I won't lie, I liked it when David Arquette won the world title. I thought it was cheesy and silly and dumb and stupid, but it was totally unexpected and got me to tune into Nitro for the first time in forever after it happened.
I always thought that Coachman would make a good wrestler. There was a moment on a PPV where he showed up and whalloped someone and he seemed pretty jacked, but I guess it didn't pan out.
Requisite applause for Lawrence Taylor / Bam Bam, and for K-Fed taking that FU a few years ago, too.
Also kinda bummed Rourke didn't get more involved at Wrestlemania with Jericho, but oh well.
Mayweather / Big Show from WM 24.
ReplyDeleteHas to be Andy Kaufman by default, methinks.
ReplyDeleteTo me, the dumbest thing about the Arquette title win that that it wasn't on Nitro... It was on friggin Thunder... So even LESS people would have been likely to catch it.
ReplyDeleteCuban did a pretty good job. I liked Scott's line where he said Cuban sold an RKO better than half the roster. Maybe not apropos, but Cuban deserves full credit for actually taking that fairly difficult for an untrained man bump.
ReplyDeleteObviously though the most important celeb was Tyson.
Isn't LT vs Bam Bam Bigelo from Wrestlemania XI pretty much the gold standard of celebrity matches?
ReplyDeleteIn terms of "moving the needle", there was Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper in the 80's with all the crossover popularity on the late night talk show and SNL and MTV. Lawrence Taylor got ESPN coverage. Mike Tyson got the mainstream press talking about wrestling as well.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't think the celebrities should be wrestling because it exposes the business. I don't mind a guest referee spot, or standing in the corner of a wrestler. David Arquette may have gotten media coverage, but from a wrestling standpoint, it was a horrible decision.
If you like forearms.
ReplyDeleteMr. T vs Kevin Sullivan of course.
ReplyDeleteBest guest host was Bob Barker. As someone who dealt with speaking to audiences and unpredictable contestants his whole career, he was quick on his feet during his segments and his interaction with Jericho was just fantastic ("Don't make me take you over my knee!").
ReplyDeleteHe sold the RKO like a champ, and took a pretty good table bump from Sheamus in his other appearance. One great touch from Cuban was when he was refereeing the RAW main event and was alert enough to enforce the legs under the rope rule.
ReplyDeleteAndy Kaufman. He was willing to throw away his mainstream Hollywood career for the sake of protecting kayfabe. You just won't find that kind of dedication to professional wrestling from any other celebrity. Had the Kaufman experiment been a bust, it's highly doubtful (to quote Gorilla Monsoon) that we would have seen the likes of Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper, Lawrence Taylor, and many others in a wrestling ring.
ReplyDeleteWasn't the requested question from someone yesterday, "which celebrities would make great translations into Pro Wrestling, i.e. which celebrities would succeed in wrestling?"
ReplyDeleteAnywho, I hate any and all celebrity wrestling matches except for WrestleMania 1's main event, 11's main event, and Mayweather/Show. The rest just dumb down the industry and come across as Vince sucking Hollywood's weiner.
In a weird way, Snooki was an inverted way of exposing the business; she did a backspring corner move better than 99% of the WWE women who have ever tried one. Not only that, she also did a pin better than most (not just hooking the leg, but also held down the other arm).
ReplyDeleteIn short, she made it painfully obvious that Johnny Ace hires with his groin, not with an eye for talent.
I thought Rosie O'Donnell vs. Donald Trump was the gold standard.
ReplyDeleteO/T: Dixie when she got married, oww oww
ReplyDeletehttps://d3j5vwomefv46c.cloudfront.net/photos/large/854163347.jpg?1400881830
That segment wasn't just a train wreck, it was a train derailing straight out of "The Fugitive".
ReplyDeleteI remember the Jay Leno stuff got WCW some attention in 1998. I'm not saying it's on the level of Mr. T or Tyson, but Leno being in an angle and having the top late night talk show involved did give WCW some exposure.
ReplyDeleteShe's one of the most incompetent owners this side of the Miami Marlins, but I wouldn't turn down a Naked 2 out of 3 Falls Match with her.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't really what I had in mind. I was thinking more along the line of what celebrity that isn't and has never been associated with wrestling would fit well in the business...
ReplyDeleteThat said Maria Menunos is my answer. She is s legit wrestling fan and nice to look at.
You just made my head explode. That's about 8 or 9 heads I've gone through in the last month because of the BoD.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Parallax will be thrilled to see Meekin used a question from him.
ReplyDeleteYeah i can see her making it easy even before becoming a celebrity in her own right.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure many of the girls today are fans and well it shows.
Floyd Mayweather. His match with Big Show at WM24 is my favorite celebrity involved wrestling match.
ReplyDeleteFUCK the Raw guest hosts. Each and every one of them. That stupid gimmick is THE reason I stopped watching WWE full time
That segment was like being in the Hindenburg as it went down, without the benefit of having the sweet embrace of death at the end,
ReplyDeleteALMOST used a question from him. Meekin got like half of the question right.
ReplyDeleteSome were actually quite dese. Bob Barker had a couple good segments, and Hugh Jackman did a professional job.
ReplyDeletefor all the complaints about WWE being predictable and always the same thing, I don't get the universal hate for the guest hosts. At least it was something different!
ReplyDeleteRichard Belzer gets my vote. I heard even Ricky Steamboat & Morton were jealous of his amazing sell jobs!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7n_SHrK408
If Russo had been in WCW ten years earlier, we could've had Jason Hervey beat Ric Flair.
ReplyDeletePacman Jones as TNA tag champ. Tito and Rampage in TNA. Robocop at Capitol Combat '90.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I marked out for Mr. T back in the mid 80s when he teamed with Hogan. Kaufman/Lawler was gold. Has anyone seen Ali/Inoki or Ali/Sammartino? I hear they were big draws, but were they any good?
Ali/Inoki is legit the worst match in the history of the business.
ReplyDeleteI just hated it, no real textbook answer I guess. Just brought the show down, fumbled promos, etc.
ReplyDeleteI want to watch wrestler A vs. wrestler B, not some NASCAR driver or random B-celebrity spout on for 20 minutes, have Umaga come down giving him mean faces and then the savior of earth John Cena F-U him and everyone celebrates.
I do like Hugh and it helps he's a wrestling fan
ReplyDeleteSame here, yeah they mostly were around for a cheap plug, but at least the product never got stale.
ReplyDeleteFor every Hugh, however, there is a Jeramy Piven.
ReplyDeleteI have that segment on DVD.
ReplyDelete