Less than a month after a highly successful two-night Glory by Honor event, Ring of Honor returns to the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia for Death Before Dishonor. Over the years, this particular event has turned into one of the major events for Ring of Honor and has given us such memorable matches as Samoa Joe vs. Paul London in 2003, the brutal ROH vs. CZW Cage of Death match in 2005, and more recently RUSH defeating Matt Taven in 2019 to win his first of two ROH World Titles. Last year’s event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic but this year it looks to be a pretty stacked card! Let’s take a look and see what’s been announced as of press time.

Pre-Show Match: 15-Man Honor Rumble
I’ll briefly touch on the pre-show match before moving on to the main card. This time around for the pre-show, it’s a 15-Man Honor Rumble. It’s basically the ROH version of a Royal Rumble and the winner of this will get a future shot at the ROH World Title. Only 10 of the 15 competitors for the match have been announced (Danhausen, The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas), PJ Black, Dak Draper, Rey Horus, Brian Johnson, Joe Keys, Silas Young, and Sledge) which leaves room for some outside surprises.

The OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) vs. The Briscoes (Jay & Mark)
Moving on to the main card now and I’ll start with this recently announced tag team match between the The OGK and the Briscoes. Jay Briscoe missed the Glory by Honor events due to COVID protocol and Mark was forced to go at it alone on Night 1 against Bateman and teamed with Brian Johnson on Night 2. The real story here though will be Matt Taven. He lost an absolutely brutal war to Vincent on Night 2 of Glory by Honor, which cost him his rematch for the ROH World Title. The question is how will he rebound from that now that the long running feud between Taven and Vincent is over? If the OGK have any shot at beating the Briscoes, they’ll need to be on the same page. Taven will need to have his head in the game and not think about Vincent and his merry band of misfits known as the Righteous.

Jake Atlas vs. Taylor Rust
As confirmed on the ”Week By Week” YouTube show on September 7th, these are the two free agents that ROH had been promoting as facing each other on the show. Both were part of the August NXT releases. Atlas has only had one previous ROH match, a loss to Bateman in September of 2019, and Rust was part of the Pure tournament last fall under the name Rust Taylor. Recently, he was featured on NXT programming as part of the Diamond Mine stable as Tyler Rust. Regardless of who wins, this has the potential to be a very good match.

ROH World Six-Man Championship:
LFI (Bestia del Ring, Kenny King, & ROH World TV Champion Dragon Lee) vs. ROH World Six-Man Champions Shane Taylor Promotions (Shane Taylor & S.O.S. (Moses & Kaun))
On the February 19th episode of ROH TV, Shane Taylor Promotions (aka S.T.P.) beat Mexisquad (Bandido, Flamita, and Rey Horus) to win the titles. Since then, S.T.P. has turned away the challenge of trios such as Primal Fear, Incoherence, and a tandem of Dak Draper, Dalton Castle, and Eli Isom. The week after the title win, Shane Taylor challenged then-ROH World Champion RUSH but lost due to interference from Kenny King. The catch here for LFI is that the aforementioned RUSH is now lost for the rest of 2021 due to a knee injury and subbing for him here is his father, Bestia del Ring. There’s also perhaps some small seeds of dissension sewn with Dragon Lee and the rest of LFI in recent weeks as Dragon Lee has not partaken in the constant attacks on ROH World Champion Bandido. Before RUSH went down with an injury, I was sure that LFI would pick up the titles. Now, not so much, and I feel like the winner of this will have the trio of The Bouncers and Ken Dixon waiting for them so I’m going with S.T.P. to retain.

Violence Unlimited (Tony Deppen and ROH World Tag Team Champions Chris Dickinson & Homicide) vs. John Walters, LSG, & Lee Moriarty
Another trios match on the docket places 3/4 of Violence Unlimited against a team being billed as the “Past, Present, and Future” of the Pure Division in former ROH Pure Champion John Walters, LSG, and up and coming independent star Lee Moriarty. Walters will be seeing his first ROH action since the Pure Tournament last fall, while LSG has been climbing the ranks of the Pure Division and is currently the number 2 ranked challenger. The wild card here is Moriarty. He’s been one of the hottest stars of the independent circuit and has competed for the likes of GCW, MLW, and even several matches on the AEW YouTube shows. I don’t see the Pure trio getting past the likes of Violence Unlimited, even though it should be a very entertaining match.

Eli Isom vs. Dalton Castle
Dalton Castle has pretty much been meddling in the affairs of Eli Isom and Dak Draper for several months now. The three teamed together at the Best in the World PPV back in July in a losing effort to Shane Taylor Promotions and then fought in a three-way bout on TV a week or so later. Most recently, Castle’s shenanigans caused Isom to lose to Dragon Lee in a World TV Championship match. Despite Castle’s theatrics, he is a former ROH World Champion so he’s not one to be taken lightly. I do see Isom coming out with the victory here as he’s one of the young stars that ROH has been pushing a lot on their TV since their restart.

ROH Pure Championship:
Josh Woods vs. ROH Pure Champion Jonathan Gresham
Since winning the Pure Championship last fall, Jonathan Gresham has been pretty much unbeatable. He’s turned back the challenges of the likes of Tony Deppen, Dak Draper, Mike Bennett, and most recently Foundation stablemate Rhett Titus. Woods has been climbing up the Pure rankings as well and most recently beat former tag team partner Silas Young in a Last Man Standing match at the Best in the World pay-per-view. Woods has fantastic technical prowess and and should be able to match Gresham hold for hold. I expect this to be an instant classic and I also smell a title change here.

ROH Women’s Championship Tournament Finals:
Rok-C vs. Miranda Alize
Rok-C and Miranda Alize are the two who survived a 15-woman tournament that was heavily featured on the weekly TV show throughout the month of August. Rok-C got here by beating Sumie Sakai in the first round (a major upset if you ask me), Quinn McKay, and Angelina Love. Alize claimed victories over Alex Gracia, Nicole Savoy, and a hard fought semi-final match over Trish Adora. Both of these ladies match up well together and were both trained by Booker T and competed in the Reality of Wrestling promotion. Back at the Best in the World PPV, Chelsea Green put out a challenge to whoever wins the tournament and because of that, I’m going with Rok-C. Regardless of who wins, this should be a good match.

Four Way Elimination Match for the ROH World Championship:
ROH World Champion Bandido vs. Brody King vs. Demonic Flamita vs. EC3
All three challengers here have legitimate claims to the ROH World Title. Going all the way back to Final Battle 2020, Brody King was cheated out of the title due to interference from LFI in his match against then-champion RUSH. He also mauled former ROH World Champion Jay Lethal in less than ten minutes at the Best in the World PPV in July. Demonic Flamita has been a thorn in Bandido’s side since the break-up of Mexi-Squad at the 19th Anniversary PPV. He’s been on a roll too, having won a six-man mayhem match at Glory By Honor to earn this title shot and also recently beating formed Mexi-Squad stablemate Rey Horus in a No Disqualification Match on ROH TV. Speaking of those who’ve been on a roll, EC3 has recent wins over the likes of Flip Gordon and Brian Johnson and is a former Impact/TNA World Champion. Despite the credentials of the challengers, I think Bandido retains here since I feel it’s a bit too early for him to drop the title as he just beat RUSH back in July.

