If I have learned anything at all, it's that the vision I have for Pro Wrestling Only will never be achieved if I continue operating this as a one-man show. I have quite a few great ideas for how to make the site rock, but having the idea and having the skills to execute it are two different things. That's where help come in.
I am looking for two CO-FOUNDERS to join me in getting Pro Wrestling Only off the ground. In exchange, you'll each get 25% ownership of the site. In the future, you could choose to retain that ownership and continue profiting as the site grows, or you could sell it back to me after we get the site off the ground and move on to other opportunities. That would be your choice. If we can work together to make the site a success, the rewards could be quite lucrative. If this type of risk-taking venture sounds up your alley, please keep reading.
The way I see it, there are three things PWO needs in order to be successful: vision, execution, and promotion. The vision part I have covered. However, I am looking for a FULL STACK ENGINEER and FULL STACK MARKETER as co-founders. For now, I want to refrain from publicly sharing too many of the details, but if you happen to be skilled in one of these roles, we might be able to work together. Please contact me privately and I'm happy to share more information and answer any questions you might have. I should be clear that this requires no financial investment. The investment would be a time investment. It's important to me that I find co-founders who are serious about this, who have some real skin in the game, and who are willing to make this a top priority in their lives. I also want to find partners who have the background they need to hit the ground running.
I plan to pursue this through traditional channels if I have to do so. However, if there's a chance that honest-to-God wrestling fans who are just as passionate about this as I am could partner with me, I'd MUCH prefer to go that route.
The Prussia-born Friedrich Wilhelm Müller (Eugen Sandow, 1867-1925) was an iconic professional wrestler, nude model, and bodybuilder during the late 19th and early 20th century, an era during which the three industries had significant overlap as part of what at the time was called "physical culture". Heralded as the "Father of Bodybuilding", Eugen Sandow was a groundbreaking figure who established and published training methods still used by professionals today. He is largely credited with popularizing fitness and is often attributed with the quote, “What I live to teach is the gospel of health, and the bringing of the body to the condition to which Nature intended it.” Sandow had an impressive physique, even by today's standards, that he intentionally cultivated to resemble Greek and Roman sculpture, and he released several publications detailing how he achieved his look, all while advocating socially and politically for health and fitness causes.
In 1894, as part of the first commercial motion picture ever released, Sandow flexed his muscles in a short Kinetoscope film. He would appear in additional films in the coming years, including the oldest known professional wrestling footage in existence, 1895's Ringkampfer, where Sandow grappled with John Greiner. Sandow started off performing impressive feats of strength -- he held a world record (later broken by George Hackenschmidt) for pressing 224 lbs with one hand -- but promoters quickly realized that fans, particularly women, were more interested in watching him pose than in seeing him perform a strongman act. His drawing power peaked in 1901 when thousands of fans were turned away from a sold out bodybuilding event that he headlined at London's Royal Albert Hall.
Wilhelm Baumann, generally considered the first booker in pro wrestling history, adopted the ring name Billy Sandow in tribute. Outside of pro wrestling and bodybuilding, Sandow counted Thomas Edison, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and other celebrities as friends, with King George V even designating Sandow as a "physical culture special instructor" in 1911 after being happy with his own bodybuilding success following Sandow's teachings. Sandow's legacy lives on primarily in the bodybuilding world, as a bronze statue in his image (simply called a "Sandow") has been presented to the winner of the Mr. Olympia contest every year since 1977.
Sandow was born on April 2, 1867, in Königsberg, located in the Kingdom of Prussia, to a Russian mother and German father. Sandow's parents hoped that he would become a Lutheran minister, but he left Prussia in 1885 to avoid military service. Upon leaving home, Sandow joined a traveling circus where he adopted his stage name, which helped mask his identity and thus avoid consequences for avoiding the Prussian draft. He soon fell under the tutelage of Ludwig "Professor Attila" Durlacher. At Durlacher's urging, Sandow competed in and won a strongmen competition in London in 1889, where he became a viable attraction known for his incredible feats of strength. In 1896, Sandow married Blanche Brooks of Manchester, England; the couple had two daughters, Helen and Lorraine. On October 14, 1925, Sandow died of at his home in London from what was certified as an aortic aneurysm, but is believed in some circles to have been syphilis; despite his marriage, Sandow enjoyed the company of the many women who showed interest in him during his peak as a sex symbol. Sandow was 58 at the time of his death.
Daniel Bryan vs The Miz
WWE Summerslam PPV
August 19, 2018
Brooklyn, New York
8.6
The match between The Miz and Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania recalled a match that happened nearly 35 years earlier under similar circumstances.
1984, whether surprisingly or not, was a real slump of a year for Jim Crockett Promotions. After the overwhelming success of Starrcade '83, perhaps they had nowhere to go but down. It didn't help that they lost so many top stars to the WWF, including Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine, fresh off of the biggest grudge match on their biggest show in history. It also didn't help that Ric Flair was in such high demand as NWA World Champion that he was no longer a regular, week-to-week fixture on JCP television. Perhaps the biggest factor of all in JCP's lull was when Ricky Steamboat announced his retirement from pro wrestling during spring.
