Here at IGN we occasionally like to showcase something from geekdom’s rich history — a pop-culture Time Capsule, if you will, that gives us a peek in to the past, perhaps providing a new appreciation for previous projects.
If you’d like, please check out the past few Time Capsules:
- Watch Batman v Superman’s 2013 Comic-Con announcement
- Why Tim Burton wanted an ‘average’ Batman in Michael Keaton
- That time HBO and Tom Hanks made Alexander Hamilton the bad guy
- Watch how the original X-Men fight scenes were created 20 years later
- Could a Batman Forever Director’s Cut restore this giant dream bat deleted scene?
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Now that NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock has launched, and a new MacGruber TV series is in development as part of its lineup, it’s a great time to crank up the ol’ wayback machine and bear witness to the time when MacGruber stars Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, and Ryan Phillippe appeared on WWE’s Monday Night RAW — in character — for some stumbly, silly shenanigans that almost wound up getting Forte’s MacGruber killed in the line of duty.
Piggybacking – nay, piledriving! – off the fact that WWE stars Chris Jericho, Mark Henry, Kane, Big Show, MVP, and The Great Khali made cameos in the MacGruber movie (as MacGruber’s first, ill-fated team), Forte and company traded favors and popped up on RAW in 2010 during a time when each episode had a “guest hosts.” Yes, everyone from Bob Barker to William Shatner to Hugh Jackman to – well – The Muppets paraded through RAW’s hallowed halls during this exalted era.
Were you someone with a smidgen of fame and something to promote? A movie? A new TV show? A cross-country tour about education reform (thanks, Al Sharpton!)? WWE was accepting anyone with a pulse and a plug. Why not let everyone know Jeremy Piven and Ken Jeong were starring in The Goods? Why not have the stars from When in Rome who weren’t Kristen Bell appear? And look someone needed to inform the guy with the “Triple H Fears Taylor Lautner” sign about President Obama’s space program. So who better than a famous astronaut who already sounds like he was a wrestler name, Buzz Aldrin?
In this clip, first you’ll watch MacGruber ask Chris Jericho for some advice in his match against the hulking Vladimir Kozlov and then you’ll see the resourceful merc get his hide saved by his older, larger brother KhalGruber! Enjoy!
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Peacock launched this past week, entering the Great Streaming War with over 20,000 hours of movies and TV shows to binge. Upcoming projects headed to the site include the new MacGruber series, Sam Esmail’s (Mr. Robot) new take on Battlestar Galactica, a Saved by the Bell reboot, and maybe even an Office reboot.
You can read our reviews for Peacock’s original launch shows here, including Psych 2: Lassie Come Home, Brave New World, Intelligence, The Capture, and Lost Speedways.
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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Source: IGN.com A Look Back at When MacGruber Wrestled a Match in WWE