Rourke, Jericho on Larry King
If you didn’t catch Mickey Rourke and Chris Jericho on CNN’s Larry King Live last night, you didn’t really miss anything.
Jericho basically reiterated the points that he made in his promo on Raw Monday. Rourke was passive and didn’t have a whole lot to say except that he would be willing to take on Jericho in a boxing match or a bare knuckles fight but not a wrestling match.
It was weird to see Jericho, who has been on the show in the past out of character, appearing as his WWE heel persona. King chuckled a couple times during the verbal “confrontation” and obviously was in on the fact that they were working an angle (sometimes you never know with King).
As a huge Jericho mark and someone who thought Rourke was brilliant in The Wrestler, I’m looking forward to seeing how this angle develops, but so far there hasn’t been a whole lot to get excited about.
Part of the problem is that it got off to such an unimaginative start, with Rourke matter-of-factly saying in an interview at the SAG awards that he had been asked to do WrestleMania and he wanted a piece of Jericho. He might as well have said, “I’ve made a deal with WWE to do an angle in which I wrestle some guy named Chris Jericho at WrestleMania.”
What made big WrestleMania celebrity angles work in the past is that they came across as spontaneous and intense. Rourke’s contrived and uninspired red carpet speech and Jericho’s rebuttal don’t quite compare to Floyd Mayweather bloodying Big Show’s nose, Bam Bam Bigelow giving a hard shove to Lawrence Taylor, Steve Austin and Mike Tyson trying to get at each other in a wild pull-apart, and Mr. T and Hulk Hogan brawling with Roddy Piper, Paul Orndorff and a bunch of New York’s finest.
The good news is that there’s still about nine and a half weeks (how’s that for slipping in a Rourke reference) until WrestleMania, so there is plenty of time for Rourke and Jericho to ramp up the intensity. If and when they do, it should make for some great television.
Comments
I'm actually not impressed and not looking forward to this angle playing out. I loved "The Wrestler" and thought it was a really dramatic and pretty much accurate story of what happens to most wrestling legends 20+ years after their glory days. I actually found myself feeling empathy for Rourke's character. But now, I feel that this contrived angle, which makes no sense other than to plug the movie and a pay-per-view, is really lessening my feelings about the movie and the story it was trying to tell.
I know Wrestlemania is all about trying to bring in mainstream viewers but having Rourke fued with Jericho on both Raw and now in major media outlets just feels really foolish to me. Maybe they are trying to play it off that Jericho is "really mad .. for real this time" at Rourke, but anyone with a brain knows better and can see right through it. I love Jericho and think he's one of the best in the business, but am really disappointed that his character is going in this direction.
Last year, I wanted to see Mayweather get pounded into the ground, but I'm too much of a fan of Rourke and Jericho to take a side in this one.
Posted by: Jim | January 28, 2009 3:26 PM
Uh...Mickey Rourke is nearly 60 years old! Are you kidding me? WWE must surely be in trouble if they need to their best wrestler to match up against an AARP member. This bout would be about as interesting as seeing Laila Ali square off against Barbra Walters.
Posted by: Nat Turner | January 28, 2009 4:03 PM
lol 9 1/2 weeks.. that was bad .. really really bad
Posted by: Brian Lee | January 28, 2009 4:40 PM
I have to say Im worried Rourke said a bare knuckle fight or boxing match, I have faith in Jericho, he can pull anything off, but surley a wrestling match would be best? He is talented enough to carry Rourke with wrestling, is Rourke talented enough to carry Jerichoi with boxing?
Posted by: stan | January 28, 2009 5:10 PM
...hope this plays out well , but it has the potential to be a flop .
Off topic Kev , I read the "Face-Off" in the Sun and I personally disagree with your position re: Ray Lewis , but I have also have thought all along the O's should keep BRob too . IMO :)
Posted by: the artist formerly known as jack in hebron | January 28, 2009 5:10 PM
You're definitely on the money there.......there hasn't been anything to get excited about (in fact, I kinda felt sorry for Jericho on Larry King...Rourke really needs to show off his acting abilities and soon).
Maybe the WWE is hoping that word will spread slowly like it did with the movie and when everyone is going to be watching, they'll do something big...I hope so anyway.
