Over in the Wade Keller Zone VIP Member Blitzkrieg had an excellent suggestion for TNA as they attempt to capitalize on Tommy Dreamer and EV 2.0's nostalgic triumph at the Hardcore Justice pay-per-view. He proposed that TNA book and promote a WCW Reunion, which makes sense seeing as millions more wrestling fans followed WCW than ever watched ECW...
Read Torch columnist Bruce Mitchell's Stream of Consciousness review of tonight's WWE Raw with - The Host That Isn't There, The G.M. Shown Up By The Boss Who Exposes The Business, The Announcer Who Gets Body Blocked, Snuka Speaks, Bourne Flies, the Indy Guy, and more...
We start with Old Man, I mean "Hit Man" Bret Hart going to the ring to wrestle. What, I thought TNA got chased off Monday nights. He looks thrilled. Anyway, Bret couldn't believe his ears when The Miz challenged him to take a shot at the U.S. Championship in Canada...
Mike Tenay announces that, for the first time ever, TNA is actually listening to the fans and bringing back the six-sided ring, I mean, firing Vince Russo, uh, getting rid of the old guys, no, cutting the comedy out, nope, I mean, stop pushing Jeff Jarrett as a star, uh, hauling ass back to Thursday night as fast as they can...
We start with "change in the air." You bet. Michael Cole sits between Jerry Lawler and Matt Striker, grinning like a jackanape. Odds are Lawler reaches over and gives Striker a quick whack. Too bad we're not in Memphis, Lawler could throw him off of a scaffold...
Read Torch columnist Bruce Mitchell's Mojo Stream of consciousness on the 4/19 Raw starting with Triple H, who explains the volcano in Iceland that has the entire Raw roster in Europe is like Big Show when he eats Mexican food. Har Har Har...
Sample of Mojo Mitchell on TNA Impact: Bischoff tells Hogan he was fist-bumping Flair to gain his trust, right in front of the camera. Maybe it's a triple double-cross and Flair will relax because Bischoff said he was working him in front of the camera because if he was really working him, he would never say that on camera, would he?...
It's WrestleMania Rewind night, so we start with glass breaking. Steve Austin is wearing a plain black t-shirt. He looks like a regular person in good shape. No beers, no middle fingers. That "What" crap starts. Walking down the long ramp made Austin thirsty, so he calls for some beers...
This is going to be a mess of a Mojo, because it's going to be a mess of a Monday Night War. We start with Hulk Hogan and the World's Greatest Hulkamaniac Abyss heading to the ring as the Impact Zone goes crazy, so crazy the Hogan chant almost doesn't sound piped in. The First Five Minutes Shock is "They ain't no reason to wait around."...
Mojo Mitchell's Raw Stream of The Best DX Segment in Who Knows When, The Best Batista Promo Ever, The Best Song Ever On a Wrestling Show, and Wade Keller's First Main Event brought to the Hall of Fame spotlight...
Finally, a guest host I've actually met. Of course, to do that I had to walk down High Point Road, horns honking, beside a peroxide blonde megalomaniac wearing a championship belt buckle and leather chaps, on the way to the rodeo at the Coliseum. I thought the rodeo was pretty cool, though, particularly because it was proud to be what it was, instead of trying so hard to be cool. Ty Murray was perfectly polite. He's Piper Fairplay's godfather. (No, I wasn't in the running. I'm not a celebrity. And yes, I tried to talk Fairplay out of that name. No, not "Fairplay." "Piper." He already had his name before I met him. Seriously.)...
Michael Benoit's son, professional wrestler Chris Benoit, you may remember, strangled his wife Nancy to death, hid that fact for hours from their young son Daniel, then choked Michael's grandson to death with his famous pro wrestling submission hold, then spent a day or so alone in hellish misery, before he committed suicide by wrapping the metal cord from a weight machine around his neck and strangling himself to death. Michael Benoit, in his grief, then got to watch the worldwide media firestorm his now reviled son's murderous actions ignited go on for months...
The highlight video that opens the show makes the point (through the color tones the footage is shown through) that 52 year-old Bret Hart is just old news, while the 64 years-young Vince Mcmahon is what's happening now. Hornswoggle is driving Carl Edwards' #99 Ford Fusion NASCAR. He waves to the crowd. Edwards comes to the ring with traditional Raw Walkers - the Bella Twins. Shouldn't he be getting ready for the Daytona 500, you know, practicing turning left? He gets chills from being in N'Awlins with World Champs. He plugs the 500 this weekend, and his friend John Cena...
Jack Brisco, who died Monday at the age of 68, was an NCAA wrestling champion from Oklahoma who became the consummate scientific pro wrestling world championship challenger and champion. His legendary years long chase of arch-rival Dory Funk Jr.'s NWA Title in the '70s was the best and most profitable wrestling feud of its time, and their matches were years ahead of their time...
