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Grass Kings #4

Written by Matt Kindt | Art by Tyler Jenkins | Published by Boom! Studios

Grass Kings is a series that is in a hurry to go nowhere. Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins built this book from the inside out. By crafting the characters and the world they live in first the tension that has arisen in this issue occurs organically. Motivations are clear and the stakes are steadily increasing. Simply put this is how you tell a story.

This issue deals with the fall out of Big Dan’s death and stuff is ready to go down. Now with an excuse to invade Grassland each group is readying their soliders for what is going to be a bloody affair. Not a great deal happens in this issue but the story is still moving forward. As cliché, as it sounds the Grasslands location, is developing into this full fleshed out character full of its own identity.

Netflix’s “Glow” arrives at a time when women who step inside the squared circle are taken much more seriously than they were 30 years ago.

The show re-creates the world of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, the campy all-female promotion whose 1980s heyday is fictionalized in the new series starring Alison Brie. Fittingly, its subject helped start that process three decades ago.

Last weekend’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view was emblematic of the current state of women’s wrestling in WWE, both in terms of how far it’s come and how much further it still has to go. On the one hand, it featured the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match (progress!), which guarantees the winner a championship match at the time of her choosing. On the other hand, it ended when a dude named James Ellsworth ascended the ladder and dropped the briefcase down...

Written by Dennis Hopeless, Ross Thibodeaux | Art by Serg Acuna, Rob Guillory | Published by Boom Studios

At first glance, the idea of a WWE comic seems pretty absurd. It is not super surprising it exists as we live in a world where any licensed property is bound to have some version of a comic, but the more you look at this pairing the more it ends up making sense. Professional wrestling and comics have a lot in common with their over the top characters, larger than life storylines, and their ability to be self-aware in a humorous manner. Dennis Hopeless is able to use that common ground and make this comic much better than it has any business being.

In this issue, we get a heavy dose of the Lunatic Fringe Dean Ambrose. Even if you never watched an episode of WWE before you’ll get a solid understanding of...

To celebrate the release of WrestleMania 33 on Blu-ray and DVD we are giving away a copy on Blu-ray.

Welcome to WrestleMania, “The Ultimate Thrill Ride”! Brace yourself for incredible twists, unexpected turns, and unbelievable excitement! “The Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar challenges Goldberg for his Universal Championship – the richest prize on Raw. The intense rivalry between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt comes to a head over SmackDown Live’s WWE Championship. Bayley defends the Raw Women’s Championship against Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and Nia Jax in a Fatal 4-Way Elimination Match. “The Architect” Seth Rollins gets his chance at revenge as he takes on “The Game” Triple H in a Non-Sanctioned Match! And Roman Reigns faces one of the biggest tests of his career when he takes on Undertaker in a No Holds Barred Match! Plus, action from all your other favourite WWE Superstars, including all three pre-show matches!

Don...

The WWE is in the midst of realizing that women can bring just as much to the table, if not more, than men in the world of professional wrestling. With stars like Charlotte Flair, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and others, they have collected a roster of women that can perform in the ring and demand the audience attention in much the same way the men do.

With that said, the WWE is always on the lookout for talent. One such talent they've signed to the Nxt roster is Io Shirai. You can forgive most American wrestling fans if they don't recognize the name. Her claim to fame has been in Japan with the Stardom wrestling organization. 

But that doesn't mean American audiences haven't seen her. Lucha Underground gave Io Shirai her American introduction on a Season 3 episode of Lucha Underground. Facing off against Pentagon Dark, she went on to have an amazing match.

The WWE has officially announced a 32 competitor Women’s Tournament that will appear on the WWE Network this summer. The tournament was announced at a business presentation the WWE gave to business partners called “WWE Reimagined”. Raw Women’s Champion Bayley, Smackdown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss, and Nxt Women’s Champion Asuka were a part of the presentation.

This is a big moment in women’s wrestling history. For the first time, the WWE is getting behind their female superstars in a way that puts them on the same level with the male superstars. With performers like Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and others, the level of talent on the women’s roster is unparalleled. The only issue I have with the women’s division is that, with the brand split, they have had few match ups they could offer, giving the audience a lot of repetition.

