I watched the first Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Reality television show and it is a virtual Who’s Who of “B” and “C” list celebrities. Just like everyone else, I was very skeptical of this show but I have to say that I was pretty impressed with it as a whole.

The premise of the show, if you have not watched it yet, is that Hulk Hogan took ten celebrities and tried to turn them into professional wrestlers, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. The celebrities who took part in the inaugural show are former “basketball bad boy” Dennis Rodman, Reality diva Trishelle Cannatella, Danny Bonaduce, Dustin” Don’t Call me Screech” Diamond, former child stars Erin Murphy and Todd Bridges, Nikki Ziering, Yes, I said the same thing…who? She is apparently a Playboy model and former Barker Beauty from the Price is Right television game show. We also had former 80’s pop sensation Tiffany, professional boxer and mixed martial artist, Butter Bean and another celebrity riding his family’s fame in Frank Stallone. Those are your ten celebrity wrestlers.

They are broken down into two teams that are captained by Brutus Beefcake and Brian “Hulk, please don’t led my star fade away” Knobbs. Each team is taught a set of wrestling moves, three to be exact, which in itself is ironic because I think that is all of the moves that Hulk Hogan has in his arsenal. Each week the teams hold a wrestling show and the teams are judged by the esteemed panel of Eric Bischoff, Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart and the biggest Egomaniac…er…Hulkamaniac ever, the Immortal Hulk Hogan himself. Bischoff and Hart. Did someone say something about “riding coattails”?

Hulk Hogan, when he introduced himself to the celebrities, told Danny Bonaduce that he missed his true calling and should have been a professional wrestler from Day One. I would have to agree with that except for the fact of Bonaduce’s publicly known history of drug abuse, if he had been a drug abuser like he was and was a professional wrestler at the time, he may have been one of the many wrestlers who had died at such an early age for that reason. However, he wasn’t and I was most impressed with him during the show and it is my prediction that he will become the first ever Celebrity Championship Wrestling champion. The team that is judged, by the aforementioned panel, as doing the best job in the ring, firing up the crowd, selling their moves, etc… is safe from being eliminated. The other team faces the judging panel and they are individually critiqued and then one is eliminated. This week was Tiffany. I definitely think it should have been Nikki Ziering. She showed the less enthusiasm and was too busy applying make up while her captain was talking to them about the upcoming show tonight.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that the color commentator for the television audience was none other than radio super talent, Bubba the Love Sponge. Bubba the Love Sponge did an outstanding job as commentator as well. One of the things he mentioned as he was calling Bonaduce’s match was that he said Danny Bonaduce reminded him of another wrestling wildcat that was full of reckless abandon in the “loose cannon” himself, “Flyin’” Brian Pillman. I laughed at first because I thought of that as absurd but then I saw Bonaduce wrestle and the wild look that he got in his eyes. It was almost as if Bonaduce seemed possessed by the devil himself.
Check the show out if you can. It is on the country music cable channel, CMT every Saturday night. I will watch it every chance I get just because it is entertaining and is different from any celebrity reality show out there. Watch Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling and see if you agree with me.