I don't disagree, but who exactly is it that's complaining about this? JR always describes this stuff he reads on the Internet that I've never seen anywhere on the Internet, and I wonder if he has even seen it on the Internet. JR isn't gutsy enough to name names and provide links I guess.

I think he knows that if he provided links, that would be feeding into some of these people. I do believe he is talking about people like the geniuses that leave comments at 411, and things like that. The RAW report on 411 and many of the comments after it are mocking ZZ Top. For whatever reason, some people check that site out...Mick Foley actually lashed out at them recently.

Fuck it, this may be one of the few RAWS I actually take time out to watch. Then again, maybe it just shows my age.

I don't disagree, but who exactly is it that's complaining about this? JR always describes this stuff he reads on the Internet that I've never seen anywhere on the Internet, and I wonder if he has even seen it on the Internet. JR isn't gutsy enough to name names and provide links I guess.

Bryan Alvarez believed JR was talking about him, but who knows. I posted this more for the crabby tone, than disagreeing with the opinion itself. Even when he may have a valid point, he often spoils it by needless name calling.

I think what got JR's panties in a wad is that people seem to see them bringing in Seth Green (and to a lesser extent ZZ Top) as them trying to look hip but have no idea how to do so.

 

I personally thought Seth did a great job, him being a fan made it work about a million billion times better than most celebrity appearances because at least he looked like he wanted to be there.

Fuck it, this may be one of the few RAWS I actually take time out to watch. Then again, maybe it just shows my age.

I have been a ZZ Top fan for a long time...before they even had their heyday in the 80's...and I am very interested to see what Rick Rubin does for them. This is the guy that engineered Johnny Cash's comeback, talked him into doing cover versions which resulted in songs like "Hurt" and generally seems to have a good idea what will work and what won't. Rubin might put ZZ Top back on the map again...but even if he doesn't, I guess my point is that on the C list of famous people, they're not too far removed from the guy who played Scott Evil, honestly.

 

sek makes a good point too...ZZ Top are actual fans of the WWE. I have seen them on television at shows tons of times. Since they already know and follow the product, it's not just a blatant plug for them, they actually want to be there I would imagine. I wouldn't be surprised to see guys like Shaq end up doing it too.

Yeah it's odd how WWE looks at being a fan as a negative in terms of working for the company, yet they have to see the difference it makes in their celebrity guests.

Also ZZ Top provided the set up for one of the greatest lines in WWE history when they showed them at ringside and Heyman's response was "LOOK! IT'S JIMMY "BOOGIE WOOGIE MAN" VALIANT!"

I thought that was Tazz who made the Jimmy Valiant comment a while back

The only thing I would add is, if WWE wants to do celebrity hosts, they need to look for ones who are popular with the audience the company wants to attract. With ZZ Top, I can understand why they were asked, but how much of the current WWE fanbase are ZZ Top fans?

 

To put this into perspective, there's a reason why Mike Tyson meant more to WWE than Donald Trump, despite both of their apperances getting mainstream attention.

I thought that was Tazz who made the Jimmy Valiant comment a while back

Heyman made the comment on the Smackdown after 9/11. Gave me a needed laugh.

That's the whole point. ZZ Top are long time wrestling fans, fantastic. But they haven't been relevant in over two decades. Considering that the average pre-15 year old doesn't know who Johnny Carson was, I don't know who ZZ Top's appeal is supposed to be for other than guys like JR. Unless the guest host thing is suppose to be a self-mocking joke, this doesn't look good or "hip" to mainstream America.

Good points on both sides, although it's not like they're going to pull a 6.0 if Miley Cyrus is the guest host. Any upside they will get from the celebrity appearance is gone as soon as the celebrity is gone.

The only thing I would add is, if WWE wants to do celebrity hosts, they need to look for ones who are popular with the audience the company wants to attract. With ZZ Top, I can understand why they were asked, but how much of the current WWE fanbase are ZZ Top fans?

 

To put this into perspective, there's a reason why Mike Tyson meant more to WWE than Donald Trump, despite both of their apperances getting mainstream attention.

Celebrity appearances on their own can only do so much, in my opinion. I guess depending on the status of the celebrity, that can vary, but Mike Tyson felt like more of an icing on the cake rather than the cake itself. Austin was getting hot, McMahon's character was rising, and the company overall was at a different interest. Perhaps Tyson contributed to the buyrate of Mania as well, but would Tyson be able to do the same thing today in the current environment?

