Remastered: Celebrities in Wrestling

Celebrities and wrestling has always been a thing since the 80s. I’ve talked about this in the past in 2015 during my early years which you can read Right Here: http://aminoapps.com/p/9lhy3. Unlike my older blog I’ll be going into detail on the majority of them individually and talk about which ones worked, did work, and were just there.

There’s been many celebrity appearances that had no real effect on wrestling and were basically there to make a nice appearance with them overall making no real effect on the business overall.

WrestleMania Appearances

There are many celebrity WrestleMania appearances a lot of which did nothing huge which is why I grouped them together. Celebrities like Alex Trebek, Regis Philbin, Vanna White, Al Roker, Bob Uecker and many many more. These appearances were pretty nice though it showed how popular WrestleMania really is and sometimes gave us a few memorable moments like André the Giant choking Bob Uecker at WrestleMania IV, Morton Downey Jr. appearing on Piper’s Pit at WrestleMania V, Muhammad Ali refereeing the main event at WrestleMania I, Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy valets for Shawn Michaels and Diesel for their match at WrestleMania XI, Rob Gronkowski getting involved in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33 as well as hosting WrestleMania 36 and winning the 24/7 championship and finally Mickey Rourke knocking out Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 25 just to name a few.

Musicians Performances/Appearances

Similar to the WrestleMania appearance I grouped together many musicians since again most didn’t do any major to impact the business but made a nice appearance or had a live performance. I enjoyed quite a few of these like Alice Cooper managing Jake Roberts at WrestleMania III, Ozzy Osbourne managing British Bulldogs at WrestleMania 2 and performing “I Don’t Wanna Stop” on SmackDown in 2007 which was the official theme of Judgment Day that year, Drowning Pool and Saliva performing at WrestleMania X8, Limp Bizkit performing at WrestleMania XIX, Mötley Crüe performing on Raw in 1998, Joan Jett and The Black Hearts performing at WrestleMania 35 for Ronda Rousey and finally Motörhead performing at WrestleMania 17 and 21 for Triple H. I kinda wish we had more musician performances since I thought a lot of them were pretty cool especially the ones that performed wrestlers themes.

Insane Clown Posse/Misfits

I was originally going to put these two bands in the good category but the more I thought about it they really didn’t do anything major. ICP have been involved in wrestling since 1997 as they would appear on ECW’s second PPV Hardcore Heaven they’d open the show by performing a few songs to hype up the crowd. A year later they’d appear in WWE as they composed the song “The Greatest Show” for the Oddities. They’d perform for the Oddities at SummerSlam 1998 and manage them occasionally. Soon they’d start to get involved in the Oddities feud with the Headbangers during this they’d eventually turn on the Oddities and join the Headbangers but nothing would really happen after it as they would leave the company shortly after. By 1999 they’d join WCW and form a stable with Raven and Vampiro where they’d be known as The Dead Pool. Raven would shortly leave WCW leaving Vampiro and ICP to form another stable known as The Dark Carnival adding the Great Muta and the Kiss Demon to the group. They wouldn’t do anything really notable during this time and quietly leave the company by 2000. By 2004 they would make a brief appearance in TNA distracting Jeff Jarrett during one of his matches and eventually feud with Glen Gilbertti, Kid Kash, and David Young for a few weeks.
Now onto the Misfits, the Misfits would ally Vampiro in 1999 often managing him and wrestling occasionally but overall they didn’t make a big impact in wrestling which same can be said about ICP in my opinion.

These celebrities really did nothing good for the business and often made the business or opponents look like massive jokes which a lot are still talked about to this day.

Art Donovan/Butterbean/Master P

Art Donovan appeared as a guest commentator at WWE’s King of the Ring in 1994 his commentary would become infamous as he seemed very uniformed and often seem lost during the event. He’d ask constantly “How much does this guy weigh?” as well as just come off very goofy. It just made the show unbearable and made the company look like fools because of it.

Butterbean would make only two appearances for WWE but first in 1997 at D-Generation X: In Your House where he won a worked boxing match against Marc Mero. His second appearances is where he did damage as he would defeat Brawl For All winner Bart Gunn in 34 seconds in a shoot boxing match at WrestleMania XV which would pretty much killing Bart Gunns career in the process. Granted this isn’t any way Butterbeans fault as it’s WWE as this would be punished for Bart for winning the Brawl For All. It’s just one massive headache and shouldn’t have happened to begin with.

