Pro Wrestling Illustrated August 2022

THIS YEAR MARKS 35 years since PWI’s much-celebrated “Supercards ’87” issue. So much has happened over the last three-and-a-half decades: Wall Street crashed; The Berlin Wall was torn down; Digital technologies completely transformed the way many of us live, work, and communicate; WCW and ECW both rose and fell in spectacular fashion. And, of course, the rapidly expanding WWF, which nominally conquered both of those promotions, put the territory system down for a three-count. Not to belabor a point that’s already been made in this column—several times, in fact—but today’s wrestling landscape bears more than a passing resemblance to the territories of old. Sure, it’s much easier to watch just about everything, regardless of where one lives. And yet, we see notable vestiges of the regional networks that PWI covered so…

MEDIA REVIEWS WWE EVIL It’s tempting to dismiss a new WWE documentary series with the same degree of contempt that George Harrison showed to The Be Sharps as they performed on the rooftop of Moe’s Tavern. Truth is, after decades of home video retrospectives and two incarnations of the WWE Network, some of the best stuff has already been done. But it’s only natural that Peacock, which prides itself on its own brand of truth-based storytelling, gets a crack at reframing some of WWE’s best content. And that’s precisely what is happening in the new series, WWE Evil. While NBC and the ’E could well have been content in stitching together some classic archival footage to create content for their shared venture, WWE Evil immediately distinguishes itself as anything but a run-of-the-mill batch…

SINCE BECOMING RING of Honor’s savior, AEW President Tony Khan has delivered four winning moments for the brand: kicking off the March 2 edition of Dynamite with the acquisition announcement itself and a match featuring two of ROH’s founding fathers, Bryan Danielson and Christopher Daniels; moving forward with Supercard of Honor on April 1, despite the fact it ran directly against Rampage; finalizing a deal with ROH champion Jonathan Gresham … And the fourth? The dramatic AEW debut of Samoa Joe on the April 6 Dynamite. Joe finished off a very game Max Caster with a big elbow and a muscle buster in only four minutes to advance to the inaugural Owen Hart Foundation Cup tourney. Joe capitalized on that momentum on the April 13 edition, defeating Minoru Suzuki in a…

IT’S A SHAME I didn’t get to see more of Texas during my trip to WrestleMania. Outside of AT&T Stadium and the American Airlines Center, the only notable Dallas landmarks I took in were the bronze bull statues at the latter venue. And, by then, I had already gotten my fill of bull by listening to Kevin Owens during his “KO Show.” Y’all better git to reading this Texas-inspired edition of “Quick Count.” Despite everything being bigger there, Kevin McElvaney refused to expand this column over a couple more pages. HIGH NOON When the clock strikes 12 during a WWE show over WrestleMania weekend, it typically means midnight has arrived. But, this year, WWE offered something for the lunch crowd, too. With Smackdown occurring on Friday night, and WrestleMania taking place over two nights,…

WRESTLEMANIA HAS LONG been known as a place where history is made: Brock Lesnar ending The Undertaker’s undefeated streak in 2014; Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair becoming the first women to main-event in 2019; Ultimate Warrior becoming the first to cleanly pin Hulk Hogan for the World title in 1990. And, this year—though perhaps not enough fanfare was made of it—there was another important history-making moment at WrestleMania 38 from AT&T Stadium. By emerging victorious in their fatal four-way match on night two, Sasha Banks and Naomi became the first Black tag team to win the Women’s World tag team title in the history of WWE … and only the third Black team to win a Women’s world tag team title anywhere, in the history of pro wrestling. Of course,…

HOMICIDE WAS MY pick to leave the Crockett Cup as NWA World junior heavyweight champion, but the wily veteran wasn’t a risky bet, considering he had already won a gauntlet-match qualifier that included CW Anderson, Darius Lockhart, Ricky Morton, Kerry Morton, Luke Hawx, and PJ Hawx to earn an instant ticket to the four-way tournament final in Nashville. He had also maintained a consistent ring schedule and was in great physical shape. To me, those factors made him the favorite. Homicide dominated former ROH rival Austin Aries in most of their exchanges during the four-way, and his experience made him too formidable for the other two combatants, Colby Corino and Darius Lockhart. Homicide pinned Corino to become the new champion at night two, held on March 20 (his 45th birthday). Homicide is…