A comprehensive compendium of items confirmed to be on The List of Jericho
I need say no more. #link
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Category: Wrestling
I need say no more. #link
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GQ gets in on the Four Horsewomen business. But is the change they herald really a sure thing? With matches still being booked in the Divas-era ‘girly’ style (catfights with hair-pulling, basically), we’re a ways off yet. #link
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I like Shoemaker but I don’t agree with the premise of this piece at all. When did SummerSlam become ‘the smart fan’s WrestleMania’? Isn’t that still WrestleMania? Also, it’s comical in hindsight, what with this year’s SummerSlam being such a drag, and the subsequent minor PPVs being stronger in both ‘workrate’ and entertainment value. #link
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Do we need an anthropological analysis of wrestling? Well, why not? I’m not complaining. #link
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There are variations of this kind of thing all over the web, and they’re indicative of a growing frustration with wrestling fandom that’s hard to articulate (in this case, the writer makes a category error in cleaving the fanbase between ‘casual’ and ‘smart’) other than saying that some people — the type who demand five-star matches, and only appreciate the ‘entertainment’ with ironic detachment — take things way too seriously. #link
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This guy gets it. #link
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More than three months into the ‘New Era’ brand split and it’s a bit late now to give you a full-on essay on the whats and whys and wherefores. Suffice it to say it’s hard to call it a disappointment when the overall results are about as much as I expected. Does that mean they can’t do better? Of course not. But with the people WWE has in charge right this minute, change for the good is at best piecemeal, or accidental.
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You know what? I agree with this, pretty much. [c/o MetaFilter] #link
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‘Poetic impressions’ of the annual Royal Rumble. Just three months till the next one! #link
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An oldie but a goodie. You know you’ve made it in The Business when they give you one of those satin jackets. #link
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I saw some ragging on this piece for being a lift from Vince’s infamous Playboy interview, and not even a lift of the juiciest quotes. But the point of it is more as a sampler for people to go read all of these sources in greater depth, is it not? Take it for what it is, not what you think it is, people. #link
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For keeping track of upcoming events when I catch up from being weeks behind, again. #link
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The pop culture bible (as it were) continues its dalliance with wrestling in this quick-enough read; nothing really new for serious fans but that’s okay. #link
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Just in time for the G1 Climax tournament that's five days old as I write (and has another three-plus weeks to go). Could have done with a more judicious edit (apart from the odd typo, there are quite a few factual errors a quick Google search would fix) but it's still nice to see wrestling get attention from non-wrestling media, and especially attention of the 'this is cool' rather than 'this is stupid' kind. #link
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Too long since I’ve written about wrestling. Here’s something, a few stray thoughts from last night’s NXT TakeOver special:
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High-brow re-acceptance of wrestling as an idiosyncratic art form takes its inevitable detour through the Japanese puroresu underground with this beautiful photo essay. #link
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There’s a problem with this article on Vice Sports, editorially speaking. It sets up a kind of straw man argument: that The New Day, as singin’ and dancin’ black folk, are perpetuating a decades-old racial stereotype befitting an unfortunate longtime trend in wrestling. The fact of the latter, that wrestling has a problem with race and “being black is the gimmick”, is inarguably true, to varying extents. But that intro doesn’t credit Xavier Woods, Big E and Kofi Kingston with any agency in the way their characters, as they are now, are portrayed. I mean, the quotes from their own voices confirm that they know exactly what they’re doing, and always did.
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Match results from the Rev Pro show I attended at York Hall in June 2013. Good times! #link
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This is a fun read on last night's show, and helpful to see how contemporary wrestling looks from the outside in: the really bad stuff, it's clear, is universally bad. #link
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The Guardian with another fantastic picture essay, here. It also reminds me of how much West Africa is an untapped market for WWE. #link
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Another nice article from the clued-in staff at WWE.com. #link
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A not insignificant proportion of WWE's roster came through Quack's doors at CHIKARA, so it's only right that they'd show him respect in return. #link
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David Bixenspan on The Big Show's ill-fated foray into boxing, one that appears to have come at a serious cost to his health. (And Hulk Hogan's involved? Why does that not surprise me?) #link
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But are they really? I could make a decent-sized list off the top of my head of active roster talent who'd likely find themselves in the 'at risk' group if they were tested to the same rigorous degree. And that's the real problem. WWE needs an off-season, but achieving that will be difficult, requiring significant changes to its live touring business. #link
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Despite dwindling TV ratings and PPV buy rates, wrestling -- or to be more specific, WWE -- has never been more popular. It's simply suffering from the same changes affecting all media: the surplus of choice and the shifting of platforms. #link
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Kind of a loaded interview, and I can see why Punk got upset: would any other fighter be asked about being intimidated in the octagon? Most likely not, because the default assumption is that they're serious athletes who are only there because they're tough enough. But a pro wrestler? That shit's fake, right? #link
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Getting worse because the history is becoming more visible, yes. I don't think Vince gives a shit one way or the other, though; he just goes along with Kevin Dunn's (alleged) misogyny. #link
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Never thought about this before, but there's a lot of truth to it! Even down to the slang terminology like 'work'. #link
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This is a film I need to see. #link
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But hey, wrestling wouldn't be the same without them. #link
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Lots of homework here. I wish there was an English-Language Dragon Gate show along the same lines as NJPW on AXS TV. #link
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Now this is the kind of thing they should be doing on the Network. See also: a time lapse video of the construction and dismantling of a WWE ring #link
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Hector Guerrero deserved better than this, of course. But his mature attitude to what was basically a rib is commendable. #link
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Surprisingly decent intro to a wrestling subculture for a non-wrestling site #link
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I seem to have irked some people with my Thumped review of last Saturday and Sunday’s wrestling weekender. I’ve blocked a few arseholes for bullying tweets, because I happened to have a different experience of the evening than them (missing the point that I was reviewing the whole experience of both evenings, not just the matches or ‘workrate’, but that’s nothing new for the dregs of the IWC) and I’ve somehow injured their little hardcore clique or whatever. Fuck that noise.
