Category: Wrestling
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Solomon’s a ‘Force’ on Monsoon’s Life
By Joe Puccio Depending on just how far back one’s fandom of professional wrestling stretches, the name Gorilla Monsoon can easily evoke very different memories. For those who began following the business in the counterculture decade of the 1960s, when Vincent J. McMahon reformed the Capitol Wrestling Federation into the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF,…
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Fish’s YouTube Channel is the Real Deal – And That’s ‘Undisputed’
By Joe Puccio For professional wrestlers based in the United States who are not currently under contract with either World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) or All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the struggle is certainly real, as the commonly repeated expression goes. While there is absolutely an abundance of independent promotions in existence that allow both novice upstarts…
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The Toughest Battles Are Usually Within
The Smashing Machine3 out of 5 stars By J.C. Correa Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has come a long way since body-slamming his way to the top of the professional wrestling world. His natural charisma and ample magnetism in front of the camera allowed him to quickly transition into a hugely successful career in Hollywood, one…
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Greenberg’s ‘Better’ Than Ever with Book Examining WrestleMania III
By Joe Puccio Perhaps more than any other time in modern publishing history, literature related to professional wrestling is experiencing a renaissance that would have seemed to be highly implausible not too long ago. While poorly produced, factually challenged books were the norm throughout the glossy 1980s as well as much of the transitional 1990s,…
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Former (Current?) WWE Star Kross Still ‘Fighting’ for What he Believes in
By Joe Puccio While the recent scuttlebutt revolving around popular pro wrestling sensation Kevin Robert Kesar – more widely known as Karrion Kross – has primarily focused on the New York City-born competitor’s complicated and somewhat cryptic contract situation, it would be a shame if one of the talented performer’s many other endeavors was overshadowed…
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Trapped in the Ring
No Holds Barred1 out of 5 stars By J.C. Correa The recent death of pro wrestling icon Hulk Hogan surely has had many fans revisit his legacy and embark on requisite nostalgia trips in the days since. It’s a complicated legacy, made so by the various reported transgressions that Terry Gene Bollea (Hogan’s birth name)…
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TNA Takes Over New York With ‘Action’-Packed Slammiversary Event
By Joe Puccio Total Nonstop Action has had several incarnations since its launch nearly a quarter century ago (2002) following the demise of World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Initially known as NWA: Total Nonstop Action (NWA-TNA) and affiliated with the historic National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body, the company dropped the “NWA” name from its moniker…
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Kroll’s Luna Vachon Doc is One Not to Be Missed
By Joe Puccio It certainly wasn’t always the case, but professional wrestling-themed documentaries are undoubtedly in the midst of a honeymoon phase. From the Evan Ginzburg-produced 350 Days, which peeled back the curtain on the uncompromising toll that former wrestlers were forced to endure being on the road for that many days a year, to…
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Horowitz Proves to be a ‘Winner’ in Spite of Wrestling Record
By Joe Puccio Supporting players in the various art forms of entertainment are just as integral as the leading parts they correlate with. Without William Zabka as antagonistic bully Johnny Lawrence, Ralph Macchio’s popular underdog character Daniel LaRusso wouldn’t have been nearly as effective in The Karate Kid. If Rob Reiner, as left-leaning son-in-law Mike…
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Orndorff’s Son Carrying on a ‘Wonderful’ Legacy
By Joe Puccio For Generation Xers, the unofficial glory years in professional wrestling undoubtedly land between 1984, at the birth of Hulkamania, and 1992, as Hulk Hogan’s seemingly perennial immense popularity began to wane considerably. The colossal period in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE), which largely coincided with the…
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‘The Outdated Entertainment Hour’ with Bob Smith
Nostalgic for the great entertainment you loved as a kid and young adult? The Outdated Entertainment Hour – hosted by Bob Smith, a veteran entertainment podcaster, writer and editor (Good Times Magazine, Pro Wrestling Illustrated) – will bring back many of your favorite music artists, TV shows, books, films, and much more. Enjoy conversations with…
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Bronwyne Billington Carving Out Her Own ‘Dynamite’ Legacy
By Joe Puccio Modern era professional wrestling is virtually saturated with acrobatic, high-flying daredevils who wow the audience with their unmatched technical prowess each time they step into the squared circle. While five-star classic masterpieces are par for the course for Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, and Kazuchika Okada these days, this luxury really didn’t exist…
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Wrestling’s Jim Brunzell Excels Both Inside and Outside the Ring
By Joe Puccio It would be understandable for any promising, young, professional wrestler training alongside eventual legends like Ric Flair, Ken Patera, and the Iron Sheik to feel self-conscious early on in the learning process. Jim Brunzell, however, was not a typical student. In arguably one of the strongest collective classes of aspiring grapplers ever assembled,…
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90’s Wrestling Flashback Set For Atlantic City on July 13
By Joe Puccio The Confather, Tommy Fierro, is at it again this Saturday, July 13, as he presents 90’s Wrestling Con at ACX1 Studios in Atlantic City, New Jersey. An abundant array of the squared circle’s most revered personalities from the culture-shifting decade will be on hand to take photographs, sign autographs, and simply reminisce…
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The Keirn Chronicles: A ‘Fabulous’ Follow-Up Continues a Profound Tale
By Joe Puccio As notable aspiring authors are keenly aware, merely getting one life story passed the developmental stage in the form of a written autobiography is impressive enough. Having an extended second volume, north of 400 pages, is utterly astounding. Yet for retired professional wrestler Steve Keirn, it was never in doubt. “My career…
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Macho Man ‘Untamed’ – The Definitive Randy Savage Biography
By Joe Puccio “He was de-venomized, but maybe I wasn’t!” That was Randy “Macho Man” Savage’s tongue-in-cheek quip in response to hearing the unfortunate news that his concurrent rival Jake “The Snake” Roberts’ ten-foot king cobra passed away less than two weeks after sinking its half-inch fangs into Savage’s arm, drawing a notable amount of…
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80’s Wrestling Con Set to Main Event New Jersey on May 4
By Joe Puccio The Northeast’s premiere professional wrestling nostalgia convention, 80’s Wrestling Con 5, will hit the Garden State once again this Saturday, May 4, at the Mennen Sports Arena in Morristown, New Jersey. For the fifth time, irrevocable utility man Tommy Fierro has assembled an elite array of the sport’s larger than life superstars…
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Crack Open a ‘Six Pack’ With 1980s Wrestling Luminaries
By Joe Puccio Books on professional wrestling are anything but an anomaly in 2024. In the first four months of the year alone, the sport has already boasted Ballyhoo! The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling, Becky Lynch – The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl, and Macho Man – The Untamed,…
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‘The Outdated Wrestling Hour’ with Bob Smith
Veteran pro wrestling magazine personality Bob Smith (Pro Wrestling Illustrated, WCW, Wrestling’s Main Event) continues to present a singularly unique podcast flavor with a lighthearted yet informative look at pro wrestling from the 70s through today. Now in its third year, the OWH podcast features pro wrestling industry guests, humor, and all the factoids a…
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‘Fabulous’ Wrestling Great Rougeau Looks to the Future
By Joe Puccio For many fans of the sport, the mid-to-late 1980s through the early 1990s are deemed to be the glory years of professional wrestling. Compelling storylines (think the Hulk Hogan/Randy “Macho Man” Savage/Elizabeth love triangle and Shawn Michaels attacking longtime partner Marty Jannetty on Brutus Beefcake’s “Barber Shop”), celebrity crossovers (consider The A-Team…
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‘Mat Memories’ is a Home Run
By Joe Puccio Had he continued on his ill-advised foray into becoming a professional wrestler, the Sultan of Schizophrenia would have been an appropriate moniker for John Arezzi. By his own admission, Arezzi’s life has been a frenetic whirlwind of undeniable success, unavoidable obstacles, and missed opportunities, with a sprinkling of well-deserved, old-fashioned, luck for…
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From Football to ‘Chico’
By Joe Puccio Billed from the nonexistent town of Tocula, Mexico throughout his illustrious career, Tito Santana, one of the most technically sound and respected professional wrestlers of the 1980s through the early ‘90s, was actually born and raised in Mission, Texas, before gaining worldwide fame inside the squared circle. “Vince (McMahon, owner of the…
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Celebrating Mexico in NYC – Lucha Libre Style
By Joe Puccio It was easy to confuse the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden for Arena Ciudad de Mexico on Sunday, September 15, as Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, Mexico’s leading professional wrestling promotion, produced an authentic lucha libre experience for the thousands in attendance lucky enough to have witnessed the historic event. Coined “Invading…
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Pro Wrestling’s Arezzi in the ‘Spotlight’ Again
By Joe Puccio Wrestling fans in 2019 have a cornucopia of choices at their disposal to satiate their auditory appetites. Between Chris Jericho’s jolting Talk is Jericho, Edge and Christian’s clever E&C Pod of Awesomeness, and Bruce Pritchard’s polemical Something to Wrestle with Bruce Pritchard, there is seemingly an option for every admirer of the…
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Former Wrestler/Ref Danny Davis Has The ‘X’ Factor
By Joe Puccio Wrestling autobiographies are not exactly a scarce commodity nowadays. Between tomes written by grappling luminaries like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, and Bret “Hitman” Hart, pro wrestlers chronicling their wild and frenzied days as kingpins of the squared circle have certainly cultivated a crowded field in the genre in the last…
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This ‘Killer Bee’ is an ‘A’ Inside The Ring
By Joe Puccio Ask any fan of 1980s professional wrestling what their favorite characteristic of the era was and you’ll likely receive a plethora of responses, ranging from the bombastic personalities, the loquacious managers, the nearly-extinct squash matches, and, of course, the crossover into the mainstream. But no list of attributes of the extravagant decade…
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MLW’s de la Renta ‘Manages’ To Make Her Mark in Pro Wrestling
By Joe Puccio Once a routine part of professional wrestling, managers have seen their once-pivotal roles gradually become extinct in the sport’s modern era. While figures such as Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, Jim Cornette, and Captain Lou Albano previously held the distinction of acting as smarmy mouthpieces for many of wrestling’s most esteemed characters, eventually,…
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Micro Wrestling Proves Size Doesn’t Matter
By Joe Puccio Once a regular feature on weekly pro wrestling television, “midget wrestling” eventually suffered the same fate as other previous staples of the sport such as “jobbers” (performers whose primary role was to lose their matches while enhancing their opponents’ abilities) and “managers” (supporting players who were tasked with strengthening their charges). That…
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Poffo Talks Road Perils, Macho Man, and his Wrestling ‘Days’
By Joe Puccio While the generally accepted belief is that in order to cope with the grueling, seemingly endless, life on the road for pro wrestlers in the 70s and 80s, drugs were a necessity, don’t tell that to Lanny Poffo; the former wrestler doesn’t buy it. “It’s a complete copout,” he contended. “I was…
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‘Fame’ Comes at a High ‘Price’ for The Million Dollar Man
By Joe Puccio If you were a fan of professional wrestling during its ‘glory years’ in the late 1980s, one name that would be instantly recognizable is ‘The Million Dollar Man’ Ted DiBiase. Along with his loyal, mostly silent, bodyguard Virgil, DiBiase played the role of the heel, or the ‘bad guy,’ to perfection. He…
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