Sports. Honestly. Since 2011

Raw Guest Host: What About Stephen Amell?

Last year, wrestling fans moaned and groaned through countless celebrities making their (sometimes unwanted) presence felt on WWE’s Monday Night Raw, mainly because it was painfully obvious from the get-go that some weren’t even wrestling fans. Take Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee, for instance, whom both took a break from their regular morning show and wine drinking to appear on the wrestling company’s flag ship show. Their appearance was one to forget, as they stumbled through lines and looked generally uninterested by the event.

Jerry Springer would have been a great guest to have, if it was 1999, but his out-lived and out-dated style of entertainment fell flat with the WWE Universe. It didn’t help that the script was poorly done, and that he was handed the Bella sisters storyline to work with. Sticking with acts that are way past their prime, Larry The Cable Guy attempted to woo the crowd by coming out in ring gear and a lucha mask, but the crowd would rather have seen him 450 splash right out of town.

And the Grumpy Cat? Turns out the feline was likely one of the worst hosts ever.

With guests who are actually invested in wrestling’s rich history appearing on the product, they are too few and far between, and it begs to ask the question; Why not bring in someone that is as big a wrestling fan as you and I? The name Stephen Amell comes to mind.

Amell, who most know as Oliver Queen/The Arrow on The CW’s hit show, Arrow, a series based on the DC Comic hero Green Arrow, has made it known to the general public that he wants to be a guest host on Monday Night Raw. After announcing that Arrow would be running for a fourth season, Amell posted a picture of himself and David Ramsey (John Diggle), posing for the camera with a familiar hand gesture.

 

As the comments for the picture came in, most congratulating Amell and the cast for their fourth season, one of his fans pointed out that he and Ramsey were using the Four Horsemen signal, and posted a picture of the four-man stable. Amell immediately replied, asking anyone to post the two pictures side-by-side. One complied, but another fan stepped up his game and posted this gem, which Amell has since uploaded to his Facebook page:

 

 

Amell added to the post: “Facebook!! I’m SO fired up for Season 4 of Arrow and I want to host WWE Raw. Confident both of these things will happen in 2015.”

This isn’t the first time Stephen has pandered to his audience as well as the WWE Universe. Back in September of last year, the Arrow star put out a series of tweets showing his interest to be a guest host on an episode of Raw, even re-tweeting a photo of he and former WWE Diva Trish Stratus:

 

With his social followers joining in on the fun, the retweets began to flow, and soon enough, signs started to show up at WWE events. Donning the #AmellGetsRaw slogan, pictures surfaced on Twitter, to which Amell himself responded.

Following that tweet, Amell’s journey to make the hashtag a trend began, with the following tweet earning over 600 retweets.


For both the WWE and Stephen, this situation is a win-win. The ratings for an episode of Raw, with Amell on board, could see a significant spike. The hit-show Arrow debuted two years ago, with an audience of 4.3 million, and a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, a first at the time, since Vampire Diaries, back in 2009. The viewership for Arrow has remained steady at over 3 million viewers,  and even came close to hitting the 5 million milestone a few weeks ago, when the show concluded its first cross-over with Flash, earning 4.99 million viewers, and becoming the highest rated episode ever.

With a following of over 671,000 on Twitter, and over 3 million Facebook likes, Amell brings a large audience to the picture. If just ten percent of Amell’s audience tunes into Raw for one week, that accounts for an extra 300,000 viewers.

The fun doesn’t stop there, as the invitation for Amell could become more engaging than a few backstage segments and the opening portion of the show. Stephen has spent countless hours training for the part of Arrow, establishing a toned and muscular physique, while taking up yoga and parkour to help become more agile and limber. That doesn’t equate to a life-time of training and the ability to wrestle a match against a WWE superstar, but Amell has the discipline to take a bump, and maybe even throw a punch or two, like Hugh Jackman did. There’s also the comic book nerd aspect that would have Arrow fans going crazy if Amell came out in full costume, confronting Triple H and Stephanie McMahon in ring, to tell them that they have failed this company. We shouldn’t expect him to put an arrow into anyone, but perhaps a battle with J&J Security would suffice.

For Stephen, it would be a dream come true. From Twitter and Facebook posts, to Vine videos of him watching some footage from the WWE Network during his break time on set, Amell has proven he is a big wrestling fan. Why not take the opportunity of bringing in someone who knows your company, loves the product, and would do anything to be a part of one show, especially with the following he has. If you ask wrestling fans on Reddit, they’d welcome the hooded superhero onto Raw in a heart-beat. There hasn’t been this much excitement for a “vigilante” since Sting, who has not appeared on WWE television since his surprise debut at Survivor Series, late last year.

The idea of #AmellGetsRaw makes too much sense for it not to happen. If the WWE could bring in a guest host, from time to time, that brings something different to the show, then fans will get behind it instead of collectively groan at “just another celebrity showing up for a paycheque and a sponsor”. Amell would get that too, no doubt, but the return he’d give to wrestling would surmount anything that any past guest host has provided.

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