I know not all British sitcoms are going to beĀ 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.
Tag: The Wrestling Episode
Scrubs
“My Fifteen Minutes”
Season 1, Episode 8
11/15/2001
Scrubs was a great show. Its use of flashbacks and day dreaming, fantasy sequences were a large part of the reason why it was great. What made it even better was this episode in which Zach Braff’s character, J.D., goes full-on 80’s wrestler in a wrestling promo fantasy sequence.
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.
Mister Ed
“The Wrestler”
Season 2, Episode 12
1/7/1962
Yes. Mister Ed had a wrestling-themed episode. Sadly, it didn’t involve Mister Ed wrestling against a human wrestler. They could’ve at least used him as part of a grand spectacle of an entrance. Then again, it was 1962 and that sort of thing would’ve probably caused granny plantsĀ in the audience to faint.
Angel
The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco
11/5/2003
Season 5 Episode 6
Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s spin-off show, Angel, tackles Aztec demons, Day of the Dead lore, and numbered luchadores who happen to be brothers and are not named Los Villanos.
Wanna Be the Strongest in the World
While I’m sure there’s quite a bit of manga and anime based on wrestling, or puroresu, they’re not all easy to come by. Luckily, thanks to my Hulu Plus subscription, I stumbled across the oddly sexually-charged, hard-hitting, competitive world of joshi wrestling that isĀ Wanna be the Strongest in the World. And it was a lot better than I expected.
Workaholics
FrontĀ Yard Wrestling
1/21/2015
Season 5, Episode 2
Based on some research, I found thatĀ Workaholics references wrestling A LOT. From Lou Albano costumes to them scrambling to find a place to watch Monday Night Raw. AndĀ Blake’s first showbiz gig was actually doing backyard wrestling on public access TV. But this is the first episode that actually centers on wrestling as the main plot. And they do a hell of a job sending up both pro and backyard wrestling.
Robot Chicken
“Metal Militia”
Season 2, Episode 13
10/1/2006
With the announcement of Camp WWE being a new show on the WWE Network, along with a bunch of other shows that add little to no value to the network (just give us new episodes of Legends of Wrestling already, dammit!), it’s only fitting we take a look at this wrestling-themed sketch from Robot Chicken since it’s brought to you by the same people who are making Camp WWE: Seth Green and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.
Saturday Night Live
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”.
Tag Team
Tag Team
Pilot
1/26/1991
In the late 80’s/early 90’s, Hulk Hogan wasn’t the only household wrestling name when it came to outside film and TV projects. In fact, Roddy Piper and Jesse Ventura were in A LOT better movies than Hogan was. I’ll always choose Jesse Ventura in The Running Man over any Hogan vehicle, except for maybe No Holds Barred. That movie is an undeniable classic to seven-year-old me. And Roddy Piper is basically pro wrestling’s Samuel L. Jackson, he’ll take any role so long as the check clears. As of this writing he has five projects in post-production.Yet, Ventura and Piper’s combined star power wasn’t enough to get their one-hour pilot, Tag Team, picked up for a full season. Which is a shame when you consider Thunder in Paradise ran for 22 episodes.
Cheap Pop Culture 