Match Reviews
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In 1997, Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio Jr. Wrestled A Perfect Match
Eddie Guerrero’s birthday was this week. He would have been 53. Wrestlers die young—it’s an unfortunate reality of an industry whose primary corporation lobbied away state athletic commission oversight, largely looked the other way on steroid usage and drug and alcohol abuse, and created a concussion-heavy product that only changed in the wake of one…
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I Don’t Know How to Process Money in the Bank
I haven’t engaged with WWE since WrestleMania 36, exhausted by the concept of empty arena wrestling and the unending parade of decisions that, even for a company as brutal and ruthless as the worldwide leader in sports entertainment is, seemed extraordinarily cruel and tin-eared. How do you watch a wrestling promotion that’s not only willing…
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Apocalyptic Wrestling: The Self-Sacrifice of Atsushi Onita
The first thing you need to understand is this: The world is coming to an end. Not “the world” as in the planet Earth. Not “the world” in its metaphoric context, which is to say the world as it is perceived by the human consciousness one assumes will cease perceiving at the end of the…
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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 last…
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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, simultaneously.…