ROH Death Before Dishonor airs live on Sunday, September 12th at 8:00 PM ET on pay-per-view, Honor Club, and FITE TV.

The pre-show, “Hour One”, starts at 7:00 PM ET on the same platforms in addition to both the ROH YouTube and Facebook page.

More than a year after it was originally scheduled to take place, Ring of Honor is set to start the tournament to crown the first Ring of Honor Women’s Champion. The first round starts on Ring of Honor television the weekend of July 31st and the tournament is set to conclude at the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view on September 12th.

As of press time, a total of fourteen competitors have been entered into the tournament, with one participant (Angelina Love) earning a bye in the first round, and one spot still open. More on both of those later.

Before I look at the competitors themselves, let’s take a look and see how we got here.

The last time Ring of Honor had a women’s championship was the Women of Honor championship, which was active from 2018-2019 and was held by Kelly Klein, Mayu Iwatani, Sumie Sakai, and Angelina Love. Klein was the only person to hold the title more than once and last won the title from Angelina Love at Glory By Honor XVII in October 2019. However, in November of 2019, a dispute between Klein and Ring of Honor led to her speaking out against the company and filing a lawsuit against parent company Sinclair Broadcasting while she was sidelined from post-concussion syndrome. Since Klein’s contract expired while she was still the champion, the Women of Honor championship was deactivated on January 1, 2020.

A tournament was originally scheduled for spring of 2020 to crown a brand new Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion, however the tournament was cancelled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This past spring at the 19th Anniversary pay-per-view, Maria Kanellis-Bennett announced during an in-ring interview with Quinn McKay that the long awaited Women’s Championship tournament would be held in the summer. Shortly after, Ring of Honor launched the Women’s Division Wednesday web series on their YouTube channel which showcased up and coming women’s wrestlers along with other women who were formerly involved in the Women of Honor division. Each episode culminated with Maria Kanellis-Bennett offering a “Ticket to Gold” to one or more lucky competitors, which was essentially an invitation to compete in the upcoming tournament. The brackets were finally revealed at the Best in the World pay-per-view, with Vita Von Starr having been booted from the tournament after she interfered in the Matt Taven vs. Dutch match on the July 2nd episode of Ring of Honor television.

All of that has led to this, a tournament to crown the inaugural Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion. Let’s take a look at the competitors!

Alex Gracia

Alex Gracia, aka “The Pink Dream”, is a three-year veteran who was trained by Rudy Boy Gonzales at the Texas Wrestling Academy. Throughout her short career, she’s wrestled for numerous promotions such as Shimmer, Stardom, Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling (ROW), NWA, WWN, and AEW. She competed in the 2019 Stardom Trios Tag Team tournament where she teamed with Starlight Kid and Natsumi. Her trio made it all the way to the semi-finals where they were bested by Tam Nakano, Arisa Hoshiki, and Saki Kashima. In 2021, Gracia has appeared on several episodes of AEW Dark and AEW Dark: Elevation along with appearances on NWA Powerrr and ROH Women’s Division Wednesday. As far as ROH goes, she debuted in a loss against fellow tournament competitor Willow on the June 2nd episode of Women’s Division Wednesday on YouTube. She rebounded with a win several weeks later against Gia Scott.

Allysin Kay

The well-traveled veteran, and current AAW Women’s Champion, formerly known as Sienna in Impact/TNA, has to be considered one of the favorites to win the tournament. The three-time Impact/TNA Knockout’s Champion was hand picked for the tournament by Maria Kanellis-Bennett despite not having to wrestle a match for ROH. Her only other ROH appearances came in 2019 by way of their partnership with the NWA as she won the NWA Women’s Title at the Crockett Cup and then appeared during the War of the Worlds tour and had a successful title defense against Marti Belle. Other titles Kay has held during her career include the WSU Tag Team Titles, a three time SHINE Champion, the GFW Women’s Championship, and the AIW Women’s Championship.

Angelina Love

Speaking of former Knockouts Champions, Angelina Love has been a mainstay in ROH since debuting at the G1 Supercard in April of 2019. Along with her Allure stablemate, and fellow tournament competitor Mandy Leon (more on her later), they have pretty much run roughshod over the ROH Women’s division. Love made her name in TNA/Impact from as part of the Beautiful People stable with Velvet Sky and several other revolving members like Cute Kip and Lacey Von Erich. She was also part of Deep South Wrestling when they were a WWE developmental brand and has also competed for numerous independent promotions such as House of Hardcore and GCW. Given her experience and the fact that she earned a first round bye after beating Quinn McKay on ROH TV several months ago, she has to be considered one of the favorites to win the tournament.

Holidead

A long time freelance wrestler, Holidead returns to ROH for the Women’s Championship tournament. The one-time tag team partner of Thunder Rosa, the two teamed together as the Twisted Sisters during Holidead’s first run in ROH in 2018-19. Working mostly as a freelancer for her career, she’s never really found a home and has competed for not only ROH in the past but also ROW, WWN, GCW, and has even been shown as an enhancement talent on WWE TV. Just within the past month as well, she made her AEW debut on an episode of Dark in a losing effort to Nyla Rose. She’s also held numerous regional women’s championships and is the current Crossfire Wrestling Women’s Champion. Holidead is poised to breakout and having a good showing in the tournament could just be the springboard she needs.

Mandy Leon

Believe it or not, Mandy Leon has been with Ring of Honor in various roles since 2014. Since joining with Angelina Love as The Allure though, her ascent through the women’s division has been tough to miss. Originally brought in as a backstage interviewer and host, Leon was trained at the ROH Dojo and had her first ROH match in 2014 as a loss to Jenny Rose on a Future of Honor show. In the last few years though, she’s wrestled sporadically and mostly in tag matches with Angelina around the ROH circuit. However, don’t let that fool you. She does have extensive tournament experience, having competed in the 2017 Stardom 5Star Grand Prix and made it to the semi-finals. She was also the inaugural Women of Honor tournament in 2018 but lost in the quarterfinals to eventual runner up Kelly Klein.

Marti Belle

Marti Belle has wrestled for every independent promotion you could possibly name. Most of her matches have come as part of the SHINE promotion under the WWN banner where she’s a two time SHINE Tag Team Champion with Jayme Jameson. Belle has also wrestled for SHIMMER and TNA and even has tournament experience from the 2017 WWE Mae Young Classic. She’s been ranked in the PWI Top 50 Female Wrestlers from 2014-2017 and was ranked again last year in the PWI Top 100 Female Wrestlers. The 13-year veteran and Johnny Rodz trainee has never wrestled for ROH aside from one off appearances here and there and could be a big asset to the ROH Women’s division regardless of how she does in the tournament.

