Not to sound morbid or anything, but the year 2024 at SlamWrestling.net was dominated by death.
We broke the news of passings of a couple of big stars, like Sweet Daddy Siki (though he died in 2024, the story was in 2025) and Virgil, but the names below are decidedly not all mainstream names. What happens is that those stories get shared in a whole different way than, say, Kevin Sullivan’s obituary, where every site had something. It’s also good example about how pro wrestling is about far more than just the main eventers.
With the ease of reports / analytics these days, we figured, Hey, let’s see what the top stories of 2023 are! (Just like we did the last three years: 2023, 2022 and 2021.) We have also offered up some insight into the how or why. And we picked 24 stories because beer is packaged best in a two-four.
(Note that we are excluding “home” pages from our list, since the SlamWrestling.net homepage, News & Rumors, TV reports, Event reports, Obituaries, and the Canadian Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame all are among our top trafficked pages consistently.)
TOP TRAFFICKED STORIES FOR 2024
- Shooter Tony Jones dead at 53 – Never a national star, he was in the movie Beyond the Mat though.
- ‘Dirty Money’ Jermaine Robinson dead at 44 – Even less of a name than Tony Jones, I’m not exactly sure why this one resonated other than he was a delightful, colorful character by all accounts.
- ‘Virgil’ Mike Jones dies – I broke this story, which accounts for a lot when it comes to traffic. But I am even more proud of some of the accompanying stories, like this one by Trapper Tom Leturgey: Jones family grateful for outpouring of love for little brother Virgil
- Nikki Garcia issues statement, more details on abuse arrest – The Bellas/Garcias don’t guarantee good matches, but have meant some decent traffic.
- The Rhodes family responds to Rock’s attack – A collection of tweets really from the Rhodes family after The Rock beat down Cody before WrestleMania.
- Kevin Sullivan dead at 74 – Not much else to say. “The Taskmaster” was a legend in the ring, at ringside and behind the scenes as a creative mind.
- BC’s ‘Big Cat’ Scott Henson dead at 40 – Through the years, I have become familiar with a lot of Canadian talent, but didn’t know Henson. It was a great gimmick, with a sad ending.
- NWA finally has a home – We have found that NWA doesn’t get a lot of attention with all the noise generated by WWE and AEW fans, so sometimes a story as simple as NWA announcing that it was taping at the WEDU-PBS studio in Tampa became news.
- Report: Nikki Bella filing for divorce – See #4
- WWE censors Elimination Chamber broadcast – Naughty things going on, wardrobe malfunctions … all of which doesn’t get saved on the replay.
- Sunny’s shoot interview from prison: ‘She wanted me to sign my underwear’ – Alas, nothing “Sunny” Tammy Sytch does surprises us any longer.
- Hulk Hogan claims Roddy Piper contacted him from beyond the grave – Hogan continues to attract the wrong kind of headlines.
- Raw: The prophecy comes true – Two weeks prior to WrestleMania XL, it was all coming to a head.
- WWE superstar suffers family tragedy before big Clash at the Castle match – A tidbit about the family of Alba Fyre.
- Wrestler turned actor Scott L. Schwartz dead at 65 – While we didn’t break the news, I know that my obit was among the best and most complete on Schwartz, as his daughter and widow sent in their thank you notes.
- Tiffany Stratton accused of making racist post – If it’s Jessica Woynilko saying it, no one would notice, but since she is now Tiffany Stratton, it was news … if taken out of context.
- WWE cuts superstars – Jinder Mahal, Xia Li, Xyon Quinn all cut, and yet the world kept spinning.
- MMA fighter says McMahon targeted men, women; names Shawn Michaels – The only thing tougher than Chael Sonnen is silencing him.
- Fans furious over AEW, Sting debacle – Thanks for the memories, Sting.
- Kevin Sullivan’s health challenges revealed – Prior to his passing, Sullivan’s family had asked for help to pay for some of the medical bills, and immediately the wrestling world helped out.
- Indy veteran Micah Taylor dead at 47 – He had his cups of tea adjacent to the big time in WWE developmental, but never got a break.
- Ric Flair blames this trio for the death of WCW – “The Nature Boy” was responding to the VICE series Who Killed WCW? which did not interview him.
- Previewing Season 5 of Dark Side of the Ring – I had gathered some good intel from various sources for a fun story.
- Natalya details her struggles with blindness – Who knew that Nattie was basically blind in one eye? It makes all that she has accomplished even more impressive.
Top TV show report? It was at #13, Raw: The prophecy comes true, but next was the awesomely titled SmackDown: The Execution of Paul Heyman.
Top photo gallery? This was a surprise and speaks to the power of smaller shows and the word spreading. John McFarlin shot the Divine Women’s Pro Wrestling card on Apr. 26, 2024, where the biggest names were Mickie Knuckles and Randi West.
The top archived story was Jonathan Plombon’s deep dive from 2022 into the life and times of Richard Wilson, The moderate rise and tragic fall of The Renegade.
The takeaway from the above list?
People come to SlamWrestling.net for the quality of its writing, especially its obituaries and features, and the photos.
For that, we say thank you! We are looking forward to more great content in 2025!
