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.

Update: Part 2 is now up. Check it out!

Back in September, we shared A Golden Treasury Of Cheesy Late-80s/Early-90s WWF Promo Photos, a collection of the best photos from pro wrestler 8x10s. If you missed that … yeah, you should click the link.

Anyway, I was never a WWF kid when I was growing up. I was born in southern Virginia and was raised on the National Wrestling Alliance — if you’re a WWF lifer, that means we had Ric Flair when you had Hulk Hogan — and eventually what the NWA became, World Championship Wrestling. You may remember WCW from its sudden, crazy popularity in the late 1990s when Hulk Hogan became a bad guy, Sting became The Crow and WWF put as many curse words and dick jokes on television as they could to combat it. Spoiler: the dick jokes won.

That said, WCW is still my favorite thing, and if I’m going to share the worst of WWF’s promo photos, I might as well dip into the endless well of embarrassment that is the WCW library. What follows is only part one of a series, because holy shit you will not believe some of these pictures.

Enjoy, and show this to everyone you’ve ever known.

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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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