football

Jeff Gaylord dead at 64

Posted by Greg Oliver | Mar 15, 2023 | News, Obituaries, The Sporting Connection

Jeff Gaylord, a football player turned pro wrestler, has died. He was 64. His brother, Joel...

Pat McAfee taking hiatus from WWE for ESPN role

Posted by Bob Kapur | Sep 7, 2022 | News

Pat McAfee announced that he will be taking time off from his responsibilities as WWE Smackdown...

Wife’s insights make Wahoo McDaniel bio even better

Posted by Greg "Count Grog" Mosorjak | Feb 21, 2022 | Gary Howard Memorial Library, The Sporting Connection

There have been a lot of books written about pro wrestlers, some by the wrestlers themselves, some...

WWE Legends part of the ‘mania’ of the SuperBowl

Posted by Bob Kapur | Feb 14, 2022 | Hollywood Headlock, News, The Sporting Connection

Full of glitz, glamour, celebrity, and spectacle – oh, and some sports action, too – WWE...

NFL great Marion Motley’s brief wrestling fling

Posted by Greg Oliver | Feb 13, 2022 | The Sporting Connection

In November 2021, I reviewed a book, The Forgotten First: Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, Marion...

Wrestling’s Woody Strode big part of ‘Forgotten First’ football book

Posted by Greg Oliver | Nov 25, 2021 | Gary Howard Memorial Library, The Sporting Connection

Sometimes you get a book and you just know that it is capital “I” Important....

Angelo Mosca dead at 84

Posted by Greg Oliver | Nov 6, 2021 | Canadian Hall of Fame, News, Obituaries, The Sporting Connection

Angelo “King Kong” Mosca, star of the gridiron and the ring, has died. He was 84, and...

Actor Matthew Willig has ‘Giant’ shoes to fill in ‘Young Rock’ role

Posted by Dave Hillhouse | Feb 16, 2021 | Hollywood Headlock, Hollywood Headlock Interviews, Interviews, The Sporting Connection

Dwayne Johnson has claimed the mantle of Hollywood movie star number one, and he was no slouch in...

Mat Matters: It’s football, so get the facts right on Reed

Posted by Greg Oliver | Feb 7, 2021 | Opinion, The Sporting Connection

This might be shocking to you but in professional wrestling facts are exaggerated. Wait, even that...

Finn Balor comes to aid of football club

Posted by John Powell | Jul 7, 2020 | News, The Sporting Connection

The Bray Wanderers F.C. asked for help and WWE superstar Finn Balor answered the call. Due to the...

Big John Quinn dead at 78

Posted by Greg Oliver | Apr 22, 2019 | Canadian Hall of Fame, Interviews, Obituaries

Big John Quinn, who died April 22, 2019, at age 78, from complications after an operation for a...

Lionel Conacher: Big Train on the mat

Posted by Andrew Calvert | Mar 23, 2019 | Canadian Hall of Fame, Interviews, The Sporting Connection

Lionel Conacher was voted Canada’s athlete of the half-century in 1950 and most biographies...

Josh Briggs has a big future

Posted by Bertrand Hébert | Feb 11, 2019 | Interviews

On Saturday, January 19, during EVOLVE 120 at La Boom in New York City, Josh Briggs scored a...

‘Vader’ Leon White dead at age 63

Posted by Steven Johnson | Jun 20, 2018 | Interviews, Obituaries

Leon White, the football star turned professional wrestler known as Vader and Big Van Vader, has...

NXT experience paid off for Dak Draper

Posted by BRIAN HOOPS | Nov 12, 2017 | Interviews

A career-defining moment came for Sam Udell on July 31, 2014. That was the day he lost his WWE...

Tom Drake was greatest of all wrestlers turned politicians

Posted by Greg Oliver | Feb 2, 2017 | Interviews, Obituaries

There are wrestlers who toy with politics and don’t succeed; there are wrestlers who do...

Former Hawkeye Big E humbled by visit to Tragos/Thesz Hall of Fame

Posted by Kari Williams | Aug 1, 2016 | Interviews, Tragos/Thesz HOF

The George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame weekend served as a homecoming of...

How the Dublin Destroyer broke into acting

Posted by Blaine Van Der Griend | Jul 16, 2016 | Hollywood Headlock Interviews, Interviews

Brian Donahue made a living for himself by taking bumps inside the wrestling ring, usually as the...

Blackjack Mulligan dead at 73

Posted by Steven Johnson | Apr 7, 2016 | Interviews, Obituaries

By GREG OLIVER & STEVE JOHNSON – SlamWrestling Blackjack Mulligan, who died today at the...

Mat Matters: NFL trumps WWE, always

Posted by Greg Oliver | Jan 22, 2016 | Opinion

Whomever plans the dates for WWE pay-per-views needs to be fired. Who, in their right mind, puts...

MoscaMania runs wild again

Posted by Greg Oliver | Aug 27, 2015 | Canadian Hall of Fame, Events, Interviews, The Sporting Connection

HAMILTON – Back in 1986 and 1987, football and pro wrestling great Angelo Mosca turned...

It’s damn hard being Ron Simmons

Posted by Pat Laprade | Jul 3, 2015 | Interviews, The Sporting Connection

It’s damn hard being Ron Simmons. “I can’t go to an airport without a little...

Don Manoukian lived a full, fun life

Posted by Greg Oliver | Sep 24, 2014 | Interviews, Obituaries

Don Manoukian, the original Oakland Raider who turned to pro wrestling, died Tuesday in Reno,...

Chris Nowinski’s impact continues to grow

Posted by Caleb Smith | Sep 10, 2014 | Interviews

He might be the most influential person in sport today. When he first came to prominence on North...

