wrestling Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
As WWE Wraps Up A Crazy Week, AEW Winds Up For Its Second Show
This ended up being one heck of a week for All Elite Wrestling to have their second show....
Does Pro Wrestling's Merchant Of Secrets Have Any Left To Sell?
Wayne Farris, better known as The Honky Tonk Man, demanded Seagram’s Extra Smooth Vodka. It was 2007, and the man who made his name touring the wrestling territories and eventually the WWE with an indestructibly greasy pompadour, a Memphis jumpsuit, and a frequently weaponized acoustic guitar was ge...
WWE Unearthed Some Legendary '80s Wrestling Gold In The Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup
Everybody knows that WWE is in a crowded and deeply boring creative trough at the moment, but not enough people know that the “Hidden Gems” section of WWE Network, updated every Thursday morning, serves as a weekly reminder of just how good and how fun WWE wrestling can be. The section works as an e...
The Real Legacy Of The Legendary Kurt Angle Vs. Shane McMahon Match Is WWE Doing Whatever It Wants
On Sunday, fans found that WWE Network’s streaming service had chosen to devote the sixth entry in the WWE Untold series to a match that’s legendary for none of the right reasons. It’s hard to know why the promotion chose to make a documentary about the infamously and gratuitously brutal and violent...
The Ultimate Warrior Is Not A Gay Pride Mascot
On Thursday afternoon, WWE ambassador and creative team member Dana Warrior, tweeted a pro-LGBTQ+ pride message, stressing that she “believe[s] in equality, education, awareness, and this simple fact: love wins... Always!!” In and of themselves, the words would be fine, but because Warrior is best k...
Should WWE Actually Be Worried About AEW?
There’s panic in the streets of Stamford, Connecticut. Or, anyway, there’s a sense that change is coming for the famously change-averse WWE after a ten-day period that could signal the start of a new era in professional wrestling. All it took to rattle WWE was for a new promotion—in this case, All E...
AEW's Double Or Nothing Delivered As Both A Mission Statement And A Wrestling Show
LAS VEGAS — All Elite Wrestling’s inaugural event on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas gave fans a lot to digest, but more importantly it delivered a well-balanced and suitably fulfilling feast. What was supposed to be a taste of what’s to come from AEW, both in the ring and ...
AEW Is Bringing Joshi Women's Wrestling To The American Mainstream
We here at Deadspin have spilled a lot of digital ink on the genesis of All Elite Wrestling, especially considering that the startup wrestling promotion has yet to produce any actual wrestling to date. That will change on Saturday, when the company airs its debut show, Double or Nothing, from Las Ve...
Even When AEW Fucks Up, It Still Feels Like It's Doing The Right Thing
All Elite Wrestling’s debut pay-per-view Double or Nothing has stood out since it was announced as something new and fun amid the ongoing stagnation in WWE. Now that it has hit its first high-profile speed bump just days before kicking off, it feels official—a wrestling promotion isn’t a wrestling p...
After 18 Years Away, TNT Is Back In The Wrestling Business
Last Wednesday, All Elite Wrestling and WarnerMedia made a longstanding wrestling rumor official when they announced that the startup promotion’s flagship show will air weekly on TNT beginning this fall. No financial terms were revealed in the initial statement or at the upfronts, and neither was a ...
Former WWE Wrestler Ashley Massaro Dead At 39
WWE announced Thursday evening the death of former WWE performer Ashley Massaro, who wrestled for the company for three years after winning a 2005 “Raw Diva Search.” Massaro competed for the WWE Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania 23 back in 2007, and recently appeared to be gearing up for a return...
Bret Hart's Holy Grail Miracle Match With Tom Magee Is Finally Here, And It's Great
It’s real, and it’s spectacular....
WWE Is Bigger Than Ever, But Its Audience Is Definitely Dwindling
As Luis Paez-Pumar noted here last Thursday, WWE is currently flailing its way through a ratings panic. Two weeks ago, Monday Night Raw did the lowest non-holiday ratings number in its history, posting an average of 2,158,000 viewers across the three-hour show; hour three was at 1,898,000 viewers. T...
WWE's Stale Creative Is Ruining Its Ratings
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a WWE wrestler comes out to the ring to cut a promo, gets interrupted by someone, who in turn gets interrupted by someone else. This goes on until a tag match is thrown together featuring everyone in that derailed promo train. This is such a common occurrence...
WWE Is Getting Back At The Revival for Wanting Out, And It Isn't Working
On this week’s edition of WWE’s flagship television program, Monday Night Raw, viewers were treated to a segment in which the tag team The Usos, theoretically the good guys, revealed that they had invented “Ucy Hot,” their own sweat-activated version of Icy Hot, and secretly deployed it to the trunk...
Dean Ambrose Is Going To Be Bleeding As Jon Moxley Again
When we last discussed Dean Ambrose in this space a few months ago, news had just broken that he had given WWE his 90-day notice and would not be renewing his contract. That Ambrose was parting with WWE was, at bottom, a sound business decision; with All Elite Wrestling and other promotions bidding ...
CM Punk Got Back Into The Ring, But Does He Want Back Into Wrestling?
CM Punk has been back in the news—or, anyway, back on wrestling websites— this past week for two separate and very different reasons. One of those is fueling giddy speculation about a potential comeback. The other is a bit more complicated....
Sasha Banks And Luke Harper Are Emblematic Of WWE's Talent Mismanagement
Let’s leave aside the draconian contract clauses, and also the sadness of WWE losing one of its best talents and potentially alienating another. The specific failures to get the most out of Luke Harper and Sasha Banks, respectively, are various and complicated, but fundamentally simple at bottom. T...
Sasha Banks And Luke Harper Want Out Of WWE, But That's Easier Said Than Done
On Tuesday, WWE wrestler Luke Harper tweeted a statement saying that he has requested his release from his contract. This was just a week after Sasha Banks, fresh off an abrupt end to her and Bayley’s storyline push as Women’s Tag Team Champions, reportedly asked for her own release from the promoti...
Invisible Men, A Pizza Party, And Sexism: A WrestleMania Week Diary
WrestleMania week is invariably a dizzying experience, and the one that recently sprawled over the course of a full week in and around New York City was no exception. There were way too many shows this year spread across too many locations, and even sleeping in my own bed every night, not attending ...