About Retro Pro Wrestling
Welcome to Retro Pro Wrestling, a nostalgic look back at the past 40+ years of professional wrestling.
On this site, you’ll find reviews of pro wrestling shows from the 1970s onwards, plus commentary and reviews of wrestling-related media such as movies, music, magazines, and more.
Although Retro Pro Wrestling initially started as an old-school WWE reviews site, it’s since expanded to cover WCW, ECW, TNA, WCCW and a number of smaller promotions from around the world.
Why I Started Retro Pro Wrestling
It all began in earnest back in 2012, when -in a move I now regret- I decided to sell my small collection of wrestling DVDs.
Before I sold them, I gave each DVD one final viewing, writing a review of each one and posting them on an old Blogspot blog.
Then I got a crazy idea:
It occurred to me that, even though I’ve been a life-long wrestling fan since I was eight years old, there were many pro wrestling shows produced by WWE, WCW, ECW and other companies that I’d never actually seen, or at least hadn’t seen in a very long time.
So I made my mind up to review, every single WWE Pay Per View from Wrestlemania I to Wrestlemania 30.
Since then, the whole thing has taken a life of its own.
400+ reviews covering every major promotion and then some, a Facebook page with 50,000+ old-school wrestling fans, and more.
The best part?
I’m only just getting started.
How is This Different From Other Pro Wrestling Review Sites?
One thing that would always frustrate me when looking for wrestling reviews, is that most of what was out there seemed to be more about detailing every move in every match than offering insight, analysis, and commentary.
“The Rock whips Stone Cold into the ropes, clotheslines him. Nearfall.” – That kind of thing.
I have no problem if other people enjoy that, but personally, I find it pretty boring. That’s why I try to write reviews with a little more life, reviews which yes, explain what happened on each show, but which also offer a different perspective, a fresh opinion, and comments here and there on things I find interesting or funny about each show.
Think of those other reviewers as the play-by-play, think of Retro Pro Wrestling as the color commentary.
Who writes this blog?
I do.
My name’s CJ Scholes and I’m a writer originally from England.
One random day when I was 8 years-old, I was flicking through the TV channels and came across a long-haired dude in a leather jacket hurling another long-haired dude through a glass window.
It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen and I became a professional wrestling fan right there on the spot.
32 years later, I’m still just as obsessed with this stuff, and now consider that long-haired, leather-jacket-wearing dude to be my favorite wrestler of all time.
When I’m not running this blog or working on other writing projects, you’ll find me playing guitar and bass, geeking out over old-school movies, and hanging out with my wife.
Want to connect? I’m most active on Threads – @cjscholeswrites