The Steamboat-Jay Youngblood duo might have been the hottest in the history of territory, a major accomplishment since the Mid-Atlantic area spotlighted tag team matches over singles matches. The very success of the team, culminating in a Greensboro match in March of 1983 where Steamboat and Youngblood would have to break up if they couldn't become tag champions, was so successful that it became the inspiration for Starrcade, itself the inspiration for Wrestlemania. In the wake of wrestler defections and the rise of the WWF and Hulk Hogan, the landscape became even more challenging for JCP when in early summer, Steamboat announced his retirement from wrestling, presumably to spend more time running the Carolinas-area gyms that he owned. In Steamboat's absence, Tully Blanchard debuted in JCP. Tully was quickly teamed with Wahoo McDaniel to give him credibility and the two raised as much hell as they could in the hopes of reversing JCP's fortunes. Their efforts were futile until optimism was restored at the end of the year. Dusty Rhodes, a megastar in his own right, was the booker and was building to a "$1 million challenge" match with Flair, which would have "Smokin'" Joe Frazier as a referee. The second-annual Starrcade was coming up. Steamboat also returned to the ring and was immediately programmed against Tully Blanchard.
In a move met with controversy at the time considering their relative stardom, Dusty used Steamboat to put over Tully Blanchard; for the finish, Tully punched Steamboat in the face with a hidden foreign object to get the win. Many theories have been espoused over the years as to why Rhodes made this call, with the most popular take among the anti-Dusty crowd being that Rhodes saw Steamboat as a threat to his spot as the top babyface and wanted to take him down a peg. Steamboat caught the next bus out of town, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, and became a star in the WWF. Blanchard stayed behind and was one of Dusty's most effective heels for the next few years, proving the decision right in hindsight. When Daniel Bryan's wrestling career came to a temporary halt because of a high-risk style that was finally catching up to him, he studied the wrestling of this era in the hopes of establishing a new and more sustainable style for himself, all for a return that he wasn't even sure would happen. Bryan has cited Jerry Lawler and Nick Bockwinkel, great workers well into their 50s, as influences for creating a new in-ring style, a gradual change still in progress. The Miz, much like Tully Blanchard, was also casually dismissed as a credible rival when the two were first paired off. In the same way time proved Dusty right in setting up Tully Blanchard for a run as one of his top heels, time has also proved that Miz is a viable star, one who has been a foil for Daniel Bryan since Bryan's 2010 company debut.
The credibility gap was in fact one of the reasons they were paired in the first place. Billed as "American Dragon" Bryan Danielson, Bryan had just wrapped up a decade-long run as arguably the best independent wrestler (some would just say "best wrestler") alive just before stepping into a WWE ring. He made his name by working a stiff, mat-based style, which was inspired by training with William Regal. His size was never really a deterrent to being a dominant, aggressive champion, just as much because of the hard-nosed way he presented himself as because wrestlers on the independent scene were usually smaller than their nationally televised counterparts in WWE. Meanwhile, The Miz debuted in wrestling in a way that even the advantages he had served equally as disadvantages. Because he first received television exposure on MTV's The Real World, he was viewed, fairly or not, as someone playing a pro wrestler more than he was simply being one. It didn't help matters that he was seen as the living embodiment of WWE's sports entertainment philosophy, from the character bias toward being "charismatic" and making a grand, choreographed entrance all the way to using a variation on his real name that mirrored Dwayne Johnson's variation on Rocky Maivia -- Mike Mizanin was simply The Miz. Frustration mounted. Miz actually became very good in the ring but because he was viewed as a wannabe -- he was even calling himself "The Miz" when play wrestling in his bed during his reality TV star days -- he had a label he couldn't quite shake.
Perhaps Daniel Bryan could relate, albeit from the opposite end of the spectrum. If fans saw Miz as a poser, Vince saw Bryan as a smallish great worker who had no other positive attributes and smothered him with "help" in the hopes of making him a bonafide WWE superstar. Some would argue that help was backhanded in the days when Bryan used a non-rock version of "Flight of the Valkyries" as his entrance music while wearing reading glasses and carrying a book to the ring, or when WWE "divas" debated whether he was a virgin. Over time, Bryan, along with CM Punk, would achieve superstardom in well-documented fashion, changing at least some ideas in WWE, historically a land of colorful giants, of who could and could not get over. He did that in part by working a more action-packed style, not only because it was his preferred style, but also because it was a surefire guarantee for crowd reaction. In a company where smaller wrestlers have to prove all over again in every single match that they are viable, that crowd reaction held his career in the balance.
This match suggested that Daniel Bryan is a victim of his own success. While hardly the sole benefactor, he did play a key role in shifting fans to those who pop for action away from those who pop for characters, even while receiving huge character reactions himself. Bryan's 2013-2014 success is something WWE still struggles to reconcile and perhaps that's because it's bogged down by so many contradictions -- there was a dose of comedy in Team Hell No that was key in his rise to stardom, but he was mostly beloved for his ability in the ring, making him a true main event mechanic, so to speak. The days of WWE fans caring most when their favorites had the advantage in the body of the match seem to be, at least for now, in the past. What we have instead is an athletic pseudo-meritocracy, one where reactions are primarily driven by highspots and nearfalls. This match was part of a longer-term project to undo what Bryan had already helped undo, as Bryan encouraged fans to cheer when he balled up his fist to punch Miz in the face or to rally to his side while he fought to reverse a figure-four leglock. It was an interesting role reversal for someone who, when facing HHH at Wrestlemania four years earlier, saw the early quick rollup attempt off of HHH's trash talk as a bit passe and encouraged HHH to modernize his game by throwing in a tiger suplex or two. The Brooklyn crowd came along on this night, but not always with as much gusto as Bryan and Miz probably hoped for, which can partially be attributed to shifting norms, just as it can be attributed to WWE's current feud storytelling that no one really believes or to being in the middle of a card twice as long as most seemed to want it to be.
