Wrestlers on the Arsenio Hall Show!

Do Hard-hitting Journalists Hit Hard?

As I’ve mentioned before on this site, I have a certain love for the sheer absurdity of professional wrestling. Nowhere else on television can you see such a blatant disregard for taste and logic in hopes of entertainment. The, for lack of a better word, “culture” of wrestling really exists within its own self-contained vacuum. While the cat is out of the bag today in regard to wrestling being fakey-playfighting, there was once a time when making the media rounds to promote an event had to pussyfoot around the squared-circle showcasing legit athletic competition with real conflict and drama. This is all well and good when you have someone like Hulk Hogan, an overly friendly bodybuilder, or Randy Savage, a…um…cowboy/cokehead/jerked meat enthusiast(?), to banter with, but what about wrestling’s less subtle characters? Chances are, these worlds will abruptly collide and it won’t be pretty. Lucky for us, the early 90s had Arsenio Hall to act as our avatar to the wacky world of ‘rasslin’ and ask the burning questions on everybody’s mind.

BAD NEWS BROWN

For those who don’t remember, Bad News Brown was a bad dude from Harlem whose finisher was known as the “Ghetto Blaster.” He was as nasty and brackish as they came, so imagine the captivated nation when it seemed, during his feud with Jake Roberts, that Brown might suffer from Ophidiophobia? Hall’s pre-interview giggle is only the tip of the Awesomeberg.

‘RAVISHING’ RICK RUDE

The late Rick Rude, joined by his manager and my journalism professor Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan, didn’t really get along with Arsenio. While barbs were traded back-and-forth, the real highlight of the clip is the end where Rude does arguably the most accurate Arsenio Hall impression ever televised. Yes, that aired.

THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR

There’s two things Americans love: loud yelling and very fast violence. In the early 90s, there was no better source of testosterone to give the public what they wanted than obnoxious queer-hater The Ultimate Warrior. There are no words.

We give Wrestlers on Arsenio Hall a Four Out of Five

So until next time…let’s agree to agree!