Shining a Spotlight 3.13.08: Celebs and Wrestling

Posted by Michael Weyer on 03.13.2008

A look at how wrestling has used celebrities from the best and worst of Wrestlemania stars to the miscues of WCW and TNA.

There are times when I hate being right and now's one of them. I've long been in the camp that Jeff Hardy was not the guy WWE should depend on as a champion and my feelings have been proven right by his recent suspension for drug use. Had he been champion, as so many had said he should have been at the Rumble, it would have been disastrous for the card. As it is, things are going to be shaken up for a bit with Jericho now IC champ, MVP in the Money in the Bank and no doubt Jeff facing one more strike and he's gone. Here's hoping he pulls himself together this time out.



With Wrestlemania coming up, a lot of attention has been paid not so much to the actual matches but to the celebrity involvement. Mania has always had some celebrities and this year promises to be rather unique. You've got Floyd Mayweather taking on the Big Show in a fight while Kim Kardashian is on as a special announcer of some sort. I know some of the puro guys are going to grouse a bit but the fact is, celebs involved in wrestling goes back a while, not just for Wrestlemania. Of course, some of them don't really work out right and in some cases actually do damage.

It is hard for a lot of fans to remember just how big a risk Vince was taking with the first Wrestlemania. Remember, in 1985, the territorial system was still strong and the idea that one man could dominate the landscape was completely impossible. Vince himself has gone on record saying that if the various other promoters knew how weak his hold really was at the time and fought him, he wouldn't be where he is today. Had that first show not worked, Vince could have truly gone under. He knew that which was why he made sure to make it more than just a wrestling card but a spectacle.

So that's why we had Liberace dancing with the Rocketts and Muhammad Ali as the special referee for the main event. Vince wanted something to get people not normally wrestling fans interested and it paid off in spades. The show was a hit and became a staple for the company. So, as he so often does, Vince assumed it worked for the wrong reasons. He thought the celebrities were a major reason for its success and so Wrestlemania 2 was packed full of them. It remains one of the most surreal sights ever to have Elvira doing commentary for a Hogan-King Kong Bundy match with Tommy Lasorda as ring announcer; Ozzy Ozbourne with the British Bulldogs; Roddy Piper facing Joe Frazier in a mess of a boxing match; and William Perry stealing the show in a battle royal featuring NFL players.

Thankfully, Vince learned his lesson, limiting the folks down at Wrestlemania III. Since then, Mania has had its ups and downs when it comes to celebrity involvement. In fact, the recent Wrestlecrap Book of Lists has a couple of lists for the worst and most obscure celebrities in Mania history, a lot of whom have seen their fifteen minutes pass by long ago. Like Sy Sperling, president of the Hair Club For Men who gave Howard Finkel a new top, that "Where's the Beef" lady and Herb (you remember him, you must feel very old) as timekeepers, Burt Reynolds and Alex Trebek as ring announcers and more.

Now some have actually worked out and really had fun. For example, Wrestlemania XIV had Pete Rose coming out to insult the Boston crowd on how the Red Sox sucked (a rather ironic bit two World Championships later) and getting attacked by Kane. The next year, Rose dressed up as the San Diego Chicken to attack Kane but got beat up again. He made it a trifecta in 2000 as he was pounded by Kane and got a stink face from Rikishi. Loudmouth Morton Downey Jr was a perfect foil for Roddy Piper at Wrestlemania V, with Piper doing what so many wanted and blasting him in the face with a fire extinguisher. Having Lawrence Taylor face Bam Bam Bigelow really helped out with attention for Mania XI and it wasn't that bad a match. And of course, in 1998, Vince had Mike Tyson be a special enforcer at Wrestlemania XIV, which is arguably the best $5 million Vince ever spent. Even last year's involvement of Donald Trump got major media attention and no doubt led to a better buy rate for the card, showing that celebrity involvement does help the big show.

