I feel your pain, Ziggler Shirt Guy.

Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, what-have-you are really appreciated. Especially this week, when there’s a lot of sad stuff to talk about.

- Thanks as always to Casey/THESTINGER of Hammerlock Dialectic for GIFs.

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and like us on Facebook.

- There’s a little bit about the scheduling of next week’s reports at the end of the column, so make sure you check that out.

Here’s the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for September 10, 2012. The bad one.

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This is totally a sign somebody made and brought from home.

This week’s five-point Raw preview:

After Raw General Manager AJ Lee came completely unglued on last week’s Raw, one might begin to wonder if Mr. McMahon made the right decision in naming her the brand’s General Manager on the 1,000th episode of Raw. Speaking of Mr. McMahon … will Monday’s WWE Hall of Fame guest have anything to say about a certain incident involving the boss the last time the two of them were in Montreal? Here are five things to look for this Monday on Raw at 8/7 CT on USA Network.(via WWE.com)

Five actual things to look for on Raw:

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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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I don’t know what it is about fame that makes people think they can be musicians. Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian made sex tapes to become famous, and then to maintain their celebrity statuses they decided to become pop singers. Plenty of actors have done it – Keanu Reeves, Gary Sinise, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, to name a few – and God knows there are quite a few athletes who think they’re regular Scott Stapps. I’m no Darren Rovell, but I’m willing to guess that 99% of them have failed.

But for some mind-bending, unknown reason, becoming a music star has always been a favorite hobby of professional wrestlers and every single one of them that has tried it has been terrible. Sure, that’s personal opinion, but I’d love to know who I’m overlooking. In the meantime, I’m sure that I’ve overlooked plenty of the most terrible singing wrestlers, but I could only handle 15 videos in the YouTube wormhole before I was screaming in agony.

Witness the horror for yourselves and feel free to add your least favorite songs in the comments.

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Links

Shaq Talks About The Moment The Lakers Dynasty Died - Stupid Deadspin, always getting the exclusives. The only review copy of a book I ever got was a hardcover about Derek Jeter, and I can’t really make a news post with “Derek Jeter is great and everyone thinks so” blurbs. [Smoking Section]

4 Science Fiction Series Netflix Should Bring Back - I don’t really care about ‘Reaper’, but bringing back the other three would be great, especially Justice League. That show was secretly the best thing on TV for like three years. [Gamma Squad]

Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels: Behind One of WWE’s Greatest Rivalries - The Masked Man reviews the latest WWE DVD and makes 100% fewer “we’re gonna get hungry and leave no man untested” jokes than I would’ve. Don’t ever let me write for Grantland. [Grantland]

Our Favorite TV-Related Halloween Costumes from Walking Around NYC - I wish I’d thought to do this for Austin, but I wouldn’t be able to stomach all the “hipster” comments. I saw one guy dressed as “think outside the box” and he was just wearing a box, no lie. [Warming Glow]

Someone Shouted “Where’s Bumblebee Now?” While Shia Was Getting Beat Up - It would’ve been better if Shia himself had yelled BUMBLEBEEEAHHHH while getting beaten up, but I’ll take it. What a Disturbia-ing situation! [Film Drunk]

Bill Murray Fan Art: A Sneak Preview Of Gallery1988′s ‘Please Post Bills’ Exhibit - If anybody deserves fan art, it’s him. [UPROXX]

The Last Words of 25 Geniuses - I hope my last words are “I’ll get you next time, Gadget” and possibly “yeaaarghhhh”. [Buzzfeed]

Heck Yeah, CHIKARA! - My new favorite independent wrestling Tumblr, pending at least two more Archibald Peck gifs per week. [Tumblr]

Plugin Allows You To “De-Kardashian” Your Browser - Great, there go our pageviews! [The FW]

Top 10 Lil Wayne Songs - I like the one where he mumbles and it sounds like he wrote it in 20 seconds before the music started. You see a lot of crooks and the crooks still crook! [PopCrush]

5 Easy Ways to Fix ’2 Broke Girls’ - “Take off Kat Dennings’ shirt” had better be on here somewhere. [AOL TV]

Six Influential Dead Guys I’d Like to Have Dinner With - My list would include Buck O’Neil and Jesus, just to see how Buck reacts, and to see which one I like more. [Unreality]

God’s Eye View: The Supercut - Now somebody do a Dog’s Eye View Supercut where it’s clips from every Dog’s Eye View video. [High Definite]

Welcome to the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for September 13, 2011. Before we begin:

- Be sure to leave a comment if you read the report. If Vince McMahon is ever on his word processor and accidentally stumbles upon the site, it’ll make me look cooler to have 200 comments than it would to have 8. Also, these things take about three and a half hours to build from start to finish, not counting the two hours of wrestling I have to sit through, so your feedback and thoughts are my payment. Money is my payment, too, but I get these four times a month.

- That being said, allow me to pull a Zack Ryder and invite you to like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, buy the t-shirt and the headband and the sunglasses (I don’t have those things).

- As previously mentioned, I’m headed to Los Angeles on Thursday, so both The Best And Worst Of Night Of Champions and the next night’s Best and Worst Of Raw will feature guest writers. Handling the Night of Champions report will be Andrew Johnson of the popular The John Report, which I think is a blog about bathrooms. Covering next week’s Raw will be writer Diego McCafferty, a man shockingly important to my pro wrestling fandom. Be kind to them and give them the same kind of response you’d give me, only with more curse words. Burnsy will be in charge of With Leather while I’m off taking mark photos with Maleficent (or Andre Ethier, or whoever), so if they do a terrible job, blame him.

- A.J. image unrelated, but important.

Enjoy the report. See you in two weeks.

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