In the post-match segment, Bryan begrudgingly admitted Miz was right, but the match itself doubled as a similar confession. The popular argument is that Miz was the moral victor with part of the crowd here because he's gotten the best of Bryan at every turn of this feud so far. However, it's also true that in the end, Miz's supposedly "soft" style has already won the war of ideas. The sports entertainer tried to mentor the wrestler; the wrestler refused to listen and instead carved his own path; and the fans decided they liked the wrestler's ideas better, only for the wrestler to realize he'd reached a physical dead end and needed to sports entertain if he wanted to continue at all. Bryan's desire to punch Miz in the face and settle a grudge was the "story", but like any effective WWE feud in 2018, the meta story occupies equal space in the zeitgeist.
One of the most popular aspects of the Pro Wrestling Only forums is the match reviews written by our members. To faciliate this and encourage discussion, PWO Database Plus has a section called The Matches. We encourage you to peruse the matches from August 22 to discover new wrestling or remember some of your old favorites. We have places to discuss over 75 matches from this day in history alone! If you don't see the match from this day in history that you'd like to read or talk about, become a member at PWO and start the thread!
In light of the sad passing of wrestling legend Villano III, we thought it might be a good idea to put together a YouTube playlist that shows the buildup and fallout from the most famous match of his career: the mask match against Atlantis from March 17, 2000. We have curated this playlist for you and hope you enjoy it.
Last year, a group of us walked through the week-to-week TV of this feud. The matches, all of which are on the above-linked playlist, are also listed below with links to their respective discussion threads at PWO. We hope you'll check out the matches and chime in with your thoughts as we celebrate the life and career of Villano III.
Villano III, Dr. Wagner Jr. & Pierroth Jr. vs Atlantis, Negro Casas & Mr. Niebla Jr. (01-14-00)
Villano III, Dr. Wagner Jr. & Shocker vs Atlantis, Mr. Niebla & Emilio Charles Jr. (01-21-00)
Villano III, Bestia Salvaje & Fuerza Guerrera vs Atlantis, Emilio Charles Jr. & Negro Casas (01-28-00)
Villano III, El Satanico & Fuerza Guerrera vs Atlantis, Emilio Charles Jr. & Tarzan Boy (02-01-00)
Villano III vs Atlantis (02-11-00)
Villano III & Atlantis vs El Satanico & Tarzan Boy - Parejas Increibles (02-18-00)
Atlantis, Mr. Niebla & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs Dr. Wagner Jr., Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. (02-25-00)
Atlantis, Tarzan Boy & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs El Satanico, Cien Caras & Bestia Salvaje (03-03-00)
Villano III, Shocker, Bestia Salvaje & Scorpio Jr. vs Atlantis, Perro Aguayo, Mr. Niebla & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (03-10-00)
Villano III vs Atlantis - Mask vs Mask (03-17-00)
Villano III, Shocker & Bestia Salvaje vs Atlantis, Perro Aguayo & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (03-24-00)
Villano III, Shocker & Bestia Salvaje vs Atlantis, Perro Aguayo & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (03-31-00)
Villano III, Fuerza Guerrera & Gran Markus Jr. vs Atlantis, Brazo de Plata & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (04-04-00)
Villano III, Pierroth Jr. & Fuerza Guerrera vs Atlantis, Negro Casas & Rayo de Jalisco Jr. (04-14-00)
Villano III, Atlantis & Mascara Ano 2000 vs Mascara Ano 2000, Pierroth Jr. & Shocker (04-28-00)
UPDATE: A little bird pointed me to the one missing match from the series, which was on 02-18-00 when Villano III and Atlantis teamed in a Parejas Increibles match against El Satanico and Tarzan Boy. It's been added both to the playlist and the list above.
Maine independent Limitless Wrestling has posted a new free match to their YouTube channel from their Feed The Need show on May 11. This is a six-man scramble that includes Ace Austin, Kevin Ku, AJ Gray, Jake Parnell, Tony Deppen, and Bolt Brady. Watch it below.
This card is not yet available on DVD, but Limitless Wrestling indicates that it will be.
Also on the show:
Brody King vs Eli Everfly
Ace Romero vs AR Fox
Dream Team vs The Rascals vs Anthony Henry & James Drake
Rachael Ellering vs Ashley Fox
JT Dunn vs Anthony Greene
Darby Allin vs Zachary Wentz (clip)
Kimber Lee vs Skylar (clip)
Jeff Cannonball & Brandon Kirk vs Jay Freddie & John Silver
Teddy Hart vs Josh Briggs
Let the War Games, and the story of World Championship Wrestling, prologue and all, begin.
July 4, 1987
Jim Crockett Promotions
Great American Bash
Atlanta, Georgia
War Games
9.8
In the Jim Crockett era, there was an outlook on the relationships between wrestlers that wasn't entirely unique, but it was definitely distinct from the WWF's approach. Dusty Rhodes booked a more tribalist wrestling offering than that of the WWF, one where feuds overlapped and the locker room was clearly divided into two warring camps.
Each side looked out for its fellow soldiers instead of focusing only on their own issues. If Dusty was attacked by the Four Horsemen, even if they were too little too late, other babyfaces at least attempted to make the save and stop the carnage. If Ric Flair and Ricky Morton ended up in an impromptu brawl, for example, the other Horsemen would quickly be there to put the numbers on Ric's side and aide in an attack. The big pop usually came when other babyfaces finally hit the ring to make the save. One of two things happened at this point -- either the heels immediately retreated or we had a pier-six brawl on our hands, often as the show was going off the air.
War Games as a concept was a way to shift the drama from angles and finishes with saves and counter-saves into a match all its own. By a simple coin toss, two heels could beat on one babyface, then the babyface would make the save. Then another heel would do the same, only for the babyface to come in yet again. Suddenly, a match was filled with what would have previously just been a really long hot angle, and 25 minutes had passed. It was the last hurrah for JCP, as War Games led to a summer run of house shows where they were outdrawing the WWF in many of the same markets, and it was probably Dusty Rhodes' last truly transcendent booking idea.
