Category: What the World is Watching

What the World is Watching

Uncle Grandpa

James Martinez
Hulu

“History of Wrestling”
Season 2, Episode 5
9/11/2014

A character named Uncle Grandpa immediately draws to mind inbreeding. Luckily, that’s not the case, but he’s definitely out there. Given that the “History of Wrestling” is the extent of which I am able to judge Uncle Grandpa on, I’m going to go out on a limb and also say it’s kind of stupid. But hey, I’m not the intended demographic and I liked Beavis & Butthead growing up, so what the hell do I know? I will say that Uncle Grandpa’s treatment of professional wrestling wasn’t that bad. For a stupid cartoon. So there’s that.

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What the World is Watching

Wrestling with Joeylicious

James Martinez

Pitch-Sheet-Cover-9-8-copy-e1411507405329Granted, I’m a little late on this press release that Setta Entertainment put out… to WrestleZone. But still, it’s worth mentioning since a large part of this site is dedicated to actual TV episodes that feature pro wrestling in one way or another.

From Setta:

New York, NY – WRESTLING WITH JOEYLICIOUS is a single-camera half hour comedy, filmed in and around NYC. It will follow Joey’s trials and tribulations as he attempts to lead a normal life balancing work, family and a romance while desperately clinging to his dream of becoming the greatest professional wrestler of all time.

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What the World is Watching

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

James Martinez
 ItsAlwaysSunnyLogo“The Gang Wrestles for the Troops”
Season 5, Episode 7
10/29/2009
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been able to consistently find unique ways to have their group of drunken underachieving sociopaths exploit topics from the mundane to the taboo. Pro wrestling falls somewhere in between those two. Okay, maybe it’s not taboo (at least not since the Attitude Era) but when you mix in a healthy dose of jingoism and xenophobia you’re bound to rub some people the wrong way. Even Rusev and Lana’s schtick has made it into the mainstream news coverage. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia not only skewered the forever trite storyline of good vs. evil in the form of warlike foreign policy, but also lampooned the depressing, all-too-real, downward spiral most pro wrestlers’ lives take when they’re no longer headlining sold-out arenas.

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What the World is Watching

Trailer Park Boys

James Martinez

trailer-park-boys“The Green Bastard”
Season 4 Episode 4
5/2/2004

The Trailer Park Boys is a documentary style sitcom much like The Office and Parks and Recreation. It’s also a sitcom about white trash. More specifically, Canadian white trailer trash. And in the grand tradition of white trash sitcoms, like Married with Children and The Beverly Hillbillies, Trailer Park Boys has an episode that involves pro wrestling. Actually, it’s backyard wrestling. But still, it counts. Plus, it gave us one of the best gimmicks in all of sitcom professional wrestling: The Green Bastard!

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What the World is Watching

Merrie Melodies

James Martinez

IMG_1952“Bunny Hugged”
3/10/1951

Pro wrestling seems to be good fodder for cartoons. It’s already outlandish and slapstick as it is. Wrestling is built on magnifying everything related to the real world to a ridiculously excessive interpretation. Within the boundaries, or lack thereof, of the animated world that ridiculous interpretation is further heightened to even more preposterous levels of absurdity. This is exactly why every cartoon should have at least one wrestling-themed episode. Wrestling and cartoons go hand in hand. They’re the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups of the entertainment medium.

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What the World is Watching

Quantum Leap

James Martinez

QuantumLeapLogo“Heart of a Champion – July 23, 1955”
Season 3 Episode 20
5/8/1991

Watching the opening title credits for Quantum Leap made me nostalgic for 80’s and 90’s cheesy TV opening credit sequences. I’m sure I’m not the only one who pines for the days of edited footage from previous episodes with terrible music and actors turning at the right time just as their name is displayed across the screen. Why else would WWE.com decide to reimagine Raw as a 90’s sitcom? Other than that bit of nostalgia, I don’t know much about Quantum Leap other than it used to be on after Monday Night Raw back in the day. Having watched this particular episode I kind of want to binge on the entire series courtesy of Hulu Plus. Then again, I’m sure the other episodes cannot compete with Scott Bakula time traveling to 1950s professional wrestling as a kayfabe Russian heel.

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What the World is Watching

That 70’s Show

James Martinez

logo“That Wrestling Show”
Season 1 Episode 15
2/7/1999

As the Attitude Era continued growing in popularity and wrestlers were fast becoming household names once again, it wasn’t strange to see WWE or WCW guys make cameos on other TV shows. One of the better ones involved a few WWE wrestlers showing up on That 70’s Show as old school wrestlers. Most importantly, it had The Rock in his first-ever acting role. He was portraying his dad, Rocky Johnson, a former wrestler, so really there wasn’t a whole lot of acting involved. Still, it’s one of the better wrestling-themed TV episodes out there. Plus, it had Ken Shamrock and The Hardy Boyz in awful wigs.

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What the World is Watching

Garfield and Friends

James Martinez
1210237599_f
Hulu

“Canvas Back Cat”
Season 5 Episode 8
10/10/1992

In case you’re wondering if this cartoon still holds up after all these years, the answer is yes. Yes, it does. And the fact that there’s an episode that involves pro wrestling makes it all the better.

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What the World is Watching

Jackie Chan Adventures

James Martinez
jackie chan adventures logo“The Mask of El Toro Fuerte”
Season 1 Episode 3
9/23/2000
Due to the waning days of my adolescence, I was not hip to the action-packed cartoon series that was Jackie Chan Adventures. Given that most of the stunts Chan pulled off in his live-action movies were so damn awesome they blurred the lines of reality, real-life Jackie Chan was definitely better than the animated one anyway. I’d give the cartoon props for sticking to the unbelievable style of Chan’s martial arts, but then again, every action sequence/fighting scene in a cartoon already tends to stretch the limits of real world physics. I will give the creators props for attention to detail, like Chan’s broken English. Why else would this cartoon series be called Jackie Chan Adventures and not The Adventures of Jackie Chan? Early on in the first season of this series the creators introduced El Toro Fuerte, a character that I came to find out, after some clever sleuthing on IMDB.com, is actually a recurring character throughout the cartoon’s run. But seeing as I’m not going to review all ten-plus episodes that feature El Toro Fuerte, I figured I’d go with his aptly-titled debut episode.

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What the World is Watching

Ren & Stimpy

James Martinez

RenStimpyLogo“Mad Dog Höek”
Season 2 Episode 5
11/21/1992

Like most of the episodes of Ren & Stimpy, there’s no context given or any kind of a backstory that sets up Ren and Stimpy finding themselves inside a wrestling ring opposite two large, roid-raging freaks. So let’s get right into it.

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