Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
There have been many celebrities that have made their way into the WWE throughout the years. Some have been memorable, while others not so much. For every Cyndi Lauper and Mike Tyson, there was Ricky Schroeder and the old lady from the ‘Where’s the Beef?’ fame. Once such celebrity that truly epitomized what the WWE was and still is…was baseball icon Pete Rose.
What made Pete Rose’s appearances so special wasn’t necessarily that they were done on the grandest stage with Wrestlemania. Pete Rose became a part of an annual storyline for the biggest show of the year. He didn’t do it to sell something like a majority of celebs do when they appear on WWE television. He went along with whatever Vince McMahon and company asked of him.
Rose’s first appearance came at Wrestlemania XIV in 1998, where Rose innocently enough was booked as the special guest ring announcer. After a polite applause from the WWF fans in Boston, Rose “turned heel” and began putting down Beantown in every way imaginable. After which, ‘The Big Red Monster’ Kane came out and after a brief staredown with the baseball hit king….tomb stoned him to a thunderous cheer.
For mostly all of us, we thought we had seen the last of Pete Rose near a WWF ring, but that wasn’t the case at all. The following year’s Wrestlemania XV in 1999, Rose showed again. This time, Rose was dressed up as the San Diego Chicken and interfered in Kane’s match against Triple H. Once Kane ripped off the head of the costume and Rose was revealed….Kane once again tomb stoned Rose for his troubles.
In 2000, Wrestlemania 16 featured a tag team match pitting DX (X-Pac and Road Dogg) versus Rikishi and Kane. You guessed it, Pete Rose once again made an appearance. While Rikishi and Too Cool were dancing in the ring, the San Diego Chicken made his way in. Thinking the Chicken was once again Rose in disguise….Kane backed the mascot into a corner. That is when Rose slid into the ring and tried to hit the Big Red Monster with a baseball bat.
Kane grabbed the bat and chokeslammed Rose and that was followed by a Rikishi ‘Stink Face’ in the corner. It had become quite apparent that Rose appearing at Wrestlemania to get his revenge on Kane was becoming a tradition for Wrestlemania. Much like how the Undertaker and his undefeated streak was also a Wrestlemania tradition. The thing was, Wrestlemania 17 in 2001 came and went and there was no Pete Rose involvement.
Kane was on that card in a hardcore match against both Big Show and Raven….but alas…no Pete Rose. The Wrestlemania tradition had seemingly ended. While there was no Pete Rose anywhere on the card, that wasn’t necessarily because they had nothing for him. In fact, the WWE did have plans to have Rose appear at Wrestlemania 17. The apparent plan was for Rose to be dressed up in baseball protection gear like a catcher’s mask, chest protector etc and attack Kane with a garbage can.
Kane would once again intercept Rose and lay him out. That was the plan, but scheduling conflicts and differences in pay offs led Rose to not attend the annual festivities. There were some rumblings that all of these cameos would eventually lead to a match somehow involving Kane and Rose….but again…it never happened.
Despite the Wrestlemania pop ups ending, it didn’t end the storyline completely. Rose would appear in a Halloween commercial hyping WWE’s No Mercy pay per view on October 20th, 2002. Kane was a trick or treater that rang Rose’s door and attacked Rose in a tongue in cheek moment.
In 2010, WWE brought back Rose one last time as a special guest Raw General Manager and of course, Rose’s big plan was to finally end Kane’s career. He booked a no disqualification match between Kane and Shawn Michaels. After HBK defeated Kane, Rose began to celbrate and get excited…only for the monster to attack Rose one last time. This was Rose’s final appearance as a ” WWE character.”
While the storyline did have some sort of conclusion, it might have had a better twist if Rose and the WWE could’ve come to an agreement back in 2001. Still, no doubt about it…Pete Rose was worthy of his Hall of Fame induction…the WWE’s version anyway.