[1998-03-29-WWF-Wrestlemania XIV] Pete Rose and Kane

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[soup23]

One of my favorite celebrity segments of all time as Pete Rose becomes a huge heel railing on the Boston fans. I also think this is some great Jerry Lawler commentary with his "MAN" after every insult. Kane comes down and gives him a tombstone to a huge pop and new feud is born.

[Loss]

My favorite Wrestlemania running gag, and kudos to Pete Rose for understanding exactly who he was and what his purpose was there. This was hilarious.

[Childs]

I loved this in isolation, but perhaps it was a little strange to make Rose a heel and then have Kane pop the crowd right before he wrestled Taker. That's probably overthinking it.

[Migs]

I loved this in isolation, but perhaps it was a little strange to make Rose a heel and then have Kane pop the crowd right before he wrestled Taker. That's probably overthinking it.

 

"Shades of gray, baby!" - Vic Venom

[PeteF3]

I get Childs' logic and I've said similar things in the past about other segments...but I think there was very little danger of this crowd suddenly turning on the Undertaker because Kane tombstoned a disgraced old ballplayer.

[PeteF3]

Yeah, this is still as glorious as ever. Pete has heat even before he starts ragging on the Red Sox, and gets some pretty huge boos for that Buckner line. JR: "King, did you prep Pete Rose?"

[TravJ1979]

Yeah, thought it was weird for Kane to tombstone someone heeling on the crowd, but despite that bit of Russo logic, really fun segment and Rose did a great job.

[flyonthewall2983]

One of my favorite celebrity segments of all time as Pete Rose becomes a huge heel railing on the Boston fans.

 

Watching it now, it's clear he was a heel from the moment Finkel introduced him. And I just watched the portion of the Ken Burns documentary where it talked about how the Reds/Sox series of '75 was so heated it made baseball popular again, getting some enormous TV ratings.

 

Kane was a top heel, but this came off okay. If it were anyone above him doing it, it would have sent mixed signals certainly.

[Alex]

I remember being at this show, I had no idea who Pete Rose was at the time.  But even though I didn't know who he was, he still made me hate him.  Even my dad who doesn't like wrestling was booing the shit out of Pete.  You just don't shit on the Sox in Boston!  Yeah Kane tombstoning Rose makes little sense, but in the end, it didn't matter.

[Kadaveri]

Kane tombstoning Pete making little sense is what's so hilarious about it. All we know about the guy so far is that he was horrendously burned as a child and has spent most of his life in psychiatric hospitals before being released to launch fireballs at his undead wrestler brother. That he also hates Pete Rose is such a random inexplicable character development. Maybe he was a Red Sox fan as a child?

And yeah it really doesn't matter that it's a heel getting a pop when there's zero chance the crowd would turn on The Undertaker.