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Over the years, WWE introduced a flurry of intriguing gimmicks. From Seth Rollins’ Joker to Bray Wyatt’s Eater of Worlds, from The Undertaker’s Phenom to Kane’s Big Red Machine, the list is endless. However, veering off the trajectory of the main roster characters, WWE introduced a handful of special characters to tell stories that would aid the major superstars in getting the mileage they were looking forward to. One of them was Eugene.

Nick Dinsmore, popularly known as Eugene, was introduced as a wrestling savant with a developmental disability. The kind of character depth that was needed to take the role forward needed more than wrestling. It required acting brilliance while perfectly aligning oneself with the role, considering the emotional challenge that was inherent in his. Eugene did an incredible job with the same.

Eugene’s Role Was Loosely Inspired by a Character in Tom Cruise’s...

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A lot of people have been talking about Benjamin Morris’ 538 piece, “Are Pro Wrestlers Dying at an Unusual Rate?”

Like Morris, I am neither an actuarial scientist nor a demographer. So, our interpretations of the data should be taken with a grain of salt. My results were somewhat different from Morris’ due to a difference data set and changes in how we calculated actuarial predictions.

Differences in methodology from Morris

I also used Social Security Actuarial Life Tables, but my “expected mortality rates” for the age groups were not the same as Morris’. For each wrestler, I calculated what their age would have been as of today. Then, based on gender, I looked up the number of lives (out of 100,000) that were expected to still be alive and converted that to a percentage. His analysis looked at wrestlers who were on 20+ WWF PPVs through 2002. I went with a...

The 2012 edition of the WWE Royal Rumble is but just a few hours away and everyone across the web is playing the guessing game for who the surprise entrants this year will be. On this occasion the WWE have decided not to reveal the majority of the entrants before the Rumble (we only know about 10 names for sure at this point) and with reports about a week ago claiming WWE officials had polled people backstage to see who they would most like to see cameo at the Rumble, we could most certainly be in for one or two surprises tonight.

At this stage the most expected surprise entrant is said to be WWE Hall of Famer Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the winner of the very first Royal Rumble back in 1988. Hacksaw cancelled an Indie booking tonight for undisclosed reasons and has a wrestling book coming out later this year which he is keen to promote.