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Jimmy Hart remembers riding to Madison Square Garden for the first WrestleMania with Greg “The Hammer” Valentine. The last time he performed there was as a member of the Memphis band The Gentrys opening for The Beach Boys. In 1985, he was just starting out with WWE, managing top villains of the time including Valentine and King Kong Bundy. Once inside the venue, the now Hall of Famer looked at the empty seats where more than 20,000 fans would witness history. The calm before the storm. “I got such a thrill and goosebumps,” Hart recalled to TV Insider ahead of A&e’s Biography on WrestleMania. “Walking through the hallways I could see the different names on the doors where the stars were going to be. Liberace, Billy Martin, Cyndi Lauper, Muhammad Ali. The anticipation was tremendous.” The legendary manager is among those featured in the season finale of the WWE series of Legends documentaries.

Following the 2021 holiday film “Reba McEntire’s Christmas in Tune,” Lifetime and the country music superstar are teaming up again for a new original movie: “Reba McEntire’s The Hammer,” inspired by the life of traveling circuit judge Kim Wanker.

“The Hammer” will follow Kim Wheeler (McEntire), an “outspoken, firecracker lawyer” who is appointed Judge of the 5th District of Nevada and is one of the few traveling judges left in America. The film’s heroine “hands down justice unlike anyone else,” per Lifetime. Reuniting McEntire with her “Reba” co-star Melissa Peterman, “The Hammer” also stars Kay Shioma Metchie and Rex Linn.

Also Read:

Reba McEntire Joins ABC’s ‘Big Sky’ as a Series Regular

Here’s Lifetime’s official plot synopsis: “After the reigning judge passes away under suspicious circumstances, Kim finds herself covering a circuit that stretches between Las Vegas and Reno – a rugged, often desolate area where anything and everything can happen.

The roots of Lifetime’s next made-for-tv movie are planted firmly in the past.

Fifteen years after the WB-turned-cw sitcom Reba ended its six-season run, series stars Reba McEntire and Melissa Peterman are set to reunite in The Hammer, a new film inspired by the life of traveling circuit judge Kim Wanker.

More from TVLineReba McEntire Joins Big Sky Season 3 as 'Mercurial Matriarch'Flowers in the Attic: The Origin Explores Olivia Winfield's Twisted Backstory -- Watch Trailer for Lifetime PrequelTVLine Items: Sarah Drew's Lifetime Deal, Housewives to Dubai and More

McEntire, who is also an executive producer, will play Kim Wheeler,...

The WWE inducted Ozzy Osbourne and William Shatner into its Wrestling Hall of Fame Tuesday, April 6th, with Osbourne sending in an acceptance video for a ceremony, which took place last week.

The former Black Sabbath singer made his debut at WrestleMania 2 in 1986, when he and Captain Lou Albano supported the British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) in a tag-team match against the Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake). Davey Boy Smith is reportedly another inductee in this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony. More recently, Osbourne...

Welcome to this week’s Monday Night Raw review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and Woody Allen creeps me out. Blagaingo! This is the final show before Starrcade. I love Starrcade. The 1980s are a sterling time in wrestling. You get the best matches from all corners of the National Wrestling Alliance. Greg Valentine, Roddy Piper, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Magnum Ta and Ric Flair are some of the biggest stars in wrestling. The Road Warriors and The Steiner Brothers battle The Midnight Express and The Rock N’ Roll Express for tag supremacy as Jim Cornette falls fat-ass first from a scaffold every week on TBS Superstation. We have MTV and steroids and f—ked-up hair-styles and Traci Lords (who is at least 18 for sure), all of which will last forever and never lose their luster. Cobra is the greatest movie ever made.

Greetings dweebs and losers! “Smart” Mark D. Mark here, filling in for Nathan Favel, who is busy crying about his mom still being dead. I say, “Boo-Hoo, sir!” Yes, this review will be credited to Nathan Favel, because his generation gets everything handed to them like the miscreant pussies that they are. Let me just say to you all, that this review will be a master-class in critiquing and in the art of review. On this episode of Friday Night SmackDown, we have Aj Styles defending the Intercontinental Title against Gran Metalik, who sounds like an auto-shop breakfast cereal. Who names these morons? In the main event, we have Bayley defending her SmackDown Women’s Title against Nikki Cross, who seems dead-set on giving Pms something to aspire to if her erratic attitude is any indication. Let’s get on already with this millennial thirst trap called “Friday Night SmackDown” before I hurl.