Without the time intervals, we'd merely have ourselves a Bunkhouse Stampede, which had many of the same brawling elements but never carried close to the same excitement. Outside of a company that prioritized double and triple-team angles building to a hot babyface save, War Games could never garner the heat it was capable of getting. In a company where all programs exist in their own silos, it's just another match.
Like most of wrestling's best ideas, this one was born from necessity. The previous year's Great American Bash tour was defined by Ric Flair's classic title defenses in every major market, but in 1987, Flair had a broken neck. The break wasn't severe to the point that he couldn't work, but he couldn't deliver a long series of world title defenses at the usual Ric Flair Standard, so they had to come up with a different selling point this time around. As hot as JCP was that summer, the WWF never panicked and was already looking ahead to their fall plans. JCP had none, and their own decline escalated rapidly with television ratings tanking when they changed the format of the Saturday evening TBS show (all 30-second squashes and 90-second promos), crowds rejecting Ron Garvin as champion, and the WWF sabotaging Starrcade '87.
The continued story of War Games over the next decade is the story of World Championship Wrestling itself. In 1989, they tried a fresher talent mix to recapture the magic of the glory years, and it worked on some level but ultimately fell short. In 1991, Dusty Rhodes was back in the driver's seat as booker and they went back to familiar territory, but it didn't work. By July's War Games at the Meadowlands, Flair was gone from the company and fans didn't respond well to the departure at all. In 1992, they were delivering their best in-ring action ever, but the promotional piece was missing to put it over the top. 1993 was downright embarrassing, but they rebounded briefly in 1994 until Hulk Hogan ruined everything. Suddenly, the NWO was red hot while Flair was being phased down, and 1998's drug-induced ideas were something else altogether. Hang on tight, though, because Vince Russo's ideas were even more out there. It's all there, the key points of WCW's history presented through one match type alone. Cries for WWE to bring back War Games (as they eventually did) failed to consider why the match worked in a specific time and place, as even more traditional wrestling companies didn't nail War Games when they tried it (these matches aren't supposed to have a lot of coming and going, as that's the whole point of the cage), despite the match being great otherwise.
The Crockett years of 1985-1988 are heavily romanticized, and rightfully so, because they were arguably the most formidable vision presented to a national American audience of what pro wrestling could be without using the WWF as a compass, something that even late 1990s WCW in all its popularity couldn't truly boast. To put in terms WWE producers might understand, the legacy of this gimmick match truly is a case where it's best to Leave The Memories Alone.
If you've ever wanted to write video game reviews, PWO might be the place for you. We're looking for at least one writer to review both new and classic pro wrestling-themed video games for all consoles. This also includes mobile and PC games. If you're interested, send at least one sample review my way. Gaming is not really my forte, so I don't have a format in mind, but I'd prefer to get an idea not just of your writing style, but what you think is the best way to actually structure a game review - a rough outline that could be applied to all gaming reviews. If there are non-wrestling examples of great gaming reviews that you think capture the tone well, include those links in your submission as well. The review should be relevant both to people are into gaming and diehard wrestling fans, so write that audience in mind. There is absolutely no reason for a review to ever exceed 500 words -- in fact, I think 200-300 words per game (with an overall rating on a scale of 0.0-10.0) is the sweet spot. I'd prefer to read a review of a game you like, but sending both a positive and a negative review is a huge plus. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
With the infrastructure for PWO Database Plus more or less established, I thought this was a good time to share both my ultimate vision and an explanation of the layout. What follows is a description of what type of information you'll be able to find in each section, and guidance on how you can directly engage the content as it's added.
Introduction
When most of us think of a database, we think of something that we access more than we think of something with which we interact. It's one thing to have a lot of wrestling information conveniently stored in one place; lots of sites do that (and I recognize the inherent contradiction in what I just said as well as anyone). It's another to have the ability to share your own thoughts on that information and also see what others think. That's why we refer to this as PWO Database Plus -- you can quickly check dates, numbers, and match listings when that's all that you need, but you can also provide your own thoughts and see what other PWO members think as you go. If The Rock was endorsing this, he might call it The People's Database. Now, let's go through each section of PWO Database Plus.
The Matches
Nearly a decade ago, an affable fellow from Chicago was impressed with the Death Valley Driver Review approach to community projects that involved watching matches. The site had an effective way to faciliate both macro-discussion and micro-discussion. Just as there was a place for DVDVR message board members to share their thoughts on the project at large, there was also a place for members to comment on each match that project participants were watching. As more footage became available, this super nice guy thought it would be cool to expand on that idea by making threads available for thousands of matches from the 1990s. A couple dozen people were often commenting in the individual threads. It was, and is, a hit!
A few years later, posters Ditch and Superstar Sleeze approached this incredibly nice guy and asked him about expanding the scope of this part of the message board to include all wrestling from all eras. This sounded great to this sweetheart of a dude and soon this section of the board, previously branded "Yearbooks", was now called the Match Discussion Archive.
The Match Discussion Archive has become the most visited and active part of the board, averaging over 50 posts per day since late 2010. Only two small changes have been made to this section of PWO Database Plus, now simply called The Matches. The first is that new topics now require approval. The reason for this is not to discourage new threads in any way, but rather just to ensure consistent naming conventions and accurate spelling and dates, and also to make sure there is not a thread that already exists for the match in question. The second change is that threads will now be defaulted to chronological order, based on when the match happened. (For matches from the current month, the most recent replies will still be the first threads you see instead of the chronological sort.) You can discuss matches going all the way back to 1895, when the first known pro wrestling footage exists on video, all the way to the present.
