WWE Trades Ruthless Aggression For PG | Wrestling Timelines

August 3, 2009 | SummerFest

John Cena Jeremy Piven Dr Ken
WWE.com

WWE has tried to make itself look good in front of prospective sponsors and TV networks by not doing beyond the pale stuff as a matter of course. This, evidently, is not enough, so Vince McMahon develops an idea; every week, a household name celebrity will ‘Guest Host’ episodes of WWE Monday Night Raw. WWE believes that, if celebrities willingly associate themselves with WWE, well, we can’t be that bad, can we? Nobody was queuing up to pretend to like WWE in the summer of 2007 because there is, in fact, such a thing as bad publicity.

Paul Heyman once nailed the essence of pro wrestling fandom more succinctly than anybody else: you either get it, or you don’t. You can’t convince non-fans to become fans; that simply isn’t how it works.

The Guest Host Era is a critically-savaged disaster. It does not work. Fans of the celebrities aren’t magically going to become WWE fans, particularly when the product is largely incredibly awful. Shaquille O’Neill hosts the July 27, 2009 edition of Raw. Fans of the NBA might have a look - this was a decent watch when Stone Cold was “in it”, let’s check it out - only to cringe their eyes shut when Michael Cole thinks that Shaq playing scrabble with Hornswoggle is the height of comedy. WWE as an institution treats the celebs like airport autograph hunters would. It is excruciating. The rest of Paul Heyman’s quote, which he uttered when promoting ECW, is “we worry about entertaining those who do”.

Those who do get pro wrestling are infuriated on August 3 when Jeremy Piven, a star of the HBO series ‘Entourage’, refers to SummerSlam as “the SummerFest”. It takes him what feels like minutes to arrive at this one line of dialogue, too. Nobody can know this for certain, but it feels rather a lot like Piven has turned up, taken half look at his script for a few moments, and not taken this fake wrestling crap remotely seriously.

Entourage fans won’t be converted. Existing wrestling fans are insulted. But the very idea that actual celebs with better things to do will accept a WWE paycheque, after the events of June 2007, is actually not insignificant progress that should not be overlooked. None of the famous faces are buried in the press for endorsing Vince McMahon’s death cult.

This, quietly, helps to soften WWE’s public image.

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Michael Sidgwick (Creative Writing BA Hons) is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over a decade of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential UK institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!