by TheBigBoot on 2 July 2009 The turning point in Christian’s solo career came during his old mate The Rock’s highly entertaining Hollywood heel run in 2003, in a backstage segment where he asked the action hero to sign a copy of The Scorpion King. After Rock signed it, ‘To Christian, my favourite wrestler”, ‘The Great One’ took time out to give some advice. Telling him “Carpe diem”, Rocky delivered a motivational speech encouraging Christian to “seize the day”. Christian seemed to take this advice to heart winning his second Intercontinental Title at Judgment Day 2003 in a Battle Royal consisting entirely of former Intercontinental Champions (he lost and regained it from Booker T. over the course of that summer). Sporting new shorter-hairstyle, wardrobe, and cocky-cool persona, he began referring to himself as ‘The New People’s Champion’ and his fans as ‘Peeps’ and the ‘Peepulation’...

by TheBigBoot on 24 June 2009 Everyone knew it was coming. It was simply a matter of where and when. Fans all over the world knew it was only a matter of time until Prodigal Son returned ‘home’ to WWE, a born again Christian. Internet rumours had the Canadian set to re-debut by costing old-rival Jeff Hardy the WWE Title at the 2009 Royal Rumble...

by TheBigBoot on 24 June 2009 Rumours and speculation make up a big part of the online wrestling landscape. Always have, always will. One rumour that won’t go away is that Eric Bischoff and/or Hulk Hogan are going to launch their own wrestling company in an attempt to give Vince McMahon serious competition. Recently, the story gained more credence when it was reported that Bischoff and Hogan have had talks with CMT about creating a new wrestling promotion that would air on the channel...

by TheBigBoot on 24 June 2009 It’s a new year and TheBigBoot is back and ready to rumble. February brings many things: snow, Valentines’ Day, the Fifth Round Proper of the F.A. Cup, and once every four years we get February 29th – ‘Leap Day’. In the world of journalism it also brings ‘Year End Awards’. Historically this was because of magazine deadlines and the time needed to compile votes. It is a tradition that continues to this day in the world of print, in publications related to a whole range of sports, hobbies, pass-times including those magazines and newsletters dedicated to that weird and wonderful thing we call professional wrestling...

by TheBigBoot on 29 June 2008 It has been six years since WWE made the decision to separate its roster in two with the ‘Brand Extension’. Just over a year after the collapse of ECW (February, 2001) and buying out top competitor WCW (March, 2001), the promotion was filled with talent new and old. Since Raw and SmackDown! tended to feature the same wrestlers, the idea was that by allocating half the roster to each show it would allow more wrestlers more time to be on television and thus enable the creation of new stars...

by TheBigBoot on 15 April 2008 WrestleMania has been and gone. The biggest event of the wrestling calendar has taken place and we now have to wait another year for the next one. Whilst that WrestleMania aura is still in the air, I thought I would do as I did with the Royal Rumble, and look back at last year’s WrestleMania and see how 2007’s version holds up one year later...

by TheBigBoot on 10 February 2008 In my first article I talked about ‘Unpredictability in Wrestling’. In my second I talked about the previous year’s Royal Rumble. Well, the result of this year’s Royal Rumble will go down as the most unpredictable yet...

by TheBigBoot on 27 January 2008 With the Royal Rumble just around the corner I thought I’d look back at last year’s event and see how much things have changed in the last twelve months…

by TheBigBoot on 27 November 2007 Welcome to the debut of Now That’s What I Call Wrestling. Now for those of you who don’t know me I am your new hero, your party host and most importantly the most charismatic showman to ever enter your living rooms via a television screen. In this column I’m going to look at unpredictability in wrestling, with relation to the current scene.