One of the best part of our popular The Best And Worst Of WWE Raw column is the amazing collection of animated GIFs from Casey at Hammerlock Dialectic. They’re so good, in fact, that I’m sad when people who don’t read the column (or like pro wrestling) miss out on them. Trust me, there is some colossally ridiculous looking stuff happening in the world of pro wrestling and you don’t need the ability to pretend it’s real to appreciate it.
Combine that truth with what Jon Bois is doing to improve GIF art awareness at SB Nation and a “best wrestling gifs of the month” feature sounded like a no-brainer. So here are my 21 favorite animated GIFs from the world of pro wrestling for June, keeping in mind that:
1. The July 4 weekend messed up everybody’s schedule, so go along with me and pretend June just ended.
2. So far we only do a WWE column on the site, so June’s GIFs will be WWE heavy. With GIFs Of The Month becoming a regular feature, we’ll move forward with more of an emphasis on giffing everything that happens in the world of wrestling, and oh my god you are not ready for Japan.
3. A lot of GIFs appeared in the Raw column, but a lot of them are being seen for the first time.
4. We’ll try to get a more uniform GIF size in the future.
Anyway, enough qualifiers. Check out the 20 best pro wrestling GIFs for June, with little-to-no context provided.
Like Father, Like Daughter
FCW’s Raquel Diaz has the greatest wrestling pedigree of all time: she’s the daughter of WWE ‘Queen Diva’ Vickie Guerrero and the late, great Eddie Guerrero. Here she is emulating one of the best cheating cons in wrestling history and making my heart swell three sizes in the process. For comparison, here’s her dad:
Bray Wyatt Is Taking His Sweet Time With This Finisher
If you watch WWE TV, you may remember FCW’s Bray Wyatt as Nexus member Husky Harris. He’s currently doing a Cape Fear gimmick, which partly involves him taking upwards of 90 minutes to set up his finish. Add a classical music track and that move looks like a class they offer at my gym.
AJ As Kane (As Harley Quinn)
One of the most promising developments in June was WWE Diva AJ evolving from “wrestler’s girlfriend” to full-on psychopath, pulling the strings on the main event scene and, at least once, dressing up as Kane to skip around the ring and distract him. As she skips, a lot of wrestling fans get hit over the head with Rule 63.
He Hates These Flowers
Out of context, a guy in a pink shirt receives a vase of roses from a guy in a tuxedo and a nearly naked guy in a scarf and throws them at a poster of a totally nude, orange man. This takes place in a room with curtains for walls.
In context, it is exactly as funny. Wrestling isn’t the most hetero thing in the world, and it is great.
The Best Missed Brogue Kick Of The Month
Daniel Bryan’s first WrestleMania match (as World Champion!) ended in 18 seconds when he kissed his girlfriend, turned around and got kicked in the face by Sheamus. At WWE No Way Out, Dolph Ziggler almost ate it the exact same way. Watch with glee as he rolls away in fast motion like Babe Ruth rounding the bases.
The Second Best Missed Brogue Kick Of The Month
You’d think Hispanic ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez putting on white tights to be Sheamus would be racist, but nope, he is actually that goddamn white. I could’ve done a whole list with nothing but Ricardo Rodriguez As Sheamus GIFs.
John Laurinaitis Is All Out Of F**ks To Give
#teamjohnnyforever
Death Of A Scooter
Here is Vince McMahon literally destroying my favorite part of Raw. He would destroy it figuratively, then literally again at No Way Out and on the following Raw. Regardless, that’s a pretty well put-together scooter.
Layla Will Develop Her Own Character, Thank You Very Much
WWE Divas Champion (and former Miami Heat dancer) Layla decided to liven up her match with Beth Phoenix by elaborately dancing her way through it. Watch this gif six or seven times in a row and you’ve seen everything you need from that match.
Mixed Martial Archie’s Top Rope Ground-And-Pound
Archibald Peck is a marching band leader who joined Chikara pro wrestling to become a star. When his love interest stopped taking him seriously, he evolved into the SUPER SERIOUS Mixed Martial Archie. Here he is grounding and pounding a guy from the top rope, because “Chikara”.
An Ant Learns To Fly
I should stop trying to put Chikara GIFs into context. In this one, a guy dressed as an ant jumps off the balcony of The Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia and basically kills everyone he lands on. The Chikara GIFs in this month’s post are all from their Internet pay-per-view “Chikarasaurus Rex”, so if you haven’t seen that yet, go find it and buy the DVD.
Sara Del Rey Is Extremely Excited About Having Murdered A Bunch Of Dudes With Her Ass
The only downside of the Troc as a wrestling venue is that the outside area was pitch black. Regardless, here’s the latest WWE signee (and one of the best wrestlers in the world) Sara Del Rey flipping off the ring apron ass-first to do at least as much damage as the ant jumping off the balcony. YEAH~
Seriously, Sometimes Wrestling Moves Just End With A Bunch Of Dudes Falling Down
They are.
Ryback Sends A Kid Into Orbit
After the normal list and the Sorta Racist Ricardo Rodriguez list, I could make a GIF countdown of nothing but The Ryback annihilating people in handicap matches. Here, “Rosenberg” tries to run at The Ryback and ends up not running again ever.
My Reaction To Watching Raw
My Reaction To Watching Impact
Whoops! Surprise Knockout!
Another great development from the spring and early summer is 7-foot 500-pound The Big Show becoming a MAGIC NINJA and learning how to sneak up on people and knock them out without them seeing it coming. Seriously, he is bigger than all of you standing together, you must have the peripheral vision of a f**king molerat.
Grossest Entrance Taunt Ever
Bully Ray (formerly known as “Brother Ray”, formerly actually known as Buh Buh Ray Dudley) is the best part of TNA Impact Wrestling. People will tell you the X-Division is great, but don’t listen to them. The best guy going is the one with monster calves who swallows his own tossed loogie before matches. Bully Ray is gross.
You Are Afraid Of A Snake Hand-Puppet
When Ricardo isn’t dressing up as guys to be humiliated (or being stripped to his underwear by guys to be humiliated), he’s busy running in terror from sock puppets that look like snakes and bashing his head into the ring post. I want to show this to someone who has never watched wrestling and see how long it takes them to figure out Santino’s random snake arm.
Yes, yes, yes
And finally, here’s AJ in her underwear, jumping around and doing Daniel Bryan’s “YES” chant. It was an AJ kind of month. Oh, and before we go:
AAAAHHHHH
AAAH AAAAHHHH
