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.

Read the rest of this entry »

The results are in! After a week of tumultuous voting arguments and two lengthy, analytical podcasts, we can safely declare the round one winners in the first annual With Leather Bad Wrestling Theme Lyrics March Madness Tournament. I say “annual” like we can do this more than once. Oh, and uh, I fixed the brackets.

Anyway, the tournament continues this week with round two action. A lot of the heavy hitters remain — American Males and its Devo + didgeridoos attempt at 80s rock, Billy Kidman’s weird, rapey rap song — as well as a few surprises. Who knew Chyna would lose so early?

The voting is open now, and you’ll have until next Tuesday, March 26, to make your voice heard. Here are the round two match-ups:

Read the rest of this entry »

There it is. After the initial 16 entrants chosen by With Leather and the follow-up, fan-chosen 16, the first annual With Leather Bad Wrestling Theme Lyrics March Madness Tournament has its brackets and is ready to begin.

Now comes the hard part: trying to decide which of these is worse than the other.

On the following pages you’ll find the match-ups listed above. You’ll be asked to reconsider the song lyrics and make your decision in the individual polls under each battle. Your votes will be the only thing deciding the winner, so vote early and pressure everyone you know to vote for your favorite entrants. Votes will count until Monday, March 18. I’m pushing for an American Males/Buff Bagwell showdown in the With Leather bracket, but I’m not gonna be aggressive about it. I also kinda want Kaitlyn to shock the world and take the whole thing.

Anyway, you made this happen, so now let’s make it big. If you don’t, Biker Taker will EXPLODE AT YOU~.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s March. That means everything has to be a tournament, right?

This year, we’re playing along. We’ve built an incredible, incredibly funny community of wrestling fans at With Leather thanks to the popularity of the Best and Worst of Raw and Impact columns, and with WrestleMania fast approaching, I thought now would be the perfect time to organize a reader input fueled, wrestling themed tournament.

So, I hereby formally announce the 1st Annual With Leather Bad Wrestling Theme Lyrics March Madness Tournament. Here’s how it’s going to work:

Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-show notes:

- In addition to writing jokes for sports websites, I also do a lot of comedy shows all over the country. Twitter followers are like money to comedians so follow me there if you like my style. I’m also going on comedy tours this May and again in June so check my performance schedule and come say hi!

- No references to Destiny this week other than this one to say that I have hung out with her several times even though she writes mean things about me on poster boards during ACW shows.

- This is my favorite wrestling column on the internet so I’m thrilled to be making my second appearance off the bench for Brandon. He’s staying at my house in New Orleans after the Elimination Chamber so he sort of owes it to me. I’m not nervous about filling his shoes, rather, I’m nervous you guys will think the shoes I’m wearing aren’t as fly as his to begin with. Different shoes for different folks, people. Just give me a chance!

- Follow With Leather on Twitter @withleather, follow Brandon @MrBrandonStroud and like WL on Facebook.

Best and Worst of Raw presents: Managing as Managing Manager

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »