Every Match Involving A Celebrity, Ranked
Ava Richardson If there is one thing that WWE loves to do during WrestleMania, it is calling in all the celebrities they can. They have had celebs serve as guest referees, ring announcers, backstage interviewers, special guests, and more. However, there are also times where WWE has celebrities show up and take part in matches.
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The matches featuring celebrities involve one of two things. The celebrity either competes in the match or they work in some other official capacity in the match. Here is a look at the WrestleMania matches involving celebrities, ranked worst to best.
10 AKEBONO TARO (WRESTLEMANIA 21)
When it comes to Big Show, he started as a monster fighting for championships but became known over time as a WWE superstar involved in special attraction matches. Most of the past few years, he has been in the battle royal named after Andre the Giant.
However, he also had two WrestleMania matches against athletes from other sports. The worst of these was his match with Akebono at WrestleMania 21. This was a sumo match that no one seemed to care about and was just there to show off Big Show's butt. Akebono won.
9 BUTTERBEAN (WRESTLEMANIA XV)
WWE got the brilliant idea in 1998 to show that their wrestlers were legit tough guys and not just athletic actors taking part in choreographed matches. They created the Brawl for All tournament, where wrestlers would legit fight each other.
The tournament did not go like WWE planned. Dr. Death Steve Williams was supposed to win, but Bart Gunn knocked him out. The winner of the tournament then fought professional boxer, Butterbean, at WrestleMania XV, and he knocked out Gunn in 35 seconds, making WWE look bad.
8 ALICE COOPER, CYNDI LAUPER, ETC...
There have been a lot of seconds in WrestleMania matches, and most of the time, they are just there to help stand at ringside for fans to see. Sometimes they get involved, mostly to stop outside interference, but nothing more. They sit in this spot, mainly because they are just there to be famous.
Alice Cooper accompanied Jake Roberts in his match against Honky Tonk Man at WrestleMania III. Cyndi Lauper was with Wendi Richter at WrestleMania. Jenny McCarthy and Pamela Anderson were at ringside when Diesel fought Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XI.
7 RODDY PIPER VS. MR. T (WRESTLEMANIA 2)
The Butterbean match was not the first time WWE tried to bring boxing into a WrestleMania event. At WrestleMania 2, WWE scheduled a boxing match between Rowdy Roddy Piper and actor Mr. T. The two wrestled in a tag match the year before.
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This was the main event in the New York section of WrestleMania 2 and was a critical disappointment. At the end of the day, it was an actor and a wrestler pretending to be boxers. After 13 minutes of lackluster boxing action, Piper bodyslammed Mr. T and lost by DQ.
6 WWE VS. NFL BATTLE ROYAL (WRESTLEMANIA 2)
At WrestleMania 2, while New York had Roddy Piper putting on boxing gloves to fight Mr. T, the Chicago version of the show had a battle royal that included WWE and NFL stars going to battle. The match was at least won by a WWE superstar in Andre the Giant.
Involved in the battle royal for the NFL was future WWE Hall of Famer William "The Refrigerator" Perry, Jimbo Covert, Bill Fralic, Russ Francis, Ernie Holmes, and Harvey Martin. Other NFL stars in attendance were Dick Butkus, Ed "Too Tall" Jones, and Robert Conrad.
5 FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR (WRESTLEMANIA XXIV)
A second Big Show special attraction match included Show taking on undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather. This was a boxer vs. wrestler match, with Mayweather wearing gloves and Big Show in his wrestling gear.
A lot of people dismiss this because of the size difference, but when someone moves as quickly and hits as hard as Mayweather, it seems more realistic. He legit broke Show's nose at the previous month's pay-per-view. Plus, the fact that Mayweather used brass knuckles in a No DQ match to knock out Big Show meant that the loss didn't hurt Show.
4 LAWRENCE TAYLOR (WRESTLEMANIA XI)
Nine years after WWE invited the NFL to take part in a battle royal that also involved WWE superstars, they invited an NFL star back to WrestleMania to compete in the actual main event of the show. Yes, at WrestleMania XI, Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow was the main event.
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The good news is that Taylor worked hard to have a small move set for the match, and WWE chose Bigelow, who was good enough to help put over him in the match. A bunch of NFL stars were at ringside, and Taylor beat Bigelow in 11 minutes.
3 DONALD TRUMP (WRESTLEMANIA 23)
At WrestleMania 23, the future President of the United States was involved in one of the biggest matches on the card. Donald Trump had been involved before, hosting WrestleMania IV and WrestleMania V, but this time around Trump was in an angle and feuding with Mr. McMahon.
Trump managed ECW Champion Bobby Lashley in the match, while Mr. McMahon managed Intercontinental Champion Umaga. The man whose charge lost got their head shaved. Lashley won, Stone Cold Steve Austin was there, and Trump shaved McMahon's head. It was a good match too.
2 HULK HOGAN AND MR. T VS. RODDY PIPER AND PAUL ORNDORFF (WRESTLEMANIA)
The main event at the first WrestleMania wasn't a great match, but it was what WWE needed at the time to sell people on the idea of them being a global mainstream entertainment option. The match saw world champion Hulk Hogan teaming up with Hollywood actor Mr. T to battle Rowdy Roddy Piper and Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff.
Muhammad Ali was a ringside enforcer. The match saw Mr. T getting a few moves in, Hulk Hogan was Hulk Hogan, and Roddy Piper was the best heel in the business. Hogan pinned Orndorff after Piper accidentally hit him, and Roddy turned on Mr. Wonderful. This was the genesis of WrestleMania as a global phenomenon.
1 MIKE TYSON (WRESTLEMANIA XIV)
While Floyd Mayweather had a big match at WrestleMania, the biggest name in the sports or entertainment world to take part in a match at WrestleMania is boxing legend Mike Tyson. He did not wrestle, but he was the ringside enforcer for the match between Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWE Championship.
If anyone in the celebrity world fit the WWE mold in the Attitude Era, it was Iron Mike. He appeared to side with Degeneration X, and most thought he was there to help them. However, he ran in and gave a fast count to give Stone Cold his first world title win and was a perfect addition to WrestleMania XIV.
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