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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We’re all on the same page, right? The International Olympic Committee suggesting that wrestling should be removed from the 2020 games due to a lack of ticket sales or whatever is stupid, because it’s wrestling, and more or less the definitive human sport.

All we need now is for the IOC to hear passionate comments from athletes who value amateur wrestling, and are beloved and respected enough in the world of sports to be undeniable. People like … uh, Chael Sonnen, that punchman who preps for fights by calling his opponents super coward dummies.

A transcript of his thoughts:

“How do you get rid of wrestling? It is the oldest sport in existence. In no walk of society can you tell me seniority does not matter. Nothing can date itself back as far as wrestling. They didn’t have bikes, they didn’t have balls and they didn’t have bats — they were pushing and pulling on one another.”

“We have an idiocracy known as FILA that has ruined the sport. We have two knuckleheads that you couldn’t trust to run your local donut shop regulating our sport of wrestling. Wrestling has cannibalized itself from 10 spots on the world and Olympic team to nine, to eight, to seven. This is where they’re at it. It’s basic science, the number one rule in biology, you either evolve or you become extinct.”

That’s … actually pretty astute. If you need stupider comments, TMZ spoke with former WWF Heavyweight Champion The Iron Sheik, a 1968 Olympian for Iran who is most famous in his post-wrestling career for being a sort-of profane Wesley Willis who reacts to every situation with threats of violence and anal sex.

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Best: Former G.I. Joe and WWF Champion Sgt. Slaughter is one of several pro wrestling personalities (like Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler and Mr. Belding from ‘Saved By The Bell’) who tour Minor League Baseball parks over the summer to sign a few autographs, make a little cash and entertain fans between innings. Here he is during Thursday night’s game between the Lakeshore Chinooks and Lacrosse Loggers for ‘Military Appreciation Night’. He expertly dodges an attack from a guy named ‘MoFoley’ (no relation to Cactus Jack) and incapacitates him, allowing Gill the Chinook to get a pinfall. Not sure whether or not that was sanctioned, but whatever.

Worst: Busted Coverage calling the Cobra Clutch “a sleeper”. I don’t expect you guys to be run by a lonely pro wrestling encyclopedia like SOME sports blogs, but the guy yelling COBRA CLUUUUUTCH did the work for you.

Worst: At no point did Iron Sheik run out and Pearl Harbor Sarge. This also eliminated any chance of Sheik calling Gill the Chinook a homosexual jew, or whatever.

Photo via Vivid.com, by way of my nightmares

It was only a matter of time before Chyna parlayed her “please forget I wrestled” acting career into porn, and an even smaller matter of time before that porn career became all about how she used to wrestle.

From TMZ, who I’m gonna pretend are using ellipses because you need to pause and take a breather in the middle to get out these sentences:

Former WWE superstar Chyna is finally getting back in the ring … taking on 9 dudes at the same time … except it’s for a porno movie.

TMZ has learned … Chyna was totally serious about pursuing a XXX career … and just wrapped up on a Royal Rumble-inspired flick in which she locks up with a bunch of dudes who all look like famous wrestlers … including a wannabe Hulk Hogan, wannabe Triple H, wannabe Ric Flair and more.

Cue the “this is fake! Look, he stomps when he f**ks!” comments. I think what upsets me the most is that someone’s making a Royal Rumble porno and giving it 10 entrants instead of 30. Maybe the next one can feature a Money In The Stank ladder match.

Anyway, the two major points of interest here (besides a broader point about sadness) are that Chyna competed in multiple Royal Rumbles during her WWF career and that in the long long ago (before the darkness came) she dated the actual Triple H, in contrast to simply letting the gay-for-pay one put it in her butt. As you may know, Triple H made the biggest upgrade in pro dating history in the early 2000s when he went from a drugged-out bodybuilding monster to the daughter of the billionaire who ran his company.

TMZ has photos of the 9 unlucky gents who got to wear Halloween costumes and go knees-deep in Chyna, including an Iron Sheik who is probably in a worse mental state than the real one and a living version of the “john cena gay” meme from the Best And Worst Of Raw:

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Pre-show notes (hey, you should actually read this part):

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

- As I mentioned if you follow me on Twitter, this week I’m doing my second ever old show Best And Worst report for No Way Out 2007. It should be fun. Check back for that on Friday, or Saturday, or one of the weekdays after that when I’m making excuses about how I write too much.

- Comments are appreciated! You guys are pretty solid on that at this point, but by now you should be sharing the column on Facebook, “liking” it, Tweeting it, tweeting ABOUT it, whatever. Pinterest it, if that’s a thing people do.

- Images and gifs this week are courtesy of column regular THESTINGER, who did THEAWESOMEJOB. Please visit him at The Hammer Dialectic. When you’re done reading his stuff, head over to UGO and read Aubrey Sitterson’s Good Slash Bad Slash Ugly of Raw.

- This weekend is Anarchy Championship Wrestling’s first show in San Antonio in a few months, so if you’re a Best And Worst reader in the area, make it a point to stop by, hang out with me and watch a sh*t-ton of great wrestling. I’ll introduce you to Rachel and everything.

Anyway, please enjoy the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for February 13, 2012.

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There’s no arguing with one of the greatest heels of all time in pro wrestling, and so if the Iron Sheik says that you need humbling, then it will be so. Sheik made a personal message for MLB umpire Jim Joyce (the ref that blew the call to take away that perfect game from the Detroit Tigers last night). And I just love the way it opens with the pan up and over the belly while “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” toots in the background. I was ready for Mean Gene Okerlund to pop out and stick a microphone in his face. It’s not like Gene has anything else going on. Read the rest of this entry »