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...

Given the current buzz surrounding WWE Raw, it probably wouldn’t surprise many to hear that the best, tightest, and most fundamentally sound act on the company’s payroll isn’t even on the main roster. Down in NXT, where the stars of tomorrow nervously wait to be turned into the flops...

Let’s call a spade a spade: the conclusion to WWE Survivor Series was weird. First, Roman Reigns defeated Dean Ambrose in a match that felt like it was just getting into third gear in order to win the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Title. Then, a blinding shower of confetti...

The prolific children’s author Nancy Willard masterfully taught her readers one of wrestling’s most important lessons in her 1977 story Simple Pictures are Best. The book tells the story of an elderly couple who decide to have a portrait made in celebration of their anniversary. The wise but meek...