Shows & Full Releases
Where The Matches intends to zoom in on one specific matchup, this section is a place to discuss entire cards, TV shows, and more. It follows the same principle as The Matches and is organized into the following sections:
PPVs and Supercards
TV Shows
House Shows
Commercial Compilations
Newsreels
Films and Documentaries
Shoot Interviews
Wrestlers & Other Personalities
In this section, shift your focus from the message to the messenger, as we are developing individual pages for, at a minimum, every wrestler that has a match in The Matches. Over time, you'll find a biography of each wrestler on these pages as well as an at-a-glance look at all of the matches that exist on tape for a wrestler. You'll also see links to any articles about the wrestler, magazine covers, merchandise, and lots more. You can even get tiered match recommendations and learn about wrestlers who work similar styles, including predecessors, peers, and successors.
As for the "Other Personalities" part of Wrestlers & Other Personalities, you should be able to find similar pages for promoters, writers, managers, announcers, and other people directly involved in pro wrestling, even if they don't have any matches in the ring. This will all be filled in over time.
The Companies
Over time, you'll see a dedicated thread for every wrestling company or territory. This will include a history of the company, a list of recommended matches in tiers from that company, their publications, their TV shows and commercial releases, and more.
The Towns
If you've ever wanted to learn more about the history of pro wrestling in a specific city, this is the place for you. If you click on, say, the thread for Chicago, Illinois, you'll get a full list of every match available on tape that has ever happened in Chicago. Likewise, in some markets that have a rich wrestling history, you might find a written history of pro wrestling in that city.
The Championships
Get a list of all the matches that exist on tape where a championship was defended. Also get tiered match recommendations of championship matches. This makes conversations about just how the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time, for example, really was much easier.
Interviews & Promos
This is a place to celebrate and discuss the best interviews and promos in pro wrestling history. If quotable wrestling is your thing, you'll enjoy this section immensely.
The Merchandise
If you can imagine Discogs for pro wrestling "stuff", you can imagine The Merchandise. The goal, which it will take time to reach, is to have an individual thread for every piece of official (and even some "unofficial") wrestling merchandise ever released. Categories include but probably won't be limited to:
Action Figures & Toys
Apparel
Board Games
Books
Magazines
Music
Newsletters
Photos
Posters
Programs
Video Games
Wrestling Gear
You'll be able to use this section to log what you already have, track what you want, and even initiate requests from other PWO members through our Classifieds section.
The Media
This is a place to really immerse yourself in wrestling media of all kinds, including entrance music, podcasts, YouTube videos released by wrestling companies, and mainstream magazine and newspaper articles about pro wrestling. See what's out there and learn how to access it.
The Exploratory
This is the section of the board where you can discover new wrestling that you might enjoy, which could be based on a mood. For example, if you're a sicko and like wrestling tragedies where heels win in the end, you might find a list of those here. If you like watching shoot-style matches, for example, the Styles category will provide more information there. Finally, if you like cage matches, or Texas death matches, or any other specific type of gimmick match, you can learn about its history and all the versions of it that exist on tape in this category.
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So there you have it. My goal, from now until the end of time, is to fill in as many gaps as possible, eventually turning this into the most definitive and badass pro wrestling resource that exists on Planet Earth. If there are gaps that you think you'd be great at closing, I'd love your help. Please reach out to me and explain what you'd like to do, whether your desire is to write, research, organize, catalog, or provide me with much needed (pro bono) tech guidance.
Full speed ahead!
- Charles
PWO Database Plus is coming along nicely! We have found a way to leverage our old Match Discussion Archive and the informed, thoughtful voices in our community by adding a one-stop shop for wrestling information. We hope you'll follow along as we continue building and expanding on this resource.
The newsreel archive is in progress. This will be a full archive of all of the pro wrestling newsreels, mostly from before the 1950s, that we know about, compiling information from the Moving Image Research Collection, Associated Press, MyFootage.com, Getty Images, and other newsreel databases in one searchable place. The newsreels from British Pathe before 1930 have been catalogued with the film numbers, official titles, and when possible, embedded video here!
While many of the clips are wrestling related but do not contain matches, in cases of actual matches, we've also added topics to the Matches section so that you can watch and share your thoughts. We also have threads for all pro wrestling footage that we know of before 1930 added to this section.
Stay tuned for more updates!
16 months before the first Wrestlemania, Jim Crockett Promotions decided to go big, broadcasting Starrcade '83: A Flair For The Gold on closed circuit in eight states and flying in talent from the Puerto Rico and Florida territories to really give this the ultimate supercard feel. One could argue the first Starrcade as the night wrestling stopped being what it was and started being what it is, since from here on, the biggest and most notable shows were delivered to a much broader audience than just those attending live. It was a card that predicted the pay-per-view model for pro wrestling, even if it wasn't a pay-per-view itself. Soon after, the famed "War of '84" hit pro wrestling with Hulk Hogan (who was briefly advertised to appear on this card) debuting on WWF television as the WWF began an aggressive national expansion campaign, making this show the end of something every bit as much as it is the beginning. Roddy Piper and Greg Valentine, both of whom would be in the WWF within a few months, stole the show with a bloody dog collar match and the popular Ricky Steamboat-Jay Youngblood tag team regained the NWA World Tag Team Titles from Jack and Jerry Brisco in a very good semi-main event. However, it's the main event that's the most memorable match from the show, with Ric Flair winning his second NWA World Title from Harley Race, ostensibly a full passing of the torch. While Flair was already established as the top NWA star and had great success, this title win was much higher profile than his first one and is arguably the point when he truly became The Man. The show is a bit clumsy in its audio problems and excessive backstage interviews, just as Gordon Solie's performance isn't his best. Those issues fall aside as the historical importance and audacity of even doing the show take center stage; an idea that was prompted by a massively successful Greensboro card in March became an annual staple in JCP and WCW that continued until the company's final days.
