WWE has excelled through many eras in its history. From the famous Attitude Era, to Ruthless Aggression, to the New Era, World Wrestling Entertainment has garnered favorable success. Perhaps one of the more polarizing eras though, ran just over a year amidst the family-friendly format of the company: the Guest Host Era.
From June 29, 2009 until June 14, 2010, Monday Night RAW featured a special celebrity guest host each week. Ranging from backstage segments, to in-ring confrontations, to even booking Superstar matches, the guest host element would become a key feature to the weekly editions of RAW with the likes of Shaquille O’Neil, Betty White, and Bob Barker.
Despite the addition of some high-profile celebrities, former head writer Brian Gewirtz admitted his shock at how long the era actually survived. During a recent interview with Sam Roberts for his NotSam Wrestling podcast, Gewirtz opened up about this unique period in WWE history.
“It’s amazing that it lasted for over a full year, which is crazy to think about,” he began.
“I think everyone is kind of in agreement on the best shows from that era. Most people liked the Bob Barker episode a great deal. They liked Hugh Jackman. They liked Mike Tyson. Shaquille O’Neal was really good. Ozzy Osborne people liked, even Seth Green, when he kicked it off — that went really well.”
“It never should have been an era to begin with, but it did, and somehow we all survived.”
Brian Gewirtz continued on to reveal the original idea behind the era:
“The whole idea was born out of, how could we just take a break from the heel GM character? That segued into what if it was a different legend every week who was the GM? That’s when to what if it was a different celebrity every week? And then that turned into what if we’re just like Saturday Night Live only better?”
Memorable Guest Hosts
In naming some of the memorable guest hosts from the era, Gewirtz recalled meeting stand-up comedian Ken Jeong after he had tossed over the top rope by John Cena.
“I got to meet and become friends with Dr. Ken Jeong from the Jeremy Piven episode, who very bravely agreed to get himself thrown out of the ring from John Cena and was assured by everyone that he would be caught safely,” he said.” He was caught, but I don’t think he landed safely as his head smacked against the steel entrance way and he had to stitch himself up. hYat’s the thing, like the pacing, like waiting for Dr. Ken to come out, waiting for Ken to come out and going, ‘Oh my God, is he going to be pissed? I thought I had this brand new friend. Now he’s going to hate me. What’s going to happen? Is he going to badmouth WWE to everyone he knows in Hollywood, or is our reputation going to be sunk?’
Then he comes out and is just like so full of adrenaline and positive energy. He was like, ‘that was awesome,’ and apologizing to me like, ‘I’m so sorry I didn’t take that bump right.’ Like, again? No, I mean, personally, we’re glad you’re not suing all of us, but also glad that you’re okay and are happy about this.”
The Hoff Arrives To RAW
On April 12th, 2010, actor David Hasselhoff arrived in the United Kingdom to host RAW, later instructing David Otunga to face then WWE Champion John Cena. There, Brian Gewirtz explained how the Hasselhoff episode ultimately led to guest hosts no longer being allowed to book matches.
“When David Hasselhoff in the UK, when he had all these–Hasselhoff is great. At this point Dave Kapoor is one of the former writers, WWE, the former Ranjin Singh of the Great Khali fame. He’d come up to me because David is, as you know, the friendliest, most affable person, and he’s not faking it, he just is.”
“[Ranjin] come up to me and like, ‘Hey, Brian. Yeah, man. So Hasselhoff wants a group of people to be hanging out in the parking lot, chanting, Hoff, Hoff, Hoff! Then he gets out of his big truck and they follow him into the arena all the way in the ring, and they’re chanting Hoff!’ I’m like, ‘okay’ and then he’s got to somehow make the Intercontinental title match at SummerSlam. None of this makes sense anymore.”
The Hasselhoff show was when Vince [McMahon] finally said, okay, these guest hosts no longer have the power to make matches. They’re just going to be there, andthat’s when you saw like a turning point. That’s when it all started to wane a little bit, where it’s like they’d have their one segment, but it wouldn’t be like we’d go into their guest host office and then people would be arguing and they’d make a match and that kind of thing, because it was just a very, very unfair position to put them in, especially the non-wrestling fans who had to now learn all this exposition and ‘but it’s going to be a no disqualification match, but you got to remember it’s going to be taking place this Sunday night live on pay per view right now on the WWE Network’ and all that kind of thing.
“It’s like, I just want to come in and have fun. What am I doing here? I have so much information to give that ultimately, it kind of fizzled and then changed. And then it’s like, ‘Hey, if a celebrity happens to be on the show this week, great.’ But now they don’t have the onus of having to book matches and be in charge, and remember a lot of things, which is the way it should have been in the first place.”
Brian Gewirtz’s new book There’s Just One Problem…: True Tales from the Former, One-Time, 7th Most Powerful Person in WWE is out now.