Max the Impaler

Perhaps the wildest and most unique competitor in the tournament is Max the Impaler. The Dayton, Ohio native is still young in their career and to date the biggest company that Max has wrestled for is OVW. Max’s accomplishments thus far in their short career is being two-time IWA Women’s Champion as well as holding the prestigious OVW Women’s Title. Max was also a semi-finalist in the CHIKARA Young Lion’s Cup in January of 2020 and was ranked #100 in the PWI Top 100 Females in 2020 and was also ranked #254 in the PWI 500 of 2020. Max is currently undefeated in ROH competition, having beaten both Hyan and Allie Recks in singles action and teaming with fellow tournament competitor Rok-C on the first episode of Women’s Division Wednesday wrestling to draw against Laynie Luck and Hyan.

Mazzerati

Mazzerati is a young, up and coming prospect in women’s wrestling. Despite only having a grand total of 51 career matches, she’s still managed to procure the OVW Women’s Championship and is the current FSW Women’s Champion. As far as ROH competition goes, she’s 0-2 thus far on Women’s Division Wednesday, having lost to Angelina Love in her debut match and also was on the losing end of a tag match with Trish Adora against Sumie Sakai and Miranda Alize. She also had two other ROH appearances in 2019, once on an episode of Ring of Honor TV and a match at State of the Art in Portland.

Miranda Alize

“The Lucha Baddie” has really started to make some noise in wrestling. Not only has she been on the Women’s Division Wednesday show on the ROH YouTube channel, she’s had several matches on AEW Dark and was part of the AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator tournament earlier this year. Alize got her start in Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling promotion in 2016 and, according to her Twitter bio, was trained by Tessa Blanchard and Daga. Alize has also competed overseas in Stardom, where she wrestled the likes of Toni Storm, Jungle Kyona, Starlight Kid, and Io Shirai among others.

Nicole Savoy

Nicole Savoy, aka “The Queen of Suplexes”, returns to Ring of Honor after being away since February of 2020. Savoy debuted for ROH at Final Battle Fallout 2019 against Sumie Sakai and wrestled several matches for the company in 2020 before the Covid shutdown. Since then, the 10-year veteran also appeared in AEW as Lil’ Swole as part of the AEW Women’s Tag Team Cup tournament in summer of 2020. Savoy has also wrestled for companies like SHIMMER and APW. During her time in SHIMMER, she held the SHIMMER Championship for a record 721 days and was the inaugural Heart of SHIMMER Champion.

Rok-C

Nicknamed “The Prodigy”, Rok-C was the first competitor to qualify for the tournament and is also the youngest at only 19. The Booker T trained youngster has mainly been active in the Texas scene, mostly for Reality of Wrestling (ROW), where she held the ROW Diamond Division championship. She’s also done appearances for Title Match Wrestling, GCW, and Mission Pro Wrestling. Thus far in ROH competition, she’s undefeated with a time-limit draw in a tag match on the first Women’s Division Wedneday episode and then several weeks later coming back with a win over Laynie Luck.

Sumie Sakai

Sumie Sakai could be considered the heart and soul of the ROH Women’s Division. She won the tournament to crown the first Women of Honor champion. Now, she’s back in the tournament as the division resets to crown the ROH Women’s Champion. Sakai has been around ROH since the very beginning and competed in the first women’s match in company history back in 2002. She’s also had tours with JWP and Stardom and has competed in several tournaments in various independent promotions over the years. With her experience, Sakai could be considered one of the favorites to win the tournament.

Trish Adora

Trish Adora is the current Pan Afrikan World Diaspora Champion and is a U.S. Army veteran. She was trained at the Team 3D Academy and has been wrestling since 2016. Earlier this year, she beat former ROH TV Champion Tony Deppen in a 60-Minute Iron Man Match for Beyond Wrestling. She’s also made appearances for GCW, Hoodslam, and WWN among other places in her career. Thus far in ROH, she’s 0-2 with a singles loss against Miranda Alize and a tag loss teaming with Mazzerati against Sumie Sakai and Alize.

Willow

The final announced competitor for the tournament is Willow Nightingale, going only by Willow in ROH. Besides her two matches for ROH this year, Willow has wrestled for AEW, Beyond Wresting, MLW, and several other independent promotions. Throughout her career, she’s also wrestled for Chikara and New York Wrestling Connection. In Chikara, she held the Campeonatos de Parejas (their version of the tag team title) with Solo Darling. She was also ranked #94 in the PWI Top 100 Women’s wrestlers of 2020.

There is one open spot in the first round still available. Quinn McKay had one final match on the episode of ROH TV that aired over the weekend of July 15th but she lost to Mandy Leon thanks to interference from Angelina Love and a set of brass knuckles. Earlier this week, it was announced that on the ROH: The Experience Facebook page, a fan vote would be held to determine if Quinn ultimately gets that final spot. The ongoing will she/won’t she saga has been one of the best things building to this tournament and I hope that Quinn does finally get that spot (spoiler alert: the “Yes” option is winning by a landslide). As of this writing though, the results have not been officially announced.

With a look at the competitors out of the way, here’s a quick rundown of the first round and some quick picks:

Sumie Sakai vs. Rok-C: This should be a pretty solid match between the youngest entrant and the oldest entrant. Logic would say Sumie Sakai will win this but an upset by Rok-C could set her up for a big run in the tournament.

Mandy Leon vs. TBD: Should Quinn McKay get in the tournament, then this will be rematch from ROH TV that I discussed before. The stipulation now though is that neither member of the Allure can interfere in each other’s matches during the tournament. Should Quinn get in, I could see her beating Mandy here to move on to the next round.

Max the Impaler vs. Holidead: With the winner of this drawing Angelina Love in the second round, it’s a tough call. With Max being paired with heel manager Amy Rose, I don’t think that ROH will do heel vs. heel in the second round so I think Holidead will advance.

Miranda Alize vs. Alex Gracia: This should be the show-stealer of the first round. Both women have had really good showings so far in their few appearances. Alize has a lot of the lucha-libre style while Gracia can also go. These two will be looking to make a name for themselves. I’m fine with either one winning but if I have to pick, I’d say Alize.

Nicole Savoy vs. Mazzerati: Savoy is the ROH veteran in this match and it was looking like she was going to get a bit of a push before the pandemic shut down. I see her advancing to the second round.

Allysin Kay vs. Willow: This should be a pretty interesting match. It’s Kay’s first action in ROH and Willow could prove to be a pretty formidable opponent. I think Kay’s experience moves her forward but I see this being a highly competitive match.

Trish Adora vs. Marti Belle: A tough one to pick for me since I’m not too familiar with either one. Marti Belle has the name value but Trish has been making waves on the indies and is a very in-demand up-and-comer. I’ll pick Trish since she’s kind of a hot property right now.

For my finals predictions at Death Before Dishonor, I’ll go with Rok-C against Allison Kay with Rok-C getting a big win over the veteran Kay and becoming the first ROH Women’s Champion. A wild card though could be the aforementioned Quinn McKay and if she gets in, she could very well win the whole thing.

Overall though, I think this tournament has a good mix of young and veteran talent and it will be a treat to watch it play out over the next few weeks. The first round starts on the Ring of Honor TV that airs over the July 31st weekend with three first round matches … Rok-C vs. Sumie, Alize vs. Gracia, and Savoy vs. Mazzerati.