Looking back at Alzado’s Learning The Ropes

Posted by Greg Oliver | Aug 11, 2014 | Hollywood Headlock, Interviews, The Sporting Connection

Learning The Ropes came and went without much of a ripple back in the fall of 1988, but it remains...

Moose Ojinnaka brings NFL experience to ROH rings

Posted by Matthew Asher | Jul 14, 2014 | Interviews, The Sporting Connection

Last month at Ring of Honor’s Best in the World pay-per-view, Quinn “Moose”...

Kongo Kong inspires awe

Posted by Caleb Smith | Feb 12, 2014 | Interviews

In wrestling there are many stereotypes, especially for a black performer. You could be the...

Football was Roman Reigns’ first love

Posted by Matthew Byer | Oct 10, 2013 | Interviews, The Sporting Connection

Roman Reigns is at the apex of the professional wrestling industry as a member of The Shield and...

Entertaining to a fault: Snitsky continues to tackle challenges

Posted by JAMES DE MEDEIROS | Oct 9, 2013 | Interviews

If you went to a WWE wrestling show between September 2004 and December 2008 and weren’t in...

Don Joyce was famed defensive end, part-time wrestler

Posted by Greg Oliver | Dec 26, 2012 | Interviews, Obituaries, The Sporting Connection

Looking back at the names that were lost from the world of pro wrestling in 2012, most lists omit...

Ex-CFLer Nick Hannah tackles squared circle

Posted by Andy McNamara | Oct 5, 2012 | Interviews, The Sporting Connection

What do Ernie Ladd, Angelo Mosca, and The Rock all have in common? Each of these superstars got...

The remarkable strengths of Doug Furnas

Posted by Greg Oliver | Mar 30, 2012 | Interviews, Obituaries, The Sporting Connection

In the end, our lives are really just a collection of memories. When a life ends, as it did for...

Bagwell goes back to school

Posted by Matthew Asher | Feb 26, 2012 | Interviews

MARIETTA, GA. — Wrestlers working in a high school gym is nothing new. But last Saturday,...

Kenny King plenty tough enough for ROH

Posted by Greg Oliver | May 5, 2011 | Interviews

Kenny King walked onto the second season of WWE Tough Enough with zero experience in professional...

A personal remembrance: Mike Shaw loved sports and family

Posted by MATT JOHNSON | Sep 12, 2010 | Obituaries, Opinion

Mike Shaw loved his family and would do anything for them. That is how the man should be...

Kinji Shibuya dead at 88

Posted by Greg Oliver | May 8, 2010 | Interviews, Obituaries

Kinji Shibuya, who died Monday at the age of 88, once described his move from wrestling to acting...

Gene Kiniski dead at 81

Posted by Greg Oliver | Apr 14, 2010 | Canadian Hall of Fame, Interviews, Obituaries

Gene Kiniski was so media savvy that he instructed this writer on what to write when the...

‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams dead at 49

Posted by Chris Schramm | Dec 30, 2009 | Obituaries

“God has a plan for me,” Steve Williams wrote friends after entering the hospital to...

Controversial Jim Wilson dead at 67

Posted by Chris Schramm | Feb 8, 2009 | Interviews, Obituaries

A former college football All-American, NFL player, journeyman wrestler and advocate for the start...

Mosca marks 50 years in Canada

Posted by Greg Oliver | Sep 18, 2008 | Canadian Hall of Fame, Interviews

Angelo “King Kong” Mosca just passed the 50th anniversary of his arrival in Canada. Of...

How Ray Gunkel’s death changed wrestling

Posted by Steven Johnson | Jun 27, 2008 | Interviews, Tragos/Thesz HOF

Rows of wrestling photographs encircle heavy-duty gym equipment wedged into the first floor of...

Cousin Luke made a lasting impression

Posted by Greg Oliver | May 23, 2008 | Interviews

It takes quite a while to list all the names and gimmicks that Gene Petit used during his 28-year...

Memories of Martin’s Sportstown Grill

Posted by Greg Oliver | Nov 22, 2007 | Canadian Hall of Fame, Interviews

Be it Martin’s Sports Town Grill or Hutzler’s Steakhouse, just mentioning these names...

Steve Travis and the dawn of the Drug Era

Posted by Steven Johnson | Nov 1, 2007 | Interviews

When he learned that Chris Benoit murdered his wife and seven-year-old son in late June before...

Original Kabooki faced a tough foe

Posted by Steven Johnson | Oct 17, 2007 | Interviews, Obituaries

As of the late 1960s, Rey Urbano had been wrestling for about 15 years, happily earning the wrath...

Walter Johnson: A cautionary tale of gridiron and the ring

Posted by Steven Johnson | Sep 6, 2007 | Interviews, The Sporting Connection

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Just as wrestling in Cleveland was heating up in...

MSG headliner Sammy Stein saw light in Hollywood

Posted by Greg Oliver | Aug 6, 2007 | Hollywood Headlock, Interviews

With movie star looks, 1930s Jewish football player turned grappler Sammy Stein seemed destined...

‘The Big Cat’ Ernie Ladd was seldom tamed

Posted by Steven Johnson | Mar 11, 2007 | Interviews, Obituaries, The Sporting Connection

By GREG OLIVER & STEVE JOHNSON – SlamWrestling It almost didn’t happen. All the...

Manoukian shunned football for ‘rasslin

Posted by Greg Oliver | Oct 4, 2006 | Interviews, The Sporting Connection

With football season again in full swing, Don Manoukian, a veteran of one whole year for the...

Woody Strode: Pioneer of ring, field and screen

Posted by Greg Oliver | Aug 17, 2006 | Hollywood Headlock, Interviews, The Sporting Connection

Before becoming one of the first big, black movie stars — thanks in large part to legendary...

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