The Assassins vs Rufus R. Jones & Bugsy McGraw
Kevin Sullivan & Mark Lewin vs Johnny Weaver & Scott McGhee
Abdullah the Butcher vs Carlos Colon
Wahoo McDaniel & Mark Youngblood vs Bob Orton Jr. & Dick Slater
NWA TV Title, No DQ, No Time Limit: Great Kabuki vs Charlie Brown
Dog Collar: Roddy Piper vs Greg Valentine (Discuss)
NWA World Tag Team Titles No DQ: Jack & Jerry Brisco (c) vs Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood (Discuss)
NWA World Heavyweight Title, Cage: Harley Race (c) vs Ric Flair (Discuss)
Bold matches are PWO Recommended.
Provide your comments in the Show Discussion thread.
This is my first time to see Austin Theory, but I have to say I don't get guys cutting promos with that scripted WWE cadence when no one is making them do it. (At least I hope no one is.) I have no desire to return to the rape culture days of early 2000s indie wrestling at all, but calling an opponent an "indie piece of trash" just might be too far in the other direction. I loved DJ Z here and think he has a bright future. I hear he's working BOLA this year, so I hope he gets a lot of matches and has a breakout weekend because he seems on the verge of something cool. I'm not a huge fan of three way matches, but they do execute some of the necessities of that really well here. I thought it was cool how DJ Z wanted to do the big move from up top, but it was presented as him countering something else when they were actually setting up his own move. Pretty cool way to structure that so it's not obvious what they're doing. Good match. DJ Z looks ready to conquer the world. ***1/2
Powerbomb.tv has uploaded a limited-time free show to their network: Alpha-1's Battle by the Big Apple from July 15 in Colbourne, Ontario, Canada. The card:
Brett Michael David vs Justin Sane
Jody Threat vs Gisele Shaw
Gregory Iron vs Kobe Durst vs Mark Wheeler vs Space Monkey
Bushwhacker Luke vs Dr. Daniel C. Rockingham
A1 Zero Gravity Title: Alex Daniels vs Eric Cairnie
Monster Mafia (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) vs Riot Makers (Holden Albright & Stratos Fear)
A1 Alpha Male Title: Rickey Shane Page (c) vs Shane Sabre
Watch the show here, and let us know what you think in the comments.
This will be a shorter version of the daily match reviews I do for older wrestling. The matches I enjoy the most will get a longer look and a more detailed match review on this date next year.
The storytelling here was awesome. Much of it was built on technical precision. Anthony Henry wasn't as skilled as Timothy Thatcher in the story that they were telling, so he tried to make up for it with as much aggression as he could muster. We saw it at the beginning of the match when he charged at Thatcher and went for an early victory, and we saw it again when he finally found a way to deal with Thatcher's ability to counter just about anything from just about any position. In the early stages, Henry's anklelock was noticeably loose compared to Thatcher's, but that was by design. Henry's dragon screw leg whip being countered by Thatcher's cross armbreaker, only for that to be countered by an anklelock from Henry, was the best part of the match. It seems like most of the time, this dynamic isn't really paid off. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi never beat Jumbo Tsuruta. Ricky Morton never took the title from Ric Flair. Rey Mysterio I guess beat Kevin Nash on a fluke once, but Nash got the last laugh. This time, it did. That makes this not only something cool, but also something special. ****
Gold Rush Pro Wrestling has added a match to their YouTube channel from their archives. On May 4, 2014, Dynamite Division Champion Will Rood defended the title in a four-way match against El Chupacabra, Jeff Cobb, and the late Virgil Flynn.
Gold Rush Pro also added a description to the video that included ways to support Flynn's family:
"Help support the family of Virgil Flynn during their time of loss by either donating to the GoFundMe page or buying Virgil's merchandise along with numerous other wrestlers who have graciously donating all their merchandise to Virgil's family!
www.gofundme.com/virgil-flynn-iii-family-fund
If you want to donate directly to the Flynn family, you can.
Their @PayPal is [email protected]
brownbutterwrestling.com/VFIII.html
www.prowrestlingtees.com/renoscum
www.prowrestlingtees.com/wrestlingwithwregret
www.ProWrestlingTees.com/WPW"
Watch the video below and share your thoughts in the comments!
YouTube user FanCam Guy has uploaded a new Jerry Lawler match to his channel from Memphis Redbirds Wrestling Night on July 6. Lawler's opponent is Kevin Thorn, formerly Mordecai in WWE. For many PWO readers, "The King" is a bit of a timeless wrestler who can still go in his 60s. If you're a fan of Lawler, this channel has plenty of under-the-radar matches featuring Lawler and other Memphis talent that you might find interesting. Let us know your thoughts on this or anything else on this channel in the comments.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has uploaded a match to their YouTube channel from one of the earliest Tokyo Dome shows, this one on February 10, 1990. In this match, Larry Zbyszko defended the AWA World Title against Masa Saito, who recently passed away. Here are some testimonials from the thread in PWO's Match Discussion Archive.
