Charlie Manuel was Sitting Ringside at WWE Raw Last Night

Back in October, 2010, before the start of the NLCS (remember when the Phillies used to play in those?), Charlie Manuel doubly cited Pat Burrell and Ric Flair, two hardened sages, when talking about the Phillies' upcoming series with the eventual champions, the San Francisco Giants. As told by John Gonzalez, then of Philly.com:

"I heard [Pat] Burrell in an interview [Thursday] morning, when I woke up and turned the TV on. He said, 'To be the best you've got to beat the best.' That's one of my slogans. That's Ric Flair," Manuel said, referring to the legendary wrestler while the crowd chuckled. "Going to Space Mountain – what the hell. You know, like what happens at Space Mountain, you've got to get there and conquer it. You've got to stay there. That's what we want to do."

 

It was then that we learned Manuel was a wrestling fan. So it should come as no surprise that Cholly was sitting ringside at WWE Raw at the Wells Fargo Center last night:

Screen Shot 2012-12-18 at 8.41.27 AM

Screen Shot 2012-12-18 at 8.35.51 AM

That looks to be Phillies PR man Greg Casterioto with Charlie, but it’s hard to tell for sure. They sat just behind Jerry The King Lawler, of whom Charlie is a big fan. 

In an interview with cjonline.com earlier this year, Lawler told this story about Manuel:

"I have been fortunate to meet a lot of people in baseball. Kenny Lofton is a friend of mine and I did a piece of art work for his organization, “Kenny’s Kids.” Charlie Manuel is a big WWE fan. One time I was at the park and walked by his office. He had a bunch of scouts in his office, saw me walk by and stopped me. He kicked out all of the scouts from his office, sat down in his chair and wanted to talk about a beating that Stone Cold (Steve Austin) had taken the night before."

 

Me thinks The King hooked Charlie up with some seats.

Manuel, of course, isn’t the first Philly sports figure to show up at a WWE event. Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and many Eagles and Sixers have gone, and, last year, Chris Pronger and Peter Laviolette hung out with John Cena before Pronger headed to his ringside seats.

But many of those appearances are staged, part of the never-ending circle of cross-promotion, with players seated in direct view of the camera. And while that may be the case with Manuel, I get the feeling that Chuck just wanted to see some good ol’ wrasslin, behind his pal, Jerry The King Lawler.

H/T to our friend Nick Piccone (@nickcpiccone) of Bleeding Brotherly Love for the heads up and first pic, second pic via (@SEANxFURY)

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

34 Responses

  1. I don’t get how a grown man could go watch something as stupid as WWE Wrestling. It’s amazing. Watch what you want, but this is more appealing IMO to young kids 9-12.

  2. Because I run a website for a living and I can’t think of one other medium that allows readers or consumers to publicly criticize their advertisers, and I’m certainly not going to be the first. If you want me to come to your place of work and rip you in front of your boss, let me know. I run a fucking business and don’t try to pretend those aren’t ads. If you don’t like something? Don’t buy it. But stop whining about.

  3. Chase Utley was at a WWE event? Pfffttt…I find that hard to believe.
    I heard they did a study and the average IQ of Pro Wrestling fans was between 70-79.

  4. WWE is a global entertainment company. They don’t look at themselves as “wrestling.” They look at themselves as a soap opera/drama geared towards kids. That’s how they got so many advertisers after the Attitude Era was finished.
    I get the public reputation toward WWE, but they’re one of the smartest entertainment organizations in the world.

  5. actually agree with nick. they know what they’re doing, and if you take it for what it is – soap opera, not sport – then it can be fairly entertaining.

  6. nick, pay no attention to candy. he is just upset because he was recently promoted at work, but it came with a catch…he is working the drive thru on both christmas eve and new years eve. keep those fries coming, candy!

  7. Now this is the kind of stuff I come to Crossing Broad for. Not the regurgitated crap from real journalists doing their jobs, the sarcastic musings of some biased Villanova grad, or the weird obsession with Andrew Bynum.

  8. There could have been a cheap pedophile joke regarding…Jerry…The King…Lawler. I’m glad…you took the…high road…Kyle.

  9. Nick has a point there. When you stop to think about it, the WWE, like TV shows, movies, concerts and, yes, sports, is just another form of entertainment.
    (Waits for heads to explode. Heh!)

  10. Give it up to the Philly fans for booing John Cena unmercilessly to the point where they almost brought Cena to tears(LOL).

  11. I wish Stone Cold Steve Austin Would put his Stone Hard Pecker in and around my mouth, if you know what I mean…

  12. It’s 2013 and people still talk about if wrestling is fake or not? Probably the same people who watch “reality TV”.

Comments are closed.