Your Midweek Links: B-Stroud, Blogging Bro-se Cansec-bro and BUY THE QUARTERLY

Brandon Stroud, who totally didn't pay me to feature him this week
Photo Credit: Destiny D. Talley

It's hump day, so here are some links to get you through the rest of the week:

Self-Shilling:

- The Wrestling Podcast! Brandon Stroud talks about Robert Evans, Akira Tozawa and how awesome a dude Matt Ufford is, all while pretending to be Mitch from PizzaBodySlam. [Episode 7: In the Aeroplane over the CIMA]

- In which I wax poetically about a Christian vs. Sheamus Smackdown main event at Fair to Flair. [Your Match of the Week, 6/12-6/18]

- Fair to Flair Quarterly: You missed the presale, but don't worry, you can still get it on the cheap. Go with the digital copy, like I've been telling you since we started hawking this. It's cheaper, it's greener and doggone it, people will like you. [Fair to Flair Quarterly Spring 2011: On Sale Now]

Wrestling Links:

- Speaking of Mitch, here's his review of RAW this past Monday. It's a hoot! [Fair to Flair]

- Speaking of the guy who pretended to be Mitch on the podcast, here's a double shot of Brandon Stroud Best and Worst ofs, for Capitol Punishment and RAW. [With Leather]

- Lagana gets the FJM treatment from Wrestling Theory [Wrestling Theory]

- Razor scores a huge interview with Jeff Katz, the purveyor of Wrestling Revolution. [Kick-Out Blog]

- WWE bans fake weed. That sucks for anyone who wants to put oregano on their pizza backstage. [Cageside Seats]

- 10 Questions with Icarus. Next week, John Hyperion will interview his terrible back tattoo. [Dirty Dirty Sheets]

- Ric Flair wants a Coke, dammit! [PizzaBodySlam]

- What did Paul Heyman want to do with TNA? [Camel Clutch Blog]

- A review of the WWE's Hart and Soul DVD [The Harrison Analysis]

- Five good things about Capitol Punishment. [Grapple Kingdom]

- Good ol' JR on CM Punk and other things. [JR's BBQ Sauce Blog]

- Jillian Hall returns to the ring. [Diva Dirt]

- United Airlines vs. Sonjay Dutt [I Want Wrestling]

- Footage of Averno's unmasking [Luchablog]

- An interview with Christian. [South Atlanta Wrestling]

- Top 10 most racist/xenophobic moments in wrestling, featuring Booker T getting Sambo'd [MTV Clutch]

- Wrestlespective Radio with guest Joey Image [Wrestlespective]

Jamie Dobson Interviews:

- Don Rosario Caruso

- Referee Jay Stone

Non-Wrestling Links:

- A letter from Little Timmy to Roger Goodell. Not to be confused with Little Jimmy, or else R-Truth would be involved. Also, I reference this on the next TWP with guest Josh Zerkle, who wrote this. Read it, because PUNTE does good work. [Kissing Suzy Kolber]

- How the Boston Bruins ran up a $150K bar tab. I ain't even mad, they earned it. [Puck Daddy]

- Taglines for romantic comedies that'll never exist. My favorite? "This spring, Adrian Grenier falls down a flight of stairs." [The Hairpin]

- Deep-fried Kool Aid. Somewhere in Canada, a bearded man drinking Jack Daniels just did a spit take. [Buzz Feed]

- Speaking of which, the laziest, but still an awesome, edition of the show Jamie Oliver doesn't want you to watch. [Epic Meal Time]

- Spencer Hall gives tribute to Ryan Dunn. [SB Nation]

- Justin Henry also writes about Dunn, but it's more a cautionary tale than a tribute. [Camel Clutch Blog]

- If talk radio callers took to the streets... [Sports Pickle]

- Rolling Stone's top 100 songs of the '00s. Sure to inspire FFFFFFUUUUUUs from people who are foolish enough to take any list RS does seriously. [Rolling Stone]

- Skype, making phone sex better... or worse? Not sure what to think about this one. [Deadspin]

- Game of Thrones season 1 finale recap! [Unreality Mag]

- A bionic dog? A bionic dog. [Gamma Squad]

- Interesting idea for Flashpoint [Comic Books and Whatever]

- A trailer for the new Muppet movie. [Blast-o-Rama]

