 | |
Type of site | Professional wrestling |
|---|---|
| Owner | RD Reynolds |
| Created by | RD Reynolds Merle Vincent |
| URL | www |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Message board only |
| Launched | April 2000 |
| Current status | Active |
WrestleCrap is a professional wrestling website created by R. D. Reynolds and Merle Vincent, [1] [2] [3] serving as a "hall of shame" for some of the worst gimmicks and storylines in professional wrestling history. The site is currently run by Reynolds and Justin Henry.
R.D. Reynolds and Merle Vincent launched the site in April 2000 and it quickly developed a following among wrestling fans. After Vincent's suicide in September 2000, [2] Reynolds continued to run the site by himself. He shut the site down in 2001, claiming the high cost of running the site was responsible. It returned the following year, albeit without the backlog of past inductions. [4]
In 2006, the site added several new writers and features.
WrestleCrap is also the title of a book written by the site's creators, with an introduction by John Tenta ( ISBN 1-55022-584-7). In addition, Reynolds has co-authored The Death of WCW, with wrestling journalist Bryan Alvarez, and he co-wrote The WrestleCrap Book of Lists! with Blade Braxton, released in late 2007. Both Reynolds and Alvarez were previously featured columnists for British pro wrestling and MMA magazine Fighting Spirit . [5]
In December 2012, Reynolds announced a relaunch of the site, complete with more daily content and interactive features. The relaunch took place in January 2013. [6]
In December 2016, the entire site archive was made available for users who made a one-time donation to the site, or supported the site on Patreon. [7]
Braxton died in March 2021. [8]
The Gooker Award is given each year to the worst gimmick, storyline, match or event in wrestling in that year. The award is named after The Gobbledy Gooker, widely thought of as one of the most disastrous wrestling gimmicks of all time. [9]
The 2001 award was not revealed until 2003 due to WrestleCrap's closing in 2001.
Each year's Gooker Award, with the exceptions of 2001 and 2002, was determined by a poll of site visitors. The 2001 and 2002 awards were chosen by Reynolds, since he felt there was no competition those years. For the 2014 award, Reynolds declared that Vince McMahon's comments about "brass rings" and the Bella Twins feud were co-winners due to irregularities in the voting. [36]
In August 2005, WrestleCrap introduced a podcast called WrestleCrap Radio. Typically Reynolds and columnist Blade Braxton discussed their personal lives, made jokes that may or may not relate to current wrestling (or wrestling at all), and rarely discussed news items from the wrestling industry. On occasion interviews with guests from within the wrestling industry were broadcast such as their interviews with Vince Russo and Lance Storm. Induction writer Triple Kelly was the unofficial reserve host, having won a co-host contest in 2007. The regular podcasts ended with WrestleCrap Radio episode 249, released on July 13, 2012.
On August 20, 2015, to coincide with the 10 year anniversary of WrestleCrap Radio, a new episode of Reynolds and Braxton's occasional RD and Blade Show podcast was instead revealed to be the surprise 250th episode of WrestleCrap Radio. [37] Episode 251 was released ten days later on August 30, followed by two more episodes each in September and October. [38]
The show was retired following Braxton's death in March 2021. [8]
Stephanie Marie McMahon Levesque is an American businesswoman and retired professional wrestler. She is known for her various roles within WWE between 1998 and 2023.
Salvador Guerrero IV better known by his ring names Chavo Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero Jr., is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/WWE), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Lucha Underground (LU), Ring of Honor (ROH) and Nación Lucha Libre (NLL).
John Charles Layfield, better known by the ring name Bradshaw or JBL, is an American professional wrestling commentator and retired professional wrestler and football player. He is currently signed to WWE, where he is an ambassador for the company. Layfield is currently a financial commentator and is featured regularly on Fox News and Fox Business. He is also employed by Northeast Securities as its senior vice president.
Charles Wright, better known under his ring name The Godfather, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and underwent several gimmick changes; the most notable were Papa Shango, Kama, Kama Mustafa, The Godfather and The Goodfather.
Héctor Manuel Guerrero Llanes is a Mexican American former commentator and professional wrestler. He is a part of professional wrestling's Guerrero family along with his father Gory, brothers Chavo, Mando, and Eddie, nephew Chavo Jr., and niece Raquel Diaz. During his career, Guerrero worked for most of the major North American wrestling promotions, most notably serving as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's Spanish color commentator from 2007 to 2015.
Billy and Chuck were a professional wrestling tag team of Billy Gunn and Chuck Palumbo who performed in World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF/WWE) from 2001 to 2002. They were two-time WWE World Tag Team Champions. The two men were depicted as a same-sex couple leading to controversy from hate groups, but praise from equality groups.
