wrestling Page 21 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

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 ...

Idiot In The Ring Tackles Bret Hart During WWE Hall Of Fame Ceremony
Tonight’s WWE Hall of Fame ceremony in Brooklyn was briefly derailed when a person in a rasta cap jumped into the ring and took down wrestler Bret Hart during his speech. How much did Vince McMahon pay that guy?...

WWE Is Trying To Defuse Its Own History With A Storyline
Kofi Kingston isn’t the sort of wrestler that gets to compete for a WWE championship, which is why his quest for that title stands out as one of the most interesting angles on Sunday’s WrestleMania slate. A long-time midcarder who found his greatest success as one-third of The New Day, Kingston caug...

WrestleMania Week Is Testing The Limits Of How Much Wrestling One City Can Bear
As exhausting as WrestleMania week can be, especially with fans gladly taking on the growing second-shift slate of late night shows, last year’s Mania week in New Orleans was one of the most manageable in recent memory. It was good, too, but the surprising thing was how user-friendly and accessible ...

High School Wrestling Ref Who Forced Teen To Cut His Dreadlocks Preparing To Sue For "Emotional Distress"
The New Jersey high school wrestling referee, who forced a teen to cut his dreadlocks or forfeit a wrestling match in December, has begun the process of filing a lawsuit, claiming that he suffered “emotional distress” and “defamation of character” in the aftermath of the incident, according to The I...

Eric Angle Charged With Assault After Lifting Youth Wrestler By His Neck
Former pro wrestler Eric Angle, brother to WWE star Kurt Angle, currently coaches a youth wrestling team in Pittsburgh, Penn. At a tournament on Saturday, Angle was captured on camera lifting up one of his wrestlers by the neck and tossing him back down to the mat....

WWE Signing Stokely Hathaway Is A Sign That Wrestling Managers Are Back
When WWE announces a new class of signees for its Performance Center in the Orlando area, the notable names tend to go public in advance. WWE infamously instructs its incoming talent not to tell anyone, but those wrestlers still have to finish up their independent dates before joining the promotion,...

Ronda Rousey Is Highlighting WWE's Problems With Breaking The Fourth Wall
WWE works best when it sticks to the rules. This is more a question of storytelling than it is of sport, although that’s always true. This is why someone unfamiliar with the beats of professional wrestling but attuned to how narrative works can understand wrestling even if they don’t comprehend the ...

WWE's Mustafa Ali On Refusing To Portray A Terrorist
Adeel Alam is WWE’s Mustafa Ali. Here he discusses the journey to finding his current character and his determination to rise above playing just another bad guy in a head scarf....

Where Drag Queens Drop From The Rafters
NEW ORLEANS— Late on a Saturday night a little over a week before Mardi Gras Day, a warehouse in a semi-industrial corner of downtown is thumping with bass and jammed to its damp cinderblock walls with people, with more spilling out into the gravel yard. Inside, the temperature is at least 10 degree...

Jushin Thunder Liger, Japan's Greatest Wrestling Export, Is Set For One Last Ride
On Thursday, Jushin Thunder Liger, inarguably one of the most influential figures in the history of the global wrestling business, announced his retirement at a press conference in Japan. The 54-year-old masked wrestler, whose real name is Keichi Yamada, will travel the world on a farewell tour slat...

King Kong Bundy Was The Biggest Of The Bad
King Kong Bundy, the biggest man I ever saw undressed, is dead. He was 61. No official cause of death has yet been issued....

King Kong Bundy Was The Biggest Of The Bad
King Kong Bundy, the biggest man I ever saw undressed, is dead. He was 61. No official cause of death has yet been issued....

High School Wrestling Match Interrupted By Teen Crashing Through Ceiling
A 19-year-old from Gainesville, Fla., is currently in the hospital with a back injury after he fell 40 feet through a gym skylight during a wrestling tournament at Buchholz High School, according to a Gainesville Sun report. At least he had a little padding....

High School Wrestling Match Interrupted By Teen Crashing Through Ceiling
A 19-year-old from Gainesville, Fla., is currently in the hospital with a back injury after he fell 40 feet through a gym skylight during a wrestling tournament at Buchholz High School, according to a Gainesville Sun report. At least he had a little padding....

Thirty Years Ago, WWE Admitted It Wasn't A Sport To Try And Dodge Regulation
It’s never been a secret that pro wrestling isn’t on the level, with plenty of stories on the subject going back all the way to the 1850s. The true reason it was a prearranged exhibition may have changed from fleecing gamblers to increasing entertainment value and maximizing box office revenue with ...

Youth Wrestling Tournament Quickly Turns Into Parent Fighting Tournament
A Feb. 3 wrestling tournament for kids in Kimberly, Wisconsin devolved into quite the scrap after some adults forgot that their children were the ones supposed to be sparring on the mat....

40 Years Ago, Antonio Inoki Maybe Possibly Almost Wrestled Against Idi Amin<em></em>
As a mainstream athlete, Antonio Inoki is probably best known for battling Muhammad Ali to a draw in an actual on-the-level fight—albeit one restricted by last-minute rule changes—after The Greatest backed out of plans to lose a traditional entertainment wrestling match. But Antonio Inoki is not a m...