Guest Author - Vance Rowe
Well, the first season of Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling is in the books. Dennis Rodman made history when he became the first ever CCW Champion, edging out the runner-up, Todd Bridges. I don’t agree with the decision. Todd Bridges, surprisingly, was the most consistent in the ring. He put on a hell of a show whenever he wrestled. Todd Bridges should be the champion. Dustin Diamond, the man everyone loves to hate, was also very passable as a wrestler and made it to the final four. Dustin was fun to watch because it was the same Dustin that was on two seasons of Celebrity Fit Club. He complained how about how hard people were hitting him in practice, always had some aches and pains and on one episode, Danny Bonaduce was eliminated when he wasn’t even there that night. He had injured himself on the previous episode and was taken to the hospital.
Mr. Bonaduce should up for practice the day after he was eliminated, as he didn’t know that he had been. When the remaining celebs told him about this, Danny said he couldn’t be eliminated if he wasn’t there to have Hulk Hogan tell him that. He left the other celebs to seek out the Hulkster. He found the former WWE champion in his trailer and began talking with him about the situation. Dustin Diamond was visibly upset about Danny trying to stay after he was eliminated and went out to seek the Hulkster as well. Dustin interrupted the two men and started telling the Hulk that he didn’t appreciate what Danny was doing here. The Hulk was a little angry that Dustin interrupted them and ordered the both of them to wrestle in a street fight match. He also said that whoever didn’t put on a good show between the two, that person would be eliminated.
Well, they both put on a terrific show and they fought all over the building. They both made the cut that night. Dustin and Danny used every weapon they could find on each other, went through a wall, through tables and concessions. It looked just as good as street fight match in TNA or the WWE. On the night when Bonaduce was finally eliminated, Hulk told him that he had the rage in his eyes when he wrestled but that look did not transfer to most of his moves. I would have to agree with that thought. There were a lot of times when Danny did something like a kick to the midsection and it looked fake. It didn’t look like he touched his opponent.
Butter Bean made was equally impressive looking in the ring. There were a lot of times where you could see that he didn’t mind putting an opponent over and there were times it looked like he was out for blood. He made it to the final four as well. Other celebrities previously eliminated including reality show diva, Trishelle Canatella, Erin “Tabitha from Bewitched” Murphy, Nikki Ziering, yes, I said the same thing, who? Apparently Nikki’s claim to fame is being a former Barker Beauty. 80’s teen pop sensation Tiffany and Rocky's brother, Frank Stallone had heard the statement from the Hulk: “You’re a jabroni. Get out of my ring.”
There were celebrity wrestling trainers like Rob Van Dam and Bill Goldberg and Goldberg slammed Danny Bonaduce without them training for that move yet and Goldberg was seemingly impressed with how Bonaduce took it.
I enjoyed the series overall and am looking forward to a second season. However, I noticed that at no time on this show did anyone mention Rodman’s stint as part of the N.W.O. in the now defunct WCW Wrestling organization. The N.W.O. was led by Hulk Hogan then too. Did this have anything to do with Rodman winning? I guess we may never know. Hopefully, there will be another season and maybe they can get Omarossa for this one.
