The current season of The Celebrity Apprentice features two contestants that are very well known to wrestling fans – Goldberg and Maria. And both of them are portrayed on that show as something which a complete opposite of their respective wrestling personas.
WWE likes to say that their divas are smart, sexy and Powerful. Maria, during her time with the promotion, was definitely sexy, but she was anything but smart or powerful. Sure, she made some real mistakes in her first days as interviewer, but WWE decided to turn those mistakes into her character – a ditsy hot woman who should be beautiful and stay quiet. However, if The Celebrity Apprentice is the first time that someone sees Maria, what they will see is an intelligent, assertive and powerful woman. Throughout the show, whether she was a project manager or not, she performed well on every task, did not shy away from responsibility, and had no problems getting her elbows dirty or make tough decisions. `
Sure, some will say that she’s bitchy, that she throws people under the bus, but they would be wrong, people usually confuse assertiveness with bitchiness when it comes to women. When Trump asked her team members on the first episode who should go home, no-one would answer. They were trying to play nice and not upset anyone for political reasons. Maria was the first one to take a stand and point and say who should be fired. Suddenly, everyone else followed her and pointed the finger in the same direction. It took a lot of guts to be the first person to answer that question, and she had these guts. This week she showed her strengths again when she was not afraid to stand up to her childhood idol Cyndi Lauper, knowing full well that if her team lost, she’s probably going home. As a contestant on the reality show, Maria is indeed Smart, Sexy and Powerful. With the way that Maria is portrayed on this show, I’m baffled as to why WWE chose to release her instead of just taking her off TV until the show ends.
But Goldberg? Talk about the complete opposite. Goldberg has done nothing remarkable so far, unless you count dressing up as a tree and grunting as remarkable. As luck would have it, he was the only member of his team not to be a project manager until this week, so even though the task was about music, he took on that role instead of Bret Michaels. I can’t argue with this decision, at the time it made sense and he Bret would have helped him just like Curtis helped Bret on the first episode. But Then Goldberg didn’t just want Bret to help, he wanted Bret to take over and be the defacto project manager, which is exactly what happened. Just like in the wrestling world Goldberg wanted to build himself on other people’s work.
But this is not wrestling. Before knowing that they lost, Goldberg gave Bret Michaels credit for doing 95% of the work. But then Trump asked him what did he, Goldberg, do, and he lost his cool. He started throwing around different numbers, trying to take credit for some decisions and actions, save himself. When Trump told him they lost, suddenly Bret was responsible for no more than 70% of the work. When Trump Jr. asked him if he was free-riding throughout the game, Goldberg said he doesn’t free-ride through anything. Yeah right. We’re talking about the guy who would only sign with WWE in 2003 for a contract that would give him limited appearances and no house shows. Just read the latest report on his negotiations with WWE to see how he really doesn’t “free-ride”. If anything, Goldberg proved on The Celebrity Apprentice that all the rumors that wrestling fans heard about him over the years were completely true.
The Celebrity Apprentice is a good opportunity to witness the people behind the wrestling characters. Yes, I know that a lot depends on the editing, which can either build or bury a contestant, but I’d still like to think that there is at least some reality on this show.
