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Best and Worst Celebrity Involvement in Wrestling


Brewster McCloud

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2 hours ago, Pier Six Brawler said:

Is it true that the Robocop at Wrestle War '90 was actually played by Peter Weller? Jim Cornette reckons it was him but I have serious doubts. 

IMDB has Peter Weller credited as playing the part, and the way he moves is pretty close to how Weller did it.

It makes sense really, as otherwise they'd have to either a) find someone with an identical body to fit in the suit, or b) have a new suit made for whoever was going to play the part.

"Pete, fancy an unjustifiably large paycheck for a night's piss-easy work?"

 

One of my favourite celebrity appearances was Pete Rose. Wound the audience up good and proper.

 

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What is it about ex-baseball players? Pete Rose, Bob Uecker, both seemed to get it. Pete and Kane was an unlikely hit - Having it in Boston was a true genius move. Uecker's "sell" of Andre's choke still sticks in my mind after all these years.

Then we have the king and queen of Rock n Wrestling, Ozzy and Cyndi.

Special mention for the Muppets, Beaker especially.

 

As for the Z-list (woo woo woo), I can barely remember. Summerfest sticks in the craw, any one who was clearly only using it as a media appearance and didn't "play the game". 

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Andy Kaufman has to be the best for me. His work with Lawler is amongst my favourite heel work by anyone, ahead of most full-time wrestlers. 

It's a great archetype for how to use celebrities in wrestling, too - he got eyes on the product, got them mainstream publicity, parlayed all of his skills into being a truly hated heel, but by the time he got in the ring, he was never made to look anything more than completely outclassed against any actual wrestler.

One of the worst parts of the "guest host" era of WWE for me is how often they had non-wrestling celebrities managing to get one up on the wrestlers, even if the wrestler in question was just a goofy heel like Heath Slater. Unless the celeb is an athlete, or an action movie star, or something like that, it always seems a poor choice to make them look superior to a wrestler at their own game.

Cyndi Lauper deserves a nod to, for playing her role to absolute perfection, and garnering a lot of (positive) mainstream attention. 

Floyd Mayweather was superb too - one of the best "non-wrestler" matches in history. 

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I seem to remember the lead actor from the Arrow series putting in a good shift on Raw one week. Maybe not the greatest but worthy of a mention.

Somebody called Mike Tyson the best, but that only worked so well because of who he was, not his actual performance. Any body double could've done a better job than him, especially if they could also impersonate his voice at the Rumble when he named his favourite wrestler as "Cold Stone" Steve Austin.

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Just now, Uncle Zeb said:

I seem to remember the lead actor from the Arrow series putting in a good shift on Raw one week. Maybe not the greatest but worthy of a mention.

He did a decent job at All-In, too. 

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18 minutes ago, Uncle Zeb said:

Somebody called Mike Tyson the best, but that only worked so well because of who he was, not his actual performance. Any body double could've done a better job than him, especially if they could also impersonate his voice at the Rumble when he named his favourite wrestler as "Cold Stone" Steve Austin.

Topic is "involvement" with no stipulations. Tyson was involved in one of the greatest angles in the history of the WWE, if not all wrestling. That's a winner.

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Did TNA ever have a celebrity appearance that was even decent?

I can’t think of any that wasn’t an overhyped reality “star” that made TNA look small time as fuck. Shit like Jenna Morasca bank rolling the Main Event Mafia was just embarrassing. What does it say about wrestling when a stable made up of legitimate legends, and Booker T, need a lass from Survivor to fund them?

Oh, and they had Pacman Jones who was probably even worse.

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5 hours ago, unfitfinlay said:

Did TNA ever have a celebrity appearance that was even decent?

The only one I can think of that was even a little bit not shit was when they got J-Wow and Ronnie in from Jersey Shore. Not because they were any good or because the angles were well-written, but they at least contributed a bit to fleshing out The Shore stable of Robbie E and Cookie. The segment felt like what would happen if some of Jersey Shore were actually in wrestling. 

Was still shite, though.

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