- A fine rant about Ilya Bryzgalov, re: Flyers fans [Flyers Goal Scored By]

- George O'Leary might be in some trouble over his response to a UCF player dying on the practice field. [Dr. Saturday]

- Advanced sabermetrics for rock 'n roll? I don't know whether to revel or be aghast. Well, I'm aghast if only because Klosterman gave the Rolling fucking Stones a 0.989. THEY SUCK. [Grantland]

- Dennis Rodman hates LeBron James almost as much as he likes wearing women's clothing. In a related note, no, B-Stroud didn't pay me at all to feature him four times this week. Why did you ask? [With Leather]

- The primary difference between mayo and Miracle Whip. [The Oatmeal]

- Who knew ancient artists were pervs? [Cracked]

- Better to be pissed off than to be pissed on [The Daily What]

- How to remember the ACC divisions mnemonically [Every Day Should Be Saturday]

- Len Bias, 25 Years Gone [Dan Shanoff]

- Amare Stoudemire talks trash to a retiree. [Hugging Harold Reynolds]

- Jimmy Rollins looks to break a world record in something other than having the most swagger. [The 700 Level]

- No Shatner in Star Trek 2. *sad* [Film Drunk]

- Bit LOST actor marries a country music star 35 years his junior. He's 51. Yeah, and if this girl is 16, then I'm Idris Elba. [Warming Glow]

- So true. [Skull Swap]

- A look at "traditional" marriage over the years. [GraphJam]

- Who knew the ICP didn't have a sense of humor? [Uproxx]

- Roy Halladay's epic St. Louis workout [I Want to Go to the Zoo with Roy Halladay]

- "That's funny, I didn't think nerds were capable of relationships." - some jock [Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]

- Swine flu dirty bomb Russian insurgents Paris Hilton's vagina. [The Onion]

- The Japanese interview the Phillie Phanatic. Yep. [The Fightins]

- The long awaited new "Weird" Al Yankovic video for "Perform This Way". As a side note, "Weird" Al in drag looks an awful lot like Jane Krakowski [Topless Robot]

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Your Midweek Links: BUY THE QUARTERLY

2/3s of the ultimate Fire Pro Trio, according to Brandon Stroud
Photo Credit: WWE.com

It's hump day, so here are some links to get you through the rest of the week.

Self-Shilling:

- Me and my blogging Bro-bert Plant Mitch from PizzaBodySlam did a podcast that had our fellow Fair to Flair cohort K. Sawyer Paul run in and cause outside interference. [Episode 6: Darkness on the Edge and Christian of Town]

- My Camel Clutch Blog column this week, all about my begrudging acceptance of Christian's new role as Smackdown's top heel. [Learning to Live with Christian's Heel Turn]

- My latest for Fair to Flair, on whether the WWE needs CM Punk or not... now with DISQUS comments! [Does WWE Need CM Punk?]

- Fair to Flair Quarterly! Have you ordered your copy yet? I keep telling you the best deal is $10 for the e-reader copy. It's cheaper and greener! PLUS you support about a dozen websites doing good work in the field of wrestling journalism. [A Beautiful Neighborhood]

Wrestling Links:

- 10 Questions with Kellie Skater [Dirty Dirty Sheets]

- You Can't See the Dallas Mavericks [South Atlanta Wrestling]

- Randy Orton gets propositioned for sodomy on Twitter. Hilarity ensues. [PizzaBodySlam Tumblr]

- Jerome Willen argues that R-Truth should be WWE Champion... [Camel Clutch Blog]

- ...but Trey Irby thinks that Truth should really be nowhere near the title for the time being (ditto Cody Rhodes) [Wrestling Theory]

- Razor flashes back to a year ago, when the Nexus changed the WWE landscape [Kick-Out Wrestling]

- Andre Harrison, meanwhile, takes the opportunity on the anniversary of its beginning to look at where the angle ultimately went wrong. [The Harrison Analysis]

- Beth Phoenix says the Divas aren't this close-knit sorority that is sometimes alluded to on screen. I AM SO SHOCKED. [Diva Dirt]

- Stephen T. Stone looks at Slammiversary. [Grapple Kingdom]

- The most compelling argument for wrestling as theater you'll ever read. [Fair to Flair]

- Does Mick Foley regret leaving Impact Wrestling? [Cageside Seats]

