This week, With Leather’s search for the most ridiculous, hilarious, and amazing promo photos from the world of professional wrestling ventures into the previously untapped category of “candid 8 x 10s.” These are the publicity photos that didn’t get bordered and stacked in front of wrestlers during autograph signings, but were close enough to end up signed and sold in plastic card sheets at your local hobby store. These are just as good and sometimes even worse, if that is possible.

(On a personal note, I guess we’re calling them ‘glamour shots’ now, because since we started the regular feature, a lot of other sports sites have started posting galleries and calling them that. And, uh, sending them to With Leather as a “tip.” Thanks for the tip, other guys!)

Please click through to enjoy 31 of our favorite WCW, TNA Impact Wrestling and WWE glamour shots. If you need to be coerced, there’s a photo of a guy playing a WWF logo guitar in here somewhere.

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Pre-show notes:

- Welcome to another retro report, this time in preparation for/celebration of WrestleMania 29. Guess how I picked this one to review? It was either WrestleMania 2, or WrestleMania 9.

- Comments, likes and shares are appreciated. If you like these types of reports, share them around and get them big traffic. I’ll try to do more.

- If you’d like to read another technically “retro” WrestleMania report, be sure to go back and read the Best and Worst of WrestleMania XXVIII Live.

- I’m going to be at the various events surrounding WrestleMania 29 and Mania itself, so if you’re in the New Jersey New York area, find me and throw up the high-five.

Click through for the Best and Worst of WrestleMania 2. Warning: It happens in 1986.

WWE’s Royal Rumble 2013 goes down on January 27, and I think I speak for everyone when I say the best part of a Royal Rumble match is when they herd a wrestler in front of a green screen and tell him to explain off the top of his head why he’s gonna win. Very few things make a wrestling fan feel like a kid again like Hulk Hogan pointing with an open palm and yelling about vitamins in front of a horrible yellow background reading HULK HOGAN.

To prepare for the Rumble, I’ll be putting up a retro Best And Worst report (or two), but step one is the celebration of these promo montages. When the mid-90s hit they went the way of the dodo, but I’ve put together a gallery of some of the best from 89-96. If you only watch one thing, watch the video where swank 1995 Pamela Anderson gets weird voicemail messages from Doink the Clown about how he’s gonna nail her when he wins the Royal Rumble. Hell, even if you don’t like wrestling, watch that one.

Enjoy. If I missed one of your favorites, be sure to post it in our comments section below.

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We cover pro wrestling a little more than we should these days, because it turns out a lot of people want to read about fake fighting on legitimate comedy sports blogs and because more of us watched it when we were kids than we’d like to admit. Some of us still do, and have blogging jobs instead of working in an office somewhere and having the respect of anyone.

I’ve been looking for a way to follow-up on the WWF Legends Minimalist Poster Gallery from earlier this month, and pro wrestling personality/friend of the site Kyle Durden gave me a great idea … what’s more WWF and minimalist than actual pro wrestling promo 8x10s? Nothing, it turns out, especially if you find the ones from the late 1980s/early 1990s, after wrestling had been popular but before it got popular again. That’s a gold mine.

So here’s a look into the WWF promo photos gold mine. A preview of what you’ll find inside: Dusty Rhodes as a laughing garbage man, Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake going from normal human being to crazy-eyed monster in four years and the Bushwhackers playing in somebody’s raked leaves. By the end of the gallery you may no longer be able to stand. That’s normal.

Let me know which ones are your favorites in the comments section below.

[all photos via ImageEvent]

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The only thing we love at UPROXX more than mash-ups and Tumblr GIFs with subtitles across them are minimalist posters. We’ll post a gallery of minimalist posters for anything … comic book characters, Best Picture nominees, video games as movies, anything.

Thankfully a gent with an Etsy shop (BAMItsBernie) has made the minimalist poster craze relevant to my interests by putting together a set of World Wrestling Federation legends pieces highlighting some of the most memorable characters from fake fighting lore and their finishing holds. Some of these are just absolutely glorious, like Koko B. Ware with Frankie on his head or “Ravishing” Rick Rude’s minimalist poster requiring an outline of his entire body because he’s Rick Rude. I would’ve already bought the Andre the Giant one if it said “BUG-EYED HEADBUTT TO THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD THAT MISSES BY LIKE A FOOT AND A HALF” instead of “reverse piledriver”.

Anyway, take a look at these and drop 20 bucks on one if the muse moves you. I’m gonna befriend this guy and get him to make me a WEDGIE poster for Phantasio.

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The best part of Detroit Pistons center Ben Wallace talking to The Score about WWE Wrestlemania XXVIII is the realization that Ben Wallace watches wrestling like my parents: he remembers how much he loved wrestling in the 80s, thinks Stone Cold Steve Austin was cool and guesses the finish for the John Cena versus The Rock main-event will be “nobody” winning and them “fighting to the back somewhere”. All he needs to do now is get legitimately upset when somebody cheats and he’s my Mom.

As the worldwide leader in cramming wrestling coverage down the throats of a mainstream sports comedy blog audience, I guess my next career goals should be to 1) take Arda Ocal’s job, and 2) find every mainstream sports star who likes pro graps and badger them to fantasy book it. I want to know what Travis Hafner would do with the Funkasaurus. You know, besides grounding out to him.

My personal prediction, for the record: Cena rips out The Rock’s heart and shows it to him.