WrestleCrap


WrestleCrap is a professional wrestling website created by R. D. Reynolds and Merle Vincent, serving as a "hall of shame" for some of the worst gimmicks and storylines in professional 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 committed suicide in September 2000, 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. 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.
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.
In December 2016, the entire site archive was made available for users who made a one-time donation to the site, or supported the site on Patreon.

Site content

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, widely thought of as one of the most disastrous wrestling gimmicks of all time.

Winners

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. Vince McMahon's comments about "brass rings" actually won the 2014 poll, but Reynolds declared that, since the Bella Twins feud came a close second in the poll, he named the "brass ring" comments and the Bella Twins feud co-winners.

WrestleCrap Radio (2005–2012; 2015–present)

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, 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. Episode 251 was released ten days later on August 30, followed by two more episodes each in September and October.

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, 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 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 . 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" and "Angry Jim Ross", among many others.