- 24 Biggest Wrestling Conspiracies Ever [TruTV]

- Dave Lagana podcasts with the barrister of the Embassy, Robert Evans [I Want Wrestling]

- The Best and Worst of RAW, 6/13, or how Big Zeke, Sin Cara and AmDrag are the best Fire Pro tag team in WWE history [With Leather]

Jamie Dobson Interviews:

- Super Tiger II

- Mike Dennis

Non-Wrestling Links:

- Charity alert! Kisses for Kyle Phillies block party is June 23rd! If you're in the area, go and help support childhood cancer research! [I Want to Go to the Zoo with Roy Halladay]

- Von Miller is... FOOTBALL HIPSTER [Kissing Suzy Kolber]

- Gwyneth Paltrow - Fat Shamer (Click through to see a .gif of Harley Morenstein from Epic Meal Time saying FUCK SALAD) [Uproxx]

- Speaking of EMT... bacon weave manicotti, for the haters. Smart. [Epic Meal Time]

- Cole Hamels is probably the best non-Roy Halladay pitcher on the Phillies staff right now. The only bad news to that? He's gonna want to get paid, and soon. [Phillies Nation]

- Is it bad for you to hold farts in? Yes, Drew Magary got that exact question at Deadspin. [Deadspin]

- The pros and cons of owning a smartphone [The Oatmeal]

- Still reeling from Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones? Read this! [Unreality Mag]

- Still reeling even after reading that recap? Here's some catharsis in the form of Tyrion slapping the shit out of Joffrey on loop set to Led Zeppelin. [Topless Robot]

- Bill Simmons' Game 6 NBA Finals retro diary [Grantland]

- If only LeBron played hockey... [Sports Pickle]

- Review of X-Men: Overnight Mail [Comic Books and Whatever]

- Did you want to see a collection of pictures of celebrities holding vinyl records? Of course you did! Plus, Joan Collins used to be smoking hot. [Buzz Feed]

- Terry Pratchett and the case for dying with dignity [Gamma Squad]

- Wear sunscreen, and by sunscreen, I mean human blood [The Onion]

- Schwetty Balls: The Ice Cream [Warming Glow]

- Absolutely brilliant. [Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]

- A Knicks fan reflects on the NBA season [Hugging Harold Reynolds]

- Super cool retro poster for The First Avenger: Captain America [Blast-o-Rama]

- Hey, you a gamer? Well, prepare to get fucked by the industry. [Cracked]

- Dan Shanoff with a thoughtful response to the NBA Finals [Quickish]

- Terrelle Pryor leaves Ohio State to go to... Ohio State? [Every Day Should Be Saturday]

- Move over Chuck Norris, Sean Bean, aka Alec Trevalyan, Boromir and Ned Stark, is the new most badass mofo ever. [Film Drunk]

- Why dead kids make bad laws [Reason]

- Is the Heisman Andrew Luck's to lose? [Dr. Saturday]

- A look at new head coaches for three NHL teams [Puck Daddy]

- iTunes Store costs Apple $1.3 billion a year to maintain. [Cult of Mac]

- And if you weren't sick of the basketball links here already, Burnsy tells LeBron James how he can deal with his haters in a way that isn't "Haha, you have crappy lives and I don't" [With Leather]

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Follow Friday: Fair to Flair

The quarterly!

Fair to Flair, for those who are just starting to follow this blog or who do follow TWB and missed out on all the posts describing it, is a blog that has set out to raise the bar in wrestling journalism. The premise is quality over quantity, with a focus more on the ephemeral qualities of wrestling, rather than NEWZ and rumors and bitching about ratings or knee-jerk reactions. It's about analysis through the lens of people who love wrestling for what it is, not for what it could be. It consists of five writers. There's myself, who, well, duh, you know me or else you wouldn't be reading. I know I've done this before, but again, it's reboot week and I do have ulterior motives. But anyway, here are the other four contributors to the site.

Jason Mann is the first on the list, found @wrestlespective, and he's the guy behind the idea. He's level-headed and often brings sense to situations where the Internet community might freak out. He also is a purveyor of really bad puns, which is endearing in a way. But yeah, he's the founder and without him, the project wouldn't have even been ideated.

