Celebrity Wrestling - When Stars Enter The Squared Circle, Part V
You can't spell 'legitimate celebrity wrestler' without LT...
It can’t be argued strongly enough that WWE shouldn’t be seeking the approval of outside forces. After all, you don’t see Major League Baseball getting all excited about some ho-hum recording artist agreeing to play during the All-Star Game’s seventh inning stretch.
And while the celebrity ringside presence that was such a feature of early WrestleManias might have helped recreate the big fight atmosphere associated with boxing events, the McMahon clan could do well to remember that there’s a certain cool in not pointing out every Z-list actor and washed-up sportsman who chooses to take in the wrestling of an evening.
The Taylor Made Man
The exception to the ‘celebrities shouldn’t wrestle’ rule
WrestleMania XI was a pretty forgettable pay-per-view. For those with blank memories, it’s the one where Kevin Nash showed up with Pamela Anderson. However, if its joint main event was anything but a show-closing classic, the fault doesn’t lie with either of its participants. On the contrary, Bam Bam Bigelow and NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor did a fantastic job, between a pro with enough savvy to disguise his shortcomings and a guy who’d never wrestled before.
The New York Giants legend actually looked more at home in the squared circle than Kevin Greene, Reggie White, Steve McMichael and most of the other footballers who wrongly supposed their skills were easily transferrable. Of course, it didn’t hut that Taylor was working with Bigelow, a superior worker well versed in getting the best out of other big guys and more than happy to bump like a bastard if it helped his opponent get over.
Still, any sportsman who feels like giving grappling a go would do well to check out the linebackers’ performance if only to appreciate that there’s more to modern wrestling than grunting and groaning. And on a related subject, any athlete bent of making it on the big screen should watch LT’s turn as Luther ‘Shark’ Lavay in Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday - it’s a marvellously measured piece of acting that suggests the Pro Bowler’s one of those annoying people who can turn their hand to anything.