Debrah Ann Miceli, better known as Madusa, is an American monster truck driver and retired professional wrestler. She is currently signed to National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) as a producer. In professional wrestling Miceli is also known by the ring name Alundra Blayze, which she used while in the WWF/WWE. Outside of the WWF, she wrestled under her professional name of Madusa, which was shortened from "Made in the USA". Her early career was spent in the American Wrestling Association, where she once held the AWA World Women's Championship. In 1988, she was the first woman to be awarded Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Rookie of the Year. The following year, she signed a contract with All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling, making her the first foreign wrestler to do so.
Stacy Lee Carter is an American retired professional wrestling valet and professional wrestler. She is best known for her tenure in the World Wrestling Federation from August 1999 to February 2001 under the ring names Miss Kitty and The Kat, where she held the WWF Women's Championship once.
James Lamar Mitchell is an American professional wrestling manager, known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as James Vandenberg, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as The Sinister Minister, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) under his own name.
The American Males were a professional wrestling tag team in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) composed of Marcus Bagwell and Scotty Riggs. Their gimmick was of two "pretty boys" who were fond of their own bodies and popular with women. Riggs was Bagwell's third partner with whom he won the WCW World Tag Team Championship, the previous two being 2 Cold Scorpio and The Patriot. The American Males won the tag team title soon after they began teaming together but soon dropped the belts back to Harlem Heat, the previous champions. Bagwell and Riggs did not return to main-event status, and they eventually split up and feuded with each other.
Martin Wright, better known by the ring name The Boogeyman, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE under a legends contract, and is an aerobics instructor.
Dixie Carter-Salinas is an American businesswoman. She is best known for her time as president of the professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).
Dylan Mark Postl is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE under the ring name Hornswoggle. He debuted in WWE in 2006, allied with Finlay. Hornswoggle won the Cruiserweight Championship in its first stint. He was then revealed, in kayfabe, to be Vince McMahon's bastard son, and was exposed as the Anonymous Raw General Manager who had controlled the Raw brand from June 21, 2010 to July 18, 2011. He also competed in Impact Wrestling.
The Bella Twins were an American professional wrestling tag team that performed in WWE and consisted of identical twin sisters Brie Bella and Nikki Bella. Each of the Bella Twins are former WWE Divas Champions. Brie was the first twin in WWE to win the title, while Nikki won it twice with her second reign of 301 days being the longest reign for the now defunct title.
The Gobbledy Gooker is a professional wrestling turkey mascot originally portrayed by Héctor Guerrero. In the weeks leading up to the 1990 Survivor Series, the World Wrestling Federation hyped its debut by showcasing a large egg at live shows, causing much speculation among wrestling fans. Guerrero was jeered by fans in attendance when he hatched out of the egg and the character was quickly dropped by the promotion.
Peter Stilsbury is an Australian former professional wrestler, best known for appearing in the World Wrestling Federation as Outback Jack from 1986 to 1988. He portrayed a northern Australian bushman coming to America to compete in the WWF.
Randy Baer, better known by his ring and pen name RDReynolds, is a former American professional wrestling manager and is also the co-creator of the professional wrestling website WrestleCrap, with Merle Vincent. He has also authored three books, WrestleCrap, The Death of WCW, co-authored with Bryan Alvarez, and The WrestleCrap Book of Lists!, co-authored with Blade Braxton. He has been called "the foremost authority on the worst of professional wrestling" by the Canadian Online Explorer.
In March 2010, professional wrestling promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) moved their weekly television program, Impact!, from airing on Thursdays to airing Monday nights. In doing so, TNA placed Impact! in direct competition with World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) flagship program Monday Night Raw. It drew comparisons to the Monday Night War, in which defunct wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) program Nitro went head-to-head with Raw in a battle for higher Nielsen ratings each week from 1995 to 2001; this led Impact!'s move to sometimes be called "The New Monday Night Wars". The move was spurred by the signing of Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, two central figures of the original Monday Night War. Unlike the ratings battle with WCW, TNA never gained traction against WWE, despite initially setting record high ratings for Impact!. Impact! returned to its Thursday night timeslot after declining ratings in May, less than two months after the move.
WWE 2K20 is a professional wrestling video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K. It was released worldwide on October 22, 2019, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is the twenty-first installment of the WWE series, the seventh under the WWE 2K banner, and the successor to WWE 2K19. 2K20 is the first game in the series not to be developed by Yuke's, which had developed every entry in the series since its inception in 2000. Visual Concepts, who had previously worked with Yuke's as co-developers since 2014, took over as lead studio for the series.
Retribution was a stable of professional wrestlers who performed in the WWE for the Raw brand. The group, led by Mustafa Ali, featured Mace, Slapjack, T-Bar, Reckoning, and Retaliation. The heel team were first portrayed on television in August 2020, disbanding in March the following year.
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