"I really love the matwork they pull off in the early stages of this and how Saito is able to get the crowd so solidly behind him while he has Larry tied up like a pretzel. Zbyszko heels it big time with a low blow on Saito right after he's pumped up the crowd in such a big way. The nearfalls in this are really good. Short match, but not a wasted moment." -- Me
"How was this match completely slept upon (to my knowledge) until now? Zbyszko kicking out of *two* Saito suplexes and then getting in another run of offense of his own gave this a downright AJPW feel. The very closing stretch had that feel too, with one suplex not putting him away but the second being enough. Also I can't say enough about Saito's little running-man dances to pump the crowd up. Worth watching just to see Saito working as a gladhanding babyface but the match holds up, too." -- PWO member Pete F3
"Fun match with both guys really knowing how to rile up the crowd and get them invested. Zbysko's timing of the low blow was magically done and Saito getting the crowd behind him was really fun. I have not seen the Saito AWA stuff yet but of what I have seen of him this was my favorite match of his." -- PWO member soup23
"This was not just a neat toss-off between two guys who have gained esteem in our little circle. It was an excellent match that built from nicely contested matwork all the way through some great near falls at the end. I loved Saito's expressiveness as a babyface, which really seemed to pull the crowd into the match. Then I got even more fired up by Zbyszko's series of punches near the end. Loss called this a short match, but it actually felt longer and more epic than I expected." -- PWO member Childs
"Felt this was going to be a flat match but they manage to turn this into a good match. Larry goes all heel with the low blow that the fans don't like. They really had me on some of the later small package pinfall attempts. Nice moment for Saito." -- PWO member Kevin Ridge
"Good, borderline great match. Zbyszko doesn't do much on offense, but like Loss said, there isn't any wasted movement either. He has almost a Jimmy Connors thing going with all the screaming and yelling he is doung, both on offense and while he is selling. Saito as a babyface is interesting, and he does a great job getting the crowd behind him. Maybe the last truly great AWA World title match?" -- PWO member Cox
"I really dug this match. Some wonderful classic wrestling matwork here which is refreshing to see considering today's trend of doing MMA style matwork. Crowd was really into this as well and Zybyszko did a good job of hitting a low blow, which isn't done too often in Japan. Nicely worked match here and one I would probably view again." -- PWO member Laney
Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments, or add your thoughts in the Match Discussion Archive!
On the first episode of Pro Wrestling Lonely, Charles walks through the match list for Shawn Michaels: Showstopper Unreleased, a three-disc set WWE is scheduled to release in October. Hope you'll listen and let us know what you think.
Wrestling DVD Network reports that six more matches have been announced for the Shawn Michaels: Unreleased set that is scheduled to hit the market in the U.S. on October 2. They are:
Shawn Michaels vs Jake Roberts (Mid South Wrestling 02-01-85)
The Rockers vs Legion of Doom (WWF Superstars 12-28-91)
Shawn Michaels & Bret Hart vs Jacob & Eli Blu (WWF Louisville, KY 07-24-95)
Shawn Michaels vs 1-2-3 Kid (WWF Superstars 04-27-96)
Shawn Michaels vs Rob Van Dam (WWF Monday Night RAW 11-25-02)
Shawn Michaels & John Cena vs Edge & Randy Orton (WWE Bakersfield, CA 02-19-07)
The Michaels-Roberts match is most likely a TV match that was listed on the old Universal Wrestling site run by Bill Watts' ex-wife Enie. While the site listed the match as airing one week later on 02-08-85, it's probable that either the site listed an errant date or that the incorrect date is listed for the new DVD release. No Michaels-Roberts house show matches were released when Ms. Watts still owned the collection; in fact, WWE has released no Mid South footage of any kind that wasn't previously sold on the Universal Wrestling site. Additionally, there are no available house show results that indicate that Shawn Michaels and Jake Roberts had a match on February 1, 1985. Based on their relative card positioning at the time, you can probably expect this to be a competitive squash.
The Rockers-Legion of Doom match aired on WWF Superstars and was near the end of the Rockers' five-year run. The match was fun but short, primarily a way to continue pushing the breakup of Michaels and Jannetty, a move that ultimately springboarded Michaels to singles superstardom.
Bret-Shawn vs the Blu Brothers is a newly available match. The novelty of Bret and Shawn teaming as babyfaces makes this match a worthy inclusion. It was a dark match at a RAW taping on July 24, 1995, in Louisville, Kentucky, the same show where Bret had a highly regarded televised match against Hakushi. Shawn also wrestled Jimmy Del Ray of the Heavenly Bodies in a good five-minute match. Del Ray's floatover DDT was one of my favorite highspots in wrestling at the time.
The 1-2-3 Kid was on his way out of the WWF by late April 1996 and the match with Shawn on the April 27, 1996, episode of Superstars was his last big showcase before returning two years later. Shawn's November 25, 2002, match against Rob Van Dam aired on television at the time and was Shawn's first televised match in five years. Shawn was still finding himself after returning from a four-year absence a few months earlier, so his performance isn't at the level Michaels fans usually expect. This was, however, the only televised defense during his last reign as World Champion. The Shawn-Cena vs Rated RKO tag match has never been released and comes right in the middle of a six-month run of WWE television that has been highly praised in many circles.
Steve Corino was only a World Champion on a national scale in America one time, and in a company that had a booking style pretty far from the NWA tradition. Armed with a credible and capable challenger, Corino shows what might have been with different career timing.
July 1, 2006
1 Pro Wrestling
Fight Club II
Barnsley, England
1PW World Heavyweight Championship
7.8
Steve Corino, while a great wrestler, has always seemed to me like a kid living the dream. He lucked into opportunities any aspiring wrestler who grew up on 1980s Jim Crockett Promotions would die for, whether he was getting smacked with a cowbell by Dusty Rhodes in ECW or wrestling a resurgent Barry Windham on the indie scene. He became Shinya Hashimoto’s favorite American through his work in Zero One. He also got to tour Europe as the world champion, in this particular case working his version of the Ric Flair title match.
