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Two 10 Counts! in two consecutive weeks? 100 views, here I come. Rather than honoring our Independence Day by taking out aliens and dragging their dead carcasses across the desert taking a look at some of the most patriotic moments or wrestlers in the history of wrestling, let’s take a real close look at the clothes they wore while wrestling in the name of the U-S-A. A patriotic close look. Continue reading “All-American Attire”
With this Sunday’s Money in the Bank being the first where the actual WWE World Championship is also in play, aside from the usual briefcase, I thought it appropriate to do a 10 Count! list for… Defunct Wrestling Championships. There’s plenty of Top Ten MITB matches, or MITB winners floating around the internet, so why bother? If anything, the inclusion of the unified WWE titles being up for grabs made me think of previous championship belts that were no longer active. Some gimmicky, some pointless, and some worth falling off of and climbing a ladder for. But all of them defunct.
With Alexander Rusev making his second WWE wrestling debut, only this time on Raw, it only seemed fitting to take a look back at wrestlers who paved the way for him with their bare feet. Wrestlers who also just happened to be ethnic, and from some wild uncivilized place where shoes, and more importantly wrestling boots, are a luxury.
With WrestleMania XXX fast approaching, it only seems right to cover other companies (both past and present) who have(had) their own annual super shows. While not on the same scale as WrestleMania, these shows still delivered dream matches, feud blow-offs, and championship bouts that were just as exciting in their own respective country, territory, time period.
In honor of Black History Month, I decided to compile a list of the top black tag teams in professional wrestling history. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
Apparently the economic climate of the early to mid 90’s, was worse off than the one we’re currently in now. So much so, certain lower-tier to mid-card wrestlers had to supplement their income by taking up day jobs, or supplement their day jobs by moonlighting as wrestlers if you prefer to see it from that perspective. You can’t blame wrestling for trying this out. Comic books have always done it. Peter Parker is a photographer by day, Superman is a journalist, and Bruce Wayne is a billionaire. Yet, the guys dress the part when it comes to playing hero. You won’t catch Superman beating the crap out of Lex Luthor in a suit and glasses. Many of the wrestlers on this list decided to not only take up wrestling as a second job, but not bother masking their identity, and instead celebrate their first career choice by refusing to wrestle in professional wrestling garb. You figured after the first time he got yanked around by his necktie IRS would’ve learned his lesson. But nope, without his tie and suspenders the fans wouldn’t know what he did for a living. So, in celebration of Labor Day, let’s take a look at the top wrestlers with day jobs.
This month’s 10 Count will feature the top moments in which wrestlers took matters into their own hands and unleashed their frustrations on upper level management. With this past week’s revelation of The Corporation 2.0, us wrestling fans will witness another boss vs. employee storyline that made the Attitude Era and Steve Austin famous. Despite how many times it’s been rehashed over and over again, from taking on the actual CEO of the company to the assistant to the regional general manager of Raw; anytime a popular wrestler goes up against any figure of authority it’s going to generate instant heat. Granted, I really wish this storyline had been dropped out of the pro wrestling storyline rotation, considering that it spawned the never-ending turnover rate of meaningless General Managers. But this time it’s a fresh of breath air, considering the involvement of head honcho himself, Vince McMahon, and the fact that Daniel Bryan is a superstar on the rise and not an already established one. At least not in the eyes of the WWE Universe. Hopefully we’ll get a few moments in which Daniel Bryan will make the figureheads of the WWE look foolish and get a few Busaiku Knee Kicks in for good measure. I really hope he gets in a few Busaiku Knee Kicks.
Here at Cheap Pop Culture I’ve decided to honor this Movember by listing the Top Ten Mustaches in Wrestling. Like long glam metal hair and mullets, mustaches, and facial hair in general, are a wrestling fashion staple. Sadly, more and more wrestlers are doing away with the long hair and sporting a clean-cut Lou Thesz look. Mustaches seem to be going that route as well (beards and goatees however seem to be going strong). But just imagine what growing a mustache would do for wrestlers who desperately need a reboot like John Cena or how it would boost certain wrestlers to that next level like Cody Rhodes? The possibilities are endless.
For all of those still wondering, the M in CM Punk apparently stands for Metta World Peace. CM Punk has made the WWE relevant again and despite delivering one his better promos in some time, that’s not the reason why he’s making the internet rounds. It’s because of the beatdown he gave to an unsuspecting fan. Despite WWE’s best efforts to blame the whole thing on security, when you really think about it, this only furthered Punk’s recent heel turn. Which is great.
The pro wrestling and comic book connection is hard to miss. The parallels are all there: good vs. evil, outlandish characters/costumes, superheroes who virtually never die, or in wrestling’s case lose (Cena, Hogan) and storylines that can change on a dime given little reason (except in comic books these tangents are justified by having multiple universes, whereas in wrestling they simply undermine the fans’ intelligence). Point is, the two mediums go hand in hand, several wrestlers even incorporate certain comic book aspects into their persona/costumes.
This list will look at the top wrestlers whose characters would fit well inside the pages of a comic book. I’m not saying they would be successful, as most pro wrestling-comic book crossovers aren’t considered to be very good (although I’ve heard great things about Headlocked), but once mentioned you’d scratch your chin and think to yourself, “Yeah, I guess that makes sense.” However, before I continue with the list, there are a few conditions that would restrict the most obvious of choices.
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