Tag: Wrestling

Why AJ Lee Quit the WWE

Why AJ Lee Quit the WWE. Well she didn’t really quit but rather “retired.” That is the question on the mind of wrestling fans this past week. Forgive me those of you who don’t subscribe to the soap opera fanatics that is professional wrestling.

Former Divas (Female) champion abruptly retired after Wrestlemania (the biggest event of the year for the company). Some have speculated that since coming back, the WWE didn’t have a plan for her storyline and other’s that the travel schedule became difficult on the newlywed and she wanted to spend more time with her husband and also former WWE Champion, CM Punk who quit the company last year. Unlike Punk’s departure from the company where little to no mention was made, the company posted a message on their website and brought it up on air which means that the departure was amicable.

Typically this type of departure is due to continued injury (ala Edge) or in a rare case, for a female wrestler, pregnancy (ala Kharma). Given that the departure seemed on good terms, can it be that AJ is actually retiring because of CM’s sPUNK? (ok that is gross but oh too fitting with that name)

April 8, 2015
HHH WWE Network Sign

The last in my lastest series of WWE Caricature Signs features former WWE Wrestler and now COO Triple H aka HHH aka Hunter Hearst Helmsley aka Paul Levesque. Earlier this year, the WWE launched the WWE Network. After first approaching several cable companies to create a premium network like Showtime and HBO, the WWE decided that the distribution wasn’t there and therefore created the network as an over the top streaming network.

The big value to customers is that at a $9.99 price point (with a 6 month commitment) you would get all the PPV events that historically were only available on cable/satellite. The company stated in early earnings calls that they anticipated needing 1 million subscribers to break even. Considering on cable any single PPV event could cost $45, the heavy PPV buyers flocked to the network early. For one cable/satellite PPV, you could watch four monthly PPV events. Great deal right? Well unfortunately the WWE seemed to stall at about 700,000 subscribers as recent reports.

So how do you get the needle moving again? Have one of your biggest talents use his on-air time to, with a wink, shamelessly promote the WWE Network at “only $9.99” at every chance he can. If this doesn’t work, there is talk they may scrap the entire streaming network and try once again to sell it via cable.

September 12, 2014
John Cena WWE Sign

Apologies for the odd posting schedule as I have been working on several commissions including some new WWE Signs that I will be posting over the next few days. Those of you who don’t care about wrestling or WWE should probably just skip visiting this week and return next week 🙂

Today’s entry is a John Cena sign. Cena is the former champion and under WWE rules would be next in line for a rematch with the current champ Brock Lesnar. For years, John Cena’s shirts have proudly displayed his mantra of “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect.” When WWE COO Triple H threatened to pull him from the match, Cena threatened lawsuit. In return Triple H mocked him saying “But when John Cena said the words to me ‘lawsuit’ — hustle, loyalty, respect, lawsuit — it doesn’t even fit, right? So out of character for John Cena.”

Personally my way of changing it to “Hustle, Lawsuit, Respect” works better. What do you think?

September 8, 2014
Mick Foley Caricature and Comedy Review

So it is no secret that the wife and I are fans of wrestling (and no you wouldn’t know it by looking at either of us). WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley has parlayed his second act into being an exceptional writer with multiple best sellers and now doing stand up acts all over the world. Several months ago I looked on his website to see if he was coming to the area but nothing. I do follow Mick on twitter (and you all know how lazy I am about checking twitter anymore) but I happened to see a message from him on Wednesday night talking about being in Cincinnati the next night. WHAT??

So of course we were in and I had to whip up a special caricature for Mick. Made one for him and one for me hoping he would sign it. Well….

The show was great (ok except for that one guy). His featured act before him was hilarious with several topical references and then Mick got on stage. For about an hour he told stories of his career and some of the funnier events of such. It was less a stand-up act and more a hilarious one man autobiographical show. At one point he even took some questions from the audience. In wrestling, Mick is known as the “Hardcore Legend” and thus explained that he is proud that when you google the phrase, he comes up in the search results and not a porn site.

