charlottewweHappy Birthday from one Show Off to another @heelzigglerMaddie Ziegler announced the launch of her fashion line Friday and while her ex coach and “Dance Moms” co-star Abby Lee Miller made it known she was thrilled for her former student, Abby also used the time to vent about their failed fashion project.Before Maddie, 13, posted a video to her YouTube page explaining her upcoming clothing line to viewers, Abby shared three videos of her own, the most recent posted on Thursday, which included never-before-seen footage of Maddie and her sister Mackenzie, now 12, dancing around a factory to Madonna’s “Vogue,” among other hits. Abby explained the videos were planned to be used to promote her “upscale, innovating” children’s clothing line that never came to be.“Who better to fit kids? I had been designing costumes for years, I know fabrics and fit, so I partnered up with a savvy Stylist to the Stars, some faithful friends that know quality high end fashion, and two of my favorite kids to be the faces of the brand, Maddie & Mackenzie of course - I'd been picking out cool outfits for them for years,” she wrote.

Abby said that with her “perfect team in place” they shot the footage in the warehouse where the garments, described as “well-made classic clothes to fit the trendy tween,” were set to be manufactured, but the project fell apart before the promos could see the light of day.“Sometimes in business, things happen, maybe somebody changes their mind, loses one of their favorite shoes, or gets a better deal? I'm still on my mission to supply exquisite apparel for the girl who always wants to be the best dressed at the ball!” Abby wrote before going on to wish Maddie “all the best” with her new venture.Maddie explained in her YouTube video that she launched “Maddie” due to her desire to tap into the sporty, comfy and cute market.“There’s a gap, I feel, because kids clothes are either too childish or something I would never wear,” she said. “Sometimes adult clothes are either too big on me or its just too grown up for me.” BusinessUS Companies Continue Moving Jobs To Mexico TechnologyHow To Try 'For Honor Open Beta' For Free WorldIraqi Christian Militia Leader Threatens Sunnis In Northern Assyrian Town NationalTrump More Trusted Than News Media: Poll

TLDR: Wrestlers love comedy, almost as much as comedians love wrestlers. Both groups need a lot of attention and seem pretty okay with weight gain and airs of superiority. Needless Extrapolation: Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down, and sometimes you sit bolt upright in the dead of night and remember that you never unframed the photograph you have with Bill Cosby as a child in your bedroom. assassin's creed hoodie with pointed hoodDoes your roommate think you are perverted? drug rug hoodie amazon In a packed 100-seat room at UCB Franklin at midnight last Friday, “always a bridesmaid, never a champion” Dolph Ziggler hosted a WWE Hell in a Cell variety show with Ryan Nemeth and a barrage of comedians celebrating their love for the WWE in a series of ill-fitting costumes and mock fights. dope vw hoodie

If there was anyone in the audience who didn’t give a shit about wrestling, my prayers are with them, for they were once me, and me was once indifferent to this fictional oil-boy magic. For the rest of us, the show provided those strange shades of “oh, I know what that’s in reference to” laughs that make family dinners endurable and fans of Doctor Who publicly executable.topshop knitted angora hoodie Also, these things happened. tobymac hoodiesAlso, there was a Cesaro section.rbl hoodies Yes, Dolph Ziggler is very handsome. The kind of handsome where my body instinctively peeled my hoodie off thinking, “Maybe he will think I have nice arms.” It was a Big Show. [Note: In this two hour show, there was no Big Show. I have filed a four million dollar lawsuit with the theater, as no “Show” can take place in this town without paying royalties to the biggest Show himself.

Upright Citizens Brigade, shame on your omission of Big Show. Aside from the Big Omission, the UCB show reminded me why I’m writing this to begin with. The worlds of comedy and wrestling have entangled through the years like hideous, half-formed twins who desperately need attention. Ziggler’s foray into comedy is by no means a first-time leap. In no particular order, here’s a short history of the Wrestling-Comedy zeitgeist pact, cousins to the soap opera and the broken childhood. THE COMEDY OF KAYFABE In theory, any good business should cater to their primary demographic. The WWE doesn’t have the best track record of pleasing fans, but there is something to be said for the amount of solid storylines and performers that have kept their massive comic fanbase aboard for years. Andy Kaufman was one of the first popular comedians to steep himself in the world of the WWE, first being rejected by Vince McMahon, or the Greatest Interaction Between Two Humans That We Will Never See.