Master P appeared in WCW in June 1999 during this time he was paid $200,000 and lead a stable known as the No Limit Soldiers, a play on his record company No Limit Records, They’d feud with The West Texas Rednecks but would fail to connect with the audience which was mostly southern. It would do nothing for the wrestlers involved and ultimately cost WCW money. The group would be disbanded by September and Master P would be out of the company.

RoboCop/Chucky

You might not consider these two celebrities but these were two big WTF moments in WCW that I had to talk about it. In 1990 RoboCop showed up at Capital Combat where he saved Sting who was locked up in a cage by ripping its door off. Now I can understand promoting RoboCop since RoboCop 2 was the sponsor of the PPV but that’s all they really should’ve done because it was one of the worst and most laughable moments in WCW history but it gets worse. In 1998 Chucky randomly showed up via video laughing, yelling, and insulting at Rick Steiner. That was it and nothing came out of it but I guess since Time Warner owned both WCW and New Line Cinema they wanted to do a cross promotion since Bride of Chucky was coming out that year. Again they could’ve just had commentary promote it, rather doing such an odd moment.

Will Sasso/Jon Stewart

In 1999, Bret Hart starred on comedy sketch show MadTV this would lead to a “is it real or is it fake” moment where Hart would take offense to some joke and flip out at the cast making it seem very real. Sasso would then show up on an episode of Nitro and fight Hart in a match that really wasn’t needed and I’m pretty sure nobody cared about it. He’d also make a few appearances in WWE impersonating Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, as well as appearing as Curly along with the 2012 The Three Stooges movie.

John Stewart would randomly start a feud in 2015 with Seth Rollins, Rollins would often mock him by having his own Daily Show type segments. This would culminate at SummerSlam of that year as he’d get involved in his championship match with John Cena, but we’d see a swerve and Stewart would help Rollins retain by attacking Cena with a chair. The next night on Raw he’d explain his actions but Cena would attack him. There was no point really to this besides getting some media coverage but there was other ways they could’ve finished this match.

Kevin Federline/Adam “Pacman” Jones

In 2006, Brittany Spears then husband Kevin Federline would appear on Raw promoting his album, Playing with Fire, he’d have an altercation with John Cena which would eventually lead to a match. During that time he’d ally with Johnny Nitro often managing him in matches. On New Year’s Day episode of Raw Federline would win the match against Cena with help from Nitro and Umaga but later that night Cena would FU Federline out of the company. This is another case of bad promoting to be honest.

One year later TNA would get some celebrity involvement as they would sign Adam “Pacman” Jones in a non-wrestling role. He’d debut at Hard Justice and eventually form at team with Ron “The Truth” Killings known as Team Pacman who would eventually win the World Tag Team championships. By October Pacman would be replaced by Consequences Creed and would be gone from the company. Due to his non-compete clause by the NFL he mostly just stood around and acted cocky. Why would TNA put a championship on him knowing he couldn’t do anything is beyond me, it was one of their dumbest decisions.

Rampage Jackson/Tito Ortiz

In 2010, Rampage Jackson would appear on WWE as a guest host along with the rest of the cast of the A-Team movie. He wouldn’t appear in wrestling until 2013 as he’d debut in TNA confronting Kurt Angle, saving him from Aces & Eights then next week, and eventually being revealed as a member of Main Event Mafia. Rampage would try to get his Bellator 106 opponents, Tito Ortiz, to join the group, but he’d turn on him and join Aces & Eights instead. These two would feud while in their respective groups until Bellator pulled them from TNA due to their upcoming fight. While his wrestling career ended in 2013 Tito Ortiz has been involved with TNA since 2005, he’d often being in guest referee or enforcer role helping out the faces in most cases. Eventually he’d make his return to the company in 2013 and eventually join Aces & Eights but before that happened his debut would be hyped up with tweets and YouTube video the hashtag #August1Warning. Many people including thought it was possibly a debuting or returning wrestler but it would turn out to be him. When he finally debuted he just stood there with his arms crossed while everyone in the ring looked confused for a painfully long period. These two were used pretty poorly in my opinion TNA often just used them as background stars and made them both looked laughable in some cases especially Ortiz return.

