Pro wrestling and celebrity guest appearances go hand in hand. The widest-recognized ones happened in the early 1980s as WWE teamed up with Cyndi Lauper and MTV, which carried over to the absurdly star-studded WrestleMania and continues today. Since then, wrestling has experienced decades of famous people acting as special referees, guest commentators, ringside enforcers, corner men, and even competitors.
Of course, a big promotion like Impact Wrestling (formerly known as TNA) is no different despite how much fans make of the company’s unique cocktail of public blunders and great wrestling. Impact has featured lots of pretty strange instances of famous guests in its near-two-decade history, including celebrities competing, celebrities refusing to compete, and celebrities not being allowed to compete.
10 Danny Bonaduce
One of the stranger celebrity wrestling careers belongs to Danny Bonaduce of The Partridge Family. The former child star actually made his in-ring debut at WCW’s 1994 pay-per-view Spring Stampede, defeating Christopher Knight in a dark match. 15 years later, Bonaduce would return to the ring for Impact’s Lockdown PPV, losing to Eric Young in a cage match that lasted about three-and-a-half minutes. Also, this match happened on the Lockdown pre-show. Later that year, Bonaduce would appear on Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling.
9 Toby Keith
Never forget that the early years of Impact Wrestling were extremely Southern, having been founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett and running their shows at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. The very first weekly PPV had country music singer Toby Keith as a special guest, with the younger Jarrett interrupting Keith in the middle of a performance of his big song “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.” In retaliation, Keith entered the championship battle royal just so he could personally eliminate Jarrett.
8 Dennis Rodman
NBA Star Dennis Rodman’s over-the-top persona made him a star in the NBA, so he proved a great fit for the squared circle, where he acquitted himself rather well in the handful of matches he took part in for WCW and even randomly fought Curt Hennig in Australia in 2000. But that wasn’t even his weirdest wrestling appearance.
In 2004, Impact hyped up a big TV appearance from Rodman, but apparently, the basketball star refused to actually do anything. As a result, all he did was hang out at ringside for a match between Team Canada and 3 Live Kru.
7 Chris Rock
Arguably the biggest star Impact managed to book for an appearance, Chris Rock is a wildly popular stand-up comedian, former Saturday Night Live cast member, and a huge movie star. His guest spot -- which happened in Impact’s first year -- amounted to Goldy Locks interviewing Rock in the ring, during which he hyped up Impact as the best wrestling company, and that’s it. It’s so weird because it didn’t kick off a match or a storyline. He didn’t even do the Hugh Jackman thing where he did a simple wrestling move on a minor heel.
TNA was also featured in Rock's 2003 film Head of State.
6 JWoww & Angelina from Jersey Shore
MTV’s Jersey Shore was the hottest thing going in the late 2000s and early 2010s to the point where Impact even had a parody character named Robbie E (a.k.a. Robert Stone) as a Jersey Shore type, complete with indie wrestler Becky Bayless as a Snookie parody named “Cookie.” It was only natural to bring in a star from the actual show to confront them, and JWoww showed up to get into a brawl with Cookie. Soon enough, Angelina would enter the fray, siding with Robbie E and Cookie because she was also a heel on Jersey Shore.
5 Jessie Godderz
Otherwise known as “Mr. Pectacular,” Jessie Godderz made a name for himself in the late 2000s on Big Brother, competing on Season 10 and 11 and making various appearances in other seasons. He pursued a wrestling career and would debut on Impact in 2012 as the “Hollywood Boyfriend” of Tara. Rather than washing out, Godderz actually stayed with wrestling, finding success tagging with Robbie E as the BroMans and even appearing on Lucha Underground.
4 Rampage Jackson & Tito Ortiz
The Impact Wrestling appearances of MMA fighters Rampage Jackson and Tito Ortiz are so intertwined that they end up having to share a slot on this list. Bellator and Impact were both on Spike TV at the same time, so having MMA guys show up on the wrestling show was a great idea for cross-promotion -- until it wasn’t.
As Aces & Eights were terrorizing the Impact Zone, Rampage Jackson debuted as part of Main Event Mafia to run opposition against the heel group. Ortiz would be introduced as a partner to Jackson but ended up turning on him to side with Aces & Eights. Before anything could happen between the two, Bellator pulled them both and they were never seen again in a TNA ring.
3 Tom Arnold
Few people would list Tom Arnold as their favorite actor or comedian -- not even die-hard fans of True Lies and Soul Plane. But circa 2004 Impact was on Fox Sports Net, which also aired Arnold’s sports talk show The Best Damn Sports Show Period. This led to a two-part special called The Best Damn Wrestling Event Period, in which Tom Arnold guest refereed a hardcore little people match between Teo and Puppet on Night 1, which led to Arnold getting a win over Puppet in a match on Night 2.
2 Shaquille O'Neal
No stranger to pro wrestling, Shaq showed up as Hulk Hogan’s cornerman at WCW’s Bash at the Beach ‘94, entered the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WWE’s WrestleMania 32, and tagged with Jade Cargill against Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet for AEW (as a heel!). However, his sole appearance for Impact is super weird. All he did in 2013 was show up in a segment to express his support for Hulk Hogan in the battle against the aforementioned Aces & Eights, but nothing ever came of this.
1 Jenna Morasca
Out of every celebrity who’s stepped into the ring, Jenna Morasca of Survivor and Fear Factor has the dubious distinction of taking part in one of the worst Impact matches ever, if not one of the most poorly wrestled bouts of all time. Originally introduced as a manager for the classic heel version of Main Event Mafia, she got into a feud with Sharmell that led to a match at Victory Road 2009. Morasca’s performance in the fight is the stuff of legend and is such a disaster that it’s impossible to overhype.