This spiraled into a false feud with Jerry Lawler televised on Late Night with David Letterman and My Breakfast with Blassie, a 1983 film with “Classy” Freddie Blassie that parodied popular art film My Dinner with Andre. The wrestling world had welcomed comedy’s strangest son with open arms in spite of ol’ Vincey, and the parade would keep on coming. Why is wrestling so appealing to comedians in particular? For most it’s a habit picked up in childhood, but the personality profile makes sense—a well-rounded wrestler presents character work that most comics work toward, a physical fitness that comics will probably never possess and a coolness that can only be fostered with a lot of money and a megalomaniacal old man. The trend ballooned beyond Kaufman, and today it stretches from local hopefuls at indie shows to otherworldly being Jon Stewart nearly creaming himself with excitement while hosting this year’s Summerslam. An (incomplete) list of notable comedians who unabashedly love the damn thing: Adam Sandler, Gillian Jacobs, Seth Green, Jon Stewart, Rob Corrdry, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, all of Weezer, the Lucas Bros, Patrice O’Neal, John Darnielle, Mike Lawrence, Judah Friedlander, Chris Gethard, Ron Funches, Marty DeRosa.

(I know I’m missing some—email me, doofus.) Then with the podcast boom came the comedic takes on sports entertainment, and there are more of them than there are Big Show heel turns (#BigShowVapes). A few worth mentioning: The Steve Austin Show, Talk is Jericho, We Watch Wrestling Podcast, Fans Talk Pro Wrestling, Cheap Heat, The Attitude Era Podcast, Solomonster, Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast, The Art of Wrestling with Colt Cabana. (I’m sorry I didn’t list your podcast. Am I suggesting that comedians and diehard wrestling fans may be, ahem, oh wow, I suppose, but maybe, stunted in some way? I’m just a sweet young lady who loves large vaping men. We could get into some theory here, some “laughter is a response to fear” type of stuff, but let’s leave it at this: the WWE tends to be funny because the WWE tends to hire comedic talent behind the scenes to keep the New Day well-paid in brass instruments. One writer who comes up again and again in the wrestling and comedy circles is Matt McCarthy (who spoke at Friday’s show), who has gone on to enjoy a healthy standup career and host one of the most popular wrestling podcasts going.

The other is Patrice O’Neal, best known for his prolific standup career, whose stint writing for the WWE was featured heavily in his 2011 eulogy though he parted ways with the company after two weeks. Writing for the WWE has to be a number of things to be successful—well-informed in the history of the organization, surprising to its viewers and entertaining as hell. When you see moves like Del Rio returning with a racist manager (Zeb Colter) after being fired for assaulting a racist WWE staffer, you know everyone involved has a pretty good sense of humor. That, or Del Rio really wanted back in. Unlike other athletes, pro wrestlers are required to have a personality. Unlike other actors, they need to be able to perform their own stunts. Most will lean one way more than the other, but the result is often the same—those who shine in the WWE have a physical and performative timing that needs to match the bizarro storylines they’re assigned, and they often have to sell some weird shit.

Sure, you’ve got your dramatic Kane-Undertaker storylines, but even the biggest rivalries are sprinkled with elements of creativity that require some real chops to execute. Think of Demon Kane bursting out of that ambulance last month, or Undertaker and Brock blood-laughing at each other, or Seth Rollins’ decision to become a Power Ranger at SummerSlam, or almost anything The New Day manages to pull out. For some WWE Superstars, the skills translate to other comedic efforts. Take a look at the recent track record of wrestlers in popular culture. John Cena is slotted to appear in new Tina Fey/Amy Poehler movie Sisters later this year, having already appeared in Amy Schumer’s comedy of the summer Trainwreck portraying an exaggerated version of Dolph Ziggler, who does standup, , and the list goes on and on. Big Show sticks to vaping, mostly. With the exception of Sir Dwayne, wrestlers attempting crossover success have fared best with comedy—Cena’s highest rated on Rotten Tomatoes is Trainwreck, Andre the Giant famously made the leap to comedy in The Princess Bride, Hulk has done more comedies than not and let’s not forget my personal favorite, the Big Show in Knucklehead.

Most WWE stars don’t translate to the silver screen the same way vaudevillians couldn’t cut it in the talkies, but you can enjoy their weird, broad strokes of comedy around the clock for $9.99 a month, I hear. Sure, the worlds of wrestling and comedy can be as mismatched a pairing as Schumer and Ziggler, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep trying to make it work, gang. Throw on your copy of Beat the Champ and enjoy that two great things enjoy each other. Life is hell and your sentient being is the cell, and there’s no dress rehearsal for the Big Show that is the remainder of your days. NOTES FROM THIS WEEK: -Xavier Woods missed Hell in a Cell to get married. I’m never shaving again because what’s the point. -Did anyone else catch themselves finding Roman Reigns compelling during his match with Bray Wyatt at HIAC this week? Was that a passing fever? -Hoping that Charlotte’s defending the title means we can move forward with the story and get the Charlotte/Sasha match I so crave.