 

My personal take: I didn't catch all of RAW this past week, but I thought they did as good a job with Seth Green as they could, plus there was some cross-promotional benefits as well, depending on how many extra viewers Green could bring in. Plus, there's the novelty of Seth Green never having been on RAW, I guess. On the other hand, we've seen ZZ Top at WWE events, so them hosting RAW feels like nothing new.

 

Maybe they're trying their hardest to reach out to older fans again. After all, those Starrcade and SNME DVD sales pale in comparison to WM25.

Eh, they're going to be doing the guest host thing 52 weeks a year. Not every one can be a hip celebrity with the kids. It's not a big deal.

I didn't realize Seth Green was so hip. Regardless of what he's doing now, isn't he most famous for being on Buffy and Angel all those years ago? When I think of people who are current, I think Kanye, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, etc.

I'd say that way more people watched the Austin Powers movies or Family Guy than ever watched Buffy. Throw in the stoner/twentysomething demographic that Robot Chicken embraces, and you nicely cover that coveted Male, 18-34 bracket with Green's presence.

The other issue is that very few celebrities are going to want to appear on WWE programming. It's not exactly a sign that your career is on a huge upswing, I imagine that for agents, it's about as prestigious as telling your client you booked them at the auto show in the booth next to Adam West and Burt Ward. If there are famous people of any level that want to appear on WWE programming, then I would imagine WWE will jump on it.

 

A lot of those names Loss mentioned (who for the record I have never heard of...what the hell is a Lady Gaga?!) probably would rather die than be seen on WWE programming.

WWE's likely thought is that these celebrity appearances will get them mentioned on programs like E! News or Access Hollywood.

Loss saying Green is irrelevant then rattling off names who are much more irrelevant to the audience WWE panders to is pretty funny.

Kids and teenagers?

Seriously internet wrestling fans still continue to baffle me. Acting indignant at the idea of ZZ Top hosting, and holding Seth Green of all people as the lofty standard that all future WWE guests should be measured against.

Seth Green voices a supporting character on Family Guy and is the creator of and a regular voice actor on Robot Chicken. So the two big projects he has currently keep his face off of TV, which means unless you're old enough to care about voice actors and authorship, then Seth Green is pretty anonymous to the younger audience that WWE is turning to. Which isn't to say he's irrelevant, but the name "Seth Green" carries less weight to WWE's target audience than the name "Chris Griffin" does. And "Chris Griffin" doesn't even carry the weight that names like "Peter Grifin", "Lois Griffin", "Stewie Griffin", and "Glen Quagmire" do. Not sure how the name of - at best - the fifth most culturally relevant character on Family Guy is more relevant to the WWE's target demographic than Beyonce or Lady Gaga. And that's not even the name they got.

Seth Green voices a supporting character on Family Guy and is the creator of and a regular voice actor on Robot Chicken. So the two big projects he has currently keep his face off of TV, which means unless you're old enough to care about voice actors and authorship, then Seth Green is pretty anonymous to the younger audience that WWE is turning to.

WWE's primary target audience is still Males 18-35 (or is it 34? I can never remember the particular arbitrary number), since those are both 1.the most likely to watch any wrestling show, and 2.generally craved by advertisers as the demographic which spends the most money on superfluous junk shown in commercials. Sure, they still want kids to buy the foam fingers and replica belts and Cena dolls and Rey masks, but for their television income the M,18/35 demo is the catbird seat.

 

The theory is that Seth Green would be most recognizable among those demographics, which is absolutely correct. I'm sure that is Adult Swim's primary audience as well. However, where the theory falls apart is that way, way more people watch Raw every week than ever watch Robot Chicken (possibly more than even watch Family Guy), and the likelihood of gaining any new audience due to Green's appearance is very small. Truthfully the best thing about bringing in Seth specifically is that he's friends with practically half of the actors in Hollywood and is known as a good networker, and could theoretically lead to contacts for better-known guests in the future.

 

On the "we just want to be mentioned in the mainstream media" side of the table, someone like Green does have a somewhat better shot of getting them featured than an act like ZZ Top whose peak of popularity was many long years ago. But, as seen practically every time they try it, no matter how much of an attention whore the WWE is with their celebrity appearances, it rarely does them much good. Hell, iirc, even the time that Schwarzennegger guest starred it didn't bump the rating much higher than normal. Guest celebrities are enough of a proven failure that it's literally easier to name the ones that did have any positive effect on business: there's Mr. T, Mike Tyson, the first time Trump showed up, maybe Mauweather, and... uh, am I missing anyone?

With a few exceptions, wrestling fans are typically resentful of outsiders coming in. But I don't know that I fully understand how the average wrestling fan thinks anymore, so that may no longer be the case.