wrestling Page 18 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Orange Cassidy Is the Wednesday Night Wars
It’s been a week where Triple H has admitted that the WWE is directly counter-programming AEW with their NXT shows, essentially an official acknowledgement of the “Wednesday Night Wars” between the companies. Last night seemed the most distinct illustration of the difference between the two. While b...
![#MeToo Comes to Pro Wrestling [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/fwaw21ulolfyxayfs729.jpg)
#MeToo Comes to Pro Wrestling [UPDATED]
Considering where professional wrestling has come from, what it used to be, and what it still is much of the time, it’s no surprise that there is a wave of accusations of sexual assault and domestic abuse levied at wrestlers at all levels. And yet the sheer scope of what took place this past weekend...
Crisp Visual Metaphor Of The Week: Jaguars' Mascot Beaten To Pulp In Empty Stadium
In what could only be described as a Jason Mendoza fever dream, AEW held a 10-man main event Saturday night inside the Jacksonville Jaguars’ stadium with the Jaguars cheerleaders and the team mascot, Jaxson de Ville. Perhaps if Mr. Mendoza had known about this, he wouldn’t have thought a perfect Mad...
Death of Japanese Wrestler Hana Kimura Returns Attention To The Reality Of Cyberbullying
Hana Kimura, a rising phenom in Japan’s World Wonder Ring Stardom (known simply as “Stardom”) died on Saturday at the age of 22. While no official cause of death has been released at this time, it has been widely reported that she took her own life....
Wrestling’s Skirting Of The Rules Hasn’t Gotten It Ratings
While most of the attention has been focused on how WWE and AEW have bent, skirted, and avoided protocols and rules to still run live programming during the pandemic, it doesn’t appear to be netting them results that make it seem worth it. Once again, when Monday Night Raw’s ratings for Monday came ...
WWE's Shad Gaspard Drowns Saving Son From Riptide
The body of former World Wrestling Entertainment star Shad Gaspard was found on Venice Beach early Wednesday morning, police said. He had been caught in a rip current last weekend while saving the life of his 10-year-old son, Aryeh....
AEW Loses Some Of The High Ground
Admittedly, the term “high ground” would rarely find a working relationship with pro wrestling. The point of the whole enterprise, or at least a good portion of it, is that it’s not the high ground. It’s supposed to be ridiculous, silly, edgy, and not cause your brain to breathe all that hard if you...
With WWE Layoffs, Vince McMahon Retains Title As World's Largest Douche
It’s hard to stand out as a shithead billionaire in these times. Whether you’re laying off employees you could easily afford to pay, or you’re influencing the government to turn a deadly crisis into a profitable opportunity, or you’re valuing the economy (i.e. your own bank account) over people’s li...
Two Governors, Two Parties, Same Insanity On Sports
Andrew Cuomo’s seeming competence during the coronavirus pandemic has generated waves of positive press for the New York governor, and has even spurred talk of the possibility of him being Joe Biden’s running mate, even though Biden has said he plans to select a woman. Never mind that his record is ...
Vince McMahon’s Ruthless Aggression Is Aimed Almost Solely At His Employees
There are too many things the Firefly Fun House Match during Wrestlemania nailed about WWE storytelling, specifically Vince McMahon’s view of the world. The answer to Vince, as it is with most billionaires, is that the only thing you need to get what you want is to want it bad enough and be willing ...
Chris Jericho Yelling At A Drone Is Everything I Did And Didn’t Know I Wanted
This is simply the greatest piece of television this year, and quite possibly the past decade:...
Wrestlemania Is Between The Rock And A Turnbuckle
There probably was a time when WWE boss Vince McMahon, and his counterparts at All Elite Wrestling (AEW), dreamed of being the only parties providing new, live television in this era of shelter-at-homes and shutdowns and burning through all of “Schitt’s Creek” and needing something as keenly silly (...
David Arquette Has Unfinished Business In The Wrestling Ring
On December 8, 2018, David Arquette was standing in front of a table in the 2300 Arena, formerly the ECW Arena. He was wrestling later that night but was at that moment signing autographs and taking pictures. A fan approached the table to tell Arquette that he was his favorite World Championship Wre...
NXT's Jordan Myles Isn't Standing Down Over The Racist Shirt WWE Designed for Him
It is incredibly rare for WWE talent to be vocal about their treatment at the hands of the company, and doubly rare when that mistreatment pertains to issues that are broader and more sensitive than things like booking. This is a big part of what makes the ongoing and very public dust-up between WWE...
WWE Is Finally Taking The AEW Threat Seriously
It took almost a month, but WWE finally seems to have realized that its new Wednesday Night War won’t be won with filler. This isn’t quite the same as saying that WWE is innovating in response to the challenge presented by AEW’s competition, but at the very least NXT has done well of late by leaning...
WWE Is Banking On Crossover Athletes To Carry Its Next Creepy Saudi Show
When WWE signed a deal with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last year, only the basics of the pact with the Gulf dictatorship were clear—biannual shows, in the kingdom, in exchange for a massive payday. Everything beyond that was difficult to imagine at the time, and became more and more difficult to ju...
All Elite Wrestling Is Good, But It Will Have To Be More Unique To Be Great
WASHINGTON, D.C. — All Elite Wrestling, WWE’s stiffest challenge since the Monday Night War years around the turn of the millennium, made its cable television debut on Wednesday night, kicking off a new era in professional wrestling that has already been dubbed the Wednesday Night War. The head-to-h...
Forget The WWE-AEW War For Minute: SmackDown's Fox Premiere Is A Big Fucking Deal
This week sure looks likely to be one of the more momentous in recent wrestling history. Most of the focus is on the emergence of the “Wednesday Night War,” and rightly so. It’s been a long time since WWE had another promotion to pick a fight with, and NXT expanding to two hours on USA Network to ba...
Impact Wrestling Has A New Network, But The Same Old Question Marks
If all you knew of Impact Wrestling came through articles on this here website, you would probably view it as the most interesting wrestling company on earth. It was where NFL veteran DeAngelo Williams had a pro wrestling match, but it’s also a company that also has notorious difficulty converting T...
Bigoted Wrestling Fans Are Getting Loud And Promotions Need To Set Boundaries
All Elite Wrestling’s All Out, the promotion’s fourth event and the last before their weekly TV show launches on TNT on October 2, ran on Saturday night in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates. One of the key storytelling aspects of the show was setting up the match to determine the first AEW Women...