human anatomy. But there was only one match that went beyond… The War Games.

No matter where it was placed in schedule, the signature two cage spectacular was always the big draw for WCW. Strange alliances would be made and WrestleWars along with fall brawls would be forged in a team battleground of steel and blood . No Pinfalls. No Disqualifications. It’s just Submission or Surrender.

In the latest WWE DVD release: “War Games: WCW’s Most Notorious Matches” they look back at what happens when there are no other options and wrestling has go to war. I have to admit I was very...

In today’s world, employment is a privilege rather than a right. With the recession going on and the market being on an all-time low, any company needs to make a few changes to keep running successfully, and usually the most prominent strategy used by any company is to hand over the pink slip to the employees who barely work, and are a liability to the company.

The WWE is the same. Every year, multiple new wrestlers are hired to increase the revenue, and thus we have the annual ‘spring cleaning’. Last year, we witnessed the releases of Abraham Washington (due to an incident), Maxine and more, and this year, the releases have not been handed out yet. However, to keep the scene fresh and to keep the WWE from being bankrupt, some superstars need to be sent home for their own benefit. Therefore, the following are the ten superstars...

Monday Night Raw is one of the longest running shows on American television, it’s been in a few forms through the years and had many different stars and also attracted big names guest stars all through one thing, wrestling. It’s had funny moments, dramatic moments and it’s even had moments that have involved wrestling. The most important thing it’s also had though is favourite moments for all its fans, and yes it has them. Whether it’s been high in the ratings or losing in its many battles with other wrestling promotions and other forms of sports entertainment it’s survived, and survived long enough to be able to have a DVD/Blu-ray set of the WWE: Top 100 Raw Moments.

Whoever created this list came up with quite a few good choices, some of them could be argued to be a bit of a filler though...

Wrestlers lead a pretty tough life, they are on the road a lot, don’t see much of their families and keep pretty strange hours. As a result of these working conditions Wrestlers are prone to play practical jokes on one another which are referred to within the industry as ‘pulling a Rib’. Many wrestlers gained backstage notoriety for their capacity to invent innovative and hilarious practical jokes that gained them infamy amongst their colleagues.

Owen Hart, Mr.Fuji, Dynamite Kid and Curt Hennig are all examples of famous masters of the Rib though all wrestlers at one time or another will pull a Rib on each other to pass the time, avenge a personal issue or just to make themselves laugh.

Here then are my favourite top ten Ribs. Enjoy.

10. Shawn Stasiak’s Passport

During a tour of Europe in early 2002 Shawn Stasiak, who was not well liked by his peers,...

If you’re a wrestling fan then you simply have to love the annual Royal Rumble event. Ok, so it’s almost always predictable and obvious who will win it – but that isn’t why we love it so much. For those of you out there who have never experienced the WWE’s unique take on a battle royal the best bit is seeing which names from the past will pop up as surprise entrants.

Over the years we’ve been treated to returns by Kevin Nash and Booker T (who we all thought were headed back to Tna), Mr Perfect, Bob Backlund, Rowdy Roddy Piper and Goldust as well as comebacks from current stars who’ve been on the bench.

Here’s our list of 10 wrestlers, old and new, that we’d like to see make a return at this years Royal Rumble.

10. Papa Shango

That’s right. We...

I’ve followed WWE off and on since around 1991, when I was but an 8 year old. The business now, nearly 22 years later, is totally different, and yet exactly the same as it always was. Whilst the look and feel of the product has evolved over time, WWE has always had the ability to enthral, captivate and frustrate in equal measure, and in that regard some things never change.

A good example of this is the way in which matches and storylines are booked. Every once in a while an event transpires that genuinely surprises – like Edge cashing in his Money In The Bank contract in 2006 against a broken John Cena, who had seemingly once again demonstrated his invulnerability – until Mr. Copeland cashed in with ruthlessness and opportunistic timing. Likewise, Eddie Guerrero snatching the WWE title at No Way Out 2004 took me by surprise. Marty Jannetty answering Shawn Michaels’ challenge to...

Hong Kong film maker Barbara Wong, known for romantic comedies that tackle modern issues, such as the recent “The Perfect Marriage” and “The Break Up Club”, returns with something a little more bitter than sweet in “The Allure of Tears”. As its title suggests, the film is a tearjerker of the highest order, featuring 3 vaguely connected stories of love and loss, with the emphasis firmly on the latter. Seeing Wong working again with regular writer-producer Lawrence Cheng, the film features a fine cast made up of newcomers and industry veterans, including Richie Jen (“Punished”), Gigi Leung (“Marrying Mr Perfect”), Aarif Lee (“Bruce Lee, My Brother”) and popular television starlet Joe Chen (“You’re My Destiny”), plus Shawn Dou and Zhou Dongyu, stars of Zhang Yimou’s “Under the Hawthorn Tree”. The first of the film’s segments focuses on Zhou Dongyu as Xili Mei, a young woman suffering from leukaemia,...

As reported a few weeks ago, Nxt has recently undergone a full overhaul and here we have its first episode review…

The cameras pan around the small gym hall, just a few hundred fans if that, occupy the hall. The previous Nxt’s yellow is still prominent throughout although there are obvious changes to its logo, stage layout and ring covers.

Jim Ross comes out and thanks the fans for attending, welcoming us all to the new beginning of Nxt. Whilst onstage he introduces the new Interim General Manager: None other than the American Dream, Dusty Rhodes.

Rhodes first port of call is to schedule the main event in which he declares that Tyson Kidd will take on the Michael Mcgullicutty. He also states that if we think the last few years of Nxt has been wild, we’ve not seen nothing yet.

A video package for Bo Dallas airs...

The comics Twitterverse had no shortage of discussion fodder last night. "Glee" concluded its first season with a Journey medley, and Paul Dini, Rob Liefeld, Paul Southworth and Bill Amend were all on near their tweeting devices to weigh in with responses. Meanwhile online, an ambiguously released Mortal Kombat movie short appeared, which actress Jeri Ryan described on her own Twitter account as a pitch for Warner Bros. Kalman Andrasofszky and Fiona Staples seemed to be keen on it.

Elsewhere, Brian Michael Bendis went on the record about his ability to help would-be Peter Parkers get cast in the new Spider-Man movie. Find out if he can help you after the jump along with what Edgar Wright's current hairstyle looks like and what it's like on the "Cowboys and Aliens" set.

I'm @brianwarmoth, and this is the Twitter Report for June 9, 2010.

"Glee" pt. 1: @Paul_Dini Glee finale - very nice.