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.
Tag: WWE
Mama’s Family
“Mama Mania”
Season 4, Episode 9
11/21/1987
While Mama’s Family will never make any top ten sitcom lists, or be revered for breaking any ground as a sitcom or, hell, for being an entertaining sitcom for that matter, it was still a sitcom I regularly watched as a kid. Which will tell you that I spent most of my childhood without cable TV. Upholding the long-standing tradition of working class/white trash family sitcoms, Mama’s Family also happened to have a wrestling episode that involved Harper matriarch, Thelma, and daughter-in-law Naomi competing inside the ring. The show also decided to go the much more realistic route of having their TV characters, that have never wrestled before, win their matches against seasoned pros. And yet, we still wonder why the WWE books celebrities the way they do.
Mongo Wrestling Alliance
The Entire Series
1/23/2011 – 7/31/2011
An animated send-up of all things pro wrestling. Mongo Wrestling Alliance enhances the stereotypes made famous by professional wrestling and inserts the tropes we’ve all come to know and love into the everyday personal lives of their characters. It’s wrestling nerds’ wet dream. Not so much for fans of comedy. Although far from a nightmare, it’s definitely along the lines of one of those abrupt jerking movements that startle you awake just as you’re knocking out.
Paradise Alley (1978)
Thanks to his Oscar win for writing and starring in Rocky, an untouchable Sylvester Stallone decided to become an auteur of sorts with regards to films about prize fighters and grapplers. Despite going all-out and not only writing, starring, but also directing, and signing the song in the opening credits, Paradise Alley was definitely no Rocky. This film pretty much explains why Stallone milked the hell out of Rocky. He was a one-trick pony. Nonetheless, not many Hollywood studios were lining up to make movies about pro wrestling. So, we can thank Sylvester Stallone for that. Also, thanks to Stallone, it’d be a long time before Hollywood warmed up to making another one. But I don’t want to rag on him too much seeing as he’s sensitive and all.
Barefoot Wrestlers
With Alexander Rusev making his second WWE wrestling debut, only this time on Raw, it only seemed fitting to take a look back at wrestlers who paved the way for him with their bare feet. Wrestlers who also just happened to be ethnic, and from some wild uncivilized place where shoes, and more importantly wrestling boots, are a luxury.
The Naked Man (1998)
Having recently learned that Troma Entertainment picked up Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies for distribution, this month’s Ringside Cinema focuses on a forgotten gem of a wrestling movie that can be seen as a Troma-lite attempt at kitsch and camp: The Naked Man. Co-written by Ethan Coen. Yes, as in one-half of the brother team that’s co-written and directed The Big Lebowski, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, etc. Proving that Joel Coen is the more talented one of the two, and that Michael Rapaport is a strange choice to play a wrestler on film, but still not as strange a choice as Oliver Platt.
Dexter’s Laboratory
“Dial M for Monkey: Rasslor”
Season 1, Episode 2
5/5/1996
One of the WWE’s most popular wrestlers right now, Daniel Bryan, is the personification of what it means to be a true underdog. And if we’ve learned anything from wrestling and every sports movie ever made, ever, is that people like a good underdog story. That’s why it only seemed fitting to write about a particular episode of the once-popular Cartoon Network show, Dexter’s Laboratory.
Other “WrestleManias”
With WrestleMania XXX fast approaching, it only seems right to cover other companies (both past and present) who have(had) their own annual super shows. While not on the same scale as WrestleMania, these shows still delivered dream matches, feud blow-offs, and championship bouts that were just as exciting in their own respective country, territory, time period.
The Underdog Wrestler
The underdog gimmick has evolved so much throughout the years that it can be divided up into subcategories. Before, a wrestling underdog wasn’t much of a contender and had no real hopes of winning, aside from pulling off an upset or two. Now, the underdog can take the form of a smaller-than-average, but scrappy wrestler with a never say die attitude, to a loveable loser type who fares better in backstage skits, than inside the ring; to a talented wrestler who’s good enough to win, and can, but never gets a fair shake. This post will focus on those wrestlers who were consistently put in David and Goliath type situations (both figuratively or literally), and built careers out of being long-term Davids.
Black Tag Teams
In honor of Black History Month, I decided to compile a list of the top black tag teams in professional wrestling history. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
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