Growing up, Saturday mornings werent just for watching cartoons. There was WWE and WWF wrestling on TV all the time. Of course, that ultimately led to some wrestling of our own in the basement or out in the backyard.
On of the more famous wrestlers who has been able to crossover to mainstream media in movies and shows is of course, "The Rock". A man with a strong Samoan ancestry, the Rock is also a rugby fan and has been watching some of the big Heineken Cup games while on location filming a movie in London.
The Rock was recently quoted in a British newspaper talking about rugby. He says, "I use to live in New Zealand for sometime and I went to school in New
Zealand and I played rugby. I have been very lucky, I played American football
for a very long time, American professional wrestling for a very long time and
had my fair share of action in Hollywood … there is no tougher sport than
rugby."
The Rock said he enjoyed watching international rugby
particularly the “pre-game rituals”. It's these unique cultural traditions that rugby has kept part of the experience, even in an era of professional sports where money seems to be more important than other aspects of games.
Even in our little corner of the world, Wisconsin has tried hard to keep and build it's own cultural traditions. Oak Creek has performed Haka's before matches; other teams like Brookfield have kicked off matches with tie-ins to Milwaukee's proud Irish community ... they had bagpipe playing by their own players a few years ago to kick off matches. And of course, none of these traditions are as important as the post-match social, with food and drink shared by both teams.
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