But it's not just Mania that gets celebrities involved with WWF/E. 1994, in fact, had a couple of other celeb appearances at cards. At SummerSlam 94, held in Chicago, Razor Ramon came out for his Intercontinental title match with Diesel with Walter Payton as his side. If you don't know who Walter Payton is, you obviously don't live in Chicago. "Sweetness" was not only one of the greatest running backs in NFL history, a key part of the Bears 1985 Super Bowl season but was also one of the best all-around guys to play the game. Having him in Ramon's corner seemed an easy way to get cheap heat with the Chicago fans but Payton did stop Michaels from interfering to let Ramon win the belt. At that year's Survivor Series, Chuck Norris was a special enforcer to the Undertaker-Yokozuna casket match and, decked out in full "Walker Texas Ranger" regalia, knocked out Jeff Jarrett at one point. Another famous celeb moment was at the 2001 Royal Rumble where Drew Carey talked himself into becoming part of the match. Thankfully, his stay was short as he eliminated himself rather than face Kane.

So this year, we've got some interesting celeb involvement in Mania. On the face of it, getting Mayweather seems an attempt to replicate the success of Tyson a decade ago but the fact it's an actual match is interesting. After all, pitting a famous featherweight against one of the biggest men in wrestling is a great David vs Goliath matchup that can get people into watching the card, including a lot of boxing fans. Then you've got Kardashian. Now, it's true she may be, as Joel McHale of E!'s The Soup puts it every week "Famous for having a big ass and a sex tape" (and her own reality show and Playboy spread) but she is a name now and her involvement can lead to more interest. Personally, I don't see too much wrong as she's one of those people who may do nothing but does it very well and we all know how Vince is a sucker for a pretty face on a killer bod.

I know some may be annoyed at how WWE uses celebs so much but when you consider their use by the competition, it makes a hell of a lot more sense. For the most part, WCW did avoid celebrity usage, not surprisingly given how they were more "real" than WWF was. Yes, they would have crazy stuff like in 1990 when a guy in a Robocop outfit came to rescue Sting from a cage but they were mostly just wrestling. That changed in 1994 when Hogan came in and, in their attempt to replicate WWF, WCW turned to more celebs. They'd have Hogan "training" for his title match with Flair alongside George Foreman and Mr. T brought back to help him out as well. 1996 would have the Horsemen feud with football players Kevin Greene and Steve McMichael which led to McMichael joining the Horsemen.

But 1998 started some really insane appearances as, desperate to regain the advantage lost to WWF, Eric Bischoff started to bring in more celebs. Denis Rodman had already done a wrestling match in 1997 where he was noticeably out of place so in 1998, they had Rodman teaming with Hogan to face Diamond Dallas Page and Karl Malone. Yes, it got WCW some press but it was rather baffling they'd stick to this as a big event for a PPV rather than the money-grabbing first Hogan-Goldberg battle. At least Malone and Rodman were athletes which couldn't be said for Jay Leno. Ten years later and it still amazes that Bischoff actually had PPV main event with a baggy Leno facing him and Hogan. Again, it got WCW press but not the good kind, just making them seem like a joke. Speaking of jokes, let's not forget the bit a few months later when Chucky, the killer doll from the movies, started tormenting Rick Steiner. Insert your own "Steiner mentally outmatched" line here. What makes it more ridiculous is that WCW did have something big on their hands as Goldberg had been hanging around with Mark McGwire during McGwire's home run record season. WWF would have done so much with them out and about, doing batting practice and more but because WCW didn't think of it, they didn't use it, instead paying money for a talk show host to wrestle.

The worse things got for WCW, they more they turned to celebs and the results got more and more worse. Bret Hart lost the US title to Will Sasso, that fat comedian from Mad TV, challenged Sasso to a match and won when Sasso's co-star Debra Wilson turned on him to join Bret. One of the most infamous celebrity involvements was rapper Master P and his No Limit Soldiers who would come out and rap and dance while fans booed. They'd feud with Curt Henning and the Windham brothers who were the West Texas Rednecks, meant to be heels but the crowds cheered them. That was helped by them writing a great country song "Rap is Crap" that actually got play on regular country radio stations. So how did WCW handle this opportunity? You guessed it, they killed the whole program dead and let the Soldiers go with a massive payday. The same payday was handed out to KISS to provide the Kiss Demon, a wrestler who'd dump red ink (meant to be blood) on people and feud with Sting. Megadeath would do a concert on Nitro that drew no real ratings which were dipping lower and lower.

