I don’t know what my fascination is with Russia lately, but between dogs that fetch vodka, a billionaire’s wife, statues made of poop, Kate Upton doppelgangers and 23-year old models in bikinis running down the street, I am sold. Looks like we lost the Cold War, folks. Hell, even that fat guy in a Speedo can dance better than the dance instructor that he’s sort of mocking. It’s just a great week for Russians.

Alas, it’s a bad week for UFC fans, as we don’t have any child po… er, I mean mixed martial arts to watch. Sorry, I was channeling my inner Steve Hickey there. That guy loves talking about child pornography. So what shall we do instead? Well, I’m gonna go sit ringside at this Chikara event tomorrow night in Orlando, while you all can watch this stuff…

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YOU MADE ME BLEED MY OWN FEELS

Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, and what-have-you are appreciated. Do me a solid. I’m writing a lot of words for your enjoyment.

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

- If you’re going to WrestleMania this year … hey, so are we! Me, Best and Worst of Impact’s Danielle, GIFmaster General THESTINGER and pretty much everyone else from the online wrestling world will be there, so if you will be too, let one of us know. We’ll do a thing. Even if that thing is “make sure we all sit together at Chikara.”

Please click through to enjoy the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for February 25, 2013.

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My favorite part of last night’s complete ass-kicking that the Oregon Ducks handed the Kansas State Wildcats was how ESPN’s announcing crew refused to even acknowledge the existence of the AT&T Cotton Bowl on Fox tonight. Of course they mentioned the BBVA Compass Bowl, but God forbid they toss Fox a bone and mention the bigger, better bowl with the bigger, better teams.

Par for the course, I guess. Honestly, the ESPN stuff amuses me more than it bothers me now. Big changes in 2013, that’s what I attribute this new attitude to. Huzzah.

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Tonight, on the “hey, it’s Tuesday and they’re airing it live” edition of the With Leather WWE open discussion thread:

After losing to World Heavyweight Champion Big Show in an earth-shattering contest Sunday at WWE TLC, Sheamus opted to approach the giant on Raw and shake his hand. When The World’s Largest Athlete decided to insult him in return, though, The Celtic Warrior changed his tune, engaging The World’s Largest Athlete in another slug fest before taking him down with the gigantic chair Big Show used to defeat him one day earlier at WWE TLC.

Then, not long after winning the Slammy Award for Superstar of the Year, John Cena attacked Dolph Ziggler when he tried to cash in his Money in the Bank contract on a downed Big Show. The WWE official never rang the bell, though, due to Cena’s attack.

Later in the main event when Cena teamed with Vickie Guerrero in a Mixed Tag Team Match against Ziggler & AJ, both females walked out on the match. As Cena and Ziggler battled it out, AJ returned with WWE NXT powerhouse Big E Langston, who swiftly flattened Cena!

On the special live SuperSmackDown, Cena will team with Sheamus to take on Big Show & Ziggler in a match that will certainly produce an explosive main event given the shocking events on Raw. Will the mysterious Langston make his presence known again? (via WWE.com)

There’s no Best And Worst Of SmackDown report planned for tomorrow (and hey, there’s been a TLC report and a Raw report already this week, and Impact coming on Friday), but feel free to show your love to your fellow Wrestling Bros by responding to choice comments with a +1.

Enjoy the show, everyone.

This is not how you want to look after running into Randy Orton backstage.

Well, this is weird. It’s Tuesday, and Smackdown will be live, so … live thread? Anybody? Let’s try it out. Maybe we can get these going on Fridays, what do you think?

WWE makes history yet again, as SuperSmackDown LIVE comes to the UK for the very first time! WWE.com explores five things to keep an eye on tonight at 8/7 CT on Syfy, including a monumental Falls Count Anywhere Match between The Viper Randy Orton and the cunning Alberto Del Rio. (via WWE.com)

1. The Randy Orton/Alberto Del Rio Falls Count Anywhere Match will just be both men collecting buffets of food and dumping trays of beans and hummus on Ricardo Rodriguez for no reason.

2. Smackdown – dubbed-in crowd noise = a really great episode of Raw.

3. Live equation: Smackdown – dubbed-in crowd noise + John Cena + other Raw guys who aren’t usually on Smackdown but are tonight, because it’s live = another episode of Raw.

4. Vickie Guerrero will have more incriminating footage of John Cena and AJ. Tonight: they were spotted by one of AJ’s classmates hanging out at Breadstix!

5. If Antonio Cesaro loses to R-Truth, we riot.

I don’t really have a Best Of Smackdown column planned, but feel free to show love to each others’ funny jokes and observations with the trusty +1. And don’t forget to read this week’s Raw report, which is just below this one on the With Leather main page.

Every week I write the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw column, but I barely ever talk about Smackdown. If you’d like me to recap every Smackdown between 2004 and early 2012, I can do it in four words: TEDDY LONG TAG TEAM MATCH.

Former Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long (aka WCW’s Theodore R. Long, aka “Peanuthead”) ran a wrestling show for almost 8 years with only one programming idea:

1. Wait until 2-6 wrestlers were arguing in the ring.
2. Interrupt those wrestlers with a rap song about Teddy Long.
3. Announce that if those wrestlers had an issue, they could resolve it in a TAG TEAM MATCH*!

*With Teddy you can’t just type “tag team match,” because that’s not how he says it. He says TAG TEAM MATCH.

Teddy is no longer GM, but now, thanks to YouTube user mekabizh1, you can relive the glory days with this nearly 7-minute long compilation of Teddy showing up, doing the most predictable thing a guy in charge of a wrestling show can do, and bailing. As an added bonus, I’ve included some of my favorite TAG TEAM MATCH memes and videos after the jump. So check this out and enjoy it, but don’t get confrontational with anybody about it, because … well …

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