Celebrities in wrestling

[Tastycles]

One of the biggest criticisms of the recent WrestleMania pay per view was that Mickey Rourke's involvement ruined the legends match. While I'm not sure I entirely agree with this, it did get me thinking that there isn't really a place in wrestling for celebrity involvement anymore.

When Vince first put Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T. in a wrestling ring, people payed to see it because it presented an oppurtunity to see these celebrities out of their comfort zone and in an interesting new way. This is far and away the best foresight Vince McMahon has ever had, and it is the number one reason for the success of WretleMania.

Fast forward 24 or 25 if you are WWE and you have Mickey Rourke on WrestleMania, and Danny Bonaduce on Lockdown. The problem is that now celebrities are everywere, and if you can watch Greatest Celebrity Enemas then there isn't the same appeal to seeing them on a wrestling show, because far bigger boundaries between the celbrities and the normal people have already been crossed.

Nobody is going to buy Lockdown to see Danny Bonaduce, and while mickey Rourke's appearance may have garnered intrest in WWE, he didn't fight, because he is too big of a name to do it now.

Everyone who has been on TV is a "celebrity" now, and programmes with celebrities doing something a bit weird are ten a penny. Celebrity Championship Wrestling was sold because it had Hulk Hogan on it, and not because it had Butterbean.

So, my question is this, is there still a place for celebrities on big Wrestling cards, or has the time for this passed? Answers on a postcard.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

There's a place for celebs with name value. Mickey Rourke is one, Floyd Mayweather is another. People like that could garner a little intrest in a show. Unlike last years Mania celebs like that girl with the large bosom who's on that show that my daughter used to watch, or that hot Indian woman called Kim something.

 

[Jersey Wannabe]

I agree, the only way that celebrities attract interest to wrestling is if they are celebrities that people are interested in to begin with.

No one cares about Bonaduce in the real world, so they dont care if hes wrestling.

Look at some of the past "celebrities" WWE has brought in.
WM 12- Nick Turturro and Johnathan Taylor Thomas. Who Cares
Wm 7- Alex trebeck and Marla Maples Answer; No one Question; What is who cares
Wm 10- Burt Reynolds . This was 1994 not 1974


The whole point is Celebrities can help if they are real celebrities.
Mickey Rourke would have worked back in 1986.
Get Will Smith or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to appear at Wrestlemania and people will care.

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

Personally I could give a rats ass if a celebrity is there or not it certainly isn't gonna make me buy the PPV but I'm sure other people might because of it. If it is an A list celeb or athlete I can understand Vince dishing out the money for them to be there but these B listers or sometime C listers make no sense and I actually think it makes the product look worse in the public eyes. It's like people will think "These guy's fell so far off the map they had to stoop to being on a wrestling program to get attention" where as if it is an A lister people would think "Man this guys a huge star if he's doing something wrestling related the WWE must be doing something right."

I think the WWE did a good job of this at WM23 and WM24. While Donald Trump may not be a Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt in terms of star power he isn't a washed up has been that nobody has cared about in a decade. He was still in the news and he is pretty respected by the media. They also involved him in an angle people might give a shit about. His hair is one of the most famous or talked about things in Hollywood in terms of body parts. Everybody knows about Donald's unique hairstyle and talk about it, if there is a chance that he might actually have to shave it people may pay to see that.

Same thing with Mayweather at 24. Mayweather was coming off a huge match with De La Hoya and was one of the hottest athletes in the world. He just announced his retirement from boxing which was big because in people's eyes they may think "this guy gave up boxing for professional wrestling, wrestling may be cooler than we thought" or something like that. It also gave Mayweather fans one last chance to see him in the ring even if it was in a scripted fashion so boxing fans more specifically Mayweather fans may have purchased it for that reason alone even if they don't watch wrestling regularly.

Now the Mickey Rourke thing I didn't think was that big of deal. Yeah he is in the news because of The Wrestler and was up for an Oscar but I don't think many people really give a shit about it, atleast not enough to pay to watch it so if the WWE did pay him for that appearance I'm not so sure it was worth it.

But to answer the question I guess it all comes down to how you use them and how big of star they are.

 

[HBK-aholic]

They garner outside interest and I think that's the main thing. These celebrities aren't here to make us buy the show - they're here to make non-wrestling fans buy the show. We're going to watch Wrestlemania no matter what. But someone who's a big football fan may buy it if David Beckham made an appearance, when they wouldn't have otherwise. Someone who reads OK! magazine may buy it if *insert actor here* made an appearance. The whole of England (or so it seems) would have bought it if Jade Goody had made an appearance before her death. I don't give a shit about the celebrity involved and I'm not really supposed to.