The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 11/21

Written by Brandon Stroud / 11.22.11

dolph-ziggler-headstand

Pre-show notes:

WWE's AJ is a NERD, KING, a NERD~!- As a prerequisite for this column, make sure you’ve read The Best And Worst Of WWE Survivor Series ’11. It’ll explain a lot of the obvious stuff from last night (CM Punk is champion? Big Show came off the top rope?) without me having to cobble together a video editor and post a bunch of JVC Kaboom Box Kabooms Of The Night.

- Don’t forget, we’re trying to get a regular Smackdown live-blog going, too, so smark that on your calendar for Friday and go back and read the first one.

- Also, be sure to check out my appearance on The Masked Man’s first wrestling podcast for Grantland. I’m pretty honored to show up on the first ever episode, even if I spent most of it talking about D’Lo Brown buying feminine hygiene products.

- If you like pro wrestling, you’ll LOVE Twitter: Follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and like us on Facebook. It’s the best and easiest way to know when these columns go up, and it helps me sell you on the rest of the site (hopefully).

- If you read the column or watched the show and have some thoughts to share, don’t hesitate to leave a comment. I’m especially interested in hearing what you thought of every segment of the show in the order they occured, relating in no way to anything I’ve typed. But no, if you’re a regular reader I want you to be a part of this every week. Don’t make me start a mailbag.

- For further Raw reading, be sure to check out UGO’s WWE Raw: The Good The Bad And The Ugly and John Canton’s Raw Deal (when it goes up).

- Neither A.J. nor Kaitlyn appeared on this week’s show (Kelly Kelly barely even showed up), so I’m including the picture to the right to guarantee my first 18 comments are “oh my god that picture of a.j. are you serious”.

The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for November 11 is after the jump. There are some pretty good wrestling matches in here, so pay attention.

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Survivor Series ’11

Written by Brandon Stroud / 11.21.11

punk-championship-win

Pre-show notes, with no sign of Zack Ryder:

- As a prerequisite for this column, make sure you’ve read The Best And Worst Of Raw Gets Rocked and our first ever attempt at a Smackdown live-blog. I’m considering starting a Raw open thread just to let you comment as you go and steal all your jokes.

- Your comments are begged-for and appreciated. That goes for everything posted on With Leather, but especially so here. Also, hey, if you like this go read everything else on the site. We write about actual sports, too. Facebook likes, Google +1s and so on are also encouraged and appreciated.

- Horrid Twitter Commercial: Follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and (perhaps most importantly, because this is still a thing) like us on Facebook. You can keep up with updates directly that way, and not have to wait for some random friend to link you.

- A.J. and Kaitlyn actually showed up on this show, so look for them inside.

And without further adieu, please to enjoy the Best and Worst of WWE Survivor Series 2011.

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Smackdown 11/18 Live-Blog

Written by Brandon Stroud / 11.18.11

chickbusters-best-and-worst-of-smackdown

One of the comments I get for complaining in Best And Worst Of WWE Raw is, “why don’t you do a Best And Worst Of Smackdown instead?” That’s usually followed by “it’s a lot better”, and a list of wrestlers I love who infrequently or never show up on Raw, like Daniel Bryan and The Chickbusters, A.J. and Kaitlyn. I did one when it aired live on a Tuesday — The Best And Worst Of WWE Super Smackdown — but it ended up filled with Raw guys.

The reason I don’t do it regularly (besides an “I’m always busy on Friday nights” thing I’m not going to lie to you about) is simple: With Leather doesn’t update on Saturdays, and nobody’s interested enough to come back Monday for a report about a show that aired Friday and was taped the previous Tuesday. The solution, at least until we figure out the logistics of podcasting, is even simpler: tonight, starting at 8 PM EST (or 7 PM Brandon Time), we’re going to experiment with the Best And Worst of WWE Smackdown Live-Blog.

