New topic
Printable
Report post to moderator
Instead of embarrassing him every damn week, they need to have him permanently behind the microphone to replace Cole. Cole can keep doing Smackdown, for all I care. I barely watch the shit anyway.
It was Cena, The Big Show, Mark Henry, and some other wrester I don't recognize. Then Cena gave his speech to the troops in Fort Bragg.
In case the nature of the United States military mission in the Middle East over the last decade is unclear, World Wrestling Entertainment star Cody Rhodes has spelled it out.
“What we do,” he said Tuesday afternoon, “is what they fight for.”
So at least we know.
Actually, Rhodes didn’t mean we’re fighting the war to make the world safe for professional wrestling. He was promoting the WWE’s annual “Tribute to the Troops,” an hour-long performance that was taped at Fort Bragg and airs Saturday night at 9 on NBC.
It’s patterned after Bob Hope’s USO shows, with a fast-paced variety format that parades a number of stars in front of the troops while praising what they do.
Rhodes and other WWE stars are part of the show, along with comedian George Wallace, R&B singer Mary J. Blige, Nickelback and others.
Taped greetings from performers like Robin Williams, the Muppets, Nicole Kidman and Matthew McConaughey will be interspersed throughout the show.
Wallace said it’s one of the most moving experiences he’s had.
“I won’t lie to you; I choked up,” he said, when he saw the WWE performers and other stars mingling with troops after the show.
“You try to give your best show every night,” said Wallace, “but for this you want to give your better-than-best show. I have about five hours of material and I tried to do my best seven minutes.”
Rhodes said the troop salute, which WWE has been doing for nine years, is one of the most important things the organization does.
“You work all year to be on Wrestlemania,” he said. “This kind of sneaks up on you. But when you get there, you realize this is even more important, because it’s for the troops. It’s real.”
While Rhodes plays a bad guy in the WWE world, Wallace said he wasn’t greeted like a villain by the troops.
“There were no bad guys on that stage,” he said. “They loved everybody.”
Wallace did take the occasion to joke that he’d love to get in the ring with Rhodes someday.
“I’ll put my foot so far up his behind that his breath will smell like shoe polish,” said Wallace, strutting his best trash-talking stuff.
Rhodes, sounding amused, said he would like to have Wallace become his manager.
“Well, that’s something entirely different,” said Wallace. “Now you’re talking money. What did you have in mind?”
Rhodes said the most unusual part of the salute gig, to him, was joining four other WWE stars to do a parachute jump with the Army’s Golden Knights.
“It’s not something I ever wanted to do,” Rhodes admitted. “I was terrified. But it was an unbelievable rush. I’d like to do it again.”
He’d also do the whole salute again.
“If you weren’t a patriot before this,” he said, “you will be after.”