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"Track any madness back: it grows holy." #link
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Jezebel catches on to WWE's real women's wrestling revolution -- and the company's best match of 2015. #link
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A step-by-step primer for Britain's hottest wrestling promotion. (Apart from ICW, which I'll be seeing this day next week.) #link
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Good ol' Hillbilly Jim shines bright in this one. #link
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New Japan Pro Wrestling's equivalent of WrestleMania is on tomorrow morning! Here's a nice primer for anyone new to the wonders of NJPW. Also, one of the denizens of the Squared Circle subreddit made a programme for the show with bios of all the major players. Puroresu fans are the best. #link
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Tables, Ladders and Chairs in Boston on 13 December was nothing to write home about, although I’ve just written about a thousand words on it that you’re about to read. But let’s go with the spirit of that figure of speech, shall we?
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If you’re a regular reader of this blog (do I even have any regular readers anymore? Ah what does it matter) or you follow me on Twitter, you should know that I’m a huge geek for pro wrestling. Have been for 25-odd years, in fact; a bit longer than The Undertaker‘s been around. They told me I’d grow out of it, but despite my interest waning here and there, it hasn’t happened yet. I might never have been a hardcore tape-trader or a dirt sheet subscriber, but I’m a lifer nonetheless.
And in 2015, it’s really never been a better time to be a wrestling geek. There’s the WWE Network, of course: every major show live in HD, no sports channel subscription, dodgy stream or next-day torrenting required. But in the last couple of years especially, the whole wrestling world beyond WWE has become accessible to those who wish to explore. Just a glance at YouTube shows indie promotions like Ring of Honor and CHIKARA making the most of online streaming to get their goods out there.
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Wrestling geek overkill right here: a complete resource of grapple cards from promotions the world over. #link
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"Antiquated notions of gender-based wrestler capability need to dissolve. Women can be and are the same kind of wrestlers as men. Wrestling is for everyone, and wrestling is better if men and women can do it together." I think the mainstream is, what, decades away from this? Which is weird because Chikara does it just fine. [c/o @atomic_elbow] #link
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A good piece by David Shoemaker (AKA The Masked Man) from over the summer, exploring the differences in wrestling culture between the beginning of the PPV era and now. Identifies most of the things I've noticed and thought about myself, so saves me the trouble. #link
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Is the so-called ‘Divas Revolution’ finally paying dividends? Maybe so, going by the impressive clash between new champ Charlotte and the dethroned Nikki Bella at last weekend’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view (or special event, as they’ve now been branded in the WWE Network era). That came two months after the amazing Sasha Banks and new NXT Women’s Champion Bayley tore down the house in Brooklyn the night before SummerSlam, and again more recently in a superb 30-minute iron man — or rather, iron woman — match in the main event of NXT TakeOver: Respect.
But it also came after a middling few weeks for the Divas division on the main roster — the wrestlers that populate the weekly flagship Raw and the more lowly but still high-profile SmackDown — where the ‘Revolution’ has manifested in an awkward triangle of trios in lieu of any real character development.
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Posting this here as a reminder to finally listen to this, months after reading (and loving) the book. #link
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Here's a cool documentary short on Sarath 'Mikaze' Tan: long-time indie wrestler, Sasha Banks' other half, and seamster to WWE's superstars. [c/o the Voices of Wrestling forum] #video
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Missed the closing date for funding campaign, but I hope to pick up the ebook of this one when it's published at the end of the year. #link
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When all you really recall is the crappy ending, it doesn’t matter how good the preceding match was. And SummerSlam‘s main event was indeed a very good match, if not a great one. We were teased the big Undertaker comeback, the Dead Man getting his revenge on the dastardly Brock Lesnar for ending his WrestleMania streak 18 months ago. But Brock was having none of it, not even letting Taker remove his hat and trenchcoat before launching his assault. The rest of the match was a pure fight, playing to Brock’s strengths as a ring bully while hiding Taker’s weaknesses as a performer well past his prime, and making them both look like they belonged in the main event of the second-biggest show of the year. Also, there was this:
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