Year in reviews are still going on, right? Enjoy the third installment of The Year of Wrestling in Pop Culture.
Continue reading “2017: The Year of Wrestling in Pop Culture”
Tag: John Cena
2016: The Year of Wrestling in Pop Culture
The year’s wrapping up, and in the world of professional wrestling, journalists, fans, bloggers, etc., will be declaring their wrestlers and matches of the year. However, here at Cheap Pop Culture, I’d rather give you a breakdown of all the times pro wrestling reared its red-headed step child head in the world of pop culture. So enjoy the second annual of The Year of Wrestling in Pop Culture.
Continue reading “2016: The Year of Wrestling in Pop Culture”
Baywatch
“Bash at the Beach”
Season 6, Episode 15
2/19/1996
Some people stand in the darkness. Afraid to step into the light. Some people need to help somebody, when the edge of surrender’s in sight. When it comes crashing down and it hurts inside, you gotta take a stand it don’t help to hide. I am a real American. Forever and always, I’m always here.
Just as I was able to seamlessly mash up “Real American” and “I’m Always Here”, so were the producers of Baywatch who brought together two of the most popular, half naked, blondes of the 90’s.
The X-Files
“Fight Club”
Season 7, Episode 20
5/7/2000
With a week into its revival on Fox, I figured it was as good a time as any to look at that one wrestling-themed episode of The X-Files that Rob Van Dam made a cameo in.
Royal Rumble Final Four
The Royal Rumble is upon us once again to help make Roman Reigns look even stronger. Last year, I took a look at the best #1 and #2 entrants. This year, I decided to showcase the top ten final four competitors. Because as fun as the Rumble is, everyone knows the best part is when it’s down to the last four wrestlers.
Undeserved Championship Matches
So people feel Roman Reigns doesn’t deserve his championship match at WrestleMania against Brock Lesnar, despite the legally binding contract that is winning the Royal Rumble. But this isn’t the first time the WWE has accelerated a wrestler’s path to the main event, or even thrown a bone to a long-time mid-carder that had no business being in a match that had the title graphic “WWE Championship” before the bell rang. To be fair though this list will only concentrate on those undeserved number one contenders that were given pay-per-view title shots, or else it’d be filled with every wrestler Bret Hart faced in 1992, or almost every other superstar Hulk Hogan defeated on Saturday Night’s Main Event.
The Cold War Russian Wrestler
While the Cold War had been a thing since the late 1940’s, it was still a pretty intense situation in the 1980’s and, most importantly, a major part of the fabric that made up a lot of 1980’s popular culture. You had Sylvester Stallone defending America’s honor against the Soviets in the best Rocky movie since the first one, Rocky IV. Even “teenage” movie heartthrobs answered the call to arms in the war against Soviet Russia in the original Red Dawn. And wrestling was no different. Always trying to remain relevant with the times, every territory had its own Red Menace, sometimes even two.
Paid for by the Following: Foot Locker
Here’s another WWE attempt at shoehorning itself into some place where it doesn’t belong. For Foot Locker’s “Week of Greatness” promotion they released a bunch of commercials with different athletes. The funniest being the Manny Pacquiao promo. Granted, the commercial does poke fun at the very tired fact that wrestling isn’t real. And it does feature the WWE’s official sneaker spokesperson, John Cena. Unless this was another sponsor CM Punk had gotten all on his own and was then taken away from him. In any case, it puts the WWE in a mainstream commercial and makes it somewhat relevant again to the casual viewer.
Paid for by the Following: Lotto 6/49
After watching John Oliver’s scathing and much-deserved take down of the government-run U.S. lottery on the first season finale of Last Week Tonight, I figured it’d be the perfect intro to this month’s Paid for by the Following. Although the inclusion of this commercial for the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s Lotto 6/49 is in no way associating it with the same questionable ethical practices of the lotteries in the United States. Those Canadian questionable ethical practices are apparently tied to their “freemium” Terrance and Phillip mobile game.
Nightmare Pro Wrestling
I’m not sure how I stumbled upon Nightmare Pro Wrestling, but I’m glad I did. Jon David Guerra is an awesome artist. Like many other artists that like to share their work online and give things we love a new twist, he’s taken to mashing things up with pro wrestling the same way Ramon Villalobos and Mike Kendrick have done. In this case, mashing up the world of professional wrestling with every type of monster from the Universal classics to the Japanese Kaijus.
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