Monday Night Raw is complete for another week. On the heels of the Fastlane Pay Per View, how did the WWE Red Brand do in setting themselves up for the Road to Wrestlemania?

The big news of the night involved the ending of the show. Braun Strowman called out Roman Reigns to finish what they started the previous night. As Roman comes to the ring, The Undertaker’s music hits. Braun gives the ring to The Undertaker out of respect who promptly choke slammed Roman Reigns much to the delight of the crowd.

While no match was announced, rumor has it a match we’ll be seeing at the show of shows will be Roman Reigns vs The Undertaker. While I have no issue with the match itself, I do think the creative folks at the WWE are fooling themselves if they think that Roman Reigns being anything other than...

Well the road to Wrestlemania continues for the WWE with the Raw-exclusive pay-per-view Fastlane, one of the companies lesser PPV’s… For most fans this is just the WWE spinning it’s wheels while waiting for the biggest event in the wrestling calendar.

Taking place at the Bmo Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Fastlane opens with a video package showing all the big matches: Owens vs Goldberg, Bayley vs Charlotte, and Reigns vs Strowman. So we know right there that the only titles possibly changing hands in this event will be either the Womens Title or Universal Championship – Gallows and Anderson surely to retain given the non-focus on their match.

As always Spoilers if you haven’t seen the PPV yet…

Opening Fastlane is Samoa Joe vs Sami Zayn in a match that is sure to Not live up to the fantastic Nxt rivalry the pair had prior to their subsequent call-ups.

WWE has a long standing tradition of not shaking things up too much right before Wrestlemania.  With Smackdowns pay-per-view Elimination Chamber done two weeks ago the biggest change in that show was Cena losing the title to Bray Wyatt.  Raw's final exclusive pay-per-view played out like everyone thought it would with only one title changing hands.  When Stephanie McMahon and Triple H don't bother to show up on camera and leave Mick Foley in charge it shows that even the head brass didn't want to shake things up.  Now for the next 29 days everything will be set for Wrestlemania with only a couple questions still to address.

Rich Swann & Akira Tozawa def. The Brian Kendrick & Noam Dar (Kickoff Match)

Courtesy of WWE

This was supposed to be one of the most entertaining Kickoff Matches in a while. Instead it fell flat mainly because the cruiserweight division isn't strong enough yet...

This Sunday WWE's Raw Exclusive Pay-Per-View Fastlane will be available on the WWE Network! New users can sign up for WWE Network and receive their first month Free and only $9.99 per month after that. If sign up this Sunday for the WWE Network you will be able to get Fastlane for free as well as Wrestlemania. WWE Network offers free and instant access to live & on-demand programming, every WWE Pay-Per-View, exclusive shows & specials, and much more. Just click on the Fastlane promo below to start your free month of the WWE Network. Here are the matches you will be able to watch this Sunday nights live.

Kickoff Match

Rich Swann & Akira Tozawa vs. The Brian Kendrick & Noam Dar

Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax

Raw Tag Team Championship Match

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (c) vs. Enzo Amore & Big Cass

WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match

Neville (c) vs. Jack Gallagher

Sami Zayn vs.

Monday Night Raw is in the books for another week. Raw is building towards Fastlane, the last stop in the road before Wrestlemania. How did the show fare?

Roman Reigns faced off against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in a handicap match. You would think that the WWE Tag Team Champions would find a way to finish off Roman Reigns easily and in quick order yet they ended up winning the match by Dq after Roman took a chair from Luke Gallows and hit him with it. Why have Anderson and Gallows be your Tag Team Champions and yet go out of your way to make them look weak? I get that not everyone is going to win each and every week but you would think that during a handicap match of all things, the Tag Team Champs would find a way to easily handle one person. Having Roman Reigns...

In my 25 years as a wrestling fan, Royal Rumble has always been one of my favourite annual events. The opportunity to see a bunch of your favourite WWE stars and the potential for surprises make it a night to keep an eye on. This year has some interesting matches, and the Rumble itself it set to be a star-studded affair featuring a handful of veteran names from the past, primarily Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker.

