The Daily Show – Cheap Pop Culture

2015 wasn’t the greatest year for wrestling legends in terms of breaking news stories. Two of the greatest entertainers, Dusty Rhodes and Roddy Piper, passed away. Jimmy Snuka was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter of his then-girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, 32 years after the fact. And, even though former Hulkmaniacs thought it impossible, Hulk Hogan was able to further desecrate his legacy and contribution to professional wrestling by adding to his already long list of personal failures and embarrassments his dropping of the n-word. Multiple times. Seriously, you would’ve thought it was one of the Hulkamania commandments after “take your vitamins.”

Thankfully, this site focuses on wrestling in pop culture. So even when it’s bad, it’s not going to leave you depressed and questioning everything you kayfabe believed in. And luckily, 2015 was a good year for pro wrestling within the canon of pop culture.

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Art of Gimmickry

The Cold War Russian Wrestler

January 31, 2015November 12, 2017 James Martinez

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.

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Art of Gimmickry

The American Militaristic Wrestler

May 27, 2014November 12, 2017 James Martinez

What better way to honor Memorial Day than to spotlight the brave men who made the seamless transition of protecting our freedom overseas to protecting it in our hometown within the confines of the squared circle? And while Memorial Day honors those who served our country and are no longer with us, I didn’t want to wait until Veterans Day to showcase this particular gimmick. Now, seeing as this is in honor of Memorial Day, there’s no room here for your Gen. Skandor Akbars or Col. DeBeers. This is a look at American militaristic wrestlers. A gimmick that has seemed to fizzle out for the time being. Sure, Cena’s done a good job of trading in his rapping gimmick for the pseudo military thing he adopted after filming The Marine. Like, occasionally switching it up from wearing jorts to camouflage cargo shorts, pushing John Cena dog tags on WWE Shop Zone and, of course, incorporating the military salute into his entrance.

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