Raw Celebrity Guest Hosts

The celebrity host concept would be introduced in 2009 after Vince McMahon regaining ownership of the Raw brand from Donald Trump. These host would have the power of the general manager as they’d make match decision throughout the show. Many of these hosts include the likes of; Seth Green, Jeremy Piven, Bob Barker, Dr. Phil, Vern Troyer, Buzz Aldrin and many more. It would last most of 2010 overall there has been a total of 73 episodes which have featured 92 guest stars. It’s probably one of the worst times in Raw history that I stopped watching Raw for some time because of it and only stuck to SmackDown. Granted from the ones I saw I did enjoy some like Bob Barker, Shaq, Ben Roethlisburger, and Jeremy Piven (for how comically bad it was) other than that they should’ve just found another general manager than doing this.

Jenna Morasca/Snooki

I’m sure everyone has heard about the infamous Victory Road 2009 Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell match at this point, so I’ll briefly touch on it. Jenna Morasca, of Survivor fame, made her TNA debut in 2009 quickly allying with Main Event Mafia becoming their financial backer. Soon tensions would rise between her and Sharmell was leading to their constant bickering and fighting. Morasca would eventually reveal she had hired Awesome Kong to help train her for the match in which see won. This match would be one of the worst, if not the worst match in history where on a rare occasion I agree with Bryan Alvarez, of Wrestling Observer Newsletter fame, that this match indeed was MINUS FIVE STARS. Morasca wouldn’t be the only reality star to take a shot at wrestling as a few years later in 2011 Jersey Shore star Nicole “Snooki” Poilzzi would appearance in WWE. She’d align herself with John Morrison and eventually Trish Stratus they’d start a feud with Vickie Guerrero and LayCool leading to a match at WrestleMania XXVII. The match itself wasn’t great which should come as no surprise but this was another case of trying to force us to care about a celebrity where I’m sure nobody really cared about to begin with.

Jay Leno/David Arquette

In 1998, WCW would spend nearly $500,000 to promote their Road Wild PPV this was because they got arguably the biggest celebrity to come through WCW. This was the Tonight Show host Jay Leno, this would help get WCW some mainstream coverage as one night Eric Bischoff and Hollywood Hulk Hogan invaded the Tonight Show which would lead to a fight as Diamond Dallas Page would help Leno run Hogan and Bischoff off. Hogan would then challenge Leno to a match leading to the tag match at Road Wild. This match would be the main event which it was far from that as it was about a 15 minute crapfest with DDP carrying most of the match and Hogan was selling for Leno which was just down right embarrassing.
This wouldn’t be the only time WCW did something this embarrassing as by 2000 WCW brought in David Arquette, who was the star of upcoming WCW film Ready to Rumble, who had an in ring confrontation with Eric Bischoff. During this time he’d align himself with Chris Kanyon and World Heavyweight champion Diamond Dallas Page. This would eventually lead to the infamous match on Thunder placing him and DDP against Eric Bischoff and Jeff Jarrett with whoever got the pin would get the championship. In controversial fashion Arquette would pin Bischoff just as it seemed Jarrett had DDP pinned for the victory. During his time as champion he was mostly used as comedic relief, he also had a promo while on set of 3000 Miles to Graceland with then wife Courteney Cox and co-star Kurt Russell. He’d only hold the championship for 12 days and have one defense at Slamboree in a triple cage match against Jarrett and DDP. During the match he’d turn on DDP helping Jarrett win the match all for the sake of a swerve.
He’d make a few more appearances before leaving WCW, he has started many times he was against winning the championship as he as a fan saw this as a bad idea while head Booker, Vince Russo, insisted it would be a good company move but it would also get WCW some publicity but would ultimately be one of the main reasons to WCWs failure. Arquette would donate all his money he got during this time to Darren “Droz” Drozdov and the families of Owen Hart and Brian Pillman. He’d make an appearance in WWE in 2010 as Raw Guest Host before leaving wrestling for quite a few years. He’d return to wrestling once again in 2018 having a bit of a redemption story as he’s been fighting on the indies and making his name mean something in wrestling rather than being a joke which I’ll go more into in a future blog.

Before I get to the good I have a few honorable mentions that I didn’t make the cut.

