The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 12/19: Our QA Team Drops The Ball!

Written by Justin OConnor / 12.20.11

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Hey there, friends!

- As I’m sure you’re all aware by now, Brandon took the week off in order to celebrate his girlfriend Destiny’s birthday. I know some of you might not think it’s a valid reason to skip out on writing jokes about pro wrestling, but it’s something I totally understand. I know when I celebrate the birth of a DT, writing is almost a logistical impossibility. Y’know, on account of the violent, involuntary shaking and the formication paranoia. Keep a vigilant eye out for those silverfish, Brandon!

- Anyway, my name is Justin O’Connor. I’m not Brandon, but I’m a lot like him. Well, in the same way Mega Bloks are a lot like LEGO. I might not be what you wanted, but I’m “close enough,” and since your parents are inattentive monsters you’ll have to just suck it up and find some use for those awful brown and green pieces. Like, say, attempting to swallow them until you get the toys you asked for in the first place. Or until the school places you under precautionary care and you’re not allowed to open a carton of chocolate milk without adult supervision.

- What I’m getting at is if you guys squint really hard and skim through the pop culture references fast enough, you might be able to delude yourselves into not being able to tell the difference. If that doesn’t work, you’re probably best off treating this week’s column like a regular Brandon column; except you just found out he’s underwent severe head trauma and now everyone’s just being polite by telling him how great he’s doing “in spite of his condition,” between giving one another “holy sh*t” eyes. Trust me, it’ll be easier for everyone involved.

- I don’t have any personal stuff to plug, so you’re off the hook this week. Not really though. Leave a comment.

Now that the formalities are out of the way, let’s tell some jokes about pro graps!

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The Best And Worst Of WWE TLC: Tables Ladders And Chairs ’11

Written by Bill Hanstock / 12.19.11

Editor’s Note: As some of you may’ve noticed, we didn’t do the predictions contest namedropped in last week’s column. Instead, we’ve decided to set up a contest you can’t lose! All you have to do is drop a comment on the column below (a real one, preferably, not “I’m leaving a comment!”), tweet the URL of The Best And Worst Of WWE TLC ’11 out to your followers and make sure to include an @WithLeather at the end so we can see it. Do that, and you’ll be one of two people randomly selected by me and probably Bill to win 50 bucks. That’s it. You’ll get it on one of my Cleveland Indians checks and everything. So do that!

Okay, first things first:

- I’m not Brandon. Brandon isn’t here. He’s off in search of the world’s only vegan Chocolate Wonderfall into which he can dunk a mess of candied tofu, so until he’s done with his walkabout, I’m filling in for the Best and Worst of TLC. I’m Bill Hanstock from Progressive Boink, SB Nation, and/or Baseball Feelings. Tomorrow, you guys get the esteemed Justin, also from Progressive Boink, for Best and Worst of Raw. It’s a regular Progressive Boink week here! By the time Brandon gets back, we’ll be rating lesbians or talking about waterslides or whatever.

- It’s customary to plead for comments in these things, so if you’re reading this, please do take ten seconds of your time to leave a comment, even/especially if it’s just to let Brandon know how much better he is at these.

- You can always follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow Brandon personally @MrBrandonStroud and like us on Facebook.

- If you’re so inclined, you can also follow me on Twitter @sundownmotel or find me on SB Nation.

- All internal gifs are courtesy of Jerusalem at Punchsport Pagoda.

- Just as an advance warning, this recap contains zero (0) pictures of anyone named A.J. (Or does it?? SWERVE)

This show was way better than I expected it to be, so let’s get right down to business!

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Smackdown 12/16 Live-Blog

Written by Brandon Stroud / 12.16.11

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Not that underpants Sheamus posing with a racist midget would do anything to keep you reading, but stay with me.