Following my list of the Ten Best WrestleMania Matches of the 1990s, I was sent down a rabbit-hole of watching every WrestleMania again and figured it might be cool to do the same for the 80s. Now, the 80s doesn’t have as many matches to choose from like the 90s did, and the 00s and 2010s will, but there’s still five WrestleMania events to dive into, so I thought it would be cool either way. Plus… there are some damn fine matches to be found in those first five Mania events. Sure… the workrate in many areas of the WWF during that time wasn’t as great as it would become, but there’s still plenty of iconic and entertaining matches, many featuring the same group of guys. So, here it is, my top ten of the best WrestleMania Matches of the 1980s.

10. Hulk Hogan & Mr. T (w/Jimmy Snuka) vs.

Rocky Johnson, a member of the WWE Hall of Fame and the father of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, died on Wednesday at the age of 75, according to Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Born Wayde Douglas Bowles in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1944, Johnson began his wrestling career at the age of 16 and became a top star in the National Wrestling Alliance in the 1970s. He won multiple regional Nwa titles, traveling through the territorial system and wrestling against legends like Harley Race, Terry Funk, and Jerry Lawler.

Also Read: Neil Peart, Rush Drummer, Dies at 67

Johnson’s greatest success came from his work as a tag-team specialist, something that also had a personal impact on his life after he performed as a tag team partner with famed Samoan wrestler “High Chief” Peter Maivia, a blood brother of the decorated Anoa’i wrestling family that today includes four-time WWE champion Roman Reigns. It was...

The Dynamite Kid -- one half of the famed British Bulldogs tag team duo -- has died, his family announced Wednesday.  The wrestler -- real name Tommy Billington -- had been battling health issues for years though his exact cause of death has not been revealed. He turned 60 years old on Wednesday ... the same day he passed away.  Dynamite made his WWF debut back in 1984 and famously wrestled stars like Bret "The Hitman" Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart.

Gavin Jasper Nov 12, 2018

Whether four-on-four or five-on-five, the traditional Survivor Series tag team match tends to give us some memorable moments.

In the early days of PPV, WWE had its Big Four system down. There was the biggest show of the year, the second biggest show of the year that happened in the summer, the show where they had the cool 30-man match, and the show with the elimination tag matches. Even though it nearly got dropped once or twice over the years, Survivor Series is a tradition that I fully embrace. The traditional elimination tag gimmick is seriously underrated as a fun showcase that stretched good stories, ended bad stories, gave us random battles, and built stars when necessary.

See related WCW WarGames: Ranking the Matches Every Royal Rumble in WWE History Ranked WWE Elimination Chamber: Ranking All The Matches

Unfortunately, the company has been more obsessed with giving...

WWE continues to add to the ever expanding roster of WWE 2K18. Once again surprising us with brand new wrestlers who have never been in a WWE game before.

Last week WWE shared the first set of playable wrestlers to join the roster of WWE 2K18. Now they have once again come together to release even more of the characters. One of the newer faces to WWE Samoa Joe joined Renee Young and Corey Graves to reveal the newest playable characters in a live video on IGN which you can see below.

In the video the WWE let loose a whole flurry of new players, that include:

Aj Styles, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Bobby Roode, Brock Lesnar, Brutus Beefcake, Daniel Bryan, Earthquake, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Ember Moon, Godfather, Goldberg, Greg Valentine, Ivory, Jey Uso, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, Jimmy Uso, John Cena, Kerry Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich, Kurt Angle, Larry Zbyszko,...

WWE.com

The 1990 Royal Rumble came at a time when it felt like WWE was ready to make some big changes. Even though Hulk Hogan was still the man, it was the 1990s and there were questions about how long he was going to keep being featured as the top guy.

The Ultimate Warrior was really catching fire and gaining popularity while Hogan was in his sixth year as the top guy. Both were in the Rumble match, so if we were looking at it the way we look at wrestling 25 years later, the smart thinking would be for Warrior or somebody else to win the match. That’s not what happened, though.

It was also a time when the roster wasn’t really that good on the heel side. There were the likes of Mr. Perfect, Ted Dibiase and Randy Savage in heel roles. They are some of the best heels ever,...

