WHY I AM ENJOYING CCW MORE THAN TOUGH ENOUGH
By Doug Brown on 10/29/2008 1:41 PM
When it was first announced that they would be doing "Celebrity Championship Wrestling," I, and I'm sure many of you, let out a collective groan. After all, celebrity reality shows have pretty much been done to death. Then came the announcement of the D-List cast for the series. Other than Dennis Rodman and Butterbean, I was not very confident in the show, but being the Hulk Hogan mark that I am, I decided to give it a shot. After two episodes, I can honestly say that I am enjoying it. It is essentially Tough Enough, but with celebrities instead of regular people. CCW actually does have some advantages over Tough Enough, which to me, has made this series better. In today's column, we are going to look at those advantages.
The first advantage for CCW is that the focus is on the wrestling. Don't get me wrong, because I loved Tough Enough. However, in my view, they spent way too much time on the contestants hanging around the house, or going out partying. The funny (or sad) part is that the show spent maybe 20% of the time on their wrestling training, and the MTV executives still thought there was "too much wrestling." With CCW, the first half hour is spent on training, and the second half is spent putting the training to good use in actual matches. The celebrities are not having five star matches, but then again that is an unrealistic expectation. However, I do think that they are doing well for as little training as they've actually had. Other than a few rough patches, overall the bouts have been solid.
Another advantage is that most of the CCW contestants have prior acting experience. Whether certain people on the internet admit it or not, one of the things that it takes to be successful in professional wrestling is showmanship. At least seven out of the ten contestants (I don't know about Butterbean, Nikki, or Tiffany), have had prior acting experience. One of the things I've noticed early on is how good the selling has been by the contestants, especially Danny Bonaduce. I think Hogan was right when he said that Danny "missed his calling." He also does some awesome psycho facials. Dustin Diamond has been a good heel as well in the first two matches, and the crowd seems to enjoy booing him. Trishelle has also been better than I thought she would be. Butterbean looks like he's having a blast, and has become the crowd favorite. By using ordinary people, it often times took awhile to bring out the personalities in the Tough Enough contestants. Look how long it took John Hinnegan to find himself as John Morrison.
The third advantage is that CCW does not have WWE politics holding them back. There were those in WWE that did not want to do Tough Enough, because "it exposed the business too much." Hence, the series was limited in what the contestants could do. They spent way too much time on bump taking on all three editions that would often lead me to wonder when the trainers were going to start teaching them some actual moves. With CCW, they are seemingly unlimited. They openly use insider terms, they are going right into discussing the how to perform the moves properly, and they even show the coaches, Brian Knobs and Brutus Beefcake, helping the cast to lay out their matches.
Speaking of the matches, I do not know if it would have helped Tough Enough, but I think CCW has been helped by having matches on the show. Not just in wrestling, but in any kind of performance, there is no substitute for being in front of a live crowd. As a college sports public address announcer, I know for a fact that your performance can definitely be boosted by a hot crowd, or brought down by a dead one. By actually getting in there and working matches, the CCW contestants are getting the chance to put both the athletic and showmanship aspects of the business together. The result is that they are developing at a much faster rate than the Tough Enough contestants were allowed to do. The arena very much has the "WCW World Wide from the Disney MGM Studios" feel to it. The matches are also very basic, but unlike WWE and TNA, they actually use logic.
Finally, I think CCW has the more accomplished training staff. Al Snow, Tazz, Chavo Guerrero, Hardcore Holly, Bill DeMott, Tori, Jacquelyn, and Ivory did a great job with the Tough Enough cast. The problem is that none of them are exactly household names. Plus, out of the four groups of Tough Enough cast members, the only ones that are still in WWE are John Morrison and the Miz. With Hulk Hogan, you have arguably the biggest star in the history of this industry. Other than maybe "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, no one knows more than Hogan what it takes to be successful in professional wrestling. In the other two judges, you have Eric Bischoff, who at one time lead WCW to unseating WWE as the number one wrestling company in the world, and Jimmy Hart, a Hall of Famer, and one of the greatest managers in wrestling history. The coaches for each team are Brian Knobs, who was a multi-time tag team champion as part of the Nasty Boys, and Brutus Beefcake, another former tag team champion and if not for a freak parasailing accident would have been Intercontinental Champion. Then as guest trainers, they brought in Rob Van Dam and Bill Goldberg, two very successful former World Champions. Now granted, the heyday for Hogan, Hart, Knobs, and Beefcake was twenty years ago, but they still know what it is like to be at or near the top of the mountain.
If you have not yet checked out Celebrity Championship Wrestling, I encourage you to do so. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Tough Enough was good, but if you want to go even further inside pro wrestling, CCW is your better option. Then again, with as bad as the booking is in WWE and TNA right now, maybe I am just glad to watch a wrestling show, that does not make my head hurt when it is over.
