Wrestling

Professional wrestling as craft, business, and psychology: territories, rights deals, kayfabe, and why the product stopped scaling for new fans.

Colored-pencil illustration: an empty wrestling ring with wooden posts and thick hemp ropes stands on a rocky riverbank beside a shallow stream at dawn, dry hills behind it. The sun is just clearing the horizon under a navy sky streaked with orange. A bearded man in rough, plain robes steps along the scuffed apron, bent forward, one hand pressed to his hip, limping.

The Oldest Booking Sheet

The 1-2-3 Kid pinned Razor Ramon on Raw. David had a sling.

Oct 24, 2026

Editorial cartoon: in a dim navy living room, a snarling wrestler in a black vest shouts and points out of an old boxy television set while a fan, seen from behind, leans toward the screen. A hand in a navy suit sleeve reaches in from the right edge of the frame and turns the TV's volume knob down. On the screen behind the heel, a small wrestler leaps off the top of a tall ladder over the ring.

Let the Heels Be Heels

Max Caster's rap barely drew heat. Firing him still taught every heel a lesson.

Oct 15, 2026

Editorial cartoon: under arena spotlights, a young wrestler holds a gold championship belt over his head in front of a cheering crowd. In the foreground, a grinning man in a navy suit waves into a TV camera, so the camera's screen shows him instead of the champion. In the corner, a hand holds a phone whose screen reads POST DELETED.

TNA Bound for Glory 2026: A Growing Pains Show

Leon Slater's title win was a welcome surprise. TNA buried it under its own mess.

Oct 13, 2026

Editorial illustration: a living-room television shows a wrestling ring under an ON AIR light; in the aisle a policeman holds a crowd, and an unused safety harness hangs from the arena lights.

Nothing Fake About the Bill

Owen Hart talked to the writer about the harness. Then he fell seventy-eight feet.

Sep 4, 2026

Split editorial illustration: on the left a wrestler sits alone on a stool in a dark locker room; on the right the same man stands in a brightly lit ring while a crowd reaches up toward him.

The Other Cage: The Price of Being a Face

John Cena left dinner with cash on the table. A plane was waiting.

Sep 4, 2026

Editorial illustration of a lean masked wrestler walking toward a 1940s sedan at night, a knife catching the streetlight, while a policeman holds back an angry crowd spilling from a brick arena.

The Cost of Heat: The Green Shadow and the Bill for a Real Heel

Nashville police demanded a raise to work his shows. The hood stayed on to the car.

Sep 3, 2026

Editorial cartoon: a politician poses under a GOLDEN AGE arena billboard while a hardcore section still cheers and people with grocery bags walk toward the exits.

Tell the Truth Until You Can't: Political Kayfabe, Heel Heat, and the Golden-Age Promo

63 percent disapproved of Trump on the economy. He kept cutting the promo.

Aug 29, 2026

Editorial cartoon of a steel cage around a wrestling ring, crowd on their feet, a pay-per-view box on a living-room TV in the corner.

TNA Lockdown 2026: Every Match in a Cage, and I Was Entertained

Mustafa Ali and Jason Hotch stole the night. They could have closed the show.

Aug 27, 2026

Editorial illustration of a grandfather and a boy on a couch watching wrestling on a CRT television, with a stack of VHS tapes on the floor beside them.

How I Got Into Wrestling

JL Crush and I rewound one Blockbuster tape until we knew every spot by heart.

Aug 26, 2026

Editorial cartoon: a wrestling promoter signs a giant TV contract while a network executive in a suit rewrites the match card on a clipboard, empty arena seats in the background.

The Rights Deal Trap: Wrestling, Media Money, and the Cost of Letting Non-Wrestlers Run the Show

1998: WCW was number one. Turner ad sales told Bischoff to make it for families.

Aug 24, 2026