Freddie Prinze Jr. Discusses Worst WWE Celebrity Appearances
The irony of Freddie Prinze Jr. having an opinion on celebrities in wrestling is of course that he was one himself. But the consensus is that Prinze was one of the good ones, having been a fan for years before WWE hired him on the writing staff. Prinze was allegedly given no preferential treatment, and by most accounts, his contributions to creative were positive. But other celebrities were not so lucky. From June 2009 to June 2010, "WWE Raw" was hosted by a series of outside celebrity guests, who usually (but not always) signed up for the gig because they had something to promote at the time. Some were surprisingly good, suchas Bob Barker, but some were shockingly bad, like Jeremy Piven.
On a recent episode of "Wrestling with Freddie," Prinze recalled a few he remembered stinking up the joint.
"We had Meat Loaf take an RKO. Meat Loaf couldn't bend his f***ing knees," Prinze said. "He couldn't bend his knees when he took it, it was the worst receiving of the RKO in the history of the RKO. One that kind of worked, only because everyone hated him so much, was the Kevin Federline/John Cena storyline... because everybody hated Britney Spears's boyfriend so much, that they wanted to see John Cena whip his a**."
Another celebrity who became entwined in a John Cena angle was Jon Stewart, who was involved in SummerSlam 2015's finish. Prinze claims this made no sense.
"That one was one of the worst usages of a celebrity ever, for [Stewart] to go in there and F over John Cena because he really likes Ric Flair? Like, it was so out of character for the Jon Stewart personality," Prinze said. "Who is going to believe that for a single second? And I like Jon Stewart [but] he was one of the worst offenders. And then he just stood out there like he didn't know what he was doing."
'She's Gonna Lose to a Girl on a Reality Show?'
Among the major milestones that coincided with Prinze's tenure was WrestleMania 27, which took place on April 3rd, 2011. One of the more talked-about matches from the media's perspective was the mixed tag bout between Dolph Ziggler, Layla and Michelle McCool and John Morrison, Trish Stratus and Snooki from MTV's "Jersey Shore." WrestleMania has involved celebrities since the inaugural, but Prinze said he wasn't a fan of this one in particular, because he felt it clashed with a larger creative endeavor he'd been appointed.
"I was there for Snooki. I fought against that," Prinze said. "We had a story that had been approved... [to] sort of move this Divas era and make it more women's wrestling. That was the task that I was charged with by Stephanie McMahon... and then somebody at a production meeting says... 'Snooki's interested in doing something at WrestleMania.' I didn't think it was serious, I was like, 'Right, is she gonna host it or something?' And they go, 'No, she wants to work, she wants to wrestle.' Right away, I get defensive, and I'm like, 'She's not wrestling any of my girls. I was charged with looking after them and writing something credible for them.' And they go, 'Yeah, she's gonna do a storyline and they're gonna work it with Michelle McCool.' And I literally was like, 'Yo, that's my champion! And she's gonna lose to Snooki at WrestleMania? Are you guys crazy? We're trying to get these people taken seriously, and she's gonna lose to a girl on a reality show?' And they go, 'Well, she can do gymnastics.' And I was like, 'Man, that's awesome [but] she can't win the match.' Sure enough, she can do gymnastics, and sure enough, she won the match."
It would be another five years before WWE abandoned the "Divas" verbiage. Prinze felt the Snooki match didn't do the women's movement any favors.
"I was just so frustrated... right after WrestleMania, it was back to Divas and dancing and shakin' booties again."