Almost every day I see comments from frustrated professional wrestling fans claiming that Roman Reigns "doesn't deserve" all of the opportunities WWE has given him. This comment is incredibly reliable regardless of how Roman Reigns evolves and regardless of how his booking changes.

At this point, if a pro-wrestling fan is reciting the same laundry list of criticisms that have been leveled at Leati Joseph Anoaʻi over the past two years, I tend to question their true intentions as it relates to their love of professional wrestling.

The Art Of My Way

This song, and the "My Way" vignette that helped build Rock & Austin's fateful main event encounter at WrestleMania 17, was so effective that it is permanently embedded in the minds of the wrestling fans who witnessed it.

I cannot separate my own adolescence from The Rock & Steve Austin's feud, and particularly the song that helped define it. It plays on a permanent loop in the hallowed halls of teenaged angst in my mind, recollections of doing things "My way!" because The Rock & Steve Austin did things their way, giving and taking Rock Bottoms and Stunners to my brothers (on mattresses, of course), walking through my high school purposefully locked away in my own little world of catchphrases and iconic gestures, a Rock-like twitch to my neck and a bad-mother-fucker bravado to my stride.

WORK OF WRESTLING - EP79 - MISSY KEEN

While I spend most of my time these days writing arts criticism related to professional wrestling, at heart I'm a fiction-writer. That's what I've done my whole life, and that's what I'll continue to do long after I've written or said my last word on pro-wrestling. While I love the writing process itself, I am not enamored with the "literary world".

Readings, wine-tastings, workshops, conferences, literary-networking, talking about books, waiting six months for a response...all of it interests me a lot less than working on something and then sharing it directly with you free of charge.

WORK OF WRESTLING - EP78 - RICOCHET vs WILL OSPREAY

This week on The Work of Wrestling podcast I weigh in on the recent "controversial" match between Ricochet and Will Ospreay in New Japan Pro-Wrestling which sparked a debate in the wrestling community; do synchronized acrobatics undermine the credibility of wrestling?

Is this match pro-wrestling at all?

WORK OF WRESTLING PODCAST - EP77 - THE WOMAN

On the latest episode of The Work of Wrestling I go into detail about why Charlotte is one of my favorite wrestlers. Inspired by her stellar heel promo from the May 25, 2016 episode of RAW where she renounced her father Ric Flair, I go into detail about why she's such a great heel Champion, why The Four Horsewomen are the best performers in the entire WWE organization, and I also break down that promo line by line.

The Art Of The Brand Split

The WWE announced on Wednesday morning, May 25th that in addition to broadcasting SmackDown live, Tuesdays on the USA Network, that a brand split will once again take effect in its fictional universe. Raw & SmackDown will feature *insert press-release quote* "unique storylines with unique casts, writing teams etc".

There are a lot of obvious benefits to this creative direction. Not only does a switch to live presentation help revitalize the WWE's stagnant B-Show, a definitive split in an over-crowded roster means less repeat match-ups, less over-exposed, over-worked talent, and more creative focus (hopefully) committed to improving the quality of these proposed unique storylines. With each roster able to focus on one live television show a week (rather than two where wins and loses cancel each other out) there could be more room for the performers to establish their characters via backstage interviews, in-ring promos, and main event matches that represent the culmination of consistently promoted throughlines rather than last-minute, contrived hero/villain pairings.

WORK OF WRESTLING PODCAST - EP76 - 2016 EXTREME RULES REVIEW

This week on The Work of Wrestling podcast I give my review of the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, focusing primarily on the excellent main event championship match between Roman Reigns and AJ Styles.

The Art Of Sasha Banks

A true star in entertainment is very rare.

Much like the celestial bodies they're named for, a star's talent, charisma, ingenuity, or personality burns so brightly and distinctly that they're impossible to ignore. They shine through the impenetrable dark of sameness that defines the vast majority of our existence. Their reach is seemingly infinite, easily comprehend and appreciated upon first glance.

WORK OF WRESTLING PODCAST - EP75 - WYATT MANNOX

This week I'm joined by my friend Brian Ariotti to discuss the intersection between the art of comedy and the art of professional wrestling.

In addition to sharing stories about working at Ringside Collectibles, Brian talks about his top five favorite wrestlers (which includes The Boogie Man), how he feels about maturing into adulthood, and he shares some useful insights on how to avoid becoming jaded and how "life experience" can positively affect the way we consume art.

THE ART OF BELIEVABILITY IN PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

Professional wrestling (even the WWE's spectacle-based version dubbed Sports Entertainment) is most effective when it's believable. Believable does not necessarily mean "realistic". As works of fantasy and science-fiction often demonstrate, believability has less to do with real-world characters and real-world situations and more to do with establishing a clear relationship between cause and effect.

One of the clearest examples of this principle in action is when a wrestler pulls their opponent's tights. If a pro-wrestler pulls the tights of another wrestler during a pin, it's understood by the audience that doing so gives that wrestler an unfair amount of leverage on their opponent and almost always guarantees a victory.

THE RAW REVIEW

I only have so many sentences left.

Even if I live a long life, every time I finish writing a sentence, I’m getting closer and closer to the last one I’ll ever write.

Put like that, I can’t help but question why I would ever devote an extensive amount of time writing about a television show I regard as inescapably terrible. Whether or not it’s terrible for anyone else isn’t important to me when considering if I should go on writing a weekly RAW REVIEW. For me, the one who writes this, Monday Night Raw is a terrible television show that exhibits no real sign of genuine improvement and hasn’t in the four years I’ve been writing about it. Genuine improvement would mean a creative overhaul. A creative overhaul means an entirely different creative team with entirely different ideas from the ones currently making it on our television screens. Creative overhaul means never seeing another “invasion” angle or another “collusion” angle or anything anyone could easily identify as an “angle”. Creative overhaul means reconditioning the audience to be an actual audience rather than a cult of greedy, ignorant, self-important blog-babies who think summary-writing qualifies as writing and repeatedly using the word “nuance” is an indicator of intelligence and that the art pro-wrestling is a “choose your own adventure” young adult novel.

ON THE ART OF PRO-WRESTLING COMMENTARY: OR "VETERAN INSTINCTS" IN THE WWE

On the April 18th, 2016 episode of Monday Night Raw, Chris Jericho fought Sami Zayn in the opening match.

The match itself, given the basic setup, was a good contest that played to the strengths of both performers. And from a pro-wrestling fan's point of view, Jericho vs Zayn is an incredibly enticing, almost surreal match-up; an exemplar from pro-wrestling's past taking on the bright beacon of pro-wrestling's future. If the two were feuding it's a match that could easily headline a pay-per-view with the proper build.

The Writings