If you are a wrestling fan, the insights into some of your favorite wrestlers of today and yesterday and what goes on behind the scenes will be all you need. But he also recognizes that not everyone that comes to the show knows who he is and makes sure to explain just enough that everyone stays entertained.

The only gripe I have is that he probably isn’t making as much money as he could with the way they have his merchandise table set up. Included in your ticket was 90 minutes before the show of meet and greet where Mick was sitting at a table signing autographs, taking pictures and selling merchandise. While he had someone helping sell the merchandise, people are there to see him first and merch second. I would suggest moving the merchandise table earlier in the line (in our case outside the venue) so people can peruse and buy it without feeling rushed and then go in with their swag for Mick to sign. Check out his site for showtimes in your area.

BONUS

I got home this weekend to find a package from one Jande Rowe, cartoonist extraordinaire at Aedre’s Firefly. She promised a “Bearman” picture and certainly delivered. I love the colors, the detail and time spent on this. Add one to my cherished toons list. Thanks Jande!

June 25, 2013
WWE 3MB AKA Ginger Mac-Hal

Today’s cartoon poster once again is for the wrestling fans out there. I know many of my regular readers aren’t into wrestling but as I have said before I find it funny that people will trace my poster images and I will see them on live WWE events in the crowd. Now if only the WWE would start paying me to put my work on their tshirts. Well, let’s see if my mocking name I titled this will catch on as well.

The three men you see in the image above are three wrestlers. Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre, and Jinder Mahal. Collectively they are known in the WWE as 3MB (short for three man band). I prefer the new name I came up with “Ginger Mac-Hal” which plays on Jinder Mahal’s name.

This actually took me longer than I thought it would in my head. Trying to capture someone’s likeness without their face is tough.

Here they are in image shots from wwe.com for comparison.

For any wrestling fans that want my image as a wallpaper, contact me or comment on the size you would like and I’ll try to make it happen.

Oh and shout out to TK for his great tutorials and images which I used for the background of the poster.

January 23, 2013
John Cena Sign Fruity Pebbles

Let’s see if WWE Wrestling fans start trying to redraw my John Cena caricature on signs all over WWE live events as they have my Sheamus sign. All I ask is that you make sure my URL is front and center.

For you non wrestling fans, John Cena is in a feud as of late with former WWE wrestler and now movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The Rock made fun of the fact that each year Cena has a different brightly colored shirt that he hocks to his fans. Thus started an entire Fruity Pebbles chant. Lo and behold, Post cereal took full advantage of the publicity and quickly signed the popular Cena to an endorsement deal, even putting his face on a box of Fruity Pebbles.

Oh and don’t forget to check out my guest cartoon I did at Short Attention Span comic.

March 4, 2012
Caricature Winner and things I’ve won!

Well the entries have been culled and a winner drawn in my first Caricature contest. The winner was

DUNCAN from MadHatters. Congratulations to Duncan. I will soon have his mug in caricature form for the world to enjoy.

In other news I have the recipient of several gifts over the last few months that I wanted to show off.

First was from Jillsy Girl (Formerly Just Jill, formerly YNB) as a prize for one of her many contests. Check out her incredible photography site. I got to choose my favorite photo and here it is on display on my computer monitor.

Second is an entire printed series of the great Callous Comics by DR (as in medical) Carlo Jose San Juan. I have it proudly displayed next to my guest cartoon that I did for him a few months ago.

Finally, one of the projects I have been working on during my hiatus was to create some posters for friends who will be front row at WWE Monday Night Raw. So maybe if they get on camera, I’ll have my work shown worldwide. (not that it isn’t already) but you know what I mean. Here is just one of the images I made of fan favorite Randy Orton who has a finishing move called the RKO. I’ll post more later in the week.

September 12, 2010