website tracking
Search The Big Picture

« 'Waiting for Guffman' to Finally Make it to Broadway? | Main | Solid! Five New 'Black Dynamite' Posters »
Monday
26Jan2009

Mickey Rourke to Wrestle at Wrestlemania?

DateMonday, January 26, 2009 at 12:35PM
Remember Norbit and how there was talk that it cost Eddie Murphy his Oscar? The movie came out right before Academy Award ballots were due, and some people thought Eddie's performance in Dreamgirls was overlooked because the movie was received so poorly.

In truth, he never deserved to win, anyway, or to even be nominated. Let's not forget that he's an asshole, and he stormed out of the Oscars as soon as he lost.

I wonder what this would do Mickey Rourke's Oscar chances if Wrestlmania were taking place in mid-February instead of in April. Access Hollywood (by way of Slashfilm) reports that Rourke has been approached to step into the ring at Wrestlemania 25 in Houston.

"The boys from the WWE called me and asked me to do it…I said, ‘I want to,’" confirmed Rourke. "I’m talking with Rowdy Roddy Piper about it." But when talking to Extra, Rourke was even more cavalier. "I'm gonna do it. This is breaking fuckin' news."

One thing I'll say about Rourke's performance is that professional athletes like Karl Malone, Dennis Rodman, and NFL players Kevin Greene and Steve "Mongo" McMichael have all wrestling a shot, and Rourke was a lot more fluid and looked a lot more comfortable in the ring.

Now, whether or not he actually goes through with it is probably a few weeks away, because the WWE has another big pay-per-view it needs to promote before attention officially centers on Wrestlemania, but would you be more inclined to watch it with Rourke squaring off against Roddy Piper, or as Rourke joked, Chris Jericho?

Share/Save/Bookmark
AuthorColin Boyd | | in , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

I'll just transfer my previous comment over to this article since it's more fitting, sorry for the duplication to anyone reading it twice---

I don't know if this will turn into anything, but Mickey Rourke mentioned that he was contacted by World Wrestling Entertainment to appear at their 25th annual WrestleMania event in April. It would seem to me that Rourke should stay focused on the screen and stay away from ring if he wants to get his career on track. Otherwise, he may follow in the ill-advised footsteps of Donald Trump and Floyd Money Mayweather

Interestingly, Vince McMahon allegedly lambasted the film after a private screening (not surprisingly since the movie depicted independent wrestling, which is a far cry from WWE levels of success) but now that Rourke is up for an Oscar nomination, WWE is jumping on the bandwagon.

The irony is that Ring of Honor (from the last match of the film) is a legitimate promotion unaffiliated with WWE. If ROH were more popular, then they would be considered a rival promotion to WWE, but I don't think the film was designed to turn viewers into wrestling fans, so I don't see this as a beneficial endeavor for either party.

Monday, January 26, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMr. Sarcasm

I was reminded of this entry this morning when the very early Today news thingy (4am-ish) mentioned Eddie Murphy's Dreamgirls and how Norbit derailed him which led right into Rourke. Maybe someone from NBC is reading your posts? It just seemed an uncanny coincidence but the anchor essentially put forth the same sentiment you wrote here. As to whether this WWE bit will hurt Rourke's chances at Oscar I don't know. On its face I'd say no simply because he's not making a WWE film (ala Norbit) where voters could a flop that would tarnish his work in The Wrestler. Not that voters can't also be WWE fans and just happen to watch him there. It's just more of a stretch to me that they would and then take that as badly reflecting of his film work which is separate.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAsana

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>