When the territories collapsed for good in the late 1980s, NWA title defenses went out of style. Main events were much shorter for the most part, with slow build and matwork often replaced by more brawling and big spots. That change wasn’t entirely for the bad, as the worst 60-minute draws could be painful and some great matches were born from the new approach. Still, when WCW and ECW died in 2001 and the wrestling world was looking for a new path forward outside of the American monopoly, independent wrestling brought about a return to pro wrestling’s roots. Wrestlers sometimes missed the mark and occasionally had ambition above their skill level, but the focus on in-ring competition was welcomed and served as a nice contrast to the excesses of the Attitude Era and latter-day WCW. Young wrestlers displayed an experimental streak and were willing to take chances, which resulted in longer matches once again returning to favor.
It was in this setting that Steve Corino wrestled Doug Williams. Both were on the ground level for the indie boom that put Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Samoa Joe, and numerous others on the path to stardom. Circumstance led Corino and Williams to 1PW, a UK-based promotion that opened its doors the previous year, and a two-out-of-three-falls -- air quotes -- “world” title match.
The fascinating thing about this and other matches like this during the time period is that it wasn’t worked all that different from the wrestling of previous generations, but it seemed fresh and even in some ways innovative because it lied dormant so long. There was modernization (or regression, depending on your point of view) to an extent -- chances are that the Chaos Theory and Northern Lights Bomb on the floor wouldn’t be the two most important highspots in a match thirty years earlier -- but the match layout still nods to the corpse of the old NWA.
Even though the first fall was worthy of being called a great match on its own, the match didn’t truly pick up steam until Doug Williams took liberties with the rules in the second fall. Williams might as well have been the uncrowned lead heel in the biggest company in the world. He mercilessly targeted Corino’s arm and used the armdrag to return the match to his control anytime Corino teased a comeback, an interesting choice because the armdrag is not typically a move that is used as a neutralizer during the body of a match. Here, it functions like a dragon screw leg whip -- a sudden, high-impact move that halts momentum.
The finish was in some ways too clever for its own good, even while creating some nice theater in the moment. Restarts have always seemed risky to me, especially in longer matches, and they pushed this one far; Williams was escorted nearly out of sight and the referee had already handed Corino the belt. The other issue was the apparent time shaving. It’s certainly possible that there was a masterful editing job involved when this was released commercially, but if not, this was much closer to fifty minutes than sixty. It was here that I was reminded of the best NWA title matches of years past, although probably not for the reasons the wrestlers intended. The time call from the ring announcer was not a staple in every territory, but those who used it knew they had a gimme for creating drama down the final stretch. When there is no sense that the wrestlers are racing the clock, expiration of time, neither the possibility of it nor it actually happening, means as much as it should.
The big takeaway from this match is not the little things that might have been done better, but the multitude of things that were done well. 2000s indie wrestling -- and wrestling in general, I suppose -- often seeks judgment not on execution of an idea, but in the quality of the idea itself, (“Well I could see what they were going for”) and this match exemplifies that as well as any other. When viewed without that lens, this was a four-star match that had potential to be a classic and didn’t quite hit the mark. However, when judged with the ideas themselves as the reason to get excited, Steve Corino and Doug Williams overachieved.
YouTube user Master of Muppets has added a match from last night's house show in St. Louis to his YouTube channel. This appears to be the first Daniel Bryan vs The Miz singles match to make tape since Bryan's comeback, even though they've been slowly gearing up the rivalry at arena events for months. Pretty good camerawork considering that it was shot via smartphone in the audience. You can watch it below. Let us know what you think!
UPDATE
Reader Wahoo's Leg pointed out that this also hit YouTube a few months ago. The Miz vs Daniel Bryan from Newcastle, England, on May 17.
Booker T's Reality of Wrestling has added their latest episode to the YouTube channel. Watch it below, and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based Premiere Wrestling Xperience has uploaded PURE 3 to their YouTube channel, which took place on June 23. The card appears to be a strong one for fans of the current Southern indy scene:
Jake Manning vs Mykrin Ballard
Joey Lynch vs Patrick Scott
Big Country vs Elijah Proctor
Ugly Ducklings (Lance Lude & Rob Killjoy) vs Mason Myles & Mr. Sleaze
Ian Maxwell vs Andre Guhn vs Cam Carter
John Skyler vs Drew Adler
Slim J vs Darius Lockhart
Check out the full card below and let us know what you think in the comments.
Major League Wrestling has posted the latest episode of Fusion to their YouTube channel. This show taped on July 12 in Orlando, FL, and looks on paper to be a card with solid potential. The matches:
Kahuna Khan vs Kiki Roberts
Anything Goes Grudge Match: Tom Lawlor vs Jimmy Havoc
MLW World Title: Low Ki (c) vs Shane Strickland
You can watch the show below. Let us know what you think in the comments!
CWF Mid-Atlantic has posted two new episodes of Worldwide to their YouTube channel. The match lists looks like this.
Episode 155
Kernodle Cup Semi-Finals: Trevor Lee & Chet Sterling vs The Carnies (Nick Iggy & Kerry Awful)
Kernodle Cup Semi-Finals: Redemption (Michael McAllister & Nick Richards) vs The Closers (Sloan Caprice & Rick Roland)
RGL Title Match: Kool Jay (c) vs Mace Li vs Jeff Castro vs John Castro
Roy Wilkins vs Dirty Daddy
Episode 156
Kernodle Cup Finals: Trevor Lee & Chet Sterling vs The Closers
Mike Mars vs Aaron Biggs
The Gym Nasty Boys (White Mike & Timmy Lou Retton) & The Cross Brothers (Aden Cross & Christian Cross) vs Corruption (Cain Justice & Ethan A. Sharpe) & High Profile (Shea Shea McGrady & Will Demented)
Anything the rest of us should go out of our way to check out? Let us know what you think of both episodes in the comments.