Here’s the complete TV schedule for the first round (courtesy of ROHwrestling.com)

ROH TV 7/31/21
*Sumie Sakai vs. Rok-C
*Mazzerati vs. Nicole Savoy
*Alex Gracia vs. Miranda Alize

Women’s Division Wednesday 8/4/21
*Allysin Kay vs. Willow

ROH TV 8/7/21
*Mandy Leon vs. TBD
*Trish Adora vs. Marti Belle

ROH TV 8/14/21
*Max the Impaler vs. Holidead

Check your local listings for the day and time and station in your area or watch the ROH TV show every Monday on Honor Club or on the ROH website. You can also watch Women’s Division Wednesday every Wednesday night at 7PM on the ROH YouTube channel to keep up with all the tournament action.

Several years ago, I went through and scanned each newspaper clipping and autograph in the scrapbook so I’d have them in a digital form. I was looking through the scans and found a clipping advertising the November 21, 1959 card from the Cincinnati Gardens, which at the time was being run by Jim Barnett and Johnny Doyle. I thought in this article, it’d be fun to go back, take a look at that particular card, learn about some of the wrestlers on the card, and then check out the results!

But first, a brief history of the Cincinnati Gardens.

The Cincinnati Gardens was a large, brick arena situated north of Cincinnati near the intersection of Seymour Avenue and Langdon Farm Road. Modeled after the legendary Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, it opened on February 22, 1949 with an exhibition hockey game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Dallas Texans. Hockey was the main tenant during the Gardens lifespan, hosting several minor league teams such as the Cincinnati Mohawks, Cincinnati Swords, Cincinnati Cyclones, and the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks. Oscar Robertson and the NBA Cincinnati Royals called the venue home in the 1950s and 1960s. The Gardens also hosted scores of other events like concerts, boxing, political rallies, and in its final years, the Shriners Circus and roller derby.

Professional wrestling was also a frequent attraction at the Gardens, beginning in the 1950s through the early 1960s with the aforementioned Jim Barnett and Johnny Doyle tandem running cards. In the mid 1960s, the Sheik’s Detroit territory, Big Time Wrestling, took over the Gardens and began running shows there featuring the likes of Bull Curry, Bobo Brazil, and others through 1979. Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW was the primary wrestling tenant through the 1980s and in the 1990s, the WWF filmed several episodes of Monday Night Raw and Superstars there. My first wrestling show I ever went to was the April 10, 1999 WWF house show at the Gardens. TNA ran the final wrestling shows at the Gardens in 2013 and 2014, before the venue was closed in 2016, and ultimately demolished several years later.

This particular card has a lot of star power, both at the time and future stars. Five matches on the card as well, not like today’s 8 or 10 match cards. The main event of this card is a tag team match featuring Wilbur Snyder and Yukon Eric against Hans Hermann and Mitsu Arakawa. Also, lots of other big stars like Pat O’Connor (misspelled here at “O’Conner”), Joe Blanchard, Nick Bockwinkel, Angelo Poffo, and Bronco Lubich. Also, there’s a tag team match with Ethel Johnson advertised as well. Time to dive in and look a bit closer at some of the wrestlers on the card with some clippings I’ve got in the scrapbook.

I don’t know if this is an actual ticket stub from the event but this is one I had in my scrap book so I thought I’d include it just to show what a wrestling ticket stub from this time period looked like. As you can see, general admission was only $1.00. That same ticket would cost $9.25 today.

Ethel Johnson was an Ohio based wrestler who was part of the traveling group of “lady wrestlers”, as coined by promoter Billy Wolfe who controlled the likes of fellow lady wrestlers Penny Banner, Mildred Burke, and others. Johnson’s sister, known as Babs Wingo, also wrestled alongside her often portraying the heel to Johnson’s babyface. Johnson was very athletic and often did a standing dropkick and flying headscissors. Some highlights of Johnson’s career included challenging Mildred Burke for the NWA World Women’s Championship (the same title that’s currently held by Kamille). In later years, she wrestled for Stampede Wrestling in Calgary and Vincent J. McMahon’s Capital Wrestling Corporation (later the WWWF, now WWE). She retired in 1976 and passed away in 2018 at age 83.

Fans of WCW will know Nick Bockwinkel as the on-screen WCW Commissioner from the mid-90s, but his career started way back in the mid-1950s as basic undercard wrestler in the Los Angeles area where he won the Los Angeles version of the NWA International Television Championship. During his early years, Bockwinkel traveled the Midwest and wrestled not only in Cincinnati, but also in other major midwest markets like Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee. Verne Gagne’s AWA was were he blossomed. He spent 17 years in the AWA, winning the AWA World Title four times and was also a three-time AWA tag team champion. His AWA matches included bouts against the likes of Verne Gagne, Hulk Hogan, Jerry Lawler, and Curt Hennig, and also included him having Bobby Heenan as his manager. Bockwinkel retired in 1987, did a stint in the WWF as a commentator, and still wrestled the occasional match right into the early 90s. He passed away in 2015 at age 80.

This ad of Joe Blanchard is an advertisement for a different Gardens card, however it’s the only scan I have of Blanchard in my scrapbook. Blanchard is the father of Tully Blanchard and grandfather of Tessa Blanchard. He began his in-ring career in 1953 for Stu Hart and Stampede Wrestling after a three-year stint in the Canadian Football League with the Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders. He also toured with 50th State Wrestling in Hawaii, where he won the NWA Hawaii Tag Team Titles with Lord James Blears, and NWA Big Time Wrestling (the precursor to World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW)) which was highlighted by a run with the NWA Texas Heavyweight Title. Blanchard is best known for being the promoter for Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio, which featured stars like Chavo Guerrero Sr., Mando Guerrero, Killer Tim Brooks, Gino Hernandez, and Tully Blanchard. Southwest Championship Wrestling was also the first wrestling show to appear on USA Network and ran for two years before it was cancelled. When Southwest folded in the mid-1980s, Blanchard left wrestling to work for a prayer service in San Antonio. He passed away in 2012 at age 83.

Chief Don Eagle was a member of the Mohawk tribe of North America and was originally from the Kahnawake territory in southern Quebec. His in-ring career began as a boxer in 1945 and medaled in the 1945 Cleveland Golden Gloves. He turned pro in 1947 where he accumulated a 16-4 record over 1947-1948. After his boxing career concluded, he moved into a wrestling career and became on of the better known wrestlers of the 1950s when he was at his peak. He held the AWA World Title (the Boston version), the World Heavyweight Champion for the Fred Kohler promotion in Chicago, and also the Ohio version of the Midwest Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship. In 1950, Eagle was involved in a highly controversial match in Chicago for the AWA (Boston) World Title against Gorgeous George where he was fast counted by the referee in the final fall of a best of three falls match and then subsequently suspended by the Illinois State Athletic Commission for attacking the referee. Eagle injured his back several years later in a match against Hans Schmidt and wrestled infrequently throughout the Midwest until he retired in 1965. He passed away in 1966 at the age of 40, the circumstances of which are still debated today.

