Haven’t done a WWE caricature cartoon in a while so this one goes out to Luke Harper (aka Jon Huber). He always wears a dingy sleeveless shirt. WWE needs to make him a his own wrestling shirt in their shop that says “this IS my clean shirt”
Tag: WWE
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James Ellsworth Cartoon
My latest caricature study is that of one James Ellsworth. Now that Heath Slater has been signed to the WWE Smackdown brand, the hottest free agent in the wrestling biz is James.
James is what is known as a jobber in the wrestling business. A jobber is typically local talent when a wrestling promotion comes to a town, who is thrown into an obviously mismatched match to make a regular wrestler look strong. Typically, you never hear from or see these guys again. Let me clarify, typically you never hear from them in the first place. Jobbers are usually waiting in the ring just waiting to be squashed.
But James was given mic time before his match to utter the phrase, “Every man with two hands has a fighting chance”. He then went on to be obliterated by the much larger Braun Stroman (see pics at WWE.com). There was something magical about this jobber and wrestling fans went nuts for him (see here and here)
The WWE listened and brought James back in this past week for another comedic bit which continues to go over well. So hats off to you James, and keep your chin up!!!
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Why AJ Lee Quit the WWE
Why AJ Lee Quit the WWE. Well she didn’t really quit but rather “retired.” That is the question on the mind of wrestling fans this past week. Forgive me those of you who don’t subscribe to the soap opera fanatics that is professional wrestling.
Former Divas (Female) champion abruptly retired after Wrestlemania (the biggest event of the year for the company). Some have speculated that since coming back, the WWE didn’t have a plan for her storyline and other’s that the travel schedule became difficult on the newlywed and she wanted to spend more time with her husband and also former WWE Champion, CM Punk who quit the company last year. Unlike Punk’s departure from the company where little to no mention was made, the company posted a message on their website and brought it up on air which means that the departure was amicable.
Typically this type of departure is due to continued injury (ala Edge) or in a rare case, for a female wrestler, pregnancy (ala Kharma). Given that the departure seemed on good terms, can it be that AJ is actually retiring because of CM’s sPUNK? (ok that is gross but oh too fitting with that name)
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HHH WWE Network Sign
The last in my lastest series of WWE Caricature Signs features former WWE Wrestler and now COO Triple H aka HHH aka Hunter Hearst Helmsley aka Paul Levesque. Earlier this year, the WWE launched the WWE Network. After first approaching several cable companies to create a premium network like Showtime and HBO, the WWE decided that the distribution wasn’t there and therefore created the network as an over the top streaming network.
The big value to customers is that at a $9.99 price point (with a 6 month commitment) you would get all the PPV events that historically were only available on cable/satellite. The company stated in early earnings calls that they anticipated needing 1 million subscribers to break even. Considering on cable any single PPV event could cost $45, the heavy PPV buyers flocked to the network early. For one cable/satellite PPV, you could watch four monthly PPV events. Great deal right? Well unfortunately the WWE seemed to stall at about 700,000 subscribers as recent reports.
So how do you get the needle moving again? Have one of your biggest talents use his on-air time to, with a wink, shamelessly promote the WWE Network at “only $9.99” at every chance he can. If this doesn’t work, there is talk they may scrap the entire streaming network and try once again to sell it via cable.
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John Cena WWE Sign
Apologies for the odd posting schedule as I have been working on several commissions including some new WWE Signs that I will be posting over the next few days. Those of you who don’t care about wrestling or WWE should probably just skip visiting this week and return next week 🙂
Today’s entry is a John Cena sign. Cena is the former champion and under WWE rules would be next in line for a rematch with the current champ Brock Lesnar. For years, John Cena’s shirts have proudly displayed his mantra of “Hustle, Loyalty, Respect.” When WWE COO Triple H threatened to pull him from the match, Cena threatened lawsuit. In return Triple H mocked him saying “But when John Cena said the words to me ‘lawsuit’ — hustle, loyalty, respect, lawsuit — it doesn’t even fit, right? So out of character for John Cena.”
Personally my way of changing it to “Hustle, Lawsuit, Respect” works better. What do you think?
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Mick Foley Caricature and Comedy Review
So it is no secret that the wife and I are fans of wrestling (and no you wouldn’t know it by looking at either of us). WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley has parlayed his second act into being an exceptional writer with multiple best sellers and now doing stand up acts all over the world. Several months ago I looked on his website to see if he was coming to the area but nothing. I do follow Mick on twitter (and you all know how lazy I am about checking twitter anymore) but I happened to see a message from him on Wednesday night talking about being in Cincinnati the next night. WHAT??
So of course we were in and I had to whip up a special caricature for Mick. Made one for him and one for me hoping he would sign it. Well….
