Saturday Six – Wrestlers You Didn’t Know Were On Reality Shows

Welcome to the Saturday Six, where each week I let you get to know me a bit better with the help of a list. Any idiot can do a Top 5 list, which is why I kicked it up a notch to a Top 6. This week’s topic: Wrestlers You Didn’t Know Were On Reality Shows.

This past week was probably the biggest week in wrestling in Philadelphia history since WrestleMania 15. There was a CZW/WSU doubleheader, two Ring of Honor/New Japan Pro Wrestling shows, and two NXT shows. That’s a shit-ton a wrestling. In trying to get prepared for all of these shows, and get caught back up to what I missed while in Japan, I noticed something while doing my research. Sure, WWE has always kind of been at the forefront of reality TV, what with the Divas Searches, the original NXT, Legend’s House, and now the return of Tough Enough. But what I found was that a lot of wrestlers were involved in reality shows before they were ever on the WWE map. While I’m sure most people know that Chris Jericho and Stacy Keibler were on Dancing with the Stars, odds are you don’t know about the rest of these reality show appearances.

1. Maria Kanellis was on Outback Jack – Right before being part of the 2004 Diva Search, Maria was on Outback Jack, a TBS series that tried to combine Joe Millionaire and Survivor. Twelve woman thought they were on a show like The Bachelor that was taping in LA, but in reality they would be competing in the Australian outback, and the only way to get there was to jump out of a plane and skydive to their final destination. Maria made it all the way to being one of the last three girls remaining before she was eliminated.

 



2. Erick Rowan was on The Great Norway Adventure – Back in 2010, before Rowan joined the WWE, he was on Alt For Norge (or The Great Norway Adventure as it was marketed in America), a Norwegian show that took people of Norwegian descent who had never visited Norway, brought them there, and then had them do decidedly Norwegian things, like eat lutefish and camp out on fjords and whatnot. Rowan, one of the least charismatic wrestlers the WWE has ever had, so much so that he’s near silent and wears a creepy sheep mask, somehow managed to last long enough to come in third place.

 



3. Justin Roberts was on The Jerry Springer Show – Sorry to spoil it for you, but The Jerry Springer Show is just as fake as WWE. Roberts found himself on Springer though a connection he had made in his indy announcing days with The Iron Sheik, because of course The Iron Sheik was on Jerry Springer. Roberts was on the show basically just to get the free trip to Chicago to see his family while he was still in college. He played the unaware boyfriend in a lesbian incest angle, where his supposed girlfriend was having sex with her own sister on the side.

 



4. Devin Taylor was on The Bachelor – I was surprised to find out that Devin actually wrestles matches occasionally besides just being the backstage interviewer on NXT, but was even more surprised to find out she was on The Bachelor in a blink and you’ll miss it appearance. She was far less successful in her reality TV dating than Maria was, being that she was one of 8 girls eliminated during the first episode of season 19 this past January.

 



5. Brooke Tessmacher was on The Amazing Race – I only recently started watching TNA when they moved to Destination America, so I’m not overly familiar with Brooke. But she’s named after Lex Luthor’s assistant in the Superman movies, which is just awesome. Apparently she did a weekly dance segment with Layla and Kelly Kelly on the revamped ECW. That sounds amazing, and is one of the many reasons WWECW needs to make its way onto the network. In 2014 her and her then boyfriend, fellow TNA wrestler Robbie E, were on the 25th season of The Amazing Race. They did really well, making it all the way to the final leg of the race, where they were the 8th team to be eliminated, which left them in 4th place.

 



6. CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, and Elijah Burke were all on various Ghost Hunters specials – In a bit of cross market synergy and vertical integration, while ECW was on SciFi, WWE had several wrestlers appear on fellow SciFi show Ghost Hunters. The craziest is probably when CM Punk joined the Ghost Hunters for a live 6 hour special on Halloween 2006 from the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO (the basis the for Overlook Hotel in Steven King’s The Shining). Punk said he heard children laughing and footsteps, even though the hotel was empty. Whether he was serious or not, who really knows?

 

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook