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WWE: Then. Now. Forever. #1

WWE: Then. Now. Forever. Vol. 1

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Going beyond what you get to see on TV and The WWE Network, WWE: Then. Now. Forever. takes fans through the greatest moments of Sports Entertainment history! Featuring an all-star roster of writers and artists including Dennis Hopeless, Box Brown, Tini Howard, Ed McGuinness, Rob Guillory, Dan Mora, Andy Belanger, Jorge Corona, and Daniel Bayliss, this collection celebrates the rich history of WWE throughout the years. From legendary WrestleMania matches to sizzling SummerSlam feuds, the biggest and best moments are highlighted, showcasing fan-favorite superstars like Dusty Rhodes, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Razor Ramon, Daniel Bryan, Sasha Banks, The New Day, and more! Collects the WWE WrestleMania 2017 Special, the WWE Summer Slam 2017 Special, and the backup shorts from WWE issues #1-8.

127 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 2018

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About the author

Dennis Hopeless

508 books118 followers
Dennis "Hopeless" Hallum is an American comics writer from Kansas City, Missouri who has written for Marvel Comics, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Studios, Arcana Studio, and Oni Press.

See also under Dennis Hallum

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5 stars
35 (33%)
4 stars
31 (29%)
3 stars
23 (22%)
2 stars
14 (13%)
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1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Profile Image for Khurram.
2,446 reviews6,688 followers
May 3, 2026
This was a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the stories were great, some good, a couple of OK to disappointment, though it evens out to a good comic. I will have to admit my biased many of the characters were from my era of watching the WWF/WWE, so nostalgia plays a big factor. The firest was to review these is probably story by story:

Then. Now. Forever. The title story and rightfully so. It show a young Sasha Banks being inspired by a WWE Legend (actually this guy was a legend wherever he wrestled), to her own entrance and evulation in the WWE and passing the legacy on. Short and too the point. I have never seen Sasha Banks wrestle so the rating is not nostalgia based. 5 Stars easy.

Tug Team. Tug Boat Vs the Earthquake a newspaper style short story that shows being a jerk comes back to haunt you. 3.5 Stars.

WWE SDCC 2016 One-page comic feature Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H, John Cena, The New Day, Sasha Banks, The Undertaker, and Dusty Rhodes. Short and to the point show the point managing to show the characters evulation, finishers, and historic moments all in one page each. Anyone who thingks this is less then 5 stars is not and never was a wrestling fan. 5 Stars

Ladder Match. I remember this being the first Ladder Match I ever saw. The participants Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon. As much as I love that match this is poor mans parody of the match. The dialogue is rubbish with the exception of one signature move in the match. I might have given this 3 stars but they managed to ruin a damn good match. An angry 2 Stars

The Long Con Triple H takes center stage going back to the time of his injury (what would have been to anyone else a career ending injury) to his come back, and a big plan in the background. 5 Stars

Your Good, But… Daniel Bryan's story. (He will always be Bryan Danielson ROH Champion and MVP to me) very well condensed and managing the get most of the important point across. 5 Stars

Kevin Owens comic. The story of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn storyline. A solid 5 Stars

I wined and dined with kings and queens. Dusty Rhodes Vs Randy Savage (the Macho King). A bit slow, concentrating more on the fans. 3 Stars

In The Mandible madness. This was one of the biggest betrayals in WWF\WWE history. A well done condensed version of this pivotal Undertaker Vs Mankind match. Getting all the important moments. Easy 5 stars

The Natural Disasters Vs the Bushwhackers. In every meeting of these two teams the Bushwhackers got destroyed. This is a short food fight/backstage brawl between the two teams. Was ok nothing special 3 Stars

Give the demon his due. Seth Rollins on dealing with the pressure/terror of dealing with the demonic Finn Dalor. From the mental side of the game and easy 5 Stars

The New Day’s Optimistic Odyssey. A pink and fluffy time travel adventure again was ok but did nothing for me. 3 Stars

The Warrior’s Path. The man that ignited my passion for wrestling. The (storyline) origin of the Ultimate Warrior. I could not give this less then 5 Stars

The Brawler and the beast. An short that tries to be in the form of a folk tale, with little action and a bit of an easy resolution for me. 3 Stars

Welcome Home. The Wyatt family\cult living up to their characters. Did nothing for me 2 Stars

Ten John Cena telling a story about his drive and grit. 5 Stars

Damien’s Dinner A look through the eyes of Jake "the Snake" Roberts 5 Stars

The Gravest Mistake the promo for the Undertaker Vs Kamala. I remember seeing the original promo and this is pretty accurate, but I took one star away as it was not really a note to finish the story on, especially after having In The Mandible madness earlier in the book. 4 Stars

Then there is the cover gallery of the variant covers of the books featured in this. All in all a good solid effort and collection of stories yes nostalgia plays a part but that is what being a fan is all about.
Profile Image for David.
37 reviews2 followers
November 13, 2016
The last time I had read a WWE themed comic book, the 21th century had not begun and wrestling was at its all-time peak. The attitude era was in full swing and WWE - then still called WWF - partnered with Chaos comics to publish an awful Undertaker series and a couple of mostly forgettable one-shots, peppered with scantily clad ladies and lame late 90's aesthetics. Not surprising considering the type of comics Chaos was known for back then...

More than fifteen years later, the WWE is finally back in comic book land thanks to a deal with established publisher Boom Studios. Known for it's numerous licensed series (Adventure Time, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Regular Show to name a few), Boom is laying the groundwork for its upcoming ongoing series with this extra-sized one-shot. Considering the quality of this book, wrestling fans should be eagerly waiting for the regular series in January.

The main feature turns back the clock a couple years and centers around The Shield and the growing tensions between some the members of the group. The decision to expand upon past events is probably the smartest move the creative team could make. Considering the fast-changing storylines of WWE's TV programming, it would've been near impossible for a monthly comic book series to keep up and stay current. By exploring past storylines, Dennis Hopeless avoids all those headaches while staying "in continuity" and giving the reader the feeling that events of this comic are actually significant. I don't know if it was his call of the editor's, but it's a smart and effective choice.

One thing for which the writer definitely deserves all the praise is the spot-on dialogue. Seth's quick laugh and arrogant smile, mere seconds before using that steel chair, were simply perfect and in general everyone has a distinctive voice in sync with the characters we see on TV every week. Same thing goes for the art. Adaptations of real life characters can be a hard thing to pull, some artists relying too heavily on photo reference. In this case, Dan Mora does a remarkable job at showcasing his own modern, kinetic style while making each wrestler instantly recognizable. To be honest, I went into this book expecting either a very in-house, generic art style or photo-realistic and static panels. Luckily I got neither of those, with Dan Mora offering work that would perfectly fit any best selling big two title. VERY impressive.

Still, there were a few awkward moments, but I guess it's part of the charm of pro wrestling. Seeing Seth Rollins walk into a yacht club party wearing his special-ops looking ring gear felt a bit corny, event though one could argue it's not worse than the grown men roaming the streets in spandex costume we comics fan are long accustomed to. Thankfully most of the action takes place either backstage or in the ring so those instances were few and far between

The rest of the issue is comprised of short back-up stories and one-page vignettes on past and present superstars. What could have easily been filler is everything but, the Sasha Banks four-pager retrospective being especially interesting. Honorable mention to the Rob Guillory drawn New Day story which fully encapsulate the aura of those crazy, time-traveling, unicorn-loving, Booty-Os eating positive thinkers. Fingers crossed well be seeing some more of those back-ups pop up once the ongoing series gets going.

If you consider yourself a wrestling fan, this is a must buy. The creative team is clearly familiar with their subject matter, their knowledge and love of this thing called « sports-entertainment » shining through from cover to cover. I'm sure you'll be impressed by the quality of the work of everyone involved and you'll be grateful that we'll have the chance of getting one of these each and every month comes January.
Profile Image for Kaitlyn.
198 reviews36 followers
October 11, 2017
I wish this was just one long story like I thought it was but the art is good.
18 reviews1 follower
August 27, 2022
Of course, it's written in kayfabe, but some of the choices of a pre-Freakin' Seth Rollins are silly!
Profile Image for Shaun Stanley.
1,361 reviews
March 16, 2025
WWE: Then. Now. Forever #1 is a Boom Studios comic written by Dennis Hopelessand Ross Thibodeaux with art by Dan Mora and Rob Guillory. It is cover dated November 2016.

This issue is a collections of shorter preview stories that served as Boom Studio’s launching point into the WWE Universe. The first revolves around Seth Rollins as he decides on betraying The Shield. The second sees The New Day travel back in time in order to restore positivity to the WWE universe. We also get a collection of one page pinups of some of WWE Biggest stars with a quick recap of their careers including Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena, The Undertaker, Triple H, The New Day, Sasha Banks, and Dusty Rhodes.

I was surprised with the art talent here. This was still pretty early in Dan Mora’s career and you can see his skill really taking form. Guillory’s art perfectly captured the vibes for the wacky New Day story. Hard to give this a review as it serves more as a preview issue but I still enjoyed what I read. I’m going to seek out The New Day comics because it was just so incredibly ridiculous.
Profile Image for John Austin .
53 reviews
February 5, 2024
WWE: Then. Now. Forever. Vol. 1: A Great Imaginative Look At The WWE Superstars

I really enjoyed this collection of Boom's WWE one shots. I enjoyed every story but two. The two stories that I didn't like were about Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) and The New Day. The New Day story is just very childish and it does not feel like it belongs in this collection.

And the Razor Ramon story makes Razor look stupid and he wasn't. I'm a big fan of Razor's and he was a great wrestler when he had control of his demons. He could've been so much more but he was only allowed to go so far because of his addictions. During the time that he was around and his addictions were under control, he did put on some truly memorable matches which include his Ladder match against Shawn Michaels.

That Ladder match is the basis for the Razor Ramon story in this book and the writer of that story actually had Razor say "How do I climb down off this ladder"? C'mon, how would he not know how to climb back down the ladder? I smell Vince McMahon behind that Razor story. Because I'm pretty sure that Vince had to give his approval before any of these stories were published.

And I know Triple H wouldn't sign off on it. He was friends with Razor in real life and this story makes his friend look bad. That's why I believe Vince gave the okay on it since he probably still felt resentment towards Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) and Kevin Nash (Diesel) for walking out on him and going to WCW back in 1996. But Razor's not a man with a limited intellect, trust me.

That story and the one with The New Day are the reasons why I gave this collection 4 stars only. There are many different writers and different artists on this book. The art styles do change dramatically from story to story but that's because this is an anthology book . That doesn't bother me because I've read other anthology comics before and the artwork always varies per story.

Once you get past that, there are some good stories in here to check out, especially if you're a lifelong wrestling such as I. That's why I gave this book 4 stars because wrestling fans should check it out just to read some cool stories involving their favorite wrestlers.
Profile Image for Brina.
2,051 reviews122 followers
September 8, 2020
Als großer Wrestling-Fan, der regelmäßg die Shows von World Wrestling Entertainment und anderen Ligen verfolgt, wollte ich auch unbedingt dem Comic "WWE: Then. Now. Forever." eine Chance geben. Hier habe ich nur wenige Erwartungen gehabt und wurde am Ende positiv überrascht.

Wer hier eine fortlaufende Geschichte rund um die aktuellen und früheren WWE-Superstars erwartet, wird enttäuscht sein, denn hier werden lediglich kleine Momentaufnahmen aus den jeweiligen Karrieren der Stars erzählt, die man direkt wiedererkennt und die teilweise sogar Wrestling-Geschichte geschrieben haben.

Mit dabei ist u.a. die berühmte "3:16"-Promo von "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, aber auch das allererste Ladder Match zwischen den beiden WWE Hall-of-Famern Razor Ramon und Shawn Michaels. Gleichzeitig gibt es auch eine sehr süße Kurzgeschichte über Sasha Banks, die in ihrer Kindheit von dem leider viel zu früh verstorbenen Eddie Guerrero inspiriert wurde und diesem quasi ihre gesamte Wrestling-Karriere gewidmet hat.