WWE.com

A lot of people have been talking about Benjamin Morris’ 538 piece, “Are Pro Wrestlers Dying at an Unusual Rate?”

Like Morris, I am neither an actuarial scientist nor a demographer. So, our interpretations of the data should be taken with a grain of salt. My results were somewhat different from Morris’ due to a difference data set and changes in how we calculated actuarial predictions.

Differences in methodology from Morris

I also used Social Security Actuarial Life Tables, but my “expected mortality rates” for the age groups were not the same as Morris’. For each wrestler, I calculated what their age would have been as of today. Then, based on gender, I looked up the number of lives (out of 100,000) that were expected to still be alive and converted that to a percentage. His analysis looked at wrestlers who were on 20+ WWF PPVs through 2002. I went with a...

Gavin Jasper Jan 10, 2020

Some wrestlers only get one shot at the big time. Here are the Royal Rumble competitors who made the best of it...and those who didn't.

There’s something truly special about the Royal Rumble. It’s creative and filled with so many possibilities. Well, not always possibilities. There are certain years where the winner is so set in stone that even a child can find it obvious a month in advance. Yet they still rule because once every year, WWE puts on a wrestling party. A bunch of the roster will take part in one match and we get to see a snapshot of the company.

Older Royal Rumbles are like a class photo or a time capsule that best represent the year or even era and one thing that really magnifies what the Royal Rumble is all about is the one-timer. The kind of wrestler...

When many people think of the great WrestleManias, a select number of events tend to pop up in the mind of most fans. WrestleMania X7 is probably the best WrestleMania of all time and a candidate for the best American wrestling PPV of all time. WrestleMania III is up there thanks to the spectacle of the Silverdome and a rather great event overall. That’s fine and dandy, but I’m going to throw a different WrestleMania into the mix. WrestleMania VII may be the best WrestleMania that nobody talks about.

First, let’s address the elephant in the room and one of the main reasons that most fans tend to shy away from WrestleMania: Gulfsploitation. I don’t even know if that is a word, but that is probably the best name for it. Taking Sgt. Slaughter who at that point had been portrayed as an American hero...

We are now one week away from the 29th edition of Wrestlemania – the biggest and grandest PPV in the history of the wrestling industry. For almost three decades Wrestlemania has been the scene of some of wrestling’s greatest feuds and most memorable moments. Stars have been made and careers etched in the annals of time. But as big as it has become the original Wrestlemania was far from being “The Grandest Stage of ‘em all” as it has become know. It wasn’t even given full national PPV exposure! Unbelievable when you think of how huge the event is today.

For those of you that are new to WWE or perhaps weren’t around when it all began What Culture show’s its age and goes back to 1985 to bring you a full run down of all 28 previous Wrestlemanias. If this doesn’t get you in the mood for...

I’ve followed WWE off and on since around 1991, when I was but an 8 year old. The business now, nearly 22 years later, is totally different, and yet exactly the same as it always was. Whilst the look and feel of the product has evolved over time, WWE has always had the ability to enthral, captivate and frustrate in equal measure, and in that regard some things never change.

A good example of this is the way in which matches and storylines are booked. Every once in a while an event transpires that genuinely surprises – like Edge cashing in his Money In The Bank contract in 2006 against a broken John Cena, who had seemingly once again demonstrated his invulnerability – until Mr. Copeland cashed in with ruthlessness and opportunistic timing. Likewise, Eddie Guerrero snatching the WWE title at No Way Out 2004 took me by surprise. Marty Jannetty answering Shawn Michaels’ challenge to...

Albano's appearance in Cyndi Lauper videos made him an '80s pop-culture icon.

By Gil Kaufman

Lou Albano

Photo: Ann Clifford/ Time & Life Pictures

For pro-wrestling fans of a certain age, Captain Lou Albano was a larger-than-life figure who helped turn what was once a low-rent, cable-access sport into a pop-culture phenomenon. The World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Famer died on Wednesday morning (October 14) at the age of 76, according to the WWE and Wrestler's Rescue, an organization that helps raise money for retired wrestlers' health care.

Wrestler's Rescue reported that Albano had been in hospice care earlier this week, but no cause of death has been revealed.

Born Louis Vincent Albano on July 29, 1933, in Mount Vernon, New York, the former football player and bouncer entered the wrestling game in the late 1950s. His four-decade wrestling career kicked off when he created the tag team known as the Sicilians, playing a...