Next up is K. Sawyer Paul, found @ksawyerpaul. He's stepping back from writing for the site because of personal issues, but he's still active in editing for the site as well as on Twitter and Tumblr, reposting articles and live-Tweeting DVD watching, most recently the Nitro DVD. He looks at things from a vastly different perspective than some, and he also HATES Bryan Alvarez's writing.

Third is my blogging Ric-Bro Suave, Mitch, whose handle is the ubiquitous @pizzabodyslam. He's the least active of the quintet, but for good reason. Dude has to do mad traveling for work. However, when he's around, he provides the RAW review in his standard WOO!/BOO! format. He also provides a look at wrestling from the most innocent point of view, in that he's probably the least jaded or "smarky" of the lot.

Last, but certainly not least, is Razor, whom you can find @kickoutblog. His angst and malaise towards Randy Orton is legendary, and it's a feeling I can certainly get behind. He also is the group's go-to personality for Tough Enough, video games and he's also in radio, so that makes him most valuable for podcasting when it comes around.

If you follow those four (and me, follow me!), as well as the actual @FairtoFlair feed, you'll get all the FtF posts, all our insights on wrestling and otherwise and just all the random fun we provide for free. Ah yes, that's the rub, "for free". We do have something that we charge for, and that's the Quarterly. I've pimped this before here, but it's worth doing again. Why? Because it's part of our mission statement, probably the biggest part.

Basically, we solicited for columns that would be memorable, that would be timeless, that would be as poignant five years from now as it is today. We got submissions from 11 of the best writers in the wrestling blogosphere (and from me), and all of them in some way contribute to this love letter to professional wrestling. It's chock-full of positivity and promise with critical thought mixed in. It's so different in tone than what you usually find in pay-for-print in wrestling that I guarantee you'll feel like you're underpaying for the whole thing when you order it. Again, my personal recommendation is to buy the digital copy for the low price of $10. You'll get a copy you can read on your e-Reader or laptop, and it's green to boot.

Listen, I know for a fact that some of you pay for the Observer or Torch. That's all well and good, and for news, yeah, I guess they're worth the money, even if at times, they get worked or report on things like spoilers that might change. Okay. But the commentary? It's often rambling, grammatically poor and so pessimistic, centered on ratings and other bullshit that you might not care about. It feels like it's not edited at times. And you can tell that some of them would rather be writing about MMA or that they disdainfully write about wrestling or they're disappointed that wrestling's not at the top of the world anymore. They don't appreciate the art. So, why not pay for commentary written by people who love wrestling, about topics you care about, and most importantly, edited by someone whose whole field of expertise is the written word? It's seriously professional grade, and at $10-25 an issue, depending on how you buy, that's a steal.

But hey, even if you don't buy the Quarterly, then at least give the FtF crew a follow on Twitter. You'll find that even the stuff provided for free is more than worth the price tag.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!

Fair to Flair Quarterly on Sale Now!

Cover art: Leslie Lee III

Via Fair to Flair

Hey, you like reading The Wrestling Blog? And do you like magazines? And do you think that pro wrestling can be written about on a higher level of sophistication? And do you not mind paying for such content? WELL DO I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU!

The Fair to Flair Quarterly is ready for pre-sale. Now, what is the Quarterly? It's a magazine written by the Fair to Flair crew, including for this issue myself, Jason Mann and Razor, as well as a bunch of other talented contributors solicited by the FtF crew. Now, why is there a charge for this? Everything else on the Internet is free! Well, for one, it's a higher level of writing. It's less blog-quality (not that there's anything wrong WITH blog-quality, but yeah) and more "hey look, this is published" quality. Second, it's edited, like with a fine-tooth comb edited by K. Sawyer Paul. Third, well, if you choose to get it on real, honest-to-God paper, then that and the printing costs money.

Now, there are four different options you could go with. First is order the hard copy now or within the next two weeks for $20. Two, you could get it after two weeks for $25. So if you order it now, you'd get $5 off. Three, you could get a subscription, four episodes a year, for $90, which is a total of $10 off if you were to buy each issue piecemeal. Then, the final option is to get the digital copy for $10, which is a bargain, and it's greener! You can read it on your Kindle or your laptop or whatever other digital device you have, and you're saving trees!

So yeah, gobble this up. I previewed it, and it's got some really good articles. Plus one by me about Sean Waltman and King of Trios... but yeah, you knew I was going to write about Chikara in some capacity.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!