Author: M. Swift

Episode 117 of MLW Fusion is produced by Salina de la Renta’s Promociones Dorado. Between 2018 and 2019, the faction terrorized the MLW ring while gradually losing talent. During the first half of 2019, Contra Unit became the powerful heel army in town and began targeting everyone—including Promociones Dorado members. Before the year was out, Los Parks had become free agents, the other members just weren’t featured as often, and de la Renta simply continued her beef with Konnan. However, it seems as though the faction was just in holding. A Word About the Verdict As with every review starting this year,…

It’s a new year and we’re already deep into the first month. I figured we would put the Wrestling Salvage Yard away and go three up on some wrestlers starting with Disco Inferno. In “3-Up” we look at three pros that should’ve made them a bigger star or made them a big star. Let’s see if there were more pros than cons for Disco Inferno at his peak. The Man Had Solid Ring Ability In the 1990s, Disco Inferno was a guy who could mix it up with opponents of different styles and paces in WCW. He had an in-ring…

I’ve been catching up with Major League Wrestling, so let’s look at the MLW Fusion special presentation of MLW Kings of Colosseum 2021 from January 6, 2021. Episode number 116 of MLW Fusion is a smaller version of the company’s annual event because of the current situation of the world and the industry at the moment. Still, for an indy to be able to present a major show in addition to its weekly TV is very impressive. Plus, this isn’t Major League Wrestling’s regular approach of running an event and editing it for TV over the month. Stories Heading into MLW Kings of Colosseum 2021 I’m just…

Each time a young promotion comes along that decides to take a more intense, violent, and/or mature approach to storylines and matches, old-timers will speak out against it. Usually, when the promotion is formed, it’s created from wrestlers who were once in said old-timer’s larger promotion. The owner or booker of the said promotion will often make some note of the promotion’s product. A Lowbrow Product? A recent example of this is back in July 2019 during a WWE conference call. WWE CEO Vince McMahon alluded to All Elite Wrestling’s product—without saying the company’s name—as “blood and guts”. …

Do you remember back in 2003 when WWE had the tag team Kyo Dai? Members included Akio—who became Jimmy Wang Yang—and Sakoda. During this period, they became involved with Tajiri. The goal was to create a yakuza-like group in the Cruiserweight division. Ultimo Dragon was also supposed to be involved. This whole thing fell apart quickly as Tajiri didn’t want to be involved. From old internet wrestling community lore, there was fear on Tajiri’s part about the actual yakuza finding out about the storyline. Yakuza Involvement in Wrestling The concern makes sense on Tajiri’s part as the yakuza was extremely involved in pro wrestling and MMA…

Doink the Clown is one of those cartoonish gimmicks that managed to have some life after WWE. Could Doink be brought back to modern WWE as a regular gimmick? I Hate Clowns, Folks Doink the Clown is probably best known as an evil clown but he wasn’t always evil. He went from mischievous prankster then to evil clown to friendly clown before ending as occasionally appearing fodder. This gimmick has lived a life. That’s because anyone can play it for a match or a segment and still get a pop. Even if they’re disguised as Doink just to ambush people this gimmick has mileage. We’ve gotten to the point where you can put on…

It’s January 15, 1998, which means it’s time for WCW Thunder! This is the second episode featuring a big main event as nWo members Kevin Nash and Randy Savage square off against Lex Luger and DDP. Page has been injured and isn’t expected to make it to the match. Will Luger have a replacement or will he go it alone? Let’s see what hit and what missed on the second WCW Thunder! Low-Tier The opener with The Steiners and Ray Traylor—formerly Big Bossman—facing Black Cat, Gedo, and Ohara was meh. Not only was it meh but it was the second-longest bout of the night. …

We looked at the first two WWE SmackDown shows, now let’s get into the first WCW Thunder January 8, 1998! This episode is one of the two major shows in the fallout of WCW Starrcade 1997. Low-Tier While the match was fine at best, Savage losing to Chris Adams by DQ was just an odd result when you read the result. Luger gave Adams the win following a nice chairshot. This match served to advance the beef between Savage and Luger, so there’s that. Remember when Rick Martel was in WCW? He was even TV champion for a moment. His match against Louie Spicolli wasn’t bad but like Savage vs. Adams,…

Were back in the Wrestling Salvage Yard for the Isaac Yankem DDS gimmick! Isaac Yankem DDS This wasn’t the first gimmick of Kane in his career but it was his first on WWE TV. Personally, I liked the name of Mike Unabomb. It sounds like a wrestler from the Champions of the Galaxy wrestling board game. Anyway, this evil dentist gimmick was a short-term menace until Mayor Glen Jacobs got something better. It’s not unusual for wrestlers to change gimmicks throughout their career. I believe it’s that he went from a mediocre cartoony gimmick to a great comic book/horror movie gimmick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hCr_4zDIhg It’s not as if his style changed dramatically but the ring approach that brought him to national TV…

Let’s see if the second episode of WWE SmackDown is any better than the first. This second episode actually marks the official start of SmackDown as a running series. Low-Tier I can’t say I actually care about Mr. Ass or Jeff Jarrett at this period. I’m still waiting for him to jump to WCW so we can enjoy that Jeff Jarrett ASCENDED EXTRA PUSH. Someone backstage in WWE really wanted to dedicate a minute to a T&A match. I mean, technically it shouldn’t be rated but it’s taking up TV time and it’s considered a match. Big whomp to the evening gown match between…