Der Zeichenstil hat insgesamt meinen Geschmack getroffen. Hier und da wurde zwar stellenweise bei der Mimik der WWE-Superstars übertrieben, sodass die Gesichter stark verzerrt wirken, allerdings ist der Stil insgesamt gelungen und sieht gut aus.

Kurz gesagt: "WWE: Then. Now. Forever." ist insgesamt ein gelungener Comic, der viele wichtige und überraschende Wrestling-Momente vereint und somit bestens für Wrestling-Fans geeignet ist. Ich kann diese Anthologie somit nur empfehlen.
Profile Image for Mark Farley.
Author 53 books27 followers
July 18, 2018
The first in the series of compilations of the recent Boom Studios official WWE comic range. This series focuses mainly on highlighting the memorable and iconic events in the company's history, as well as re-imagining incidents and behind the curtain scenarios integral to the legacy of the world's largest and most influential wrestling company, utilizing a host of different writers and artists.

This first collection not only provides exclusive artwork and panels only previously available at San Diego Comic Con and both Wrestlemania and Summerslam, but also documents scenes from past and present including such iconic feuds between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon and their legendary ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship, the Triple H/Jericho/Stephanie dynamic, the career of Daniel Bryan, the history of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn's childhood friendship, Dusty Rhodes and the Macho King, the disturbing origins of Mankind and The Undertaker, plus much more.

The range of artistic styles and creativity here is a wet dream for lifelong fans like myself and a great learning point for newer fans, who aren't so familiar with the classic storylines from the 80s and 90s. A great mix of eras and genres and legends. A must read for all fans.
Profile Image for Dan.
39 reviews1 follower
November 14, 2016
It was a bit silly at first but it was easy to read. I think I enjoyed the short stories in the back rather than the first story arc with The Shield. It started off pretty random but there was some good action and artwork that kept my interest.

Sasha Banks' chapter/story arc (not sure what to call it) was very positive and inspiring. I really appreciate it when women wrestlers are treated as simply that. (Even though I am a guy it feels creepy to me when women wrestlers are treated like they are only there to be eye candy.)

There were other shorts that make me curious to read the next issue also. I really hope that they feature The Ascension and The Lucha Dragons. They look like they were made for comic book action.

Profile Image for Quentin Wallace.
Author 34 books178 followers
February 2, 2019
This is uneven. It runs the gamut from serious stories with some insider twists to plain old silliness. The Wrestlemania portion focuses on past Wrestlemania matches, the Summerslam portion on past Summerlsam matches, etc. It's cool how they pick somewhat obscure matches from the past to build some of the stories on, but some of the silly stories just seem a little too silly and remind me of the Hulk Hogan cartoon from the 80s, but not in a good way. The art ranges from good to not so good. Overall not bad, but it's probably got some stuff you'd love and some stuff you'd hate.
Profile Image for Simon Turner.
51 reviews
November 19, 2018
I really wanted to like this. But I just couldn't get into it. I loved the idea that it retells some of WWE's most notorious story lines and backstage incidents. I was even more interested when I saw Boom Studios were making this book as I love their Power Rangers stories. But, sadly, it didn't quite follow through on its potential.
Profile Image for Amber.
527 reviews
December 23, 2021
Such a fun read! The stories were fun, entertaining and included a lot of the big WWE superstars.

I loved the different styles of artwork and colors used for the different stories. The various artwork styles and colors used really helped set the tone for a lot of the different stories. I look forward to the next installment in the series.
Profile Image for karyn.
164 reviews
November 13, 2016
Rollins at a yacht club with wet hair, the Shield having a shirtless barbecue on the roof of a production truck. This is gold!

Plus, excellent art.
Profile Image for Theresa.
708 reviews
December 2, 2018
This graphic novel anthology is lackluster. Big moments, but scattered through time and theme. Young fans may like it, but it’s missing a lot. Not enough female representation either.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews