Category: History

On June 12 this year (2014), WWE released nine wrestlers and two on-screen officials in a single day. John Lister explores the cuts process and what happens next for those given the bad news.   “WWE has come to terms on the release of [insert name]. WWE wishes them all the best in all their…

With WWE giving away its 12 major shows of the year to subscribers to its new online network, the end appears nigh for pro wrestling pay-per-views. John Lister explores the history of a technology that revolutionized the wrestling business.   While the network launch presentation heavily implied Vince McMahon had created pay-per-view, the first media…

The McMahon Family vs Daniel Bryan storyline is just the latest instalment of wrestling storylines inspired by the real-life Montreal Screwjob. John Lister explains how genuine double-crosses have, for better and for worse, been among the most influential moments in wrestling history.   After four consecutive main event spots on pay-per-view, Daniel Bryan has returned…

When Bill Watts made his very own Louisiana Purchase in 1979, it was a brash, take-no-prisoners move. It would prove an apt introduction to what became a promotion known for punching above its weight with a hard-hitting style.   Until that point Louisiana had, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi, been part of Leroy McGuirk’s Tri-State…

The conventional history has it that the WWF’s resurgence into the Attitude era began with the events of 1997 and 1998 as the “Stone Cold” and “Mr McMahon” characters developed and ultimately clashed. In fact the events of that period can be traced back to another time — five years earlier — and another place:…

25 years ago Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant followed their attendance record-setting WrestleMania III clash with a rematch that smashed the US records for televised wrestling viewership. It is a record that will never be broken. John Lister looks at the match that was the pinnacle of Vince McMahon’s national TV expansion.   When…

When TNA announced it would run a three-month long tournament throughout the summer of 2011 to determine a world title challenger at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view, more cynical viewers questioned whether the promotion really had the ability to pull off such a complex creative task. And while winner Bobby Roode certainly benefitted from the…

In the spring of 1992, WCW thought it had found the answer to its business woes. Company boss Jim Herd, a man of whom it would be charitable to say did not have a natural aptitude for the wrestling industry, had been forced out after a string of blunders including letting world champion Ric Flair…

As the spring of 1992 turned into summer, WWE’s business in the United States was in its steepest decline since Vince McMahon took the company worldwide. Things would have been bad enough had WWE simply experienced the devastating publicity of the sex and drug scandals and the resulting loss of business from more sensitive family…

TNA first hit our screens 10 years ago on June 19, 2002. But the company’s roots in fact date back to a 1995 WWE PPV event, In Your House 2 where alleged country music superstar Jeff Jarrett performed his “hit song” With My Baby Tonight before dropping the Intercontinental title to Shawn Michaels.   The…