The Kick-Off show matches began with the women of Smackdown Live going at it in a six-woman tag team match. It was a shame that this seemingly got bumped from the main show, and I hope more effort is given to the women’s division on Smackdown soon. There are seperate feuds going on, so maybe we will see multiple women’s matches at the next Smackdown Live exclusive PPV. Nikki Bella, Naomi and...

January 24th, 1988 was a great day in wrestling history. On that date, live on the USA Network, the WWE held their first ever Royal Rumble. In classic Vince McMahon fashion, holding this event for free on cable was a way to keep folks from ordering the Bunkhouse Stampede pay per view Jim Crockett Promotions put out that same day. The Royal Rumble match itself was revolutionary. Starting with two performers in the ring, at regularly timed intervals, another performer would come out until, in the case of the 1988 Royal Rumble, all twenty participants were in the ring. The winner of that first Rumble was Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

Fast forward 29 years and here we are at the 30th Royal Rumble. Unlike the Rumble’s that have occurred the past five years, the WWE has done an amazing job of promoting this event. They have some great matches in store as well...

The first Monday Night Raw of the new year brought us some interesting things to talk about. We had a wonderful Last Man Standing match between Sami Zayn vs Braun Strowman which not only made Braun look like a vicious bad ass but gave Sami a much needed boost with the grit and determination he showed in the loss. We had an amazing, yet short, Number One Contender’s match for the Raw Women’s Championship between Nia Jax and Bayley which saw Bayley get the win after Sasha Banks’ music hit causing Nia to become distracted. Yet the end of the show is what really hit me most and not in a good way. It was the debut interview segment of The Kevin Owens Show with his special guest Bill Goldberg.

The WWE showed it’s audience in that segment how much they care about their champion. He was...

Monday Night Raw is in the books. Following on the footsteps of Roadblock: End of the Line, what would be the state of the Raw brand as the days lead us to January 29th, 2017 and the Royal Rumble at the Alamo Dome?

The big news coming out of the show is the rematch for the WWE Universal Championship between champion Kevin Owens vs United States Champion Roman Reigns. Chris Jericho, in an attempt to prevent him from interfering in the match, will be suspended over the ring in a shark cage. Anyone with a cursory knowledge of wrestling will remember that stipulation matches like this seem to always find the person locked in said cage finding a way to get a weapon of some sort to the person he supports allowing them to get the victory. This just occurred at Nxt: Takeover Toronto when Paul Ellering was able to get...

WWE: Roadblock-End of the Line is in the books. As a night that promised to close the chapter on some feuds on the Raw brand, for the most part the event didn’t disappoint. Here are the results of the matches and my thoughts.

Rusev vs Big Cass (Kickoff Show Match)

As I dreaded, this match was a dud thanks to Rusev. I could honestly care less about his character. While Lana is definitely a lovely woman, looks can only take you so far in the pro wrestling business. The entire setup for the match seemed stolen from 1980’s era wrestling. The only entertaining part of the match was the usual great mic work from Enzo before the match started. Thankfully it was over pretty quick. Lana distracts Enzo who gets taken out by Rusev. Big Cass checks on his friend only to get counted out. Big whoop. The...

This Sunday on the WWE Network, Roadblock: End of the Line, a Raw exclusive special event, will air. As of this writing, there are seven matches advertised for the show. I’ll discuss the lineup for the show as well as who I think should win.

Kevin Owens vs Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns has been in a tough spot for a while now. It’s clear based on how he’s been booked the past couple years that the WWE see money in his future. They want him to be the next big attraction. Yet the audience had not taken the bait, more often than not booing him out of the building. He’s not a bad performer at all in my opinion. The biggest issue I have with him is his lack of charisma. He’s boring on the mic. Not everyone has the...

Before Chris Hemsworth was cast as Thor, you may recall that wrestler Triple H was rumoured to be in line for the role of the God of Thunder. You only need to watch Blade: Trinity to be thankful that never came to pass, but there are plenty of former WWE Superstars who have proven themselves to be solid actors, with perhaps the two best known examples being Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and John Cena. Could Charlotte Flair be next? The daughter of the legendary Ric Flair, Charlotte expressed an interest in playing the female version of Thor during a Twitter Q&A today, and honestly, it would be a great fit should Marvel Studios ever decide to go down that route (a real possibility considering the fact that Hemsworth's contract is close to running out). Praised for her athleticism and promo skills, Charlotte has become a huge star and recently...

