Celebs in the Ring

Big Show vs. Floyd "Money" Mayweather

As a general rule I do not like it when celebrities get into a wrestling ring and wrestle.  Or at least try to.  The one exception I can think of is Floyd "Money" Mayweather.  He and the Big Show had a match at Wrestlemania 24.  I witnessed it first hand and I must say it exceeded my expectations.

I wasn't looking forward to it at first, but looking back I left like they had a nice lead up to the event and I loved the way they ended it.  I thought for sure Show would squash Money like a bug, but instead, Mayweather came out on top.  Of course a pair of brass knucks don't hurt.

I bring this topic up because apparently TNA has offered Chad Ochocinco to settle his differences with his coach Marvin Lewis inside a steel cage at their Lockdown pay per view in the spring. That nugget of info comes from 411 Wrestling.  The report goes on to say the company will train each man for the match.

 I groan at the thought of this for several reasons.  The first being as a I mentioned, I don't like celebrities in the ring.  Now if Ochocinco was wrestling a wrestler, I might be more accepting of this.  It seems athletes tend to do better in this environment, (Mayweather and even Lawrence Taylor back at Wrestlemania 11)

Throwing the coach in there too just seems stupid to me.  It's a legitimate grudge between these two and you're going to exploit that with a match in a cage.  Maybe Marvin Lewis a BA too, I don't know as I don't follow football.  Although the Wrestlemania of football is coming up next week, but I digress.

There have been plenty of failed celebrity wrestling matches in the past.  Drew Carey in the Royal Rumble.  Jay Leno and DDP against Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff.  Dennis Rodman & Hogan vs. DDP & Karl Malone.  Jenna Morasca (from Survivor) vs. Sharmell.  WCW World champion David Arquette.  I could go on here, but I think you all get the point.

Sure, if you want some main stream attention, get a celeb involved in your event, but it doesn't have to be in a match.  Look at the press the WWE got when Mike Tyson just refereed the match between Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin.  Donald Trump merely served as a ringside assistant to Bobby Lashley in his battle with Umaga.  Those are acceptable ways to be involved.

Bottom line, the celeb must be an athlete in his or her prime to compete against another wrestler.  Your thoughts?


So TNA is clearly grasping at straws

Five Brass Rings

courtesy: WWE

It's the fifth day of Christmas and instead of gold rings, we're getting brass ones.  As in brass knuckles.

I understand that there are technically four rings for the fingers, and the fifth isn't really ring shaped, but I'm trying to go with a theme here, so bare with me.

Brass knuckles are an interesting weapon of choice in wrestling. So interesting in fact, some regions actually had Brass Knuckles Champions.  Guys like Blackjack Mulligan, Rocky Johnson, and Black Bart all held the NWA Florida version.

I never saw any of these matches, as the title was retired in 1984, which was about the time I started watching wrestling.  But I've seen plenty of villains use the knucks to their advantage.

Floyd "Money" Mayweather used them to knock out the Big Show at Wrestlemania 24.  I was there for that, and thought the booking of the match and it's ending were actually pretty creative.  I was skeptical of the match when it was first announced.  I had imagined another catastrophe like the Big Show-Akebono Sumo match at Wrestlemania 21.  At least at this one, Show was fully clothed.

My memories of the knuckles include Randy Savage using them to win the Intercontinental title from Tito Santana.  But I'm pretty sure they were wrapped in something and not the exposed knucks we see today.  Also, back in the World Class days, Gino Hernandez used them to beat faces like Kerry Von Erich among others.  In fact, Gino was the Texas territory brass knuckles champion.   Other legends like Fritz Von Erich, Abdullah the Butcher, and Bruiser Brody also wore that title.  It was an active belt off and on since 1953, before the NWA changed it to the Texas hardcore title in 1999.  That version only lasted a couple of years.

While there are no longer any brass knuckles champions, or at least none that I'm aware of, the weapon is still used today.  We don't seem them a whole lot, but William Regal is probably the wrestler most synonymous with using the foreign object.  Edge used them to beat John Cena at SummerSlam a few years back as well.

Running down our 12 Days of Christmas list (the whole point of this post)
A Red Rooster in a Wrestling Ring
2 Turtle Jobbers
3 French Canadians
4 Wooing Horsemen
5 Brass Rings