Arnold Schwarzenegger – Arnold would appear in WWE in 1999 on an episode of SmackDown to promote his upcoming movie End of Days. He’d have an altercation with Triple H as well as get his own WWE championship. He’d make several other appearances in 2013, 2014, and 2015. He’d get inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015 as well as appear in WWE 2K16 DLC as the Terminator character. He also seems to help WWE in other ways as WWE is always doing shows at the Arnold Classic as well as promoting those events. He really deserves to be in the Hall of Fame especially for his contributions to the business in my eyes.

Toby Kieth – Keith made an appearance at NWA-TNA’s first weekly PPV where he’d perform “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” where Jeff Jarrett would interrupt. Later that night Keith would enter the Gauntlet for the Gold hit him with a pretty impressive suplex and eliminate him. He’d make his final appearance the very next week helping Scott Hall defeat Jeff Jarrett. Although it was only two appearances I thought it was pretty good for TNA helping to make their first show feel a little more special.

Hermie Sadler – Sadler made some appearances in TNA around 2002, 2007, and 2009 as a cross promotion between TNA and NASCAR. TNA would eventually become a sponsor for Sadler during his racing, he’d eventually host an interview web show for TNA’s YouTube channel called Hermie’s Hotseat in 2009. Outside TNA he’d appear in UWF and serve on board of directors for Jeff Jarrett’s short-lived promotion Global Force Wrestling. I think he deserves some praise for how much effort he put into wrestling and how he shows he cares about it.

Chuck Norris – Walker, Texas Ranger himself Chuck Norris would be an outside enforcer at the 1994 Survivor Series for the casket match between Undertaker vs Yokozuna. During the match he’d have a pretty cool moment roundhouse kicking an interfering Jeff Jarrett, as Dodgeballs Pete LaFleur said in the movie “Thank you, Chuck Norris”

Walter Peyton – Chicago Bears running back Walter Peyton would be in the corner of Razor Ramon’s match against Intercontinental champion Diesel at the 1994 SummerSlam. He’d also do a backstage promo with Razor leading up to the match. Although it was only a few appearances I thought it was cool and a memorable celebrity moment.

Drew Carey- Only making one wrestling appearance at the Royal Rumble in 2001 Vince McMahon would enter Carey into the Royal Rumble match as a guest entrant. During his time spent he’d encountered the likes of the Hardy Boyz and Kane, leading to some memorable comedy moments as he’d try to pay off Kane before eliminating himself. In 2011, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

AJ Pierzynski – Then, Chicago White Sox catcher made an appearance in TNA in 2005 along with former wrestler and White Sox strength trainer Dale Torborg. Pierzynski presented AJ Styles, Sonjay Dutt, and Chris Sabin with memorabilia from the World Series. The ceremony would get interrupted by Simon Diamond leading to a little feud this would lead to match at Turning Point with his team of Dutt, Torborg, and Dutt defeating the Diamonds in the Rough. By 2007 he’d return this time confronting Lance Hoyt leading to match at Against All Odds where he’d accompany Torborg along with David Eckstein. In 2009, he appeared in WWE while Bob Barker was a guest host, he’d replace Chris Jericho on the Price is Raw segment. I thought his involvement with wrestling was cool even though I know very little about baseball I know my big baseball fan WA friends, Layne and Canvas probably though it was an awesome crossover as well.

Maria Menounos – Entertainment reporter Menounos has been a WWE fan for quite some time. Making many appearances starting in 2009 as a Raw guest host as well as making her in ring debut at that time. Since then, she’s wrestled many times throughout the year including the Tribute to the Troops in 2011, WrestleMania XXVIII in 2012, and SummerSlam Axxess in 2013. Since then, she’s been more of a backstage interviewer role for the bigger PPVs or the Hall of Fame red carpet pre-show. Since 2013 she’s also been an ambassador for the company. I can tell she really loves and cares about WWE that it’ll only be a matter of time until she is in the WWE Hall of Fame for all that she’s contributed to the company.

These celebrities effected the wrestling business in a positive way by helping get good media coverage or just treated the wrestling business with a lot of respect.