Thanks to the magic of CoverItLive, you can come back to this entry when Smackdown starts and follow along with me as I make jokes, mark out for the FCW fresh and pretend like I didn’t read the spoilers. I’ll be sharing your comments as we go, and best case scenario I’ll have Popular Internet Girlfriend Destiny as my co-host. Check it out. If this is successful and I don’t find out I’m less funny on the fly, we’ll keep it going.

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 11/14: Raw Gets Rocked

Written by Brandon Stroud / 11.15.11

the-rock-you-cant-see-me-john-cena-survivor-series

Pre-show notes:

- If you love The Rock and think he’s the best wrestler of all time, be sure to leave us a comment. That should cover my commenting hype-beg for the week and entitle every living human who isn’t me or Billy Jack Haynes to post something.

- An important thing to remember while reading this report is that I had a weekend literally full of awesome wrestling. I spent Friday night and Saturday and Sunday mornings at Wizard World Austin loitering around Darin Childs’ table in the 1600 aisle, commissioning professional art from my favorite wrestler in the world. Saturday night I went to Anarchy Championship Wrestling’s Lone Star Classic, which featured Portia Perez winning their heavyweight title only to lose it an hour later. ACH ended up with it, which was the second happiest thing that could happen. Also, the Nasty Boys were there. Sunday was CHIKARA’s High Noon iPPV. I was too worn out by then to cover it effectively, but it was one of the best shows of the year and Peck/Cabana II was simultaneously the best and worst match in history. So then Monday night comes along, and it’s three hours of Raw getting Rocked. My brain may not be processing this correctly.

- Oh, and before I forget, after the jump you can see four of my five (or six) favorite WWE Superstars appearing in one segment together on Friday’s Smackdown. Why am I not Besting and Worsting this show instead?

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 11/7 – Live On Tape From Liverpool

Written by Brandon Stroud / 11.08.11

sgt-kaitlyns-lonely-chickbusting-band

Pre-show notes:

- As always, and yes, I’m begging, make sure to drop us a comment when you’re done reading the report. It can be about the report, what you thought of the show, who your five favorite people are in that banner image, whatever. We just want to hear from you. Also, we’re following up our botched WWE Vengeance predictions contest with a Survivor Series version (with the same $250 Amazon gift card at stake), so get in the hang of commenting and interacting now. And no, I’m not going to make you pick who you think will be the sole survivor, I want to actually give this away at some point in my life.

- This show was live (on tape) from England, and if you’ve been watching wrestling for more than a month you know how bad taped shows tend to be. Nothing really happens and they just tread water until they’re back in the States. That means the show isn’t very good, so if I come across as wholly negative, I apologize. Worst case scenario, you got to look at Kaitlyn and AJ for a minute.

- The brand new With Leather pro wrestling podcast, With Spandex is tentatively (TENTATIVELY) scheduled to start up next week. I still don’t know what I’m doing, but dammit, I’ve got to start doing it badly soon.

Please click through to enjoy the Best and Worst of WWE Raw, innit. (British)

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 10/31: Muppets, The Rock and Mortal Kombat

Written by Brandon Stroud / 11.01.11
The Rock WWE Raw Tiny Fuppets

The Rock: The Nation's Top Fun Haver

Pre-show notes:

- Comments on these reports have been down lately, due in part to our new comments section requiring registration and due in another part to me writing 600,000,000 words about wrestling and not getting it up until four in the afternoon, but go ahead and leave us a comment if you aren’t a total jerk. Leave us one even if you are. I’d appreciate it. I like talking to you about the wrestling.

- AJ picture in the intro is not necessary because she’s actually on the show this week, and oh man you guys is she ever on the show.

- All animated gifs are via the Punchsport Pagoda at Something Awful.

- WARNING: I like the Muppets a lot, so if you’re one of those “meh, the Muppets” types, I don’t understand you and we should make that clear now. For more information on me and Muppets, please consult the 50 Greatest Muppets list I helped write at Progressive Boink a few years ago. This happened on an Internet before slideshows, so you should be able to enjoy it without trauma. When you’re done with that, read the second half of it.

And now, the Best and Worst of Muppet Raw.

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