Batson's Blog

There hasn't been a day that's gone by in the past couple of weeks that Mandy Rose hasn't made news on the pro wrestling news websites. Ever since she was released, apparently due to the explicit content on her FanTime page, people have been reacting, speculating, weighing in, and taking sides. My thoughts on the matter: I liked Mandy. She was always OK, but was never involved in anything I was excited about. Her feud with Sonya was good, her relationship with Otis was fun, her alliance with Paige was a good way to debut, and the best part of her tag team with Dana Brooke was Asuka naming the duo her, "Sexy Muscle Friends." I think her work with Toxic Attraction is a little overrated, but she did manage to reinvent herself and made names out of Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne along the way. While Mandy certainly improved in NXT, I wouldn't say she affects the women's division in NXT, or in WWE, in any significant way. NXT has half a dozen (or more) women there w...

WWE's Hall of Fame has become one of the fans' favorite nights of the year. Why wouldn't it be? You get to see legends and childhood heroes get the respect they deserve and hear some (hopefully) funny road stories. There are some glaring omissions from WWE's Hall of Fame that hurt its credibility: Owen Hart , Vader , Davey Boy Smith , etc. There have also been some questionable inductees that also hurt its credibility: Koko B. Ware , The Godfather and Rikishi . It's understandable that each year, come Hall of Fame time, there will be debate amongst fans. Each group of fans is hoping their favorite gets the nod. The inductions this year have caused some controversy as well. Chyna , for example, is being inducted. After the way Triple H 's comments about Chyna on Stone Cold' s podcast went viral a few years ago, seeing her name as a Hall of Fame inductee was a little surprising. It was also a little shady -- giving Chyna an induction, but n...

I have a bit of an unusual way to end WWE's Evolution event. I'm still not happy about the Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella match, but it's obviously happening, so may as well make the most of it right? I also mentioned the fact that Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch may not have been the best route to go, simply because they've faced each other so many times in the past couple of months. But that match is also happening. Again, I may as well accept it. The question becomes: how do you end Evolution? Many people suggest that Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair is the way to go. Others point to Ronda Rousey vs. Nikki Bella being the most logical choice to close the show due to their name value. I agree on both points. Becky and Charlotte deserve to close the show more so than Rousey and Bella, but they don't have the name value to the casual fans. I think there's a way to have the best of both worlds, though. Becky and Charlotte will compete in the first (ac...

I haven’t posted to this blog for a while, but I wanted to say something about Chyna after hearing the news about her death this past week. Besides super heroes and comic books, I am a big fan of professional wrestling. I started watching wrestling in 1997, when a lot of the wrestlers became real-life super heroes to me. Characters like The Undertaker, Mankind, Goldust, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were all incredibly entertaining to watch. They had amazing entrances and awesome outfits, they battled each other and they did it in front of rowdy fans every week. All of those guys were incredible to watch! It was great for me because I was at the age where I'd grown past cartoons like He-Man and X-Men (at least on a regular basis), but I wasn't interested in adult shows like Law & Order or Friends or The Practice . Dozens of big-screen comic book movies weren't being made at that point, so there wasn't a happy medium until I found pro wrestling. It invo...