Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, and especially Reddit submissions/up votes are appreciated. I will also accept Pinterest shares, if you are reading this and are Destiny.

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

- GIFS courtesy of Jerusalem at Punchsport Pagoda.

- If you’d like to laugh at something wrestling-related that ISN’T the Best and Worst of Raw report, make sure you check out my thorough gallery of old WCW promo photos. Part 2 is going up tomorrow, so check back for that, as well.

- (tomorrow is my birthday, don’t tell anybody)
(and don’t feel like you’ve got to fill up the comments section with birthday messages, just share these columns and stuff.)

- I am going to be LIVE AND IN THE HOUSE AND THE ST. LOUIS ANARCHY REP IN THE REY DE VOLADORES TOURNAMENT for National Pro Wrestling Day in Philadelphia on February 2. If you want to hang out and say hi and see some great wrestling, come to this thing.

- Due to time restrictions I’m not going to be able to throw a Jack Swagger Of Mars into this week’s report, but all that means is that you’ll get a double-shot next week. Or I’ll just write all the middle chapters at once and put them in a big finale piece. Whatever you wanna do.

Until then, please click through for the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for January 14, 2013.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, and especially Reddit submissions/up votes are appreciated. The Reddit thing is big. They kinda side-eye me if I ever try to submit the column myself, so if you’re a big wig at the Squared Circle cracker factory, help us out and get the column in front of Redditors.

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

- GIFS courtesy of Jerusalem at Punchsport Pagoda.

- If you haven’t been reading The Best And Worst Of TNA Impact Wrestling … what’s wrong with you? You can check it out every Friday afternoon at With Leather, courtesy of the lovely and talented Wrestling Bro Danielle Matheson. It features 80% more references to Butt Stuff than the Raw column.

Anyway, welcome back. Please click through for the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for January 7, 2013.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, and especially Reddit submissions/up votes are appreciated. If you aren’t sending me a Christmas present, at least make my column slightly more popular with strangers!

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

- Next Tuesday is Christmas, so the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw will take a one-week vacation. I’ll still get up an open discussion thread for Christmas Eve, and we’ll pick back up formally on January 1.

- Smackdown is live tonight on the USA Network, so be sure to come back to With Leather and hang out with us in the Super Smackdown Live open discussion thread. I am probably not going to do a Best and Worst report for it, because I’ve already done two this week. If that makes you sad, go read the Best and Worst of TLC again!

- Thanks for a great year of reports, everybody. I couldn’t do this without the generous comments and feedback you guys give me. I love you all dearly.

Please click through to enjoy the last Best And Worst Of WWE Raw column of the year, for December 17, 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, Reddit submissions and up arrows (or whatever) and the like are appreciated. Pay-per-view Bests and Worsts usually don’t get as much play as the Raw column, and I’ve never understood it. These are the shows where stuff happens!

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

- GIFs in the column are courtesy of Jerusalem at the Punchsport Pagoda.

- I apologize for the weird execution of the TLC live thread. Some combination of jet lag and the sad stuff that happened over the weekend got me mixed up, and I didn’t get it up and ready like I should’ve. It won’t happen again.

So yeah, please click through and enjoy the Best And Worst Of WWE TLC 2012. Spoiler alert: Nobody gets a red light special.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, what-have-you are immensely appreciated. It’s Christmas, and if you aren’t going to send me presents, you can help make my column slightly more popular. Also, send me presents.

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

- Reminder: If you live in the Virginia/Tennessee area, I will be attending the NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling show on the 14th of December, so if you know who I am, come by and say hi. I’ll also be at the ACW show in Austin that Sunday, because of course I will be.

Now, please click through to enjoy the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for December 11, 2012. The title to a Best And Worst column has never been more appropriate.

Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, what-have-you are immensely appreciated. I’ve we’ve got 3,000 comments on the open discussion threads, we can crack 200 on the thing that takes me like 7 hours to write.

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

- If you didn’t check it out last week, I got together an all-star crew to re-list WWE’s 50 Most Beautiful People In Sports-Entertainment History. The judging panel included Grantland’s Dave Shoemaker, leading Internet Comic Book Guy Chris Sims, WWE Superstar USA Guy and Dale from ‘Greek.’ It was pretty amazing. Give it a flip-through, try not to complain about slideshows and drop a comment, even if it’s to tell me you hate me for not properly evaluating Ivory, or whatever.

- If you live in the Virginia/Tennessee area, I will be attending the NWA Smoky Mountain Wrestling show on the 14th of December, so if you know who I am, come by and say hi. I will need a few people there who are not toothless and yelling at me.

Now, please click through to enjoy the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for December 3, 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »