-
Will AEW Getting More Television Time Fix Their Narrative Issues?
A funny thing happened while Hunktears and I were watching AEW Dynamite last night. We were talking, as geniuses do, about Diamond Dallas Page, doing our level best to ignore an SCU promo, when Adam Page showed up on the scene, three fingers of whiskey on hand, to sploosh that liquor all over Christopher…
-
In 1992, Jushin Liger and Brian Pillman Changed American Wrestling
I love Jushin Liger. I’m hardly alone in the sentiment, but I’m still avoiding Wrestle Kingdom because it hurts a little knowing that I’ll never see him wrestle again, and hurts even more knowing that I’ll never get to see him wrestle live. It’s a shame because I think Liger had a really good…
-
Asuka vs. Sara Del Rey Is the Wrestling Match of the Decade
If you’ve been following my series about the best wrestlers of the decade, you might think I’d give the honorific to the Okada/Shibata match that cut short the resurgence of Katsuyori Shibata’s career, but if there’s anything you should know about me as a critic, it’s that multiple things can exist as the best,…
-
Dustin Rhodes: Wrestler of the Decade
Dustin Rhodes is the wrestler of the decade. There is no critical gesture emptier than declaring something or someone the best of the decade. Look at who I’ve gone with thus far—Katsuyori Shibata, Daniel Bryan and Toru Yano. They’re great at what they do, but in declaring them the best wrestlers of the decade…
-
Daniel Bryan is the Wrestler of the Decade, but Not for the Reason You Might Think
Yes, he is the best wrestler in WWE, a title you can easily give him every single year he was active this decade. Yes, his 2014 conquest of Evolution at WrestleMania XXX may be the single best moment WWE ever produced. Yes, his return, despite being tied, three-legged race style, to another McMahons vs.…
-
Wednesday Night War Week 13: Here’s Some Money, Go See a Star War
Wrestling and Christmas—they go together like legs and feet. Holidays are kind to wrestling in general. They’re days when American families eat heavy meals at 2:00 in the afternoon and stagger out into the bleak grey afternoon looking for something to do. Movie theaters are open on Christmas. Companies like WWE run a loop…
-
Toru Yano Is the Wrestler of the Decade
It’s been a depressing decade, the 2010s. Like, one of its mascots is a cartoon dog sipping a cup of coffee in a burning house. Like, the things keeping me going are professional wrestling and the promise that John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Matrix 4 are gonna come out on the same day…
-
Wednesday Wrestling Week 12: Coming to you in glorious picture-in-picture
At the risk of repeating myself, I want to talk a little about commercial breaks and their function in wrestling in an era where advertisers are so desperate to be seen that they’re willing to share space with what they used to interrupt. NXT made a big deal about running Finn Bálor and Adam…
-
Wednesday Night War Week 11: When “fine” is enough
Sometimes a wrestling show is just a wrestling show. Given the need to make everything meaningful and worth the time one is asked to invest in it, it sometimes works to the advantage of a reviewer to find significance where there isn’t any, to make an ordinary night seem like the greatest night in…
-
Katsuyori Shibata Is the Wrestler of the Decade
Let’s start at the end: On April 9, 2017, Katsuyori Shibata wrestled Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the main event of Sakura Genesis. He hasn’t wrestled since. After the match, he collapsed backstage and was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent surgery for a subdermal hematoma, the result of a…