Leslie Nielsen/Pete Rose

In the summer of 1994 Nielsen was hired to solve the mysterious disappearance of The Undertaker who had disappeared at the Royal Rumble. He played his Naked Gun character Frank Drebin along with his co-star George Kennedy as his character Ed Hocken. They’d spend many weeks being involved in comedic sketches trying to solve the mystery. At SummerSlam 1994 the mystery was solved and the case was closed (literally). Although it was brief I really thought his involvement was great a lot of the sketches were comedic gold and if you haven’t seen them I highly recommend watching them.

From One Brothers of Destruction celebrity involvement to another we go to Kane and his unhealthy obsession torturing “Charlie Hustle” himself Pete Rose. First appearing as a guest ring announcer at WrestleMania XIV he’d take a tombstone piledriver. This would then become a running gag as he’d appear at the next two WrestleManias. At WrestleMania XV he dressed us as the San Diego Chicken and attack Kane only to get tombstone’d again, At WrestleMania 2000 he’d fail another attack and receive a chokeslam as well as a stinkface from Kane’s partner Rikishi. Rose would make a few more appearances in WWE staring in Halloween themed 2002 No Mercy commercial, get inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2004, and guest host Raw in 2010. His involvement in wrestling is very memorable that it’s pretty much etched in WrestleMania history with that he definitely deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame which can’t be said about Baseball Hall of Fame.

William Perry/Lawrence Taylor/Kevin Greene

Chicago Bears Defense tackle William “The Refrigerator” Perry participated in the WWE vs NFL battle royal at WrestleMania 2. During the match he’d brawl with the likes of The Hart Foundation and memorably eliminating Big John Studd. Due to this memorable moment he’d get inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006. Although he made a one-off appearance along with a few other NFL players at WrestleMania 2 he made one of the most memorable moments in WrestleMania history and because of that I believe he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

At the 1995 Royal Rumble, former New York Giants Linebacker “L.T.” Lawrence Taylor would be siting at ringside after being pinned a frustrated Bam Bam Bigelow would shove Taylor. Instead of apologizing Bigelow would challenge Taylor to a match, Taylor would train with WWE World Heavyweight champion Diesel leading up to the match. This would bring WWE a ton of mainstream exposure as the match was one of the most talked about things. Although the match itself wasn’t great the hype for the match was massive as Salt-N-Pepa sang “Whatta Man” for Taylor as well as NFL players managing Taylor like Carl Banks, Rickey Jackson, Steve “Mongo” McMichael, Ken Norton Jr., Chris Spielman, and Reggie White. Bigelow I believe has stated in a shoot interview he was the “highest paid jobber” that night and it’s easy to see why.

Between 1996 and 1998 Pro Football Hall of Famer Kevin Greene appeared in WCW. He’d feud with the likes of Four Horsemen, NWO, and Steve “Mongo” McMichael as well as team with Goldberg. Sadly NFL put a “no wrestling” clause in his contract essentially making him leave the company in 1998. Honestly he wasn’t to bad in the ring and was quite entertaining it’s a shame he didn’t appear in wrestling more in a non-wrestling role.

Donald Trump/“Shaq” Shaquille O’Neal

Political and personal opinions about the guy aside Donald Trump has had a great relationship with the WWE and the McMahon family. Since the 1988 Trump has hosted WrestleMania on two different occasions with WrestleMania IV and V being built from Trump Plaza. Throughout the years he’d show up at ringside often for big event and eventually taking place in a storyline with Vince McMahon in 2007. Being built “The Battle of the Billionaires” Hair vs Hair match this would headline a record-breaking WrestleMania 23 where he’d manage Bobby Lashley in winning efforts against Umaga with McMahon in his corner. Leading to McMahon getting his head shaved bald, because of his contributions to WWE he’d be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013 which I’m not against as it’s deserved for his contribution to WWE in my honest opinion.

Being a lifelong wrestler fan the legendary 7’1” 325 lb basketball star made a number of appearances in wrestling. Starting in 1994 O’Neil would make several appearances in WCW most notably at Bash at the Beach. In 2009, he’d host WWE Raw as a special celebrity guest he’d have a memorable confrontation with the Big Show which would happen again a few years later in 2016 as he would be a surprise entrant in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32. O’Neil also appeared in TNA in a backstage segment with Hulk Hogan. Whenever Shaq showed up on in wrestling I thought he was entertaining and wanted him to actually wrestle occasionally which is why I was disappointed his match with Big Show at WrestleMania 33 got cancelled.