He's back! Edge is back in the main event of WrestleMania. Michael Cole makes the point that Edge is the ultimate opportunist, having used Money in The Bank to get the world title twice. Edge blames his old tag partner Chris Jericho at The Slammies for inspiring him to make a vow that he wouldn't miss another WrestleMania due to injury, as he had twice before. He rehabbed harder than he ever had before, and that, as John Cena proved two years ago, is the best path to Royal Rumble winnings...
The Mojo respectfully notes the passing of Georgiann Makropoulos, who in fifty-plus years covering the waterfront went from fan club president to newsstand magazine columnist to Wrestling Chatterbox newsletter maven to Internet writer, and along the way knew and talked to just about everyone in the business except me. Tonight, no doubt, she's back in her reserved seat in the old Garden, waiting for Bruno in the main event. Here's to her...
We start with Mr. McMahon. It takes a man to wear a pink tie. Life is about decisions, like bringing Raw to this god-forsaken community (Tennessee) or making sure Bret Hart would never appear anywhere in the WWE. I did it for you. You want to remember Bret for the way he was, the Excellence of Execution, not the way he is, a humble warhorse...
According to sports news shows such as ESPN's "Pardon The Interruption," about all Major League Baseball has had to worry about was the ruination of sport's most sacred marketing gimmick – the home run record. PTI's Tony Kornheiser suggested MLB commissioner Bud Selig, the man who looked the other way while McGwire and Sammy Sosa did what it took to recreate Mickey Mantle's and Roger Maris's Home Run Derby, call a general amnesty and open up a Steroid Wing of the Hall of Fame...
Be sure to have Mr. McMahon hug the Prodigal son Bret Hart when he steps out onto the ramp. It'll give every one a warm feeling, and remind WWE fans of Eric Bischoff's legendary run as Raw General Manager. Have Creative write a promo for Bret Hart detailing, point-by-point, exactly what happened in Montreal twelve years ago. That should get the younger fans up to speed, and remind the older ones of why it was so important...
Randy Orton tells Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase that it's time to break up Legacy. He's wasted the last 18 months of his life, Three guys who never teamed together beat them, and Nobody's a champion. Ted DiBiase points out how many times Legacy saved Orton. He tell them if they don't win tonight he'll kick them out of Legacy and beat the hell out of them besides...
Guest Host Johnny Damon of the hated world champion New York Yankees gets real music - John Fogerty's ballpark chestnut "Centertfield." Somehow I doubt he chose that himself. He says some Secret Santas will be giving WWE Superstars one wish. Some blonde chases a girl in a tiger costume around with a golf club, a week after the expiration date. I realize we're way past calling Vince McMahon a hypocrite, but that was ridiculous...
We start with Mark Cuban. He's a billionaire who's a man of the people. He's large and in charge. He's got a showdown between Sheamus and his "main man, John Cena." What, he doesn't love DX the mostest? John Cena faces Carlito, one of those negative nellies who are sick of Cena. Jerry Lawler assures us Carlito doesn't speak for the locker room, or, in fact, right-thinking folks anywhere...
Man, I'm jacked. It doesn't get any bigger than Unbeaten versus The Evil Empire in what could very well be a Monday Night preview of the biggest showdown of them all… But no, I'll be watching two hours and seven minutes of stale short jokes from people who really do think little people are children and are hoping against hope that Verne Troyer will tell Lorne Michaels all about them and they can get up out of this squirrel's nest...
This look back at a column in the Torch Newsletter by columnist Bruce Mitchell 15 years ago looks at a similar situation when McMahon had to change the WWE product following the federal steroid investigation in 1994. Look for the similarities between Punk and Bob Backlund's character in Mitchell's column. ...
When I was in fourth grade, my buddy Walt and I used to borrow his older brother Mike's "Black Sabbath" Paranoid album so we could listen to it on his turntable. (That's album, not download or CD or cassette or track tape.) As a teenager who knew exactly what Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau and the Reverend Charles M. Young meant, if you had told me Ozzy would be a household name/harmless joke almost forty years later, well, I would have had a lot of questions about the future that maybe didn't include Black Sabbath...
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PWTorch editor Wade Keller has covered pro wrestling full time since 1987 starting with the Pro Wrestling Torch print newsletter. PWTorch.com launched in 1999 and the PWTorch Apps launched in 2008.
He has conducted "Torch Talk" insider interviews with Hulk Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Eric Bischoff, Jesse Ventura, Lou Thesz, Jerry Lawler, Mick Foley, Jim Ross, Paul Heyman, Bruno Sammartino, Goldberg, more.
He has interviewed big-name players in person incluiding Vince McMahon (at WWE Headquarters), Dana White (in Las Vegas), Eric Bischoff (at the first Nitro at Mall of America), Brock Lesnar (after his first UFC win).
He hosted the weekly Pro Wrestling Focus radio show on KFAN in the early 1990s and hosted the Ultimate Insiders DVD series distributed in retail stories internationally in the mid-2000s including interviews filmed in Los Angeles with Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara and Matt & Jeff Hardy. He currently hosts the most listened to pro wrestling audio show in the world, (the PWTorch Livecast, top ranked in iTunes)
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