Professional wrestling, brought to you by pop culture and the make believe world of mass media.
With the mecca of all nerdy fanboy events (San Diego Comic Con) starting this week, and Brian Cage demonstrating how easily wrestlers can bring comic book characters to life, here’s a playlist of matches involving wrestlers cosplaying as superheroes/villains.
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”
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”
I know not all British sitcoms are going to be Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, Peep Show, The Office, or even The IT Crowd, but who knew England could give the U.S. a run for its money when it comes to producing dumbed-down tripe. Rumble is not only offensive to British sitcoms, but sitcoms in general and, more specifically, to professional wrestling.
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.
Host: The Rock
“WWE Promo Shoot”
Season 40, Episode 16
3/29/2015
It only took him four tries, but finally… The Rock did an actual wrestling-related sketch on Saturday Night Live. And it was pretty damn good. Hell, the entire episode was pretty damn good and hilarious. It also didn’t hurt that the promo had WWE logos all over and was pretty much an ad for WrestleMania 31 “Press Play”.
Even after a year rife with bad press regarding their racial politics and lack of a black world champion, the WWE has decided to make good through their WWE Network by honoring Black History Month. Only problem is, it’s a pretty half-assed job. As someone that’s not familiar with the PYT Express I was hoping for something more than some random promo of them at an airport where you can barely make out what’s being said, or what the damn point is. And I appreciate the callback to Booker T.’s Ebony Experience days, but I could’ve come up with at least 50 other videos showcasing Booker T.’s accomplishments. And then there’s the backstage bit involving Cryme Tyme, probably the least offensive one that exists of them. Which bring me to this list. While WWE likes to pat themselves on the back for how far along they think they’ve come in portraying African-American wrestling characters, I’d like to provide 10 reminders of how far they set them back as well.
Continue reading “Stereotypically Black Wrestling Characters”
Ah, the early 2000’s. Mountain Dew was that generation’s choice of soft drink, Jack Ass set the new standard for how to best impress your friends, and wrestling was a thing that the mainstream media was actually interested in covering. So naturally, anything targeting that sweet 18-49 demographic was going to include the variant use of the word extreme. It worked for Doritos!
Continue reading “Paid for by the Following: Right Guard Xtreme Sport”
With the 2015 Royal Rumble upon us, I’d be a fool not to make this month’s 10 Count! Royal Rumble related. With so many lists out there I figured I’d take a look at the top 10 first two Rumble entrants. These guys usually help set the tone for the Rumble. It’s even better when the two guys have some sort of backstory. This is a marquee WWE event, second only to WrestleMania, so you need to start it off with the right pair of wrestlers because, no disrespect to D’Lo Brown, are you seriously going to give a shit when the first two entrants are D’Lo and Grand Master Sexay?
In keeping with the theme of having themed Art of Gimmickry posts, today’s post will feature the Native American gimmick in honor of this past Thanksgiving Day. While few actually achieved national prominence, the reason why the Native American wrestler has been a staple in the media’s representation of stereotypical wrestling gimmicks is because back in the day it seems every damn territory had someone working a Native American gimmick. Whether they actually belonged to a tribe or not.
Cheap Pop Culture 