“After watching Mickey Rourke accept his Golden Globe,” sighed Newsday’s Alfonso Castillo, “I wrote that I hoped he would mention the plight of the pro wrestler in his acceptance speech if he won the Oscar.” You can file that one under “highly unlikely”, as Castillo explains :
Rourke told reporters on the red carpet for last night’s Screen Actor’s Guild awards that he is in talks to appear at WrestleMania and is gunning for Chris Jericho.
If WWE is actually planning for a match between Rourke and Jericho, that might explain where Jericho fits into the card, now that he lost the Rumble and seems like a sort of odd-man-out in the main event picture.
Nevertheless, Vince McMahon proves, once again, that – just like Ted used to say – “Everyone’s got a price.” After leaving WWE, Jesse Ventura was one of the company’s most outspoken critics, and hammered WWE for its role in Owen Hart’s death. But soon after being elected governor of Minnesota, he seemed to have a change of heart when he agreed to referee a match at SummerSlam 1999. When Wade Keller of the Pro Wrestling Torch called him out for apparently having his silence bought, Ventura pretty much blew him off.
Admittedly, this is a bit different. Rourke was never any kind of advocate for struggling pro wrestlers, but rather just an actor who took a job. I wouldn’t be surprised if WWE is offering Rourke more money to appear at Mania than he got for “The Wrestler.”
You’ve got to give McMahon some credit. How best to diffuse some of the negative publicity surrounding “The Wrestler” than to have the star of the movie give WWE his endorsement.