WrestleCrap

WrestleCrap
Type of site	Professional wrestling
Owner	RD Reynolds
Created by	RD Reynolds Merle Vincent
Website	WrestleCrap.com
Alexa rank	249,906 (April 2014)^[1]
Commercial	No
Registration	Message board only
Launched	April 2000
Current status	Active

WrestleCrap is a professional wrestling website created by R. D. Reynolds and Merle Vincent (who committed suicide in September 2000^[2]^[3]^[4]), serving as a "hall of shame" for some of the worst gimmicks and storylines in pro wrestling history. The site is currently run by Reynolds, Blade Braxton and Justin Henry.

History

Reynolds and Vincent launched the site in April 2000, quickly developing a following among wrestling fans. After Vincent's death in September 2000,^[3] Reynolds continued to run the site by himself. He shut the site down in 2001, claiming the high cost of running the site was responsible. It returned the following year, albeit without the backlog of past inductions.

In 2006, the site added several new writers and features.

WrestleCrap is also the title of a book written by the site's creators, with an introduction by John Tenta (ISBN 1-55022-584-7). In addition, Reynolds has co-authored The Death of WCW, with wrestling journalist Bryan Alvarez, and he co-wrote The WrestleCrap Book of Lists! with Braxton, released in late 2007. Currently, both Reynolds and Alvarez are featured columnists for British pro wrestling and MMA magazine Fighting Spirit.^[5]

In December 2012, Reynolds announced a relaunch of the site, complete with more daily content and interactive features. The relaunch took place in January 2013.^[6]

Site content

WrestleCrap Inductions, new induction weekly with rotating classic inductions weekly. These have been written primarily by RD over the years, including currently, but a number of others have written them, with "Triple Kelly" Kelly Parmalee being the lead induction writer for several years. In 2012, a rotating cast of guest writers have penned inductions, with Reynolds fine-tuning them. This continues in the 2013 relaunch.
WrestleCrap Radio/The RD and Blade Show, RD and Blade's take on recent events in the American wrestling scene. After ending the show in July 2012, RD and Blade reunited for The RD and Blade Show in 2013.
Headlies, faux wrestling news stories in the style of The Onion.
Jobber of the Week, where a random wrestling jobber is profiled by Blade or RD, most often Blade. WrestleCrap contributor Robert Q. Seidelman would sub for Blade on occasion but has not written a JOTW column since 2009 after starting up an unofficial spin-off for the worst in game shows.
Someone Bought This, a look at some of the more ridiculous wrestling merchandise on sale. This segment often looks at eBay items placed for auction by various users.
RD's Ramblings, comments on current events in pro wrestling and replies to the emails he receives.
RD's Book & DVD Reviews
Re-Writing the Book, a column, written by Jed Shaffer, that looks at fictional alternate universes in wrestling, for example "What if the Montreal Screwjob never happened?".
It Came From YouTube, a weekly celebration of the most obscure, insane and sometimes brilliant wrestling related clips found on YouTube.
Curtain Jerker, new for the 2013 relaunch, Justin Henry kicks off each weekday with a look at a topic in the world of wrestling, with the intent of creating debate and chatter among the site's readers.
Power Crappings, new for the 2013 relaunch, a "bottom" 25 list of the worst storylines, gimmicks, news stories, and rumors in circulation at the time.
Epic Tweets Through Wrestling History, new for the 2013 relaunch, Emerson Witner creates satirical, often ironic, tweets from wrestling personalities throughout time.
The Meme Event, photos from WWE Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown, crudely captioned by Justin Henry.

The Gooker Award

The Gooker Award is given each year to the worst gimmick, storyline, or event in wrestling in that year. The award is named after The Gobbledygooker, one of the most disastrous wrestling gimmicks of all time.

Winners

2000: David Arquette as the WCW World World Heavyweight Champion.^[7]
2001: The Invasion.^[7]
2002: Katie Vick (Triple H/Kane feud).^[7]
2003: Al Wilson (Torrie Wilson/Dawn Marie feud).^[7]
2004: The 2004 Raw Diva Search.^[7]
2005: The Jim Ross firing storyline and colonoscopy skit.^[7]
2006: The WWE's exploitation of Eddie Guerrero's name and legacy after his death. (Eddiesploitation)^[8]
2007: The Vince McMahon paternity storyline and the reveal of Hornswoggle as his son.^[9]
2008: Mike Adamle's stint in WWE.^[10]
2009: The Hornswoggle/Chavo Guerrero feud.^[11]
2010: TNA's attempt to resurrect the Monday Night Wars by moving TNA Impact! to air opposite WWE Raw.^[12]
2011: Michael Cole's antics throughout the year.^[13]
2012: Claire Lynch storyline (AJ Styles/Daniels and Kazarian feud)
2013: Dixie Carter's heel turn.^[14]
2014 (co-winner): Vince McMahon's comments about "brass rings".
2014 (co-winner): The Bella Twins feud.
2015: The Rusev and Summer Rae/Dolph Ziggler and Lana feud.

The 2001 award was not revealed until 2003 due to WrestleCrap's closing in 2001.

Each year's Gooker Award, with the exceptions of 2001 and 2002, was determined by a poll of site visitors. The 2001 and 2002 awards were chosen by Reynolds, since he felt there was no competition those years.

WrestleCrap Radio (2005–2012; 2015–)

In August 2005, WrestleCrap introduced a podcast called WrestleCrap Radio. Typically Reynolds and columnist Blade Braxton discuss their personal lives, make jokes that may or may not relate to current wrestling (or wrestling at all), and rarely discuss news items from the wrestling industry. On occasion interviews with guests from within the wrestling industry were broadcast such as their interviews with Vince Russo and Lance Storm. Induction writer Triple Kelly was the unofficial reserve host, having won a co-host contest in 2007. As of May 2010, she has hosted the show twice. The regular podcasts ended with WrestleCrap Radio episode 249, released on July 13, 2012.

On August 20, 2015, to coincide with the 10 year anniversary of WrestleCrap Radio, a new episode of Reynolds and Blade's occasional RD and Blade Show podcast was instead revealed to be the surprise 250th episode of WrestleCrap Radio.^[15] Episode 251 was released ten days later on August 30, followed by two more episodes each in September and October.^[16]

Segments

RD's TRIP... to the Grocery - Reynolds discusses various food items he comes across at the "foodmart". Occasionally, Braxton will host this segment, or either host will talk about going to a completely different place, such as RD's trip to Disney World. On rare occasions, this segment will even showcase celebrity trips to various locations, such as Jonny Fairplay's trip to a local Canteloupe Festival.
Fan Fiction Theatre - Presented by Sir Alec Heineken (Braxton), this segment presents a reading of wrestling fan-fiction, which often involve graphic sexual encounters between the story's subjects.
Obscure Wrestling News - Reynolds and Braxton discuss random news stories from the wrestling world.
Question of the Week - Reynolds and Braxton (attempt to) answer a question that has been submitted by the listeners.
TNA News - This segment involves discussion of TNA news but due to the incompetence of the correspondent, the segment rarely involves very little actual discussion of TNA, if any. The role of TNA correspondent has been described as something of a 'poisoned chalice', as the TNA correspondents invariably end up meeting an untimely demise, drawing comparisons to the Defence Against The Dark Arts Teacher position from the Harry Potter series of books. The TNA correspondent position was most recently held by C.S. Irwin, a man who acted in a similar manner to Horatio Caine from CSI: Miami. Despite breaking the record for the longest-running TNA correspondent in Wrestlecrap Radio history, previously co-held by Johnny Six and Mike Check, Irwin's segments supposedly garnered the lowest listener ratings of any part of the show. As a result of this, he was eventually taken away by The Ratings Reaper, an anthropomorphic personification similar to The Grim Reaper responsible for ushering anything with low ratings into the afterlife. The current TNA correspondent is Blade's mailman, The Honky Tonk mailman, a parody of pro-wrestler The Honky Tonk Man who reports outdated news using copies of the Wrestling Observer newsletter stolen from a customer on his route.
Current Wrestling News - Reynolds and Braxton discuss WWE-related news.
Blade Braxton's Weekly Wrestling Haiku - The longest-running segment on the show, Braxton reads a haiku he has composed, related to an event of that week's wrestling programming. This is almost always the final segment on the show.
Call-Ins - Although not a segment per se, these are a weekly occurrence on the show. This involves various characters "calling in" to the show to ramble on about various topics, to the frustration of Reynolds and Braxton. The most common characters featured are "Gay Popeye" (Reynolds) and "Angry Jim Ross" (Braxton), among many others.

References

↑ "Wrestlecrap.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
↑ Bakon, Jun. "R.D. Reynolds Interview". Lethal Wrestling. Archived from the original on 25 September 2013.
1 2 Reynolds, RD. "Merle Vincent, 1972-2000". Wrestlecrap. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013.
↑ "RD Reynolds". NZPWI. Archived from the original on 25 September 2013.
↑ Fighting Spirit Magazine - About Us
↑
1 2 3 4 5 6 "Previous Inductions". WrestleCrap.com. WrestleCrap. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
↑ Schramm, Chris (2007-02-15). "Guerrero storyline dubious award winner". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
↑ "2007 Gooker Award". WrestleCrap.com. WrestleCrap. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
↑ "What was the Worst of 2008?". Retrieved 2009-01-27.
↑ "What was the Worst of 2009?". Retrieved 2010-01-28.
↑ "What was the Worst of 2010?". Retrieved 2011-01-27.
↑ http://wrestlecrap.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/009
↑ Reynolds, RD. "Induction: Heel Dixie Carter – 2013 Gooker Winner (Winner Turkey Dinner)!". Wrestlecrap. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
↑ Reynolds, RD (August 20, 2015). "RD and Blade Show – 10th Anniversary". WrestleCrap. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
↑ "Category Archive for 'RD & Blade'". WrestleCrap. Retrieved 2016-01-18.

External links

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