As an indie-wrestling fan, I’ve watched a bunch of El Generico matches at Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerilla events. As many of you know, I was a big mark for Claudio Castagnoli’s indie work. With those factors in mind, it was cool watching Claudio and Generico duke it out as Antonio Cesaro and Sami Zayn on the last episode of NXT (highlight clip below). While Claudio has shown that he can be a WWE star, I’m not quite sure about Generico’s future. Part of it is that I’m … more

TNA Wrestling’s Austin Aries has been fined for an on-air incident with announcer Christy Hemme. On the last episode of Impact Wrestling, Hemme announced the wrong tag-team while Aries and partner Bobby Roode were making their way to the ring. A-Double played up his heel persona by getting in Hemme’s face, telling her to announce the correct team, and eventually putting his crotch in her face. TNA president Dixie Carter tweeted that the company “has ZERO tolerance for inappropriate behavior.” According to TMZ, Aries has been…more

Yahoo! has announced a ton of streaming video initiatives, including six original shows. Direct-to-streaming programs seem like “the next big thing” with Amazon and Netflix paving the way for TV-less television. For fans of traditional shows, Yahoo! also announced partnerships with Saturday Night Live and WWE. The company will be the “exclusive home” of SNL archives. As for WWE programming, here’s some of what you’ll be able to enjoy starting this summer:

• Monday Night Raw pre-show: A 30-minute pre-show to each new Monday Night Raw will be exclusive

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The Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania has always been a charged event. The audience has lots of hardcore wrestling fans from out of town and there’s a lot of residual energy from the biggest pro-wrestling event of the year. The last two post-WrestleMania Raws have been particularly noteworthy. In 2012, the crowd was absolutely nuts for Bryan Danielson, since many felt that he was shafted by only getting 18 seconds of WrestleMania wrestling time. This year, the smarks (smart marks) totally took over the show; they completely overshadowed the … more

For smarks, the hottest thing in the WWE is Fandango’s theme song, “ChaChaLaLa.” There are several reasons why the song is over; it’s an intricate, interesting, and ironic issue (the three Is, get it?!?). I’m not going to get into it right now, but what I will get into is how to make your very own Fandango ringtone. The current version of iTunes makes it super-easy to create your very own “ChaChaLaLa” ringtone for your iPhone. Here’s the rundown.… more

Did you ever notice that finishing maneuvers aren’t very good at finishing during WrestleMania? For most of the WWE year, finishers mean that the match is over. Every now and then during a WWE pay-per-view event, an opponent will dramatically kick out or power out of a single finisher. At WrestleMania — especially for the last five years and arguably for the last decade — finishers go flat. There have been matches where the victor has to bust out his finishing move three times or more in order to win. In the immortal words of Hurricane Helms…more

It’s WrestleMania weekend! Sadly, I am not in the New York/New Jersey area attending the event and hanging out with friends, as I originally planned. However, that won’t stop me from enjoying the biggest pro-wrestling event of the year. Hopefully we’ll be chatting it up on the RPad.TV Google+ Messenger group as the show is happening. For now, let’s go through each match, sharing and comparing predictions. Here’s the lineup with some random thoughts on the matches and my predictions. Please share yours in the comments section!

Wade Barrett vs. … more

My excellent friend Brad tweeted this video yesterday and I can’t stop watching it. It’s that monstrous dunk by Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan set to a classic Jim Ross WWE call. Watch DJ throw down a Chris Paul lob for one of the most ferocious dunks of the NBA season to the classic sounds of JR calling the action for the Mankind vs. Undertaker Hell in a Cell match from 1998.… more

Here’s a great video that starts off with a promo from WWE Superstars Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter. Shortly into the clip, the two break character and address the viewers as Jake Hager and Wayne Keown, the real people behind the characters. Political commentator Glenn Beck recently took issue with these characters and their anti-immigration stance against Mexican wrestlers like Alberto Del Rio. He referred to the WWE as, “Stupid wrestling people.” Hager and Keown do a phenomenal job shutting down the “controversy” Beck is trying to create.

While the … more

On Monday Night Raw, WWE Champion Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson unveiled the company’s new title belt. The new WWE Championship has removable side plates, allowing it to be personalized to reflect the champion. The Rock’s version has bulls on the side, since one of his nicknames is “The Brahma Bull.” The center piece has the modern WWE logo, with the word “Champion” on the bottom. Some pro-wrestling fans love the new belt and others hate it. What say you? Kindly take today’s poll and share your thoughts on the … more