Tonight’s Best and Worst Of Smackdown Live-Blog starts up about 15 minutes before the show, so be there beginning at 7:45 EST for the festivities, which involve at least 15 minutes of me recapping the end of something on SyFy and pleading with you not to make Golden Corral Chocolate Wonderfall jokes. This is the last report I’ll be a part of until next week’s Smackdown live-blog, as blog regulars Bill Hanstock and Justin O’Connor will be filling in for me on Best And Worst Of WWE TLC 2011 and Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 12/19 respectively, so be around and hang out and chat with me and convince me I couldn’t easily be replaced by a wrestling joke-making robot. “Triple H is at it again. What a clown.”

You can set a reminder for the event, check out some info about commenting and get a free picture of A.J. after the jump.

UPDATE: Tonight’s special guest will be none-other than John Canton of The John Report. That’s huge. Don’t miss it.

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 12/12: Slammy Award Losing Edition

Written by Brandon Stroud / 12.13.11

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Pre-show notes:

- Hey, you, person reading this column. Register and leave us a comment. When you’ve done that (or possibly before), click that “like” button over the banner image and/or share this with everyone you have ever met, including your half-siblings and that one weird guy at work who found out you like wrestling and won’t stop trying to ask you about it. He’d love this column.

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

- SITE NEWS #1: We’re going to be running a TLC predictions contest on Friday where you can drop a comment and win $250 bucks. It didn’t work out so well for us with Vengeance (thanks a lot, Mark Henry breaking the ring) but I’ve got to give that purse to somebody. Be sure to check back throughout the week for that.

- SITE NEWS #2: Next weekend is my girlfriend Destiny’s birthday, so I’m not going to be around for TLC or Raw reports. Thankfully I’ve got a lot of funny ass friends, so SB Nation and Baseball Feelings writer Bill Hanstock will be filling in with a Best and Worst of WWE TLC 2011 report and Progressive Boink and The Best and Worst of Smackdown Live-Blog’s own Justin O’Connor will be filling in on Best and Worst of Raw. They’re awesome, so read those and support them.

- All internal gifs are courtesy of Jerusalem at Punchsport Pagoda.

- For further Raw reading, please consult UGO’s The Good The Bad And The Ugly and John Canton’s The WWE Raw Deal. They have slightly more positive outlooks on the show than me, but my report has pictures of A.J. (read mine first)

This show was three hours and killed me four minutes in, so I apologize in advance. Click through to enjoy The Best And Worst Of The Slammy Awards.

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Smackdown Live-Blog 12/9

Written by Brandon Stroud / 12.09.11
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Photo credit: WWE.com

Believe it or not, A.J. wrestles professionally in addition to standing still for photos!

The Best And Worst Of WWE Smackdown live-blog adventure experiment returns to Friday nights this week, and aside from a few choice moments of people going OH MAN YOU AREN’T GONNA LIKE THIS to me on Twitter I’ve managed to avoid spoilers. Be sure to click through and set up a reminder through CoverItLive so you can be here for the jokes, the mild-recapping, the heartbreaking inevitability of tag team stories in World Wrestling Entertainment and more. Destiny returns as my co-host this week, and if all goes well we’ll also have Progressive Boink and SB Nation’s Bill Hanstock hanging around. Be here at 7:45 EST tonight!

Also, probably a sh*tload of Chocolate Wonderfall commercials.

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The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 12/5: Zack Ryder All Day Everyday

Written by Brandon Stroud / 12.06.11

wait for it... wait for it...

Pre-show notes:

- Hey, you, person reading this column. Register and leave us a comment. When you’ve done that (or possibly before), click that “like” button over the banner image and/or share this with everyone you have ever met, including your half-siblings and that one weird guy at work who found out you like wrestling and won’t stop trying to ask you about it. He’d love this column.

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

- For further Raw reading, please consult UGO’s The Good The Bad And The Ugly and John Canton’s The WWE Raw Deal. They both hate women’s wrestling and love The Rock, so if that’s your bag, hey.

But first, please click through and enjoy the Best and Worst of WWE Raw for December 5.

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