The main event of this card was a tag team match featuring Wilbur Snyder and Yukon Eric against the team of Hans Hermann and Mitsu Arakawa.

Wilbur Snyder was just 19 when he debuted in 1953 in Southern California and by 1956 had won the Detroit version of the NWA United States title after beating Verne Gagne in Chicago. Over the course of his long career, he held titles in nearly every territory he wrestled in. At the time of this card in 1959, Snyder was in the midst of a violent feud with long time rival Dick the Bruiser, having just fought Bruiser one month prior in a violent Texas Death Match in Denver. Snyder would later feud with other notable wrestlers as Dr. X and Don Leo Jonathan. In 1964, Snyder and Bruiser purchased the NWA Indianapolis territory from Jim Barnett. The WWA began an agreement with the AWA where they would share talent and recognize the AWA champions. Several notable wrestlers got their start in Bruiser and Snyder’s WWA including Bobby Heenan and The Great Wojo. Snyder would hold the WWA Tag Team championship a record 14 times. After his wrestling career was over, he retired to Carmel, Indiana and eventually moved to Fort Lauderdale. He passed away on Christmas Day 1991 at the age of 62.

Wilbur Snyder’s tag team partner on this show, the barrel-chested Yukon Eric, will forever be known in wrestling lore as the man who lost his ear to Killer Kowalski. The story goes that Kowalski went for a knee drop and accidentally botched it, which severed part of Eric’s ear. Following that incident, Kowalski adopted the nickname “Killer” and went on to a very successful career. A rematch between Kowalski and Yukon Eric in 1953 was the first ever televised wrestling match in Canada. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Eric held multiple tag team titles including a three-time holder of the NWA Canadian Open Tag Team titles, which was the top tag team title in the Toronto territory. He was also one-third of the inaugural NWA World Six-Man Tag Team champions with Roy McClarity and Pat O’Connor. Towards the end of his career, he wrestled in Florida where he committed suicide in January 1965 at the age of 48.

The opponents for Wilbur Snyder and Yukon Eric were the evil team of Hans Hermann and Mitsu Arakawa.

Hans Hermann was a regional star in the 1950s and 1960s for numerous territories across North America such as Toronto, St. Louis, and Hawaii. He also won several regional tag team titles with partners like Hans Schmidt, Killer Kowalski, and Fritz Von Erich. By 1962, Hermann’s active career came to an end with a run for the WWA based out of Indianapolis, where he wrestled stars such as Dick Hutton, Bill Watts (yes, that Bill Watts), Mark Lewin, and Rikki Starr. He made a brief comeback in 1972, wrestling for the AWA and passed away in 1980.

Originally from Hawaii, Mitsu Arakawa debuted in 1953 and joined up with the Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club (the precursor to the AWA) in 1957 as a cousin to Kenji Shibuya. Over the course of his career, he and Shibuya would team together in various territories and won tag team gold in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Calgary. Arakawa also worked for Jim Barnett’s World Championship Wrestling promotion in Australia where he won the IWA World Heavyweight Championship. He is probably best known for his team with Toru Tanaka in the WWWF where they were crowned the first WWWF International Tag Team Champions stemming from a fictitious tournament. Arakawa died in 1997 at the age of 69.

Now that I’ve looked at some of the wrestlers on the card, I’ll take moment at the end here to run through the results.

In the opening bout, Joe Blanchard drew Nick Bockwinkel. Next was the ladies tag team match where Ethel Johnson and Babs Wingo (her sister) defeated Lola LaRay, the ex-wife of women’s wrestling promoter Billy Wolfe, and Mary Reynolds. Following that, Don Eagle beat future World Class referee Bronco Lubich, and in the semi-main event, Pat O’Connor beat Angelo Poffo, the dad of Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo. Unfortunately the results do not specify if the match was for the NWA World’s Heavyweight Title, which O’Connor held at the time, however in the initial ad for the match, O’Connor is listed as the “World’s Champ”. Finally, in the main event Wilbur Snyder and Yukon Eric defeated Hans Hermann and Mitsu Arakawa. According to the ad, the event drew just over 4,000 people for a gate of $6,500 (approximately $60,000 today).

Looking back on this card, it wasn’t a memorable or famous card. However, it did feature a lot of future stars and legends of wrestling and it just goes to show that there’s a lot of wrestling history out there just waiting to be discovered.

You can also listen to this interview as a podcast! Search “Wrestle Inn” wherever you listen to podcasts!

Les Thatcher is a man who’s seen and done it all in his over 60-year career in professional wrestling. He’s been a wrestler, a promoter, a TV commentator, a trainer, and has even worked with WCW and WWF/WWE. He’s also been a t-shirt designer (designed the first wrestling t-shirt sold, the “Brisco Booster”) and helped work on some of the early WWWF magazines. From 1995-2003, Les ran the Main Event Pro Wrestling Camp and also the Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) out of Cincinnati, Ohio and helped develop stars such as Nigel McGuinness, Shark Boy, Rory Fox, Chad Collyer, Charlie Haas, and The Island Boys (aka Three Minute Warning aka Rosey and Umaga) to name a few. During that time he also promoted the annual Brian Pillman Memorial Shows from 1998-2001 which featured stars from WWF, WCW, and ECW along with independent stars from HWA, OVW, and other independent promotions on the same show.

In this near hour long conversation, Les chats about his distinguished career and how he got started in professional wrestling; what led to the creation of the HWA and the Main Event Pro Wrestling Camp, how the Brian Pillman Memorial Show anthology DVD project with Joe Dombrowski came together, the legacy of the Chris Benoit vs. William Regal match from Pillman 2000, promoting Pillman ’99 at the legendary Cincinnati Gardens, how HWA became a developmental territory for both WCW and WWF, and why he ultimately stepped away from HWA in 2003. He also talks Jon Moxley, Nigel McGuinness, and so much more in this fantastic interview!

Click here to purchase the Brian Pillman Memorial Show anthology DVD

Click here to purchase the HWA “Wrestling From the Heartland” DVD sets

Click here to follow Les Thatcher on Twitter @lesthatcher

Click here to listen to Les and Vic Sosa on “Wrestling Weekly” at WrestlingObserver.com (Note: subscription required to listen)

When I was a kid there was nothing more fun than going to the video store or the local library and picking out a movie or two. The crazy amounts of tapes on the shelves, the variety of everything, the cool looking VHS boxes. I have fond memories of browsing the aisles of not only the local mom and pop video stores but also bigger chains like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. While I’ve never really been a movie person, despite working in cinemas for the last 15 years, the main reason I always went to rent tapes was one thing: wrestling.

Without having access to streaming services back then like Peacock/WWE Network, ROH Honor Club, New Japan World etc, I was subject to the mercy of whatever was on the shelf at the video store and at the library. Also not having a smart phone back then, I had to check the back of each tape to see what the matches were. And the front of it was also imperative to draw the person in, and that’s what this series will be about: the VHS box art.

This will be an ongoing series, starting with my own collection and then moving from there. I’ll pick four tapes at random and then chat a little about the box art, front and back, give a brief summary of the event/tape in question, and have a little bit of fun! Let’s dive in!

