Mickey Rourke and Wrestlemania 25!!

[finneycom1]

Ok, here's the deal: I have been pondering this ever since I had a WM25 party at my house on Sunday. Let me take you back and then ask you a question that has me really thinking.

I felt like this year's Wrestlemania was a little bit of a let down. It HAD alot of potential to be one of the great WM's of all time. Let's go back to last year's WM. I had been looking forward to the 25th "Grandaddy of them All" for a long time. We had Orton set to win the Championship this year with his win at Royal Rumble. We had another MITB match where I was sure that we would have a "new" contender added to the mix!! Plus, we had another Undertaker victory to look forward to!! Awesome!

So after the Royal Rumble all of the storylines started to take shape. Then, Mickey Rourke challenges Jericho on the red carpet to set up a match at Wrestlemania. Now, I am NOT, nor have I ever been a fan of mixing mainstream Hollywood with MY favorite past-time. However, shortly after the Rourke/Jericho storyline started, I went to see "The Wrestler." Then, I will admit, I started to get pumped. Afterall, I had read where Rourke had been training with the best and after pondering it in my head, I thought, "This might end up being pretty entertaining!" Then, the unthinkable! Rourkes PR people pulled him from wrestling at 'Mania.

Well, after that, it seemed as though, the steam kinda "deflated" from Wrestlemania. I didnt realize it at first, but after thinking back, the past month or so, it just seems like it lost alot of momentum. Then, on top of that, I was treated to a rather lackluster Wrestlemania 25. Punk wins the MITB match, AGAIN. We get shorted a match with them pulling the tag team unification. There was absolutely NO backstage pre-match interviews. Kid Rock cheats us out of some Diva introductions, only to have a MAN win the Battle Royal. JBL is buried by a man shorter than I am. (I am very short) Cena/Edge/Big Show was an ok Raw match at best. Triple H walks out champion, killing Orton's momentum. And Michaels/Taker was probably one of the BEST Wrestlemania matches I have ever seen. (I've been watching since '87.)

So my question is this: Did Rourke's non-involvement in a one on one wrestling match with Chris Jericho, hurt or help Wrestlemania 25?
(I know most of you are not or was not a fan of his involvement, but it felt like when he bailed out, everything just kinda left Wrestlemania) and yes, I know that he did not have any effect on the outcome of the above mentioned matches, but I think it did affect the overall hype of Wrestlemania. Given this was supposed to be a huge Wrestlemania, 25 years old!

 

[Dragonslayer]

Well I believe if they had gone all-out with the Rourke-thing, it could've been interesting. First off, telling from the way Mickey looked at WM25, he definitely would have had to enter a harder training schedule again, and put on some more muscle to look a bit like "Randy The Ram" again. Secondly, I wouldn't have him competing with Jericho in a one-on-one situation in any case, but rather gone down a tag team set-up; since you just wouldn't know how well he could hold his own in a "real" matchup.

So, I'd have paired him with someone of the legends (naturally Ricky Steamboat comes to mind), with Ric Flair as manager. Leave out Piper and Snuka of the match; maybe have them actually be "injured" by Jericho (which makes him come over even more badass) so as they are not able to compete (which they really aren't anyway, from what we saw). So you get Steamboat teaming with Rourke vs Jericho. Jericho wins, in the end we get the shattering glass everyone has been waiting for, a few stunners to everyone, a little beer to everyone, and we have our Stone Cold moment, without wasting another ten minutes or so somewhere later down the show.

But, considering Mickey pulled out again, and only did that short cameo, and how the media are STILL ripping into him right now - I've come to think that for Rourke, it was really a smart choice. I mean, it's actually kind of perverted. First, everyone and their mother is giving Rourke standing ovations, Golden Globes and Oscar nominations for playing a professional wrestler in a movie; but then, when asked to actually be a professional wrestler, they boo him out of the building and make a laughing stock of him? WTF? As far as I'm concerned, both with the hype for the movie and for WM25 respectively, it should by all means have been an idea both parties (WWE and Rourke) should've benefitted from - of all the celebrity appearances in all the matches of any PPV past and present (I'm thinking mainly WCW here), this one was or would have been the only real logical choice - actors plays wrestler, "real" wrestler is unhappy with that, and challenges him... that, to me, would have made perfect sense (as far as anything in wrestling can ever make perfect sense), instead of just having some apparently randomly chosen celebrity who has never had anything to do with wrestling in any form or fashion get involved with WM, just for their own PR's sake.

But as has been pointed out - when Rourke pulled out, the whole idea lost its momentum, and the only thing that saved it was, hands down, an incredible performance by a guy known as Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat. It's really a shame, I thouht this could've made for a pretty decent celebrity/gimmick match actually, if they had gone through with it. But also as said - considering how the media are ripping Mickey for that short appearance alone, I can only begin to imagine what it would've done for his career if he had gone all-out with the match. Silly Hollywood people, really.

 

[The Doctor]

Even after he pulled out, the story was shaping up to be pretty good.
However, I'm glad he made an appearence.
Dragonslayer has it right. The media is made up of idiots.

But hey, who listens to Bill O'Reilly, really?

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

The whole Mickey Rourke thing was one of the biggest letdowns of this Mania. One friggin punch. Big deal.

Why not give Rourke the opportunity to kick his ass in the ring and toss Jericho over the top rope?

That was a complete waste.