Three years ago, wrestling legend Hulk Hogan tried to teach a group of faded TV stars and athletes how to become wrestlers. However, Celebrity Championship Wrestling lasted just one season, its conclusion spoiled by the National Enquirer leaking the details of the finals before it aired in December 2008. As we know, NBA star and Hogan crony Dennis Rodman was crowned the lone CCW champion.
That ain't gonna happen this time. Journeyman wrestler-turned-promoter Johnny Attitude, who spent some time in WCW in the late 90's during Hogan's tenure there, reached out to his friend to lend a hand to his own promotion. Hulk Hogan's Micro Championship Wrestling, which bowed on TruTV Wednesday night, chronicles the struggles of Attitude's MCW promotion to get off the ground floor and hit the big time. With Hogan, and, by association, Eric Bischoff involved (Bischoff's production company produces the show), you'd think Spike TV, home to TNA, would've gotten first crack. However, CCW aired on Spike's corporate sibling CMT, and the ratings weren't as strong as they'd hoped. It must feel weird for anything associated with Hogan & Bischoff to surface on a Time Warner-owned channel, 10 years after WCW was sold to the WWE.
Edit: 10/28/15: MCW has shut down their YouTube channel, so we replaced the previous video with a match between Blixx & Justice.....
Aside from Hogan, there is a TNA connection. Meatball wrestled there in its early years. Justice is the son of the late midget grappler Cowboy Lane, so there is the legacy factor to consider. Nasty Boy Brian Knobbs was also a trainer for CCW and has been pals with Hogan for seemingly forever and a day, as Hogan himself would say. Sadly, no footage from the series opener has surfaced on YouTube yet, but there are matches, recorded as recently as last month, and I'll put those up, real soon. MCW has promise, but the late time slot (10 pm ET) is due to the coarse language and behavior. If this were on any other channel, like Spike, for example, the PTC would be all over these guys like a cheap suit.
MCW's reality show is meant to be a more grass-roots look at the struggles of breaking into the business, not quite unlike WWE's recently revived Tough Enough, and Knobbs is certainly no Bill DeMott or Steve Austin. The roster is already set, and will grow as we go along. Will it get past the first season? That's up to the viewers to decide.
Rating: A-.
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