I’m not a big fan of ‘Daily Show’ correspondent Aasif Mandvi for two reasons:

1. His voice
2. His role as Commander Zhao in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, which is easily the most ignorant-of-itself film adaptation this side of The Scarlet Letter.

That said, he has won a small place in my heart for yesterday’s piece about how kids should consider NOT going to college and bringing in goddamn NEW JACK when it was time to scare the kids straight.

If you aren’t familiar with the work of New Jack, he’s a pro wrestler, former ECW star and former bounty hunter with four justifiable homicides (!) who owns Wolverine claws, jumps off of balconies for little-to-no pay and is not afraid to beat a guy to death for real in front of children. He’s great, in the worst way that pro wrestling can be great, and it was surprising to see him here.

But you know what? A pro wrestler who kills people is still a better fit for ‘The Daily Show’ than Olivia Munn. New Jack’s appearance is after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Our weekly look back through the best and worst of pro wrestling promo photos continues. If you missed week 1 and week 2, I encourage you to go back and check them out first, because otherwise you won’t be able to figure out my complexly layered jokes, like “Jeff Jarrett is terrible and looks like a monster.”

Week 3 encapsulates the last 20 years of WWE programming … legendary champions, beautiful Divas, the time Kane was a pro wrestling dentist and at least eight tag teams you’d completely forgotten about. Also, Steve Blackman holding weapons!

So please, click through to enjoy 50 more ridiculous WWE promo photos. If you don’t, Triple H is gonna look at you like that all day.

Read the rest of this entry »

So far, we’ve shared with you a golden treasury of cheesy late-80s/early-90s WWF promo photos and a two-part retrospective of WCW’s worst possible 8x10s.

No look at pro graps in the 1990s would be complete without Extreme Championship Wrestling, the hyper-violent, cursing-on-VHS, #3 promotion in wrestling’s last boom period. ECW had a lot that positives that still hold up — under-the-radar international stars given a chance to shine, a constantly-replenishing roster that gave WWE and WCW most of its top young stars, Beulah McGillicutty’s trashy glory — but some of it, mostly Blue Meanie’s jean shorts, deserves to be lost in time.

Please enjoy these EXTREME GLAMOURSHOTS~. They’re even better if you realize that almost everyone in the gallery is somewhere on a show 15 years later, milking whatever they had going for them here.

Read the rest of this entry »

By way of reddit comes the kind of video only The Internet (capital letters) could produce. Almost four minutes of pro wrestlers from the 1980s and early 90s … well, I’ll let this describe it for me:

[Absolutely no Words] All except for Ric Flair at the end. We heard them yell, shout and scream. But, who ever pays attention when they take that deep breath before they shout it out? Nobody does except for me. Have fun.

Yep, wrestlers breathing. That’s a post. If I had to whip up a quick “Best And Worst”-style column about the video, it’d read something like this.

Best: The occasional use of non-WWF guys. Jimmy “Boogie Woogie Man” Valiant makes his With Leather debut! I met him at a gas station, once! Other bests include Ric Flair at 2:40 (all of it), The Ultimate Warrior sounding like he’s at lamaze class, and the The Artist-style ending.

Worst: How the hell is Rowdy Roddy Piper alive after almost 60 years of breathing like that?

The Three Stooges were a comedy act that lasted from 1925 until 1970 (!), and yeah, while the majority of their act was showcased in theatrical shorts, their lasting cultural relevancy comes from a television revival, so we’re counting them as “TV”.

Your opinion of The Three Stooges may vary, but your Dad loves them. They’ve come in and out of social consciousness in so many ways it’s hard to describe. They’ve been in movies, they’ve been in cartoons, they’ve been re-imagined for modern audiences by the people behind There’s Something About Mary and been an influence to countless comedians, even the ones who won’t admit it. They were never the most highbrow thing in the world, but they did something right. They also featured a lot of sports in their features, and because I already dated the hell out of myself with the 20 Greatest Sports Moments Of The Brady Bunch, I might as well trick the blogging audience into thinking I’m 100 years old.

If you like this week’s Sports On TV column, be sure to drop us a comment (especially if we forgot something important), click the “like” button to share it with strangers on the Internet, and maybe send it over to your Dad. He’ll think it’s funny.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-show notes:

- Don’t be afraid to leave a comment on this report. We’ve build a great community of intelligent, funny wrestling fans and you should be a part of it, because seriously, you aren’t gonna find it anywhere else. Don’t post your comments too fast or they might not show up, because our server is run by Angelfire and is from 1995.

- Big thanks again to Casey/THESTINGER for helping me out with gifs and pictures. Be sure to visit his gifs Tumblr for the stuff I didn’t use. We’re gonna get that kids in the crowd tumblr on the Internet, buddy!

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

- If you’re going to be at Wrestlemania this year (or in Miami for Wrestlemania weekend, at least), make sure you let me know so we can find each other and say hi. Section 138, if you’re wondering. Also probably ROH on Saturday afternoon, and Axxess that night. Both Chickbusters are going to be there, it may be my Waterloo.

Please to enjoy the Best and Worst Of WWE Raw for March 19, 2012.

Read the rest of this entry »