Celebrity crossover in the world of wrestling is nothing new as WWE always welcomes sports and entertainment stars into the ring.
At the height of the Monday Night Wars, various celebrities would appear on both WWE and WCW television with a handful of them stepping into the ring. WCW famously used the likes of Dennis Rodman and Jay Leno, while also putting the WWE World Title on David Arquette. Meanwhile, WWE would use Mike Tyson and Pete Rose to get the entertainment world talking.
Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T commented on how WWE used celebrities compared to WCW.
"That was a little bit titled to the ‘don’t do’ side," Booker said about WCW using Jay Leno to wrestle. "‘We should stay away from’ side. Me, personally, I didn’t think a whole lot about it as far as having Jay Leno part of the show in the ring and doing anything. It didn’t pick up anything for our business. A lot of other guys, David Arquette got in there, it wasn’t something that I think the wrestlers wanted to see. That’s what they wanted to do. WCW didn’t utilize certain stars the proper way, unlike WWE."
When asked if WWE utilized celebrities better, Booker replied, "I think so. They knew how to choose the ones that should be in the ring performing as opposed to WCW having certain people in the ring like Marcus Bagwell’s mom, Vince Russo, Jay Leno, people like that. I could see Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman doing it because they are athletes and we can work around everything they do bad and figure out what they can do good. I can see that, but certain people, WWE didn’t put certain people in certain positions. People say, ‘what about Johnny Knoxville?’ He was an anomaly because he was out there with the right person doing it. Knoxville has done stuff that would kill people. He’s like a stuntman, he’s willing to get beat up. I can see him doing it more than Jay Leno. Nothing against Jay Leno, I love Jay Leno."
Leno teamed with Diamond Dallas Page at WCW/nWo Road Wild 1998 to defeat Eric Bischoff & Hulk Hogan.
Dennis Rodman famously teamed with Hogan to face DDP & Karl Malone at WCW/nWo Road Wild 1998, a month after Rodman and Malone played against each other in the NBA Finals.
Rodman recently returned to wrestling, making an appearance on AEW Collision and at AEW All Out.
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