The Joe Schmo Show is a reality television hoax show created by Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese. The series was broadcast in the U.S. on the cable network Spike. On December 10, 2012, Spike announced it was bringing The Joe Schmo Show back for a third season, which premiered on January 8, 2013.
In professional wrestling, the independent circuit is the collective name of independently owned promotions which are deemed to be smaller and more regionalized than major national promotions.
Mitsuharu Misawa was a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter. He is primarily known for his time in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and also for forming the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion in 2000. In the early 1990s, Misawa gained fame alongside Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi, and Akira Taue, who came to be nicknamed AJPW's "Four Pillars of Heaven", and whose matches developed the ōdō style of puroresu and received significant critical acclaim. Despite never working in the United States during the 1990s, Misawa had a significant stylistic influence upon independent wrestling, through the popularity of his work among tape-traders worldwide including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
WCW Thunder, or simply Thunder, was an American professional wrestling show produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) which aired on TBS Superstation from January 8, 1998 to March 21, 2001.
David Allen Meltzer is an American journalist and sports historian who reports on professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.
The WCW Power Plant was a professional wrestling school in Atlanta, Georgia, owned and operated by World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON) Hall of Fame is a professional wrestling and mixed martial arts hall of fame that recognizes people who make significant contributions to their professions. It was founded in 1996 by Dave Meltzer, editor of WON. Like many other wrestling halls of fame, such as the WWE, TNA, ROH and WCW halls of fame, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame is not contained in a building, and there are no ceremonies for inductions other than a highly detailed biographical documentation of their career in the newsletter. Inductees include wrestlers/fighters, managers, promoters, trainers, and commentators. On select occasions, groups, either tag teams, trios, or quartets, have been inducted rather than the individual members of the group. This first occurred in 1996, when The Fabulous Kangaroos and The Road Warriors entered the hall. The Fabulous Freebirds, The Midnight Express, The Rock 'n' Roll Express, The Assassins, The Holy Demon Army, The Sharpe Brothers, Los Misioneros de la Muerte, and Los Brazos among others all also entered as groups. Occasionally entire wrestling families have been inducted into the hall. This first occurred in 1996 when The Dusek Family entered the hall; in 2022, the five man familial team of Los Villanos was inducted.
The OVW Heavyweight Championship is a professional wrestling heavyweight championship owned by the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) promotion. The original championship was designed and created in 1997 by Reggie Parks. The title was introduced on August 17, 1997, at an OVW live event, then known as the NWA-OVW Heavyweight Championship due to OVW's relationship with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body. OVW eventually parted ways with the NWA in October 2001, and the title was renamed the OVW Heavyweight Championship. OVW later became a developmental territory for the World Wrestling Entertainment organization, but their partnership eventually ceased on February 7, 2008. The title has no known weight-limit, even though it is a heavyweight championship. The title has also went through almost 3 different versions in its current twenty-four year run. With The first being made by Reggie Parks in 1997, which was then retired and vacated in early 2012. The second version would then be made by Reggie Parks and Dave Millican for OVW. The current version however was designed and created by Top Rope Belts, and ended up being used from 2012 to the present day.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON) is a newsletter that covers professional wrestling and mixed martial arts.
Bryan Alvarez is an American independent professional wrestler, martial artist, satellite radio host, podcaster, and journalist. Alvarez is the editor and publisher of Figure Four Weekly, a fan run, online newsletter that has covered professional wrestling since 1995.
Keiji Takayama is a Japanese professional wrestler and manager, currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) under the ring name Gedo. Gedo has been the main booker of NJPW since the early 2010s. As a wrestler, Gedo is best known for his tag team work with partner Jado, forming a very successful tag team from 1990 through the mid-2010s.
Kevin Foote is an American sportscaster, radio host, and professional wrestling color commentator, executive, manager, pundit, and former ring announcer, better known by his ring name Kevin Kelly. He works as a color commentator for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) for its Saturday Collision program. He previously worked for WWE from 1996 to 2003, Major League Wrestling in 2004, Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2010 to 2017, and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) from 2015 to 2023.
Chains of Love is an American dating game show that aired for six episodes in April–May 2001 on the United Paramount Network (UPN). Adapted from a Dutch television series, it revolves around a man or woman being chained to four members of the opposite sex over four days and nights. This person, identified as the "Picker", is given $10,000 and can remove three contestants one at a time. The Picker can give a portion of the money to each eliminated participant. When left with a single partner, the Picker can choose to either split the money or keep it. American television personality Madison Michele hosted each episode.
The 2000 All Japan Pro Wrestling mass exodus was an incident in the Japanese All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) professional wrestling promotion that took place throughout May and June 2000, and culminated in 24 of the 26 contracted native wrestlers leaving the promotion. Led by Mitsuharu Misawa, they later formed their own promotion, Pro Wrestling Noah.
