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 »

Last week we debuted the first installment of our weekly and possibly infinite series This Week In Horrible-Looking People, dedicated to the best and worst of pro wrestling 8×10 promotional photos. It featured (among other things) Linda McMahon looking like a U.S. President, the happiest photo Kevin Nash has ever taken and a Triple H/Chyna promo shot that is clearly just two cardboard cutouts propped up side by side.

This week is loosely dedicated to remembering the good old days, back when Kurt Angle was a regular looking dude, Mickie James was a psychotic lesbian stalker and Dolph Ziggler entered the ring via trampoline. I think he was the trampoline one. Anyway, I’ve gathered 51 more random, amazing WWE promo photos from the 1990s, 2000s and today, and I hope you enjoy them.

Except the Michael Hayes one. Nobody could enjoy that.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, I took a few hours out of my business vacation to New Orleans to share with you the podcast version of the Best and Worst of WWE Elimination Chamber 2013. A lot of people liked it. A lot didn’t. Several of you called me lazy for providing free content because it wasn’t the exact free content I’d imagined when I left for NOLA.

Regardless, I loved it (as anyone who gets what Trew To The Game is actually going for would), and the end of the episode promised a part 2 about our experience in the front row of the WrestleMania XXX press conference. If you didn’t like the first one (because it wasn’t a straight-forward, analytical podcast and was me having fun with my friends) (because you hate that I have friends) (and further accusations), give this one a shot. It’s basically just me and Trew going OH MAN HOW GREAT WAS THIS THING WE GOT TO DO, with a healthy sprinkling of “WWE brought in a bunch of black people to dance for us in-between the white people talking.”

Please click on this photo of me and John Cena not giving a rip about the announced Best and Worst posting schedule to listen.

(I was doing his old “Untouchable” taunt)
(it is hard to do with one hand)

If you’d like a more direct link, please follow this to your podcasting destination.

Here is the full press conference video, for reference:

Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to see the exact moment my heart begins to swell, this is it.

Pre-show notes:

- Another huge thanks to Dennis Haskins, Action Bronson, Derrick Bateman and the over 6,000 comments that made our Raw 1000 Open Discussion Thread the most populated and commented-upon UPROXX thread ever. If you want to spend the next two hours laughing, go skim through that. I could’ve included 200 top comments.

- Before you read the Raw 1000 report, be sure you’ve read The Best And Worst Of WWF Monday Night Raw, Episode 1. The Executioners show up in it, and they’re pretty great.

- Thanks as always to Casey of Hammerlock Dialectic for gifs.

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

And now, the Best and Worst Of Raw 1000 (July 23, 2012), lovingly presented by Tout.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pre-show notes:

- Welcome to my first ever Best And Worst Of WWE [Insert Older Pay-per-view Show Title Here] report. I asked the column’s regular readers to decide which time-appropriate pay-per-view event I’d cover first, and this show, one of the highlights of WWF’s epic 2000, won with over 42% of the vote. So here we are, getting you ready for the 2012 Royal Rumble with a look back at the year 2000′s.

- Comments are appreciated. Clicking “like” is appreciated, tweets and retweets are appreciated, showing and sharing this to and with the people you know are appreciated. One of the reasons I haven’t done older show reports so far is that nobody’s googling for them, so our traffic goes way down and they take like 80 hours to write, so why bother? But I WANT to write them, so if you support them and make them a success, I’ll keep cranking them out. At least get me to Wrestlemania 23, so I can write about Ashley Massaro.

To make things even better, we’ve added some features to our comments section, like badges for unlockable achievements and image/gif posting privileges for top commenters. Our first With Leather badge debuts tomorrow night with the Royal Rumble Open thread. Here’s a hint: >=(

- Don’t forget to come back on Sunday and participate in our open discussion thread for Royal Rumble, happening live. I’ll make sure to update with results and everything. It’ll be fun. YOU’LL ENJOY IT.

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

- If you read the column earlier and were missing a few pages, be sure to go back and give it a re-read. Everything is up now.

- A.J. was not born when this show originally aired, so she will not be featured in the report.

But for now, please enjoy the Best And Worst Of WWF Royal Rumble 2000.

Read the rest of this entry »

Like Max Payne, it’s bullet time.

- Before you read this week’s column, please make sure you’ve read The Best and Worst of Summerslam 2011. It contains important, mostly-positive information necessary to understanding last night’s Raw. I’m just kidding, a mentally handicapped child could tune in to Raw and know what was going on in the first five minutes, I just want you to read and enjoy my stuff. Also, you have to know Kevin Nash is there.

- As always, comments are appreciated. My self-deprecating approach to asking for comments has gone around to being worthy of deprecation, so I’ll try not to beg. I’m trying to form the column around what’s most palatable for everyone, so if it ends up as just pictures of Maryse and a bunch of nerd references you’ll know who won. I’m going to toss a picture of Maryse on the side here, because she never shows up on Raw. Likes, Facebook shares, Plus-ones and Twitter re-Twitters are also appreciated.

- Don’t forget to watch NXT. Maryse shows up there, and I have insider information that Maxine will return as a surprise contestant. MAXINE, people. The show is in week 77 of its 280 week run, so now’s the time to jump on board. Vote Bateman. I can’t write “the big guy barks like a dog” as a worst every week.

Read the rest of this entry »