411's Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling Recap 10.18.08

Posted by Steve Cook on 10.18.2008

The Hulkster and friends are here with 10 celebrities hoping to become the first CCW Champion!

Hi, hello and welcome to 411's recap of Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling! I'm Steve Cook, and you may be wondering why 411 Wrestling is covering this show. Well, there are two simple reasons:

1. Hogan = Hits
2. There's wrestling! Maybe it's not great wrestling, but it's wrestling nonetheless.

As for why I've chosen to recap it…well, I took a look at the cast and this thing just has potential for all sorts of craziness! Let's look at the line-up…

Danny Bonaduce – Danny's most remembered for his stint with The Partridge Family, but he's also known for being abrasive and annoying. Woot!

Todd Bridges – Willis! Bridges also has experience in celebrity boxing and has appeared on The Surreal Life, Skating with Celebrities & Fear Factor.

Butterbean – Butterbean has experience in boxing and mixed martial arts, and appeared on a WrestleMania. He's also really fat, and fat people are funny.

Trishelle Cannatella – Trishelle is most known for her time on The Real World: Las Vegas, where she was the stereotypical sex-crazed alcoholic hot chick. Since then she's appeared on other reality shows and remained hot. I wish I could link you to some pictures I really liked, but I don't think 411's server would like that too much.

Dustin Diamond – Screech needs no introduction, does he? If this is anything like his stint on Celebrity Fit Club it will be tremendous. Also, he's rocking the Triple H/Lemmy beard.

Erin Murphy – Erin was on Bewitched, which was quite before my time. Unfortunately she doesn't seem as crazy as the other cast members, so I assume she'll be complaining about them a lot.

Dennis Rodman – Speaking of crazy…Rodman does have some experience in pro wrestling, so he'd have to be considered one of the favorites here.

Frank Stallone – Sylvester's brother, which is pretty much all you need to know.

Tiffany – Remember when she used to sing? The website calls her a pop music icon, which may lead to a dispute with Hogan over who the real icon is.

Nikki Ziering – She was a Barker Beauty and has appeared in Playboy. These are good things because she's hot.

And of course there's all the actual wrestling people. You've got Brian Knobs & Brutus Beefcake as coaches, which kinda strikes me as learning how to play football from the Cincinnati Bengals. Eric Bischoff & Jimmy Hart are judges, and if the picture on the site is any indication, Bisch is rocking the grey hair. That should be fun. So without further adieu…

Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling Episode 101: Down to the Basics

Episode Description: "Our 10 celebrities meet for the first time in the CCW training facility and are divided in two teams, coached by Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake and "Nasty Boy" Brian Knobs. Hulk Hogan explains the rules of the competition and gives them their first three wrestling skills to learn. With only a few days of training, they compete in their first main event, and one of the celebs is sent home."

We start off with a video package explaining how in the world of pro wrestling, one man is king. I'll give you three guesses who, and it isn't Jerry Lawler. The celebrities will be guided by two legendary coaches. The routines are rehearsed, but the pain is real! In the end only one will survive, and they'll get a belt. That beats the heck out of a recording contract, doesn't it?

The celebrities walk out to the ring one by one…Dennis says he's known for being a bad boy. Trishelle thinks she will kick ass. Dustin will bring it. Danny's willing to do things they can't show on television. Nikki's never watched wrestling, but she's tougher than she looks. Butterbean has 93 wins. Tiffany thinks it will be a challenge. Erin's good with the unexpected. Todd has a bad side. Frank is old, but fast.

We meet the judges, Eric Bischoff & Jimmy Hart! Eric welcomes the celebrities and introduces our coaches, Brutus Beefcake & Brian Knobs. Legends in the business, by the way. He then introduces the man who made the industry, Hulk Hogan. Hulk says he expects big things out of all the celebrities. Wrestling is an art form, but it requires personality. He says that they all have personality, but they need the skills. Hulk asks Dustin if he can call him Screech, and Dustin says Hulk can call him whatever he wants. Dustin says in a cut-away that he's been a Hogan fan forever. Hogan says Trishelle looks like she's nervous, but she says she's honored. Hulk tells them that they'll be put into teams, they will learn three moves each week, and use them to put together a match with their teammates. Each team will be judged on technical ability and showmanship, and the winning team will be safe from elimination. The losing team will lose a member. The last competitor remaining will get a title belt and be the CCW Champion. Danny says he broke one of the Ten Commandments by coveting the belt. We go to commercial…

We're back and Brutus & Brian are picking teams. Erin's known Danny since he was a kid, so she's glad he's not on her team. Ouch. Dennis is impressed with his team, Team Nasty. Eric explains the rules to them again, and tomorrow night they will perform in front of a crowd. The three moves this week are the kick to the mid-section, a forearm smash, and a clothesline. The celebs look nervous as Knobs & Beefcake demonstrate the moves for them. We go to commercial…

