Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i Pro Wrestling Illustrated

FIRST OF ALL, thank you so much to everyone who reached out to me in response to last month’s column about my wife Megan. Although she still has a hard fight ahead of her, I’m happy to report that there are signs her treatment is working. And, just as important, her spirits are high. Megan and I both appreciate all the thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes you’ve sent our way. This month’s column will be far less somber. But, for it to make sense, I do need to start out with an important announcement: Effective immediately, PWI recognizes Pro Wrestling NOAH’s GHC heavyweight championship (along with the tag team and junior heavyweight titles) as legitimate world championships. If you follow PWI on Twitter, this may not be news, exactly, as we…

WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT that the WWE Network was merging with NBC’s Peacock platform, pro wrestling has taken another big step in its digital evolution. But it still has a ways to go to catch up with the king of all streaming services, Netflix. But who knows? Maybe in a few years we’ll see the New Day and Eleven enjoying a breakfast of Eggo waffles and pancakes all on the same show. Until then, enjoy this “Quick Count” tribute to Netflix original series. And, if you’re reading the digital version of PWI, you’d better be using your own account! STRANGER THINGS Watching WrestleMania 36—a pre-recorded show held inside a gym with no fans in attendance—was about as surreal a viewing experience as most wrestling fans had ever had. Now, we’re heading…

TRISH ADORA IS the Pan Afrikan World Diaspora champion, a leader and a role model to so many in the world of pro wrestling. The journey to becoming champion wasn’t an easy one for Adora and the home base of the championship, D.C.’s F1ght Club Pro Wrestling. Adora, a U.S. Military vet turned wrestler, trained at the Team 3D Academy. Overseas serving the country is where she met Jonathan Martin, known as Jonny X. With the PAWD championship, Jonny X wanted to create a world title that represented us. Inspired by the events of No Way Out 2009—when Edge stole Kofi Kingston’s spot in the match and became world champion—Jonny X spawned the idea of the Pan Afrikan World championship. It took him 10 years from that point. But, with…

BY NECESSITY, TWO key traits of the independent wrestling scene are innovation and creativity. Especially in today’s climate, where top indie stars are snatched up by WWE, AEW, Impact, and even New Japan, promotions need to adapt quickly. Enter streaming video service IWTV, creators of the Independent Wrestling championship, and, in turn, The Masked Wrestler tournament that took place in 2020 to find a new #1 contender for the title’s longest holder, WARHORSE. The IWTV Independent Wrestling championship (first known as the Powerbomb.tv championship before the company rebranded) has been part of the indie scene since 2017, but it’s already established itself as a way to showcase some of the best talents of its time. Its first titleholder was Jonathan Gresham, now a standout for Ring of Honor; same for…

MEDIA REVIEWS THE NATURAL ONE: THE STORY OF MICHAEL MODEST For better or for worse, Michael Modest is probably best known to seasoned wrestling enthusiasts as the guy who earned a shot at the big time in the 1999 documentary, Beyond the Mat. But Michael has evolved considerably since his days as a protégé of the late Roland Alexander, and is now regarded by many in the ranks of independent wrestling as an unsung hero of the business. Through the efforts of the folks at Indy Handshake, Mr. Modest chronicles his journey from relative obscurity to folk hero in the new documentary, The Natural One: The Story of Michael Modest. The Natural One distinguishes itself from the ubiquitous phenomenon of one-dimensional shoot interviews by weaving Modest’s reminiscences together with interviews…

COLD, HARD NUMBERS can tell you a whole lot—sometimes more than the people in charge might want you to know. In terms of being a wrestling fan, this is especially true of WrestleMania statistics. Take it from me: Long before I ever came to work as a wrestling journalist, I was a fan. And not just any fan, but an anal-retentive fan who loved to keep track of facts and figures. I took that love with me—and put it to much better use, I might add—once I started writing about wrestling. That’s when things like my comprehensive WrestleMania win-loss records came very much in handy, as these metrics lent themselves to compelling stories and helped add to readers’ enjoyment of the viewing experience. I was able to include them each…

MANY WRESTLERS DREAM all their lives of making it to WWE and having their big WrestleMania moment. A lucky handful of those would-be superstars might just get to experience what they’ve waited for all their lives. And yet, for all those who toil in search of their dream, there are others who are seemingly destined to be wrestlers. In other words, wrestling finds them. Wrestling found Bianca Belair. A young track-and-field standout who transitioned into CrossFit after college, the Knoxville, Tennessee, native realized she might just have a career inside the squared circle. While many athletes try and fail to make this transition, it was immediately evident Belair wouldn’t be one of them. She signed with WWE and reported to the Performance Center, where she became a star pupil. Before…