WrestleMania VII (1991)

This isn’t my favorite WrestleMania ever but I felt it was right to start off with a classic WrestleMania event. This one took place in 1991, right about a month after a ceasefire in Operation Desert Storm, part of the 1990-91 Gulf War, had been called. Its got the whole stars and stripes theme going on because of that reason. The main event here was the hateful Iraqi sympathizer Sgt. Slaughter defending the WWF Title against Hulk Hogan. And the cover showcases that full-force. Both guys mean mugging each other with the American flag in the background. The back has the full match listing and studio photos of select stars on the card. My favorite of those photos has to be the one of the Ultimate Warrior, as he’s just screaming for no reason. Not only is there the main event, there’s the legendary career match between Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior, the final pay-per-view match of the Hart Foundation as a team, the infamous Jake “The Snake” Roberts vs. Rick Martel blindfold match, and the WrestleMania debut of the Undertaker. As for the tape itself, there’s two kind of weird things. First, the box isn’t a standard size VHS box like most movie studios (save for Disney) used. This is a bigger oversized style box slipcase that Coliseum Video used until late 1992.

The WWF’s Even More Unusual Matches (1987)

A lot of the non-PPV event releases were compilation tapes such as this. In this particular video, the theme is the “most unusual matches” even though by today’s standards matches like a chain match, lumberjack match, and a Texas death match wouldn’t be classified as unusual. Looking at the design, the case itself is a black, clamshell style box. The cover definitely has an 80’s feel to it with neon letters and bright colored borders around various pictures. The back as usual lists what type of content you’ll see. The things that really stick out to me on this particular tape are “Leaping Lanny Poffo in a suit of armor” and “midget tag team wrestling” listed on the back. Also, the “WWF’s Best Beasts?”. What is that?

Slamfest (1995)

Here is a tape I have very fond memories of as a kid. I remember distinctly going into a store in the local mall called Record Town and looking through the wrestling tapes. This was probably late 1998/early 1999 and it was mostly tapes that had been released within the last two months. I distinctly remember seeing this tape right in the middle of the shelf. The cover with the big yellow letters that spelled out “Slamfest” and Bret Hart diving onto his brother Owen just drew me to it. Without even looking at the back, I bought the last copy they had of it. As soon as I got it home, I unwrapped it and popped it in the VCR. Since then, it’s become on of my favorite tapes. While there’s only five matches, those five matches are all pretty good. The thing that makes this tape special though is that is has the classic Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs. Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid match from the October 30th, 1994 episode of Action Zone which is a fantastic hidden gem of a match. I don’t think the match has popped up on the Network/Peacock anywhere and was featured on maybe one other tape or DVD since then.

Hulkamania Forever (1990)

The last tape for this entry and it’s one where the box is mangled. This type of thing was all too common back in the day at places like video stores and libraries where the box would get cut up to fit into a clamshell-style case. However, I find that to be pretty unique and interesting. Let’s look at the cover. The “Hulkamania” series was basically an ongoing best of Hulk Hogan series. This was the next to last tape in the series. The front cover is pretty much just Hulk Hogan on a blue background. Also, note the “sports” sticker that the video store stuck on the cover when they cut up the box. Not really a lot to talk about. However, I really like the back of this box. Here’s where we’ve got Hogan wailing on Dino Bravo with a board and also pictures of Hogan in action. The match listing sounds pretty interesting too, especially the match of Hogan & Tugboat facing Earthquake & Dino Bravo. I’ll be honest, if I was a kid and Hogan fan back then and I saw this, I’d totally rent it!

That wraps up this first entry in the “Wacky Wrestling VHS Boxes” series. This was a lot of fun to write and put together. Stay tuned for more and don’t forget……be kind and rewind when you return your tape!

Throughout the years, I’ve been to several independent shows in my area, most of which were HWA shows, since they were one of the dominant promotions in Southwest Ohio for the better part of two decades. There were also random promotions that would pop up from time to time as well, like Buckeye Pro Wrestling (BPW) and Xtreme Valley Wrestling (XVW). Such is the case with the Dynamic Wrestling Alliance (DWA) who promoted this particular event. A local promoter named Johnny Diamond started up the DWA in the late 2000s and they ran shows on and off that featured a lot of local talent trying to break in. Eventually that expanded into bringing in 80s and 90s WWF stars like Honky Tonk Man and Marty Jannetty for events.

I’d only been to one other DWA show before this as part of the Hamilton County Fair in 2009. Greg Valentine, who’d kind of become a regular for them, was on that show but just in a managerial capacity since he had a knee injury at the time. It was an okay show, nothing special, which is exactly what one would expect from an outdoor wrestling show at the fair. This event though, dubbed “Dynamic Destiny 2011”, was going to be unlike any other one they had put out there. There wasn’t going to be just one wrestling legend on the show, but this time there was going to be six! Not only that, but in addition to the matches, there was going to be a “mini fan fest” where you could meet the wrestlers and take pictures, get autographs, buy their merchandise, etc.

I wasn’t living in my hometown in 2011 (I lived about 30 minutes south of town at the time) but my friend Tim found out about this particular event through some of his acquaintances and once he told me about it, I knew I just had to go. On the way up, I stopped and picked up another friend of mine, who we all call Geo. He was hyped for the show as well. Tim was planning on meeting us there along with some other mutual friends of ours. In total, there was going to be about a dozen of us.

When we arrived at the venue, the parking was a nightmare. The way the skating rink building is situated, there are railroad tracks on one side, and the small parking lot is off on a side street in a residential neighborhood next to the local self storage center. I couldn’t find a spot to park for the life of me and the adjacent streets didn’t have on street parking. I called a quick audible and decided the best option would be to drop my car at my mom’s house. From there, Geo and I would take the ten minute walk over to the venue.

As Geo and I paid the admission fee and entered, waves of nostalgia came back to me. This was the same skating rink where I’d had after school skating parties in elementary school. I never could skate. I couldn’t do it then and I can’t do it now. The inside of the building looked as if it was stuck in a time warp. The same beat up and torn carpet, a skating rink covered in scuff marks from roller skates, same menu at the concession stand. Lights and a disco ball above the main rink were about the only new additions. It was a rough looking place in a rough part of town.

There was a sense of both excitement and sadness in the air as Geo and I located Tim and his group he’d come to the show with and exchanged pleasantries. I soaked in the environment as I looked around. Demolition, Ax and Smash, had a table set up next to the small arcade area. Behind them was a Skee-Ball machine and a Cruisin’ USA racing game. Across from them was a table with Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine. Down on the other end of the rink was Dan Severn’s table and Sunny’s table. Waiting for the event to start, we all chatted and mingled about. Tim and I even ran into our old middle school science teacher. The signal that the show was about to begin was a stagehand taking down the disco ball and a smoke machine belching so much smoke into the building that it felt like 100 bongs had all been lit up at once.