Posted by: Davinder (UK) | January 28, 2009 5:15 PM
Not a big fan of wasting Jericho's talent on a throwaway match at WM, but I have to say I'm impressed at how much mainstream coverage this is getting. It made the front page of foxnews.com and there was a segment about it on the local DC news (WUSA). I haven't heard wrestling mentioned on the local news (sans Benoit) since George Michael's "Wednesday Wrestling" segments.
Posted by: RH | January 28, 2009 6:06 PM
I just entertained in a bad way by Chris Jericho on Larry King. Rourke is getting props all over for his role in the Wrestler and when he made the remark at the SAG awards I laughed...he was joking! Angle or not, Chris came off like a moron of sorts on Larry King...I was like, "dude, are you kidding me" (Mickey was probably saying the same thing). Big Up to Mickey for squashing it.
Posted by: Jo | January 28, 2009 7:45 PM
I think Rourke would probably beat the crap out of Jericho if it were boxing. So Jericho better ease up on his bare knuckle bravado.
See the following:
During his teenage years, Rourke focused his attention mainly on sports. He took up self-defense training at the Boys Club of Miami. It was there that he learned boxing skills and decided on an amateur career. At the age of 12, Rourke won his first boxing match as a 118-pound bantamweight. Some of his early matches were fought under the name Andre Rourke. He continued his boxing training at the famed 5th Street Gym in Miami Beach, Florida, where Muhammad Ali began his career. In 1969, Rourke, then weighing 140 lbs., sparred with former World Welterweight Champion Luis Rodríguez. Rodriguez was the number one rated middleweight boxer in the world, and was training for his match with world champion Nino Benvenuti. Rourke claims to have received a concussion in this sparring match.[6]
At the 1971 Florida Golden Gloves, he received another concussion in a boxing match. After being told by doctors to take a year off and rest, Rourke temporarily retired from the ring. From 1968 to 1973, he compiled an amateur record of 20-7 (17 knockouts), which included wins over Ron Carter, Charles Gathers, and Joe Riles.[citation needed] At one point, he reportedly scored 12 consecutive first-round knockouts.
In 1991, Rourke decided that he "…had to go back to boxing" because he felt that he "… was self-destructing … (and) had no respect for myself being an actor."[citation needed] Rourke was undefeated in 8 fights, with six wins (4 by knock-out) and two draws. He fought as far afield as Spain, Japan and Germany.[10] He never achieved national prominence and he suffered a number of injuries, including a broken nose, toe, ribs, a split tongue, and a compressed cheekbone.[citation needed] His trainer during his boxing career was Hells Angels member Chuck Zito[citation needed] and his entrance song was Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child o' Mine.[11]
Boxing promoters stated that Rourke was too old to do well against top-level fighters. Indeed, Rourke himself admits that entering the ring was a sort of personal test: "(I) just wanted to give it a shot, test myself that way physically, while I still had time (interview in The Gate with Christopher Heard)." In 1995, Rourke retired from boxing and returned to acting.
Posted by: JF | January 28, 2009 8:04 PM
I was sort of hoping the next post would be regarding the angle on ECW where Jack Swagger was looking for his title. I'm curious to hear your opinion of how they're using him in this angle.
RESPONSE FROM KEVIN ECK: I wasn't wild about it, but I suppose it's the start of a program with Finlay, and Hornswoggle is part of Finlay's act. There really aren't a lot of challengers for Swagger right now.
Posted by: Jeremy Hale | January 28, 2009 9:03 PM
I haven't seen "The Wrestler" yet, and I'm curious if Mickey Rourke can actually work. But it seems to me that it will be a waste of Jericho's talent and the main event of the year, just like they will likely waste HBK on JBL and possible waste Undertaker's talent on Koslov.
Fine, I know that it is smart to captialize on the Wrestler. Jericho has no opponent right now... and he could carry Rourke.
HBK should fight John Cena and play out the JBL feud at a different PPV.
Undertaker should fight Triple H or anybody other than Koslov, and not the Big show... I like him but the Undertaker Big Show thing was done recently.
I just watched Survivor Series yesterday on DVD and in my opinion, Rey Mysterio stole the show.
Posted by: Rob | January 29, 2009 1:58 AM