TO SAY THAT I was nervous would be an understatement. The abandoned warehouse was dimly lit, and dust hung in the air like the questions I was keen to have answers to. The streets outside occasionally offered the sound of a passing car or the barking of a dog to break up the eerie silence. But, truth be told, I was already regretting my decision to come. I knew that PWI writers had found themselves in some strange situations over the years, but this had to rank up there with the strangest. I checked the time on my phone, and it was exactly midnight. I decided I would give “My Source” five more minutes to make an appearance and then I would gladly be on my way, sure that I…

NO HOOK IN HIP-HOP, “NO hook” means all substance, no filler. No Hook is also an IWTV series by Indiana’s Paradigm Pro Wrestling and ring announcer, producer, and director, J-Rose. Its M.O.? Do things differently. “I want to push people in directions they’ve never gone before,” J-Rose told PWI. “Anybody can have a good match. What else can you bring to the table?” No Hook serves up solid wrestling alongside surreal storylines and compelling, audio-only promos—an early production necessity that became a signature element of the series. And J-Rose’s creative influences are proudly on display throughout: Lucha Underground and Attitude Era Raw, iconic hip-hop shows like Yo! MTV Raps and BET’s 106 & Park, and the anime of Cartoon Network’s Toonami block. “If you want good wrestling matches, I will…

WITH SPRING NOW in session, the “International Report” returns with a range of professional wrestling news from around the world. In one of the major events that swept the wrestling world—and was foreshadowed within the first-ever Pro Wrestling Illustrated digital-only edition—New Japan Pro-Wrestling began working agreements outside of the International Wrestling Grand Prix (IWGP) Coalition. Although they retain their partnerships with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), RevPro, and Ring of Honor, they are now in business with Impact Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling with separate working agreements. The tag team of FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) won the Impact World tag team championship at Sacrifice against the Good Brothers team of Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows, who are expected to join the NJPW roster at some point in…

WRESTLEMANIA IS SURELY the most definitive annual event in the history of professional wrestling. If we needed any reminder, we have this year’s 37th installment, emanating from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida—home of the Buccaneers—over two nights in April. Starting in 1985, WrestleMania ushered in a new era of pay-per-view supercard spectaculars, which continues to this day (even if the term “pay-per-view” is out of date in today’s world of streaming networks). And yet, supercards themselves were happening long before pay-per-view, before WrestleMania, and even before the NWA’s Starrcade. In fact, this year’s WrestleMania brings to mind one of the greatest and most memorable supercards from the era just pre-dating pay-per-view—because, just like WrestleMania 37, it happened in Tampa, and featured a payoff to one of the most revered…

HEAVYWEIGHT 1 BOBBY LASHLEY 273, Colorado Springs, CO (10) WWE U.S. champion 2 KENNY OMEGA 203, Winnipeg, MB (2) AEW & AAA champion 3 KOTA IBUSHI 205, Kagoshima, Japan (1) IWGP/Intercontinental champion 4 ROMAN REIGNS 265, Pensacola, FL (3) WWE Universal champion 5 RICH SWANN 200, Baltimore, MD (5) Impact heavyweight champion 6 FINN BALOR 190, Bray, Ireland (6) NXT heavyweight champion 7 KEIJI MUTO 243, Yamanashi, Japan (–) GHC heavyweight champion 8 JACOB FATU 300, Samoa (7) MLW heavyweight champion 9 DREW McINTYRE 265, Ayr, Scotland (4) #1 contender WWE title 10 DARBY ALLIN 180, Seattle, WA (9) AEW TNT champion WOMEN 1 UTAMI HAYASHISHITA 142, Kagoshima, Japan (1) World of Stardom champion 2 IO SHIRAI 119, Kanagawa, Japan (10) NXT Women’s champion 3 TAM NAKANO 124, Aichi, Japan (–)…

AS THE MOST significant event of the year, WrestleMania is often referred to as the “Super Bowl” of pro wrestling. And, as the most significant match on the biggest event of the year, WrestleMania’s main event is almost a Super Bowl-within-a-Super Bowl. Regardless of how well it’s executed, it should be (at least on paper) the very biggest match that could be presented to fans at that time. But that hasn’t always been the case. For reasons ranging from timing, to politics, to just bad decision-making, WWE chairman Vince McMahon has not always played his best hand when it comes to headlining the “Granddaddy Of Them All.” Heading into this year’s WrestleMania, the PWI staff looked back on the first 36 installments of the “Showcase Of Immortals,” and came up…

IT’S 2021, AND Jonathan Gresham has brought Pure Wrestling back to Ring of Honor! In 2006, Bryan Danielson retired the ROH Pure championship after a match with Nigel McGuinness. And, according to Jonathan Gresham and members of The Foundation, there has been no order in ROH ever since. “The entire company needed its honor restored. The things that RUSH, Brody King, and the like are doing, there’s no honor in that!” Gresham told PWI. “I worked my entire independent wrestling career to get to Ring of Honor,” he said. “I trained the hardest I could, knowing the intention was to get to Ring of Honor.” In 2017, Gresham was signed to ROH, and he came in doing the exact things he had learned on the road as an independent wrestler.…