Miserable Retail Slave

by RFP

Every now and then, two very different pieces of pop culture crossover in an attempt to engage new audiences. These crossovers are sometimes successful, mostly horrible, but always interesting. Welcome to the place that attempts to chronicle these moments in a feature we like to call...One of These Things Is Not Like The Other.

Professional wrestling has always held a particular sway over mainstream pop culture. The scripted exploits of heavily muscled, Crisco-coated men has always been a curiosity to athletes, musicians, TV personalities, and world famous movie stars. 

Over the years many of these celebrities have made appearances in the squared circle. Part of the appeal of appearing in a wrestling ring is probably genuine interest. The other part is the all important, much coveted 18-49 male demographic.

That demographic has caused many a film to partner up with professional wrestling in order to promote its product. This is one of those debacles.

The Background:

WCW wrestling, 1990. The promotion's main babyface (aka "good guy"), Sting, had been put out of action by the company's top heel stable (aka "group of bad guys"), The Four Horsemen.

On the April 15, 1990 edition of WCW Saturday Night, Sting cut a promo announcing his return at the very next pay-per-view event. Sting planned on taking revenge against the Horsemen, but he wasn't going to do it alone. He had a partner. ROBOCOP.

Seriously. You have to watch the promo below.

Wrestling was so awesome in those days. Here was Robocop, a fictional movie character from a very bloody and violent 'R' rated film, coming to bash in the heads of Ric Flair, Ole and Arn Anderson, and Sid Vicious. 

The best part is Jim Cornette: "Is he a man? Is he a machine? What is he?"

Robocop made his "wrestling" debut at Capital Combat '90: Return of Robocop on May 19, 1990.

The match was going to be Sting and Robocop versus Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson (Daniel Tosh's favorite wrestler), and Sid Vicious (he of the Theisman-worthy leg break).

The announcer announces Robocop as follows: "The nation's #1 law enforcer, he serves the public trust, protects the innocent, upholds the law, the ultimate peace officer - Robocop!"

Sting came out first and promptly got locked in a cage by the Horsemen. After a minute, Robocop lumbers out, fumbles around with the cage door, eventually breaking it off. The Horsemen scatter, making vague threats.

And Robocop was never seen in wrestling again. Pretty lame. If Robocop was really going to show them who's boss, he would've pulled out the gun from the side of his leg and shot Sid and company in the head. 

If you don't believe me, the entire debacle is at the very bottom of this page. 

Why Robocop in May 1990? I can only assume it has do with the male demographic that I mentioned earlier. Robocop 2 was set to open June 22 and I guess the producers were hoping for a bump in box office gross from wrestling fans. 

Robocop 2 grossed $45 million. The Capital Combat PPV, according to the Wrestling Information Archive, has a buy rate of 1.4 where 1.0 = 400,000 homes. 

So 600,000 people in the US saw the event, which hardly seems like it would result in a major sales bump. Maybe the producers of Robocop 2 were hoping the publicity surrounding the pay-per-view would garner some buzz around the film.

At any rate, the PPV match is below followed by a commercial from Korea where Robocop is shilling fried chicken. Awesome.