We're back, and Team Beefcake & Team Nasty are training. Knobs is unimpressed with Dustin's forearm smashes, saying he's pulling up like a woman. Dustin does better on the second try. Nikki seems to be having a tough time picking things up, and Erin says that Nikki is easily distracted by outside stuff. They start doing the kicks, and Todd ends up accidentally kicking one of Beefcake's helpers in the nuts. Whoops. We see Knobs explaining the art of the clothesline, and to be honest none of these guys looks quite like JBL. Erin hits her head pretty hard trying to take a bump, but she says she had six kids, so this doesn't hurt. Knobs starts banging peoples' heads into the turnbuckle. We then go to the night of the match, with each team in their locker room. Team Beefcake is confident, Butterbean says that the other team doesn't have a base like him to work off of, and none of them have the balls that Danny has. Todd heard that Nikki was up at 3 in the morning to make sure her hair was just right. In the Team Nasty locker room, Dustin is nervous and tells the camera that he will pick up the slack of some of his teammates and be the ring general. Cocky Screech, you gotta love it! Nikki is more focused with the mirror than Knobs' pep talk. We go to commercial…

We're back, and it's fight night! The ring announcer introduces Eric (to boos), Jimmy (to cheers), and Hulk (to many cheers). Hulk welcomes the fans to the show and thanks them for coming.

Match 1: Team Beefcake

Heels: Tiffany & Danny Bonaduce (w/Todd Bridges) vs. Faces: Trishelle Cannatella & Butterbean

Bubba the Love Sponge is your commentator and does make some interesting comments so I won't hate on him too much. Anybody who makes a Brian Pillman reference is ok with me. Danny & Butterbean start us off, the Bean pushes Danny around some to the pleasure of the crowd. Danny offers to shake hands, but kicks Bean on the handshake! Forearm smash, and Danny tries a clothesline but it has no effect on the 400-pounder. Bean gives Danny a clothesline and walks over him. Trishelle tags in and does some gesturing before slapping Danny! Big kick by Trishelle, and she rams Danny's head into the turnbuckle one time on each side of the ring. Danny takes control with a kick, and we hear the judges discuss how impressed they are with Danny as he works over Trishelle. Hulk says he should have been in the business from the start. Tiffany tags in, and her offense unfortunately isn't nearly as impressive. Trishelle comes back and a double clothesline leads to both ladies tagging in the men. Bean just waylays him, but Danny seems to be going into everything way too fast. Bean misses a corner splash and Danny tries a cross-body, but Bean turns it into a front powerslam and gets the win!

Winners: Trishelle Cannatella & Butterbean

Trishelle hits Todd Bridges after the match, and I completely forgot he was out there. He leads Tiffany & Danny in a post-match beatdown, but it's not really much of a beatdown and it doesn't go anywhere.

After a commercial we get…

Match 2: Team Nasty

Heels: Frank Stallone & Dustin Diamond (w/Nikki Ziering) vs. Faces: Erin Murphy & Dennis Rodman

Dennis & Dustin start things off, and it's Dustin missing an attack from behind that leads to lots of offense for Dennis. A big kick, a forearm smash and a clothesline by Dennis, whose physicality impresses the judges. Erin tags in, but Dustin still manages to get another forearm from Dennis. Erin's offense isn't all that impressive, and Dustin manages to take control. Tag to Frank, who does a little offense and Nikki even gets to do some choking on Erin. Dustin locks in a sleeper on Erin and wears her down some. Dustin misses a corner splash and Erin tags in Dennis, who proceeds to clean house. 2 clotheslines impress the judges, and Dennis goes up to the second rope and hits a flying clothesline that gets the three count!

Winners: Erin Murphy & Dennis Rodman

After a commercial break, Hulk says that he and the judges are proud of the celebrities and they were impressed. He declares that Team Nasty is safe from elimination tonight, as they had the better performance.

Now we find out who will be eliminated from Team Beefcake…Eric says Trishelle has a good look for the business but runs her down some before finally saying that she's safe. Jimmy says that Danny caught fire when he was out there and he's safe. Hulk tells Butterbean that the crowd loves him, but he can't get away with the Hulk Hogan style in this day and age. He needs to move more and step his game up, but he's safe tonight.

Your final two are Tiffany & Todd. Hulk says Tiffany's showmanship was good, but she needs to step up and be more physical. He says Todd had no presence out there until the run-in at the end, but his performance there was good enough to keep him safe, as Tiffany will be going home. Hulk calls her a jabroni and tells her to get out of his ring. Ha!

Tiffany had fun anyway, it was a great experience. Your typical reality show losing interview

And that's all for this week! Join me next week, when the celebrities learn how to fall off of high places!

You can watch Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling at 2 PM & 8 PM every Saturday (along with other replays all week long) on CMT.....................brother.