The opening match was two local guys, “Shady” Chris Zion and “The Virus” Parker James, facing off. There wasn’t much to it, just a basic match between two local guys. I’d never heard of either of them before and they didn’t pop up in any other local feds after this. It felt like a pre-show match of sorts in an attempt to warm up the crowd.

Following it was a promo featuring a heel manager named Cletus T. Coletrain along with his charge, Sgt. Ledbetter. The basic gist of this whole segment was that the DWA Internet Title, which had been won by Marty Jannetty at the previous show, was stripped from Jannetty and handed to Ledbetter. Afterwards, Ledbetter celebrated his title “win” with his cronies (a team named called Purple Reign), filibustered for a bit and insulted the crowd. Basic heel work. More on Ledbetter and Purple Reign later on.

Next on the docket was local wrestler Eric Trice. He insulted the fans and issued a series of open challenges. A referee and a planted security guard took Trice up on the offers and he defeated them with ease. Trice then offered a third open challenge and was answered by Dan Severn. The crowd popped huge for Severn when he came out and chanted “Beast! Beast! Beast!” Poor Trice had no idea what was in store for him. The match was fairly good with Trice doing a bit of stalling. Once Severn got his hands on him though, he dispatched him within minutes and got the crowd whipped up into a frenzy.

Next was the match the crowd of dozens in the venue had come to see, The Dream Team of Brutus Beefcake and Greg Valentine against Demolition, Ax and Smash. To me, this was just surreal. Bonafide legends like these four who competed on a number of the early WrestleMania’s and held some of the biggest championships in wrestling, were competing in a ten-minute time limit match in my hometown skating rink. “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood blasted over the speakers and out came Brutus and Valentine. I was a little disappointed when we didn’t hear the familiar funkiness of Beefcake’s trademark 80s WWF theme though. That was completely rectified when the sounds of Rick Derringer and the lyrics “Here comes the Ax/Here comes the Smasher” bellowed through the skating rink.

Yes, these four were ancient. Yes, it was nowhere near the caliber of matches these four hand in their prime. But, it was a really fun match. The crowd ate up everything. Beefcake doing his usual strutting and cutting. Valentine doing the tree fall spot. To be honest, Ax looked like he’d seen better days but Smash was the best of all four and showed he still had some life left in him. The match itself was basic, nothing too crazy. When the ten-minute time limit expired all four celebrated to the crowd. There was a fun post match segment with the referee where Beefcake put him in the sleeper and Valentine put him in the figure four and he sold it like a fish flopping out of water. It was like a Roman being fed to the lions pretty much.

After the match, there was the intermission and my friends and I could’ve honestly called it a night right there after the last match since we had a feeling that it would be tough to match that high that we’d just had. The legends set up shop again at their respective tables, hocking merchandise and selling pictures and autographs. Tim and I went to visit Dan Severn’s table. He had the UFC title belt and for a nominal fee, you could get your picture made with him and said title belt. His prices were typical, $20 for this to get signed, $15 for that. I clearly remember Tim asking “So, how much for something that’s not on the table?” Severn looked a bit confused. “What do you have?” he asked. We both whipped out a copy of Swamp Zombies, a low budget horror film he’d starred in with Blue Meanie and Jasmine St. Claire. His eyes widened. “Where in the world did you find this?” he chuckled before saying that since the movie was so horrible, he’d sign it for free. He then began to reminisce about scenes in the movie that to this day I still haven’t watched.

Coming out of the intermission, the crowd was spent until Sunny appeared with the tag team of “Front Man” Evan DaMalice and Erico. She talked about how she was going to lead her team to victory tonight in the finals of the tag team tournament. They all stood around awkwardly in the ring after she finished talking and then left.

Out came Sgt. Ledbetter for the next match, where he was supposed to challenge reigning champion Vic the Bruiser for the title. Vic didn’t show up so Ledbetter was gifted the title due to forfeit. Dan Severn then re-appeared, talked about some contractual clause that entitled him to a title match. Shenanigans ensued then the match eventually got under way. As far as in-ring quality and work rate went, this was probably the second best match of the night. Mind you, it wasn’t a five star classic by any means but given the environment, it was a perfectly acceptable match. Severn put in some much longer time here than he did earlier in the open challenge against Eric Trice. Despite Severn looking gray and like a high school gym teacher, he still kicked some serious ass and ended up winning the title from Ledbetter after a pretty decent outing, as seen in the video I linked earlier.

Closing out the show, was the finals of the tag team championship tournament. Back again was the Sunny led duo of “Frontman” Evan DaMalice & Erico against a team called Purple Reign, who were aligned in a stable with Sgt. Ledbetter. I honestly don’t remember much of the match. Only thing I really remember was a random heel turn by Erico (which to this day none of us have still figured that out) which seemed really out of nowhere. Purple Reign was a decent team and did some fairly acceptable bumping and stooging around. There was post-match beat down and the crowd left in droves because by this point we were all mentally exhausted from a wild and bizarre night of weird independent wrestling inside a dilapidated skating rink.

In the time since this event happened, the skating rink has since been purchased by a local church and renovated. Some of the people in our group that night have since moved on. I still talk with Tim and Geo though. Looking back on that night ten years later, I still have fond memories of it: seeing all those legends in my hometown, having a wild night out with my friends, and running into my old eighth grade science teacher at the show. Even though the wrestling may have been subpar, it still brings a smile to my face whenever I think about this night. The night the legends came to my hometown and the night I had a brush with greatness.

One year to the day of the infamous mass releases of 2020, WWE had their annual post-WrestleMania spring cleaning with the announcement of ten wrestlers that were being released. All of them will have the standard 90-day no-compete clause. After that expires, they will become free agents in a sense that they will be able to sign with whichever company they desire.

Much like Major League Baseball does with their annual postseason free-agent guessing game, I thought it would be fun to apply that concept to the ten wrestlers released on April 15th. I’ll talk a bit about their past, where I see them now, and give a guess as to where they will eventually end up.

Samoa Joe

Perhaps the biggest name that was released on Thursday, Joe spent the last year and change providing commentary on Raw, first as just a fill-in announcer and that turned into full-time announcing gig where he was the color commentator on Raw and pay-per-views, often teamed with Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton.

In recent interviews, Joe has repeatedly said that he’s not done with his in-ring career yet. His accomplishments outside of WWE are far too many to mention. Even though he’s not had a match since February of 2020 because of concussion issues, I feel if he can get cleared to wrestle, then the possibilities are endless. Maybe New Japan and the G1 this year? Who wouldn’t want to see Joe wreck shop against the likes of Naito, Shingo, and Tanahashi. Possibly AEW? They do have that new hour of programming coming to TNT this year. I don’t see Ring of Honor or Impact as viable options though, since they only have limited TV time. I wouldn’t completely discount either one though, especially since Joe did a quick stint in ROH in early 2015 in between leaving TNA and signing with WWE.

My guess: AEW, because with the new show coming they’ll need a big name and Joe certainly fits that bill, whether its doing commentary or wrestling. I wouldn’t be surprised to see New Japan try to get in on him as well but I find it a little less likely he’d go there considering COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Mickie James

This is probably the second biggest name on the list. It’s also one of the most surprising considering she just did commentary with Vic Joseph on both nights of the NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver pre-show and made an appearance in the Women’s Royal Rumble match this past January.