Of course, no list of WCW's celeb bungling would be complete without mentioning David Arquette. I hardly feel I need to relate once more how incredibly stupid making him the champion was or how that pretty much spelled the point of no return for the company. But, to his credit, Arquette not only argued against the change but also took the money WCW paid him and gave it to the families of Owen Hart and Brian Pillman, which deserves kudos to the man. But it's a good sign of how using celebrities so much not only did not help WCW but actually hastened their downfall.

TNA doesn't seem to have learned that much from WCW given their own celebrity use. The very first TNA weekly PPV had Toby Keith on to perform his loathsome "Proud American" which was interrupted by Jeff Jarrett coming to start the gauntlet match for the NWA title. Keith would come in as an entrant for the match, hitting Jarrett with an actually pretty good suplex before throwing him out. With their ties in Tennessee, it shouldn't be surprising TNA got the Titans football players to show up at a card to get in a fight with Jarrett. They did get some exposure with Chris Rock using a show to film a scene for his movie Head of State which did make sense and helped them a bit with more attention.

But TNA would make some other baffling moves with celebrity usage. Johnny Fairplay was brought in for some comic relief stuff, including a series of skits at the 2005 Final Resolution and Destination X cards that took away from the action. Against All Odds '05 had NASCAR star Jeff Hammond team with BG James against Shane and Kazarian, the obviously not athletic Hammond actually doing a goofball "driving" move before dropping an elbow to get the pin and I wonder if that didn't push Kaz to leave TNA a few weeks later. Later in 2005, they'd have members of the World Series White Sox get involved in a feud with Simon Diamond and later in spring, Diamond would show up at training camp to be hit with a chair by Ozzie Guillen. The worst part was that TNA actually gave a replica of the X Division title to AJ Pyrszenski, a cheap ploy to cash in on his having the same first initials as Styles.

That wasn't the last the X Division had to put up with such idiocy as TNA had them doing "Jackass" type stunts just to coincide with the movie, making them look foolish. I hardly think I need to really get into Pacman Jones and how idiotic it was to spend so much for a guy who ended up doing nothing for buy rates, left after a few weeks and even TNA themselves would admit on air how bad he was. Now we've got Team 3D facing Fairplay and some other Survivor guy in what they act is going to be their LT thing but does anyone really think Johnny Fairplay is going to lead to more PPV buys? TNA has already got a lot of problems with booking, they don't need to emulate WCW's bad track record with celebrities. Yes, they can get attention but only if they're done right, just throwing in anyone because they seem famous isn't going to automatically lead to success.

That's a key thing WWF has done right, using celebs. Oh, yes, they've had more than their share of bad ones (Miller Lite Girls for one example) but they manage to get people who can get attention and if they do use them in the ring, it's usually folks who can handle themselves well. Mayweather is an actual fighter, people know he can be in a ring so it's not just an obvious gimmick matchup. Kardashian can be some nice eye candy but it's the wrestling that takes center stage. Vince McMahon is not a fool and knows better than to assume a star, even a big one, is the true make or break for the biggest show of the year. Yeah, he'll like to rub elbows and get names but he also knows the action and angles draw folks in. He's also rich enough to be able to spend the money on all these folks whereas WCW and TNA paid huge for no payoff, putting them both deeper in the hole.

We're going to see more stars involved in wrestling as many treat it as a lark and something to get some money and have a few laughs. We are lucky enough to get some that are true fans and eager to participate (one of which, ironically, was Arquette) which are usually the ones that lead to better angles. Like it or not, it is sports entertainment world now and so the entertainment aspects are going to grow larger. But the business is still the business and no star power can take away from the true heart that draws so many in. But a bit of trapping isn't bad to add the luster.


Also around 411mania:

Evolution Schematic begins a great bit on WWE video games.

Julian counts down the Top 10 surprisingly good matches.

The Shimmy continues its history of the WWE World Championship.

The Way I C It rates the best and worst commentary teams.

Tim does his Take on Destination X.

Scripted Through Sin tackles the various TV shows.

The Wrestlemania Countdown is on with various nice articles on the history of the big show.

Don't forget Column of Honor, Ask 411, Triple Threat, 3 R's, Navigation Log, Fact or Fiction and the rest.


Next week I pull double duty with my 100th Spotlight and a special Mania Countdown looking back at the worst Wrestlemania ever. For now, the spotlight is off.