This is a script for my video on Wrestlers appearing on SNL. You can view the video here: https://youtu.be/C2V_WkQYn3k
If my first love is wrestling, my second love would be comedy. About a decade ago I found a show that I fell in love with. Saturday Night Live. From Ackroyd and Belushi in the early days to the Iceberg that sunk the Titanic recently. That gave me an idea to look into any times that I could find where wrestlers appeared on SNL and there more than I expected. For full disclosure, in researching for this topic I noticed that Dave Knows Wrestling has a similarly titled video to this but I assure you, mine is very different to his. And yes, we're going to be talking about the Rock, just not yet. I also wanted to say if you can think of any wrestler appearances that I've missed why not let me know in the comments, and I might even do a follow up video.
As far as I can tell the first time a professional wrestler appeared on Saturday Night Live was on November 17th 1979. On that night Andy Kaufman would wrestle a woman from out of the audience, which is a gimmick he was doing at his shows at the time, even dubbing himself the inter gender wrestling champion. Despite technically counting later on as a wrestler, Andy isn't the person I'm talking about yet, as the bout was introduced by the first recognised WWE champion, The Nature Boy Buddy Rogers. Rogers was the NWA World champion when the WWWF broke away in 1963, but one month later would lose to Bruno Sammartino, who reigned for 2800 days. Thats just over seven and a half years.
Kaufmans time in pro wrestling and the feud with Lawler is a story for another day, but on May 15th 1982 Kaufman would return to SNL one month after his famous match with the King of Memphis. On this night Andy is interviewed while wearing a neck brace, that he wore everywhere in order to sell the injury from the match. According to Jerry Lawler in a recent episode of Tales from the Territories, Andy only took the neck brace off because the producers of Taxi, a sitcom he was in, threatened to write him off the show. Also according to Jerry, Andy even kept the secret that he wasn't really hurt from his own parents, who spent two decades despising Lawler for what he did to their Son. It was only when the film Man in the Moon was being made in the late 90's that they found out the the injury wasn't real. I would also like to recommend that film, its one of my favourites.
In a strange feeling moment they show Kaufman doing heel stalling tactics, and we can hear the SNL audience laughing at his antics. They also show the entire match, even replaying the moves Andy takes in slow motion, while Andy in studio sells how much pain he was in. The segment that is mostly played very seriously, then ends with Andy offering a series of apologies most YouTubers would be proud of, proving that Andy Kaufman was indeed, a man ahead of his time. This segment took place two months before the more famous Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. One final note about this is I found out afterwards that the man interviewing Andy is Brian Doyle-Murray, who is known to my generation as the voice of the Flying Dutchman in Spongebob Squarepants, a reference I never thought I'd be making when I started this channel...
The next time wrestlers would be on SNL would be March 30th 1985, just one day before Wrestlemania 1. That episode was hosted by Hulk Hogan and Mr. T, ahead of their showdown with Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff the following night. Full credit to Dave Knows Wrestling because I didn't know this, but Hogan and Mr. T were actually last minute replacements as their scheduled host cancelled due to illness. Therefore Hogan and T's role on the show was fairly limited. They performed a monologue which is to say Hulk Hogan cut a promo then Mr. T pretended to choke out a heckler. T refers to "that TV guy" who thought wrestling was a joke, but quickly moves on from it. This is a reference to an incident that occurred a few days earlier on a show called Hot Properties, where Hogan demonstrated a front face lock on actor Richard Belzer, who passed out in the hold. Very quickly Belzer popped back up to his feet with blood dripping down his jacket from where his head hit the studio floor. I'll admit I don't know much about that situation other than it got litigious so I won't go into it here but its interesting to me that Hogan and Mr. T would reference the incident in a comedy sketch a few days later.
Perhaps the closest thing to a comedy sketch Hogan and T are involved in is an interview with Fernando, who was played by Billy Crystal. Billy introduces Hogan as "The Hulk" which I'm sure Marvel was thrilled about. Hogan when he first adopted the name was sometimes billed as "the incredible" Hulk Hogan, and from what I can tell through my research Hogan for 20 years actually paid Marvel a royalty to use the name. This is possibly why Hogan would eventually ditch the Hulk part of his name in WCW and become Hollywood Hogan, but again I digress.
I'm not saying this interview was improvised, but it very much looked like it was thrown together at the last minute. It's not that funny until Fernando actually managed to make Hogan and T break, which to means to laugh when you're not supposed to. Billy Crystal, a complete pro of comedy gets even more laughs out of the situation, and ends the segment when he knows it has peaked. Sound advice I feel Edge could do to take in his matches sometimes. Don't at me...
The final notable segment that Hulk and Mr. T are in is called "Mr. T and Hulk Hogan reply", and is less than a minute long and is basically one last chance to promote Wrestlemania 1. Mr. T flubs his lines awkwardly and walks off. I've been quite critical of Hulk Hogan on this channel before, but it is impressive how quickly he can get into full blown promo mode and saves this after Mr. T walks off.
This night would be the last time as far as I can tell that Hulk Hogan would grace studio 8H, but in 2016 Pete Davidson would perform a Weekend Update segment where he would talk about Hogans legal victory over Gawker. In it Davidson refers to Hogan as a "senior citizen who used to oil himself up and pretend to fight immigrants in his undies". I mean he's technically not wrong but come on Pete, some of us built our childhoods around watching that. I'm not helping am I?
Before I talk about the Rock which I promise I am getting to... I want to break the timeline a few times to talk about other SNL moments in the 2000's. Until I researched for this video I totally forgot that Ronda Rousey once hosted SNL in January 2016 during season 41. She was still a UFC fighter at the time, but she is a WWE superstar now so it still counts. This was a turbulent time in Rousey's life, as two months earlier she had lost the UFC Womens Bantamweight championship to Holly Holm in a shocking moment. Ronda was awarded the title as she was the champion of that division in Strike Force, and would defend it six times across a thousand days. Depending on how you felt about Conor McGregor or Jon Jones, Ronda was arguably the biggest star in combat sports, but mostly retreated from public life after her loss to Holm. She would later attempt to avenge her loss by challenging then champion Amanda Nunes, but would again lose, these being the only two losses on her stellar record.
It turns out there was a reason I didn't remember this episode, its a pretty funny one with a really good cast but the most memorable thing from it was Tina Fey reprising her Sarah Palin impression endorsing Donald Trumps candidacy. Little did we know how not funny that would eventually become.
In December of 2011 John Cena would host SNL. His monologue is fairly wrestling based with members of the cast confronting him, the outright best being Kenan Thompson dressed like the Undertaker sneaking up on John with a chair, and quickly backing down when confronted, and ends with the SNL band playing his theme song.
Cena's most famous sketch perhaps is known as "science presentation" which implied a bias from colleges towards sports success over academic achievement. He is clearly given easier questions than his academic peers. In Cena's early career he used to wear football jerseys in his entrance for heat, so it was interesting to see him in one again in what felt like a throwback.
By this time Cena was still an active full timer on the WWE Roster. he was a few months away from the first of his two Wrestlemania bouts with The Rock, and his most notable credit outside wrestling was his role in the Fred movies which thankfully are lost to time. Fun Face though, John Cena actually has an uncredited background role in WCW's 2000 movie Ready to Rumble.
To quote Mark Henry on AEW Rampage, it's time for the Main event. I guess it's time to talk about the Rock. He first appeared on SNL in 2000, accompanied by Triple H, Big Show Mick Foley and the devil himself. The cold open which is usually but not always a political sketch, was built around kayfabe, with Vince begging the other wrestlers to not get into any trouble because it would make WWE look bad, which is profoundly ironic in late 2022.
The Rocks monologue is also interrupted by Triple H, Foley, Show and Vince, making this feel like more of a wrestling takeover than The Rocks own thing. Do you see what I did there? We even get to see Triple H carrying the WWF championship on SNL, the same WWF championship that the Rock would beat him for a Wrestlema- oh wait no, it was Backlash the next month. Which he would lose a month later to Triple H, it's almost like he was in a position of power or something. On this night however Triple H slightly breaks kayfabe by wishing Rocky good luck and shaking his hated rivals hand.
The great one would host SNL again in 2002 to promote the Scorpion King, which we wish he hadn't, again in 2009 to promote Race to Witch Mountain, I have no idea what that is, and a fourth time on March 28th 2015, the day before Wrestlemania 31 to promote Furious 7. Mania 31 is the one where the Rock and Ronda Rousey lay into Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, tying many a loose end in this video, so thanks for that Dwayne.
Maybe the most famous character Dwayne Johnson would play twice on the show was The Rock Obama, a bizarre take on what would happen if the normally calm and collected 44th President turned into the Incredible Hulk. There's one last callback...
On the final time The Rock hosted SNL at the time of this video, he was inducted into the five timer club. A debatably illustrious group that started as a joke but includes beloved names like Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Paul Rudd and Tina Fey, and also Alec Baldwin.
I'm going to end this video by asking who you could see killing it on SNL? Can you imagine the likes of Brock Lesnar, The New Day or maybe even Bray Wyatt standing on the Studio 8H stage?
Andy Kaufman and Buddy Rogers December 22nd 1979
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=362013272150235
May 15th 1982 Andy Kaufman interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxiJK0EUyYU
Hogan and Mt. T - Season 10 March 30th 1985
monologue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKiwzQUY2Sg
fernando https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFqzDO0EVjE
reply https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKEIg5cyl4s
The Rock, Mick Foley, Big Show, Triple H and the devil himself Season 25 - March 18th 2000
Cold open https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0it_K3Qmcc0
Monologue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR7i1YFH-QQ
Ronda Rousey January 23rd 2016
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS_gQd8UB-hLuU9ZffAle9qSfGNtt1diE
Pete Davidson on Hulk Hogan April 10th 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JRayYnqWVk
John Cena December 10th 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PJb4cFWOfY&list=PLS_gQd8UB-hLjih3w_JyKrfPqWA-pe6Y3
Cena monologue https://www.metatube.com/en/videos/339248/SNL-John-Cena-Monologue/
The Rock May 20th 2017
- Promoting Baywatch
John Cena December 10th 2011 Season 42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PJb4cFWOfY&list=PLS_gQd8UB-hLjih3w_JyKrfPqWA-pe6Y3
Rock reacts to his own SNL sketches Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkK2JV2WlZk
Rock reacts to his own SNL sketches Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k3P3y_8_d0
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