Nxt: Takeover Toronto occurred Saturday night and man, what a show it was. Nxt on the WWE Network is one of the best wrestling shows out there and for good reason. Too often in wrestling today, companies want to over complicate things with over dramatic storylines that border, and often fall, into ludicrousness. Nxt strips back some of the nonsense that has become commonplace in wrestling today and brings it back to basics.

Match #1-Bobby Roode vs Tye Dillinger

Before the match even starts, we get Booby Roode’s entrance and man was it a trip. A choir is on stage singing his theme song. Was it silly? Yes. But it also played into the over confidence his character has. A perfect meld of song and performer.

Tye Dillinger comes out and his outfit made him look like an extra from the movie Barbarella. The jury is still out on his character.

WWE’s SummerSlam 2016 is coming to Blu-ray and DVD in the UK and to celebrate we have a DVD copy up for grabs!

The summer belongs to the New Era! For the first time ever, the newly created WWE Universal Championship is up for grabs when “The Demon King” Finn Bálor goes toe-to-toe with “The Undisputed Future” Seth Rollins. In a battle between Suplex City and Viperville, Brock Lesnar takes on Randy Orton in a match “15 years in the making”. In a rematch from WWE Money in the Bank, Aj Styles and John Cena look to up the ante to see who is the better man. The rivalry between Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler heats up even further when they face off for “The Lunatic Fringe’s” WWE World Championship. The WWE Women’s Championship takes the stage when champion Sasha Banks defends her title against Charlotte. Plus much more...

1. Cody Rhodes is set to debut for Tna at their Bound for Glory Pay Per View. It’s the second big company he’s set to work for this year as he’s already been committed to Ring of Honor for their Pay Per View in December, Final Battle. What’s interesting about the Tna gig is that due to WWE holding the legal rights to the Rhodes name in his case, he can only go by Cody. Time will tell if he’s able to show folks he’s capable of stepping up his game to become a main event talent.

2. Awesome Kong, or as she was known in WWE, Kharma, has landed a role in the new Netflix show Glow as reported by ProWrestlingSheet.com. She’s set to play a more comedic role than what we’ve seen of her in the ring so that should be interesting to see.

1.Adam Cole came out victorious, as predicted by me last week, at Death Before Dishonor. It’s a well deserved victory for an up and coming star. What that victory, it caps Ring of Honor’s first real attempt at an episodic story line. One legitimate issue I’ve had with Ring of Honor television is the fact that apart from some rudimentary nods to their Pay Per Views, the shows have been random matches that have no real meaning. Wrestling is story telling. If we wanted to see two guys, or ladies, fight, we’d watch Mma. While the story was spotty, the fact they found a way to keep us viewed to the screen every week is a step in the right direction if the company hopes to expand. One bit of advice I have for Ring of Honor. Get Steve Corino back on color commentary! You have...

1.Ring of Honor will produce Death Before Dishonor Xiv tonight on Pay Per View. The Main Event will be Ring of Honor World Heavyweight Champion Jay Lethal squaring off against Adam Cole. The build up for the match may not have been stellar but the match itself should be great. With the push Adam Cole has received from the company since joining The Bullet Club, I expect him to take the title.

2.Alberto Del Rio, Paige, and Eva Marie have been suspended for their first time offense of the WWE Wellness Policy. There’s no word yet as to what substance they may have taken but it’s disappointing to hear of the suspensions nonetheless. However, the WWE has put themselves over a barrel with these announcements since they refuse to do anything about the recent Usada failure of Brock Lesnar which was handed down after his fight at Ufc...

The summer temperatures keep on rising! With SummerSlam 2016 on the horizon, the WWE Universe is preparing for one of its biggest events of the year at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, and you can bet there will be lots of heat! With matches featuring some of the biggest WWE Superstars—Randy Orton, Brock Lesner, Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Dolph Ziggler and, oh, some guy named John Cena—make sure to buckle up in preparation for lots of explosive action, crazy surprises and star power! Before the competition and celebrations get started, here are the things we're most excited for at SummerSlam 2016! 1. Attitude Adjustment: John Cena, who will star in Total Bellas this...