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 »

WWE’s Royal Rumble 2013 goes down on January 27, and I think I speak for everyone when I say the best part of a Royal Rumble match is when they herd a wrestler in front of a green screen and tell him to explain off the top of his head why he’s gonna win. Very few things make a wrestling fan feel like a kid again like Hulk Hogan pointing with an open palm and yelling about vitamins in front of a horrible yellow background reading HULK HOGAN.

To prepare for the Rumble, I’ll be putting up a retro Best And Worst report (or two), but step one is the celebration of these promo montages. When the mid-90s hit they went the way of the dodo, but I’ve put together a gallery of some of the best from 89-96. If you only watch one thing, watch the video where swank 1995 Pamela Anderson gets weird voicemail messages from Doink the Clown about how he’s gonna nail her when he wins the Royal Rumble. Hell, even if you don’t like wrestling, watch that one.

Enjoy. If I missed one of your favorites, be sure to post it in our comments section below.

Read the rest of this entry »

By way of the helpfully-watermarked-to-death Everything Is Terrible comes my new favorite With Leather Christmas update — topping the obnoxious IU game-winning three-point lights and The Prime Time Players singing wrestling-themed Christmas carols is this clip of a 1990s Arnold Schwarzenegger leading an ethnically and culturally diverse group of pals through a holiday conversation about bowling balls and singing lessons.

Seriously, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen full-on Twins-era Arnold ask an old lady about Christmas presents and get playfully defensive about how she’s shitting with him. A BOWLING BALL? AND YOU NEVER GOT IT? CAHM ON, DON’T PUT ME ON, I KNOW YOU GOT A BOWLING BALL YOU BECAME A CHAMPION BOWLAH,YOU MANY TIMES OVAH YOU BECAME A CHAMPION AYEAYEAYEAYEAHH HEAH HEAH HEAH! I thought she was the Where’s The Beef lady at first.

Oh, and then Arnold tells children about how Santa’s visit was prefaced by a visit from THE DEVIL, and then some Danny DeVito-laced Christmas caroling. It’s the best. Christmas is awesome and so is Arnold, and I want YOU ARE CHAMPION BOWLAH on my tombstone.

[h/t to Max Robinson]

This week on Sports On TV, we tackle the horror/comedy/drama/everything else of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer,’ the 1997-2003 hit that catapulted Avengers director Joss Whedon into public consciousness, gave Sarah Michelle Gellar seven more years of television success and adapted a semi-forgotten Kristy Swanson movie into a layered, sometimes absurd and always worth-talking-about cult classic.

And yeah, believe it or not, Buffy had more than 20 great sports moments. I was originally going to supplement the list with a few ‘Angel’ moments (personalized hockey jerseys for babies!), but I revisited the show, re-watched several of my favorite episodes and found so many things to talk about I could barely fit it into a part 1.

If you’re a fan of vampires, good television or magical axes that give teens the power to kick through somebody’s chest, you’ll love this week’s column. Please click through to enjoy my picks for ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s’ 20 greatest sports moments.

Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t settled on whether or not I like Felicia Day. I was disappointed by season 7 of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ (more on that in tomorrow’s Sports On TV column), but I loved Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and she was cute in that one episode of ‘Undeclared.’ ‘The Guild’ seems like a pretty good show, if you laugh at the word aggro and want to watch a woman who is always on the verge of being sexually assaulted by people who laugh at the word aggro.

That said, the fastest way to earn a spot in my heart is to talk about NBA Jam. So far at With Leather we’ve written about the game’s T2: Judgment Day origins, its Wii remake and the video some guy made of the announcer cursing. Now I get to write about Felicia Day playing NBA Jam. Internet worlds are colliding! This is making me totally aggro*!

So yeah, the latest update from The Flog features Willow When Willow Stopped Being Willow playing the best-ever Sega Genesis basketball game. Okay, second best. She isn’t playing Bulls Vs. Blazers. Highlights include Felicia marking out for 1990s Hilary Clinton, thinking Eric Montross’ last name is “Mattress” and discovering how awesome Anthony Peeler was. Lowlights include a guy named “Ryon” throwing shade at DJ Jazzy Jeff, and the show’s dog host spelling out some stuff in poop. Viewer discretion, I guess?

Video is below.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Friday, I wrote about how ABC News used ‘Twin Peaks’ character Laura Palmer as an example of the dangers of cheerleading (she was murdered, wrapped in plastic and dumped in a river … but, you know, on television). I thought that was going to be the last time I saw modern sports tied into 90s pop culture, but now we’re doing it in reverse.

Amy Heckerling’s seminal 1995 comedy Clueless was on TV this weekend, and my good friend and Tampa Bay Rays fan Lex Lybrand (of directing me in a feature film fame) noticed something weird. Near the end of the film, when Alicia Silverstone’s Cher and the late Brittany Murphy’s Tai are making up and settling in to watch Breckin Meyer do some l33t 90s skateboarding, Tai is wearing a what appears to be a Tampa Bay Rays polo. In their current colors. No, seriously, look at it.

The problem with that is that the Rays didn’t exist in 1995, and didn’t switch to that font or color scheme until 2008. There’s an easy explanation — it’s a coincidence, and the TB could represent anything. I’m not an encyclopedia of mid-90s clothing brands, and they could’ve just whipped up a random fake brand logo for a long-forgotten polo in a throwaway scene. Better theory: Brittany Murphy is a time-traveler, which explains the Rays gear and why the girls in gym class look so much like the Brooklynettes. It’s bat-shit, sure, but at least in this theory, Brittany Murphy wouldn’t be dead. She’d just be in the future.

Further evidence (and more 1990s Alicia Silverstone) is below.

Read the rest of this entry »