Stephen Amell/Billy Corgan

Arrow star Stephen Amell is a known wrestling fan with that being said he campaigned to appear on WWE TV. In May 2015 he would make his first appearance on Raw as he’d confront Stardust, a few months later he’d show up again and attack Stardust after he assaulted him in the audience. Shortly after it was announced that he’d team up with Neville to fight against Stardust and King Barrett at SummerSlam. He’d end up winning the match and had a decent performance which would impress many backstage, Amell would become friends with Cody Rhodes, who eventually appeared on Arrow. Amell would win the WWE Slammy Award “Celebrity Moment of the Year” that same year due to his memorable dive onto Stardust and King Barrett. In 2017, Amell would return to wrestling as he’d join the Bullet Club faction with his friend Cody Rhodes as well as Kenny Omega and the Young Buck at Ring of Honors Survival of the Fittest PPV. They would defeat SCU and Flip Gordon. One year later he’d appear at All In in his first ever one-on-one match against Christopher Daniels in which he would lose. In 2019, Amell would make a surprise appearance at AEW Revolution as he’d join Cody Rhodes entourage and managing him in his match against MJF. I stated in past blogs Amell would be perfect for pro wrestling as he has a good attitude, likable personality, and respects the business hopefully he’ll make more in ring appearances or considers wrestling once his acting career is over.

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman is one of the biggest wrestling fans who considers himself as a “wrestlemanic”. In 2001, he’d make his first appearance in the world of wrestling when he showed up on ECW when he hit Lou E. Dangerously with a guitar after he insulted him. He would participate in a brief storyline in 2010 with AAA, one year later he’d found Chicago indie promotion Resistance Pro Wrestling which he would be in until 2014. It would be announced in April 2015 Corgan would join Impact Wrestling staff as Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development by August he was promoted to President of the company. By November he would be gone from the company due to pay disputes with Anthem and Impact. Corgan would purchase and gain full ownership of the National Wrestling Alliance in October 2017, helping to revive the company in a big way and providing us weekly content with NWA Powerrr. With his contributions to the wrestling business and his love for it he’s one of the best celebrities in the business as I don’t think there’s been someone quite as active in the business than him.

Dennis Rodman/Karl Malone

Chicago Bulls “The Worm” Dennis Rodman love for wrestling would become more prominent as he would appear on WCW Nitro in 1997 with his friend Hollywood Hulk Hogan. He would join the nWo, Rodman would wrestle throughout 1997 with his first match taking place at Bash at the Beach. Rodman would make a surprise appearance at that years Road Wild costing Lex Luger the world championship as he dressed up as Sting and attacked him with the baseball bat helping Hogan win the championship, After the 1998 NBA Finals where Rodman’s Chicago Bulls defeated “The Mailman” Karl Malone’s Utah Jazz this would lead to Malone making his debut in wrestling. Joining forces with Diamond Dallas Page they’d enter a short feud with Hogan and Rodman leading into a match at the 1998 Bash at the Beach where Hogan and Rodman would be victorious. Rodman would make one last appearance in WCW in 1999 and would feud with Randy Savage culminating in a match at Road Wild where he’d lose. Rodman would appear in wrestling a few more time including i-Generation’s PPV Rodman Down Under in 2000 as well as participant in CMT show Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling in 2008 before retiring from the business completely. I really enjoyed both Rodman and Malone in the wrestling business even though they might have not been the best they had the appeal as well as brought in more of an audience especially with their NBA rivalry transitioning to an in ring rivalry. So, I personally believe both should be in the WWE Hall of Fame.

Mike Tyson/Floyd Mayweather

In 1998, WWE was losing the Monday Night Wars they had to do something drastic to change the tides in their favor, This would result with WWE bringing in “The Baddest Man on the Plant” Mike Tyson, Tyson would make his first appearance on Raw in 1998 where he’d get into an in-ring brawl with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin after Austin gave him the middle finger. Because of this Tyson would soon align with Austin’s WrestleMania XIV opponent Shawn Michaels and D-Genration X as he would serve as a special outside enforcer for the match. Come WrestleMania XIV Tyson would help Austin with the championship making a quick three count, after the match one of the most memorable moments in WrestleMania history would happen as Tyson knocked Michaels out, he was paid $3 million for this involvement and it definitely paid off in the long run. Years later Tyson would appear in WWE again as a Raw Guest Host in 2010 where he’d realign with DX and knockout Chris Jericho. In 2012, as well as appear as the WWE ‘13 pre-order bonus. He would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame which is well-deserved as he helped not only Austin get fully over with the audience but helped the WWE reach its most popular and highest grossing years in wrestling. They’d profit nearly $70,000,000 in 1998-1999.