The show was great (ok except for that one guy). His featured act before him was hilarious with several topical references and then Mick got on stage. For about an hour he told stories of his career and some of the funnier events of such. It was less a stand-up act and more a hilarious one man autobiographical show. At one point he even took some questions from the audience. In wrestling, Mick is known as the “Hardcore Legend” and thus explained that he is proud that when you google the phrase, he comes up in the search results and not a porn site.
If you are a wrestling fan, the insights into some of your favorite wrestlers of today and yesterday and what goes on behind the scenes will be all you need. But he also recognizes that not everyone that comes to the show knows who he is and makes sure to explain just enough that everyone stays entertained.
The only gripe I have is that he probably isn’t making as much money as he could with the way they have his merchandise table set up. Included in your ticket was 90 minutes before the show of meet and greet where Mick was sitting at a table signing autographs, taking pictures and selling merchandise. While he had someone helping sell the merchandise, people are there to see him first and merch second. I would suggest moving the merchandise table earlier in the line (in our case outside the venue) so people can peruse and buy it without feeling rushed and then go in with their swag for Mick to sign. Check out his site for showtimes in your area.
BONUS
I got home this weekend to find a package from one Jande Rowe, cartoonist extraordinaire at Aedre’s Firefly. She promised a “Bearman” picture and certainly delivered. I love the colors, the detail and time spent on this. Add one to my cherished toons list. Thanks Jande!
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WWE 3MB AKA Ginger Mac-Hal
Today’s cartoon poster once again is for the wrestling fans out there. I know many of my regular readers aren’t into wrestling but as I have said before I find it funny that people will trace my poster images and I will see them on live WWE events in the crowd. Now if only the WWE would start paying me to put my work on their tshirts. Well, let’s see if my mocking name I titled this will catch on as well.
The three men you see in the image above are three wrestlers. Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre, and Jinder Mahal. Collectively they are known in the WWE as 3MB (short for three man band). I prefer the new name I came up with “Ginger Mac-Hal” which plays on Jinder Mahal’s name.
This actually took me longer than I thought it would in my head. Trying to capture someone’s likeness without their face is tough.
Here they are in image shots from wwe.com for comparison.
For any wrestling fans that want my image as a wallpaper, contact me or comment on the size you would like and I’ll try to make it happen.
Oh and shout out to TK for his great tutorials and images which I used for the background of the poster.
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WWE Sheamus Lipschitz Sign
WWE Superstar Wrestler known as Sheamus is from Ireland. On Monday Night Raw Sheamus revealed that his last name is Lipschitz (click for video), joking that his mom was Irish and his dad Jewish. “We spent our days drinking and fighting but our nights feeling very guilty about it.”
Well considering my last Sheamus sign has gotten some airplay on previous broadcasts, I decided to see if this updated version would show up anywhere. Looks like Sheamus in his typical outstretched arm pose is actually singing instead of yelling. Maybe he is practicing for his bar mitzvah.
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John Cena Sign Fruity Pebbles
Let’s see if WWE Wrestling fans start trying to redraw my John Cena caricature on signs all over WWE live events as they have my Sheamus sign. All I ask is that you make sure my URL is front and center.
For you non wrestling fans, John Cena is in a feud as of late with former WWE wrestler and now movie star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The Rock made fun of the fact that each year Cena has a different brightly colored shirt that he hocks to his fans. Thus started an entire Fruity Pebbles chant. Lo and behold, Post cereal took full advantage of the publicity and quickly signed the popular Cena to an endorsement deal, even putting his face on a box of Fruity Pebbles.
Oh and don’t forget to check out my guest cartoon I did at Short Attention Span comic.
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Stand up for WWE: I’m with Vinny
Last week some of you may recall I posted about Surya Yalamanchili, only one of two federal candidates who were not accepting Political Action Committee funds in their campaign. The other was Linda McMahon, former CEO of the WWE.
Well as Linda’s campaign took on steam, it seemed the press and politicians decided to take pot shots at her via the actions of the WWE. Smartly the company has created a viral campaign to Stand Up for the WWE and responded to allegations against it.
So given that I continue to have wrestling fans visit my site because of my WWE Signs (and being used in wrestling stories), I decided to help in the viral campaign with the above image of Linda’s husband and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. (Any similarities between “I’m with Vinny” and “I’m with CoCo” design for Conan O’Brien by Michael Mitchell are strictly coincidental satirical.)
So wrestling fans, feel free to download the image above and use it in blogs, facebook, twitter etc. You do not need to give me credit (though it would be nice) but you may not sell the image or put the image on any items for sale (ie t-shirts).
Would be hilarious to see “I’m with Vinny” signs popping up at WWE events. Use the contact button above if you need a higher resolution version (about 2.5x the size of this one). I’d be happy to send. And keep me posted on how you have used it.
