At this year’s SummerSlam, Stephen Amell of Arrow fame teamed up with Neville to defeat Stardust and King Barrett, and, for the most part, reviews of Amell’s performance have been positive. He seemed to take the whole thing seriously and looked surprisingly credible in the ring. Hell, he came away with a pretty nasty contusion on this right shoulder and didn’t even complain.
Unfortunately, not everybody was a fan of Amell’s work. On the most recent episode of The Steve Austin Show, Stone Cold opened a can of whoop-ass on the entire Stephen Amell thing, spelling out in no uncertain terms his distaste for celebrity wrestling angles.
“I just don’t like the celebrities coming in there, the squared circle, and being able to compete at any level with the guys in the business. You’ve got to protect some of the integrity of the business. I don’t care what day and age, what year it is.”
Austin continued, saying he was embarrassed for the full-time wrestlers involved…
“It was what it was, but I just got a hard time seeing that kid come off with that crossbody on the top rope on two WWE guys down there.
So, was it embarrassing? You’re damn right it was, but for the wrong reasons, and the reasons were bad booking. It was shoot embarrassing to those guys to have to go out there and do that with the actor guy involved, but that’s on a shoot level, so it was an embarrassment because of the booking, and I felt bad for those guys because they were in that role.”
I’m usually as skeptical about celebrity wrestling angles as the next bitter wrestling fan, but Stephen Amell isn’t Snooki. Dude has done legit athletic and martial arts training, and again, he did well in the ring. Also, I have a feeling Stardust was okay with wrestling Amell, being that the alternative was wrestling R-Truth on the pre-show or not being on the card at all. So yeah, chill out, Stone Cold. Maybe drink one of those beers for once, instead of just pouring them down your shirt.
via Wrestling Inc.
