The Heat and the Shine

Whether one's taste runs towards stuntman spot-fests, wild multi-team tag matches or bouts between cool little guys and unwelcome big guys (twice!), WWE Money in the Bank -- happening on June 19 at 5 p.m. PDT -- has something for every wrestling fan. Being that the show is nearly two weeks away, now is not the time to preview the card. But, being that the show is happening in Las Vegas, now is the perfect time to preview a last-minute trip to watch the show live. The live WWE experience is so far superior to the televised experience that there is no comparison. Who cares if you miss the commentary? You get chanting and little kids and long merchandise lines and lots and lots of overpriced beer (or food, if drinking isn't your thing). It's the summer, the kids are out of school.  If you have been thinking about getting away for a day or two and you're a WWE fan who hasn't planned his (or her) getaway yet, this is the show to do it for. SummerSlam will be a

Will Ospreay and Ricochet had a match on May 27 at New Japan's "Best of the Super Juniors" in Tokyo.  Maybe you've heard. It was the talk of the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) for days after Vader , a Hall of Famer with a tremendous legacy in Japan, Tweeted critically about a choreographed spot early in the match.  Predictably, IWC sentiment sided with the young blood, while a few old fogies (and people who admire old fogies) defended the big man. Overlooked, at least until the June 6, 2016 Wrestling Observer  was perused, was the fact that the match didn't draw.  Patches of seats at the 2,005 seat Korakuen Hall were visibly unfilled during the match, and the announced attendance was a mere 1,505.  The flyers match couldn't draw flies. Best of Super Juniors ran over two-and-a-half weeks and Ospreay vs. Ricochet are both non-Japanese headliners, so perhaps the lukewarm attendance was predictable.  Though the show was on a traditionally strong drawing

TNA Slammiversary happens this Sunday (June 5, 2016 at 5 p.m. PDT), and conventional wisdom is that the show will do tepid business.  TNA hasn't been touring and their weekly Impact Wrestling show on Pop TV has been beset by a string of bad luck .  The number of wrestling fans buying one-time pay-per-views has dwindled.  The main event is Lashley vs. Drew Galloway.  And there are ongoing questions whether it is worth wrestling fans' time  to emotionally invest in a promotion that has seen numerous departures and a decline in ancillary spending (production, promotion, marketing, etc). It is all quite bleak. Until, that is, a brief Twitter perusal  results in a viewing of this:   It is TNA's 'Contract Signing' video promo for the Matt Hardy vs. Matt Hardy "Full Metal Mayhem" match at Slammiversary. The video is an acquired taste, to be sure.  It has nearly as many Dislikes as Likes on YouTube.  The acting is campy and it hardly fits with the more

The good news is that a UFC 199 preview appears on ESPN's front page.  Just scroll down through fourteen other front page stories, the ads for ESPN's sister sites, a handful of pictures and nine embedded videos and it right there.  A thousand words and forty-nine words on tomorrow's pay-per-view by ESPN's top UFC writer, Brett Okamoto. That UFC 199 would be relegated to niche sport coverage is no surprise.  The cynical might point out that the NBA Playoffs (basketball) and the X-Games (skateboarding, etc.) are televised by ESPN, and Disney -- ESPN's corporate overlord -- is well-versed in media synergy.  Those who have a more virtuous view of ESPN (including this blog) might point out that the Stanley Cup Finals (hockey) and Copa America (soccer) are also heavily covered, despite airing on NBC and Fox, respectively. No major stars + a one-sided main event + numerous other big sporting events = minimal coverage of UFC.  That equation is no mystery to anyone w

There is an intrinsic pleasure found in feeling important, and one former pro wrestling great surely felt it this weekend.  Vader, the Hall of Fame "monster" who at one time was among the best big men in the business, surely had that feeling after his Tweet-shaming of the Will Ospreay vs. Riccocet match at New Japan's "Best of the Super Juniors" triggered a storm of arguments about what pro wrestling is and should be. Vader's initial Tweet came after he was forwarded an out-of-context clip of a synchronized highspot that occurred early in their match: This is a memorized gymnastic/dance rountine it saddenens me to see the direction wrestling is headed https://t.co/TvU9eTkBC0 — Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) May 27, 2016 Vader offered praise after watching the full match , but the damage was done.  Battle lines had been drawn, with fans of a more grounded style on one side and people citing wrestling's need to "evolve" on the other

With the 'Heat and Shine' blog only recently moving to a daily format, several things are still being tinkered with.  The plan, at least for now, is to have UFC be the focus of the blog on Fridays, with Monday through Thursday primarily dedicated to pro wrestling.   Feedback on the blog's format, schedule, content, layout and anything else you can think of is appreciated.  You can email me , tweet at me or leave a comment below.  Thank you. UFC has a ' Fight Night ' show (airing on Fox Sports 1 in the United States) on Sunday at 6 pm PDT/9 pm EDT, and this blog could scarcely be more excited. Cody Garbrandt vs. Thomas Almeida is the main event.  Both fighters are unbeaten, 24 year-old studs.  Both fighters are expected to have long careers in the upper echelons of UFC's lighter weight classes (Sunday's fight is at 135 pounds), but only one will enter the Championship picture with a flawless record. The undercard for 'Fight Night: Almeida vs. Ga

The news that WWE Smackdown is moving to Tuesdays (and airing live, and splitting from Raw) generated a lot of discussion yesterday.  Absent from most of said discussion was talk about the current residents of Tuesday night wrestling, TNA. That TNA has become an afterthought to most pro wrestling fans is hardly news.  The promotion has gone from a struggling cable network to an under-distributed cable network to, now, an unknown cable network.  All of this at a time where streaming is more popular and audiences are more fractionalized and all of the other problematic things that get written about modern linear television. From the outside looking in, TNA's adventure on Pop TV has appeared to be especially harrowing. The TNA-Pop marriage initially appeared to be a match made in heaven, with Pop in need of loyally watched content (TNA maintained 18-49 demographic ratings around 0.10, even with the limited distribution of Destination America) and TNA in need of wide distributio