Child’s Play: Chucky’s Bizarre Pro Wrestling Cameo Explained

Slasher movies crossed over with pro wrestling back in 1998, when Child’s Play‘s Chucky showed up to root for Scott Steiner on WCW Monday Nitro. The world of pop culture has seen lots of weird crossovers happen over the years, sometimes involving things that seemingly have no business interacting. This is most definitely true of the wrestling industry, which often invites outside celebrities, or even fictional characters, into its orbit to try and gain some more mainstream media attention.

WWE once brought in Chuck Norris to referee a match involving The Undertaker, while WCW had RoboCop come out and save Sting from an attack by dastardly heels. TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling, even stooped as low as to have reality stars like Jersey Shore‘s JWoww and Survivor‘s Jenna Morasca mix it up in the ring. That’s not even mentioning NFL hall of famer Lawrence Taylor once main eventing WrestleMania against Bam Bam Bigelow, or David Arquette infamously winning the WCW World Championship.

Even Mr. Belding, played by original Saved by the Bell actor Dennis Haskins, has made pro wrestling appearances. Still, when it comes to strange, even downright bizarre instances of Hollywood and wrestling intersecting, there’s few as odd as Chucky turning up on Nitro.

Child’s Play: Chucky’s Bizarre Pro Wrestling Cameo Explained

During the October 12, 1998 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, which can be seen in full on the WWE Network for anyone curious enough to watch it, legendary wrestling interviewer “Mean” Gene Okerlund conducted an interview with Rick Steiner, one half of the equally legendary Steiner Brothers tag team. At that point, Rick was engaged in a feud with his brother Scott, who had turned on him to join the nWo and invent the “Big Poppa Pump” character earlier that year. The two brothers were set to do battle at the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view, and before Gene could ask Rick about the match, Chucky appeared on the big screen in the arena.

Clearly voiced still by his movie actor Brad Dourif, Chucky insults Rick repeatedly, then warns him not to mess with Scott, bizarrely asserting that he’ll soon direct Scott in a film and wants him healthy so they can win Oscars. Not helping things is that neither Gene or Rick seems to have any idea who Chucky is, and no attempt is made to sell his involvement in the show. As mentioned near the end by Chucky to a chorus of boos, the whole thing was a marketing ploy for the soon to release sequel Bride of Chucky. Chucky was never mentioned again on WCW television, and never even got to interact with his supposed buddy Scott Steiner onscreen.

About The Author