Floyd “Money” Mayweather would appear at WWE No Way Out in 2007, a returning Big Show would attack Rey Mysterio leading to Mayweather jumping the barricade and helping Mysterio out leading to Mayweather and Show feuding. The fallowing night on Raw Show would challenge him to a one-on-one No Disqualification match at WrestleMania XXIV which Mayweather accepted. At WrestleMania he’d defeat Big Show in a memorable moment from that years WrestleMania as he would knockout Show with brass knuckles. It was reported Mayweather was paid $20 million for the fight, this fight would result with WrestleMania getting 1 million buys and grossed $23.8 million in revenue. He’d make one more appearance in WWE in 2009 as he was a Raw Guest Host and had another interaction with Big Show as he’d interfere in one of his matches. Although not as popular as previously mentioned Tyson, Mayweather deserves praise for what he contributed to WWE with that he should definitely be considered for a Hall of Fame spot in the near future as he no doubt got WWE the money.

Mr. T/Cyndi Lauper

These two would play a huge factor leading to the huge success of the 1985 inaugural WrestleMania. Dubbed the Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection we’d see the WWE cross-promote with the music industry leading to WWE broadcasting live on MTV. Lauper would appear many times on WWE TV most notably with Hulk Hogan, Captain Lou Albano, and Women’s champion Wendi Richter. The connection between Lauper and WWE would go both ways as many WWE wrestlers appeared in Lauper’s music video “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”, “Time After Time”, and “She Bop”. While A-Team star Mr. T would get involved in a feud with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff leading into a match at WrestleMania which they would win. One year later, he’d feud with “Rowdy” Roddy Piper again, appearing on Saturday Night’s Main Event V and having a boxing match at WrestleMania 2 trying to capitalize on his Rocky III success. Mr. T would make a few more appearances in wrestling including in WCCW in 1989, in WCW in 1994, and in WWE in 2001. He would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2014. If it weren’t for these two involvement with WWE, wrestling wouldn’t have been as successful and popular as it was which is still effecting the wrestling world to this day because of that Lauper should be in the Hall of Fame as well.

Andy Kaufman

The man who started the whole celebrity wrestling crossover craze during his acts Andy Kaufman proclaiming himself the “Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World”. He’d adopt a heel persona during these acts and offer a $1,000 prize to any woman who could beat him. Kaufman would eventually approach Vince McMahon Sr. to bring his act to WWE but McMahon would refuse. Kaufman would develop a friendship with wrestling reporter Bill Apter who’d introduce him to Memphis wrestling legend Jerry “The King” Lawler and the rest would become history. Lawler and Kaufman would have a legendary feud beginning with Kaufman insulting the Memphis crowd showing them how to use soap and calling them the redneck capital of the world. This would lead to the famous moments with Lawler “breaking” Kaufman’s neck from a piledriver and the “Slap Heard Around The World” on Late Night with David Letterman, In 1983, Kaufman would make his final appearance in wrestling appear in the film My Breakfast with Blassie with “Classy” Freddie Blassie. Due to his memorable feud with Jerry Lawler, Kaufman etched him name in wrestling history and pop culture. Kaufman would become one of the few celebrities to appear in a wrestling games as he’d appear in the Legends of Wrestling series and get a Jakks Pacific action figure, The only thing that needs to happen is him getting inducted into the Hall of Fame it’s more than deserved at this point.

I know I missed a few celebrities or just touched on some briefly but I only had so much room and I’d thought I’d talk about the one that had the biggest impact. Some haven’t made much of an impact and some have effected the business in both good and bad ways. Finally I personally don’t mind celebrity involvement with wrestling when it’s done right as it can give wrestling mainstream media coverage, which it is in desperate need for currently. So, what’s your opinion celebrities in wrestling?