What the World is Watching

Rugrats

Rugrats - Logo
Hulu

“Wrestling Grandpa”
Season 6, Episode 18
5/1/1999

 If you thought Abe Simpson was the only wrestling grandpa, guess again. Before Glamorous Godfrey took to the squared circle on our TV sets, Pretzel-Maker Pickles was contorting wrestlers into… human pretzels. At least, it’s assumed he did because of the name. Either that or being employed by Wetzel’s Pretzels was part of the gimmick.

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Ringside Cinema

Meet Me There (2014)

Brandon Stroud, writer and editor of the two-time RSPW award winning With Spandex blog, on the Uproxx site, wrote the film Meet Me There. Yes, when he’s not busy updating The Best & Worst of Raw posts, or borrowing this site’s Ringside Cinema feature or What the World is Watching, Stroud works on non-pro wrestling endeavors. In case you were hoping this was another entry in the growing wrestling horror film subgenre, I’m sorry to disappoint you.

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What the World is Watching

Rumble

Rumble-LogoI 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.

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What the World is Watching

Scrubs

scrubs-logo“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.

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What the World is Watching

The X-Files

IMG_5013“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.

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What the World is Watching

Mister Ed

Mister Ed Title“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 plants in the audience to faint.

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What the World is Watching

Angel

IMG_4692

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.

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What the World is Watching

Wanna Be the Strongest in the World

Wanna Be the Strongest in the World LogoWhile 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 is Wanna be the Strongest in the World. And it was a lot better than I expected.

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What the World is Watching

Workaholics

workaholics logoFront Yard Wrestling
1/21/2015
Season 5, Episode 2

Based on some research, I found that Workaholics references wrestling A LOT. From Lou Albano costumes to them scrambling to find a place to watch Monday Night Raw. And  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.

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What the World is Watching

Robot Chicken

IMG_1748“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.

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