I personally think Mickie James still has a lot left to give and there are plenty of companies out there who could use a talented, veteran wrestler like her on the roster to not only work in the ring with the young talent but coach them as well. Ring of Honor could potentially use her to fill a spot in their upcoming women’s tournament, and Impact also has a women’s division that could use some depth. Heck, even her against Hikaru Shida in AEW would be a fun match. Let’s not forget that her husband, Nick Aldis, is still the reigning NWA World Champion either. It’d be a long shot but if NWA decides to build up their women’s division, she’d be a good place to start.

My guess: Impact. She’s got a long history with them and held the Knockout’s Championship three times. Plus, she could have matches with current Knockout’s Champion Deonna Purazzo, Tenille Dashwood, and Jordynne Grace. I wouldn’t completely discount a one-off in Ring of Honor either for the women’s tournament, but that depends on when they film that and if it’s after the 90-day no-compete.

Peyton Royce & Billie Kay

I’m grouping these two together because it only feels right. These two were doomed after the IIconics were split up. Since then, Royce had been getting a small push on Raw but wasn’t gaining much traction. Billie Kay was being featured pretty prominently on Smackdown, with a character where she would offer her resume to people like the Riott Squad and Big E, but the running gag was that she would always ultimately be rejected. As recently as WrestleMania, Kay was teamed with Carmella in the Tag Team Turmoil Match.

As the IIconics, these two were priceless. They won the Women’s Tag Team titles at WrestleMania 35 and had the second longest reign with them at 120 days. The IIconics managed to get the ire of everyone from teams like the Kabuki Warriors to singles wrestlers like Ruby Riott and Bayley. As tag team champions, they did make WWE history by becoming the first Australian duo, men’s or women’s, to hold tag team gold.

My guess: I think the logical place for them to go would be Impact. That’s the only other major wrestling company in the United States right now with women’s tag division and they could instantly be slotted in there against current champions Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz. I really don’t see any other place they could really go.

Chelsea Green

Green really fell into limbo after splitting from the Robert Stone Brand last May on NXT. On her SmackDown debut in November, she broke her wrist in a four-way match with Liv Morgan, Tamina, and Natalya. Since then, well … silence. This is bit stunning too, since she’d just signed a three year contact in November. Aside from being part of the Robert Stone Brand, it feels like she just didn’t get on track in WWE.

Given her past successes, especially as Laurel Van Ness in Impact, it’s hard to imagine Impact not scooping her back up. However, I feel that might be going backwards for Green if she were to do that. I’m going to outside the box here and say that she may not even officially sign with anyone and will bounce around places like Ring of Honor or NWA. Of course, there’s also the glowing aura of AEW and their women’s division but I feel like she’d get a bit lost in the shuffle there.

My guess: NWA or Ring of Honor. Both companies are working to get their women’s division off the ground and I think she’d be an asset to either one. Imagine Chelsea Green vs. Thunder Rosa in NWA? Or perhaps her against Angelina Love in ROH?

Bo Dallas

Here’s a tough one. Dallas hasn’t done anything of note since teaming with Curtis Axel as The B Team and hasn’t been on TV since the end of 2019. Having been with WWE for the last 13 years, it’s hard to imagine him working anywhere else. He had so many fun highlights in WWE, the “Bo-Lieve” character, the Social Outcasts with Heath Slater, Curtis Axel, and Adam Rose, the Miztourage, and finally the B-Team. I don’t really know where he could go, though. Maybe work the indies and reunite with Curtis Axel? I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a side gig at AEW either.

My guess: Indies teaming with Curtis Axel or AEW

Kalisto

I always felt that Kalisto was the defacto leader of the Lucha House Party and I felt they were a really fun trio. This is kind of another surprising release in a way since Kalisto held several major titles during his WWE tenure like the United States Title and the Cruiserweight Title. I still remember his match against Ryback on the WrestleMania 32 pre-show being a very good match. There’s also the insane Salida del Sol maneuver he did through a ladder on Jey Uso at TLC: Tables, Ladders, and Chairs 2015.

As Samuray del Sol on the indies prior to signing with WWE, he wrestled for numerous companies like AAW, PWG, CZW, and others. In thinking of companies currently that work with a lot of luchadores and where he would fit it, Ring of Honor comes to mind. They have talent like Bandido, Flamita, Dragon Lee, and others. He’d also be a good fit in AEW where he could wrestle guys like Darby Allin, Cody, Brian Cage, Jungle Boy, and Hangman Page.

My guess: Ring of Honor or AEW

Tucker

Heavy Machinery was a huge success and a really fun tag team. I thought they had lots of upside as a fun middle of the card tag team who could be slotted in to either brand. However, the Otis and Mandy Rose storyline pretty much led to their downfall. Otis broke out as a singles wrestler, beat Dolph Ziggler at last year’s WrestleMania, and won the Money in the Bank as well. The most notable thing Tucker did recently was when he turned on Otis at Hell in a Cell and cost him the Money in the Bank briefcase to The Miz.

Having been in the WWE system since 2013, he never wrestled any indies or wrestled for anyone else so it’s hard to pick a spot for him to land. I think the biggest thing with Tucker is that he needs to rebrand himself and try to get a new character up and running. The indie scene would probably be the best for that. I could see him doing a re-hash of his Heavy Machinery character and making the rounds that way. There’s also the ancillary AEW programming on YouTube like Dark and Elevation, where he could also pop up occasionally.

My guess: Indies or AEW YouTube programming

Wesley Blake

Does anyone remember Blake & Murphy with Alexa Bliss as their manager in NXT? I barely do, but that’s where I first heard of Wesley Blake. Most of his time in WWE was spent as part of tag teams like Forgotten Sons and more recently flanking King Corbin as part of the Knights of the Lone Wolf. He’s a guy who’s been in the WWE system since 2013 and before that trained at Dory Funk Jr’s Funking Conservatory.

With most of his wrestling career in the WWE developmental system, I’m not sure where he could plant his flag. Possibly the indies doing a biker character of some sort? Maybe Impact with a complete overhaul in character?

My guess: Indies or Impact

Mojo Rawley

Alas, poor Mojo. We knew thee well. From the Hype Bros with Zack Ryder to the Andre the Giant Battle Royal win that was assisted by Rob Gronkowski, Mojo had quite the career in WWE. He’d started a new character in 2019 on Raw where he would talk about his lack of success, to what looked like someone else, before it was revealed that he was talking to himself in a mirror. That was quickly dropped after only a few matches.

There’s several options for Mojo. He could jump to Impact and do a reunion with Matt Cardona (Zack Ryder) as a variation of the Hype Bros. With his charisma though, he could also wind up as a studio host or commentator on a football show of some sort. He does have a background in football and tried out for both the Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers.

My guess: Impact or football commentator

Do I think all these predictions will come true? Probably not. I do think that some of these guys and gals will land on their feet in the wrestling business. For others, this is most likely the end of their run in wrestling. Perhaps some of the predictions will come true!