Wrestling

Daniel Bryan's journey to the main event of WrestleMania XXX in 2014 is one of my all-time favorite wrestling stories, and one of the most inspirational. And now, as we approach WrestleMania season, Aubrey Sitterson, Kendall Goode, and Jim Campbell are taking Bryan's life-long journey into comics in the pages of Boom's WWE: WrestleMania special. Check out a preview --- and find out what other famous WrestleMania moments are making it to the page --- as we talk to Sitterson and Goode about adapting Bryan's story!

The long-promised "Women's Revolution" in wrestling may finally take root this weekend. Sunday February 12 is the Elimination Chamber live event on the WWE Network, the first branded Pay-Per-View (a colloquial word these days, but one that's stuck) for Smackdown Live in 2017. Of the seven matches announced for the show, three are women's singles matches. In fact, there's only one men's singles match, with the other three being multi-man gimmick matches, including the titular main event in the elimination chamber. And that's a big deal.

While there have been many attempts to adapt the world of WWE, no-one has tried to fill in the gaps between weekly episodes of Raw and SmackDown, a gap in the market now filled by Dennis Hopeless and Serg Acuña's new WWE title at Boom Studios. With the first issue of the ongoing on sale today, ComicsAlliance chatted with Hopeless about adapting wrestling into comics, finding his place in established continuity and his relationship with WWE corporate.

Here at Comics Alliance, as you may have noticed in the past, a lot of us love professional wrestling --- almost as much as we love comics. We've put together a selection of gifts for any wrestling fans you need to shop for this holiday season. There are some comics (because a lot of people who love one love the other), but also art, T-shirts, prose books, and more.

Earlier this year, NJPW and Toei animation announced the production of a new Tiger Mask anime called Tiger Mask W (pronounced "Double"), and this week, the new character made his debut at New Japan's King of Pro Wrestling event, taking on his equally fictional opponent, Red Death. So yes: anime is real. And so is pro wrestling.

We here at ComicsAlliance have been waiting eagerly more information about Boom Studios upcoming WWE comic, and with New York Comic Con just a week away, more information is trickling in. Next year will see the release of an ongoing titled WWE, starring all your favorite superstars, with the first arc centered on Seth Rollins' return from injury, as told by Dennis Hopeless and Eduard Petrovich.

If you're like me, you've at some point said to yourself, "Gosh, I sure do love the Undertaker, but I wish he was a little more like Rat Fink!" If so, you're in luck! Playmates' new WWE Nitro Machines line of toys features an outsized Undertaker popping out of the roof of a tricked out purple hearse, leading the way with his scythe-topped cane like he's in a race against Dracula's Dragster.

Welcome to Give ‘Em Elle, a weekly column that hopes to bridge the gap between old school comics fandom and the progressive edge of comics culture. I've gotten a lot of questions over the months since I started this column, and since I don't even do a question every single week, I know I'll never get to all of them. So this week I decided to take several in one go, for more of a grab bag feel. But don't worry, I'm sure I'll be back to giving one long hot (or cold) take by next week.

For wrestling fans, Seth Rollins' betrayal of his brothers in The Shield is still a very sore and open wound two years on, and Boom Studios intends to pour salt in that wound with its first official release under the WWE license. Arriving in October, WWE: Then. Now. Forever. #1 by Dennis Hopeless, Dan Mora and Daniel Bayliss digs into the background of The Shield's break-up.

The intersection of comics and wrestling has often led to iffy results, despite a huge overlap of fans. But recently, with work like SuperPro K.O., Headlocked, and Ringside, wrestling comics have been looking a lot more promising. So it’s unsurprising that WWE is trying to get back in the game with a new line of comics from Boom Studios. So what books would I like to see from the WWE line? I’m not going to concern myself with who Boom would actually be able to hire. I’m throwing the door wide open and basing my picks entirely on who would make the best possible wrestling comics, and which comics I’d like to see them make.