Over the last few years, the Raw following WrestleMania has become a night of bread and circuses, designed partly to create memorable moments and mostly to keep WWE’s most irascible fans from revolting. Even with the show being booked with a “hardcore” audience in mind, it was impossible for...

With the meaningful parts of the WrestleMania 32 card set, the question looms for the second year in a row: is Roman Reigns over enough to challenge for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the biggest stage of all? His opponent, Triple H, is unquestionably capable of leading him...

With a road to WrestleMania potholed by injuries and patched with McMahons, it seems curious that one proven huge money draw does not have a bigger role at the biggest event of the year: “The Beast” Brock Lesnar. In the last year, Lesnar, who entered the Santa Clara edition...

With WrestleMania 32 a month away, WWE has their three top matches seemingly set in stone. Roman Reigns will challenge Triple H for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Dean Ambrose will face Brock Lesnar in a Street Fight, and Shane McMahon will take on the Undertaker in Hell in...

This week’s edition of Raw opened with an angle designed to make Dean Ambrose a figure of sympathy and build anticipation for his participation in tonight’s Fastlane Triple-Threat main event. The show began with Ambrose calling out Brock Lesnar, declaring his lack of fear in The Beast, and asserting...

With Daniel Bryan’s retirement announcement on Raw two weeks ago, the wrestling business lost one of its finest in-ring performers and the most important WWE Superstar of the twenty-first century. Others have drawn more money or been involved in more featured television storylines, but nobody in the wrestling industry...

Even as their industry has drastically shrunk in size and popularity over the past fifteen years, the WWE has succeeded in turning the so-called “WrestleMania season” of late January to early April into a reliable boom time for fan engagement, mainstream media coverage, and profitability. This year, as the...

Looking back on 2015, North American wrestling fans should hope that the people who write and promote their favorite shows have a long list of resolutions for 2016. To be blunt, mainstream professional wrestling simply wasn’t very good in the year that was. WWE, the titan of sports entertainment,...

Ten days ago, if wrestling fans were asked to predict a match on the WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs card that they believed might “steal the show,” many would have mentioned the Intercontinental Title match between champion Kevin Owens and challenger Dean Ambrose. The Lunatic Fringe and the...