TWWRM.org

Okay, I admit it: I have often kicked against the idea of AJ Styles being the guy who will dethrone Bully Ray. It's not personal, mind you; it's just that I have been enjoying TNA more than any wrestling promotion in more than a decade and don't want the story told so soon, so easily.So when my friends, family, readers and anyone who watches TNA began to talk about AJ Styles as the Crow Sting to Bully's Hulk Hogan, I acknowledged the comparisons but threw in some other names.Matt Morgan, for instance. Long before he stepped up to challenge Sting ...

Welcome to the most difficult column I’ve ever tried to write. Yes, in three years of writing wrestling columns, this is easily the most daunting task I've ever taken on.  It started by making an error that I can now pass on as a life lesson: If you are going to tweet a professional wrestler, know what you are trying to say and how you want to say it first.From my Twitter account, I tweeted to Alex Shelley: @heymanhustle @fakekinkade and be a game-changer, it's Alex Shelley. Not since WCW missed it with Jericho have I seen a guy more able.— Shane Combs ...

Welcome to the Shanetime Fix (StF) 20-in-2 review and conversation, revolving around the 2/8/2013 edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown, featuring Mark Henry versus Randy Orton. 20. Big Show kicks off Friday Night SmackDown. Another angry promo from the big man. I’m not really happy with Alberto Del Rio as Heavyweight Champion or with Big Show as challenger, but I’m even less happy with this Big Show/Booker T angle. Could it be that WWE is moving toward a Big Show/Booker T match at WrestleMania?  19. Enough with vague wonderings. Booker T announces Big Show will face a man who lost ...

Hello, all. It has been a long time since I put forth a column. It has probably been as long since I sat through an entire WWE program. It’s not like I’m not watching. I’m just not watching from start to finish. I think the three-hour Raw is overkill. They should have made better use of their two hours before going to three. I like for shows to have some sort of shape, and it is difficult to do that with three hours. But this isn’t Raw. It’s SmackDown. And it’s the first of 2013. That is exciting in itself. The ...

The first PPV to air after I became a wrestling fan was WCW’s 1991 Great American Bash. If memory serves, my brother and I tuned in to TBS, expecting to see the show. That night we learned the word "Pay-Per-View." Fast forward 21 years and the Great American Bash is on TV, and it’s hosted by WWE. One thing for sure about wrestling is nothing is for sure. The following is immediate reaction—six best and worst. It does not cover every segment. Feel free to agree, disagree or comment on other sections of the show.Begin Slideshow

At No Way Out, CM Punk defends the WWE Championship against both Daniel Bryan and Kane. Normally those odds would be enough to threaten any world champion, but there is nothing normal about this match.It won’t be the triple threat rules that demand the most attention in this one, nor will it be the crafty Daniel Bryan or the Big Red Monster Kane.It will be the presence or lack thereof of A.J. Lee that will take space in most our brains. It will be the plan she does or doesn’t have; it will be her sanity or lack thereof.CM Punk ...

The main event at Slammiversary will be Bobby Roode defending the Heavyweight Championship against multi-time champion the Icon Sting.Skip this paragraph if you’ve heard this before: Sting returns and becomes the Heavyweight Champion, or Sting loses the title and leaves, or Sting wrestles for a season and disappears.Sting is TNA’s resident part-time performer.Allow me to argue the good and the bad in this arrangement.The good is simply that Sting is not half as bad as you read about him online. Many readers will tell me he’s old, which is fair enough. But some like to knock his performances, and when ...

It is difficult to assess what the Brock Lesnar return means to WWE versus what it could have meant. Nobody expected Brock Lesnar to work full-time, but most suspected WWE to get a better deal than what they seem to have received. Brock Lesnar made an impact when he returned to WWE and smashed John Cena. However, with gaps this large between his matches, I do wonder what it benefits overall. Of course, like The Rock before him, WWE officials seem most interested in what they can get from these guys at the biggest PPV of the year—WrestleMania. With that ...

On the first live edition of Impact for summer 2012, Sting defeated Bobby Roode in a non-title lumberjack match. Afterward, general manager Hulk Hogan announced that Sting will receive a TNA world title shot against Bobby Roode at TNA's Slammiversary. There is an image of Bobby Roode that is becoming commonplace in my mind. It is of the world champion, flat on his back, bolstered by the bottom turnbuckle, clenching his world championship as if it is being pulled at from every angle. In a sense, it is. Bobby Roode has become the kind of traditional heel champion we often saw ...

On WWE Raw, Big Show kicked off the program and, I’m guessing, closed it against Brodus Clay. I say I’m guessing because I did not finish watching the program.I can at least say he was the main event of the show.Now raise your hands if you thought, while watching John Cena versus the Rock, that two months later the main event scene would be John Laurinaitis and Big Show.No takers?Then raise your hands if, while watching John Cena versus Brock Lesnar, you thought that one month later the main event scene would be John Laurinaitis and Big Show.Now that all honest ...