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Posts from the ‘Columns’ Category

Aug 6

Reliving A Feud #44: Bret Hart Vs. Steve Austin In WWF ’96-’97

In the early 1990s, Stunning Steve Austin was on the rise in World Championship Wrestling competing for both the WCW Television and WCW United States Championships. He’d have great matches with Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and Ricky Steamboat during that era. By 1995, Austin fell out of favor with WCW and eventually signed with the WWF by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Bret Hart was the new face of the World Wrestling Federation having won the Intercontinental Championship and WWF World Championship during the same time frame. Bret was considered the best in-ring wrestler in the world and often times having the match of the night every time he was on a WWF show. Read more

Jul 29

Reliving A Feud #43: Kylie Rae Vs. Ethan Page In Freelance Wrestling ’19

During the Attitude Era women like Chyna, Daffney, Madusa, and Jacqueline won WWE or WCW championships outside of the women’s division. Chyna being the most successful of the bunch winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship and nearly being in the main event for the WWF World Championship at SummerSlam 1999. Chyna is likely the most well-known women to compete against men on a regular basis. Read more

Oct 26

With Roman Reigns Out, Who Will WWE Rely On As Universal Champion?

On October 22nd, 2018, Roman Reigns announced that he had to step away from the WWE due to being diagnosed with leukemia for the second time in his life. He had previously been diagnosed when he was 22-years old and defeated the disease. All wrestling fans and wrestlers all over the world have shown their support for Reigns following the news. Whether you love or hate the character Roman Reigns, there shouldn’t be anyone out there wishing any ill-will towards the man playing the character, Leati Jospeh Anoa’i. I look forward to seeing Reigns return to the WWE and continuing his career. Read more

Oct 20

Life Outside The Big Time: Volume Four

After WrestleMania XIV, Shawn Michaels retired from professional wrestling due to a back injury. Many people didn’t think he’d ever return to wrestling. But, like most retirements in professional wrestling, they seem to never stick.

By 2002, Michaels returned to the WWE and had a heated rivalry with Triple H. However, prior to that, Michaels had one other match. That match took place for his own short-lived promotion, TWA. Read more

Oct 11

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Beat Me If You Can, Survive If I Let You

My earliest memory of Extreme Championship Wrestling came in January 1999. It was a Saturday morning, before noon, and I stumbled upon a man with a black towel over his face speaking into a camera about how he was going to beat Shane Douglas for the ECW World Championship. Over the years, I had kept up with ECW through Pro Wrestling Illustrated and magazines under that umbrella, but this was my first televised exposure. Read more

Oct 6

Life Outside The Big Time: Volume Three

In 2002 or 2003, I finally became familiar with independent wrestling in the Northeast area. For years, I read about various independent stars like Reckless Youth, Ace Darling, Cheetah Master, Colorado Kid and many others in Pro Wrestling Illustrated. In the same magazine, I saw coverage for Ring of Honor and I slowly began to branch out to companies like Jersey All-Pro Wrestling and Pro-Pain Pro Wrestling in the early 2000s. Read more

Aug 27

Voodoo Master: The Story Of Papa Shango

On the February 8th, 1992 edition of WWF Superstars, Papa Shango made his debut. Shango was presented as being a voodoo practitioner who carried a smoking skull to the ring. It didn’t take long for Shango to become a heavily featured character on WWF television. His vignettes prior to his debut were effectively creative and mysterious to get the character over. Read more

Jun 14

Reliving A Feud Volume #42: Rick Rude Vs. Ricky Steamboat In WCW ’92

After having a falling out with WWF owner Vince McMahon, Rick Rude made a jump to rival promotion World Championship Wrestling. It had a been a year since Rude had been seen on television for any wrestling promotion. He made his return to television at the 1991 Halloween Havoc disguised as the Phantom. Read more

Jun 5

Life Outside The Big Time: Volume Two

By the fall of 2006, Raven’s wrestling career was on the decline. His run as a main event act in TNA had come to an end in early 2006 and would soon be regulated to being a mid-card act centered on the group known as Serotonin. The group didn’t connect with the fans and would fizzle. Raven would bounce around between TNA and be on the independents over the course of the next four years. Read more

May 17

Life Outside The Big Time: Volume One

By the fall of 2005, Abyss had been wrestling for Total Non-Stop Action for two years and had established himself as a dominant heel for the company. Considering TNA didn’t run house shows, at that time, many times wrestlers would venture out and wrestle on the independent scene. That was the case on October 29th, 2005. Read more

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