WWE Legends House is a reality show airing on the WWE Network. It puts 8 legendary wrestling superstars and personalities, primarily from the 80s, into a standard reality show format, all living in a house in Palm Springs and having to perform different challenges and tasks set up by the producers. So far only one season has aired.
The main draw of the show is watching the interaction of the cast of characters, all of whom have known each other over two decades, who share a brotherhood but also old rivalries. Additionally, watching these middle aged and out of the spotlight men, most of whom were physical specimens in their prime, deal with being older and often, not necessarily wiser.
The first season's cast is:
- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper: legendary wrestling star of the 1980s and 90s, and one of the biggest names in pro wrestling history. He's infamous for his out of control behavior in and out of the ring. Now sober and trying to keep his life together, he attempts to deal with living in the house and doing things he'd rather not do.
- Tony Atlas: Wrestling star of the early 1980s. A large bodybuilder who still is gigantic, but stands out more for being a very...unique personality and tends to be the one that rubs the entire cast the wrong way.
- "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan: Wrestling star of the 80s. He seems to be the same guy he is in the ring, which sometimes is a good thing, and sometimes a bad thing.
- Hillbilly Jim: Another 80s wrestling star, a very jovial, down home country boy who is mostly just enjoying the ride.
- "Mean" Gene Okerlund: Legendary wrestling announcer and TV producer spanning over four decades. He seems to never not be out of Kayfabe and always ready with a witty quip or insult, when not reaching for a martini.
- Howard Finkel: Another legendary announcer spanning several decades, he is probably the least forceful personality in the house. Is struggling with a weight problem.
- "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart: Legendary manager of over three decades. Has probably the biggest mouth in the house, showing it isn't just a gimmick.
- Pat Patterson: Legendary wrestler from the 60s and 70s, more known now as one of the primary architects behind the WWF/WWE expansion under Vince McMahon in the 80s until now. Mostly quiet and good-humored (until the end).
Legends House Provides Examples of the Following Tropes:
- Accidental Tickle Torture: In episode 6, Jimmy Hart gets his first pedicure. He laughs and says it tickles.
- And Starring: Ashley Roberts, formerly of the Pussycat Dolls, receives an "And" credit in the opening titles.
- The Cameo:
- Shawn Michaels drops by the house in episode 7, taking the Legends (san Piper, who had left the house to fulfil a convention appearance) on a fishing trip.
- The Iron Sheik turns up as a surprise guest at Piper's roast in the eighth episode.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: In the "How Well Do You Know Your Roommate" game, Piper & Duggan resort to telling each other what they wrote down since they've only really known one another since starting the show. However, when they get to the final question, "What could your roommate not live without?", Piper writes down the answer he gave ("Wife") on his hand & shows it to Duggan, who misreads it as "Life". Afterwards, Piper comes clean about the cheating, mostly because he thought the situation was hilarious.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Tony Atlas and Roddy Piper.
- Cool Old Guy: Yes, they're older and no longer in their primes, but most of the wrestlers seem to still be in decent shape. Tony Atlas in particular is still huge.
- Confession Cam: The reality show staple is used often here.
- Deadpan Snarker: Mean Gene never stops snarking. Piper and Hacksaw also have their moments.
- Dirty Coward: Jimmy Hart. He ran away from LARPers
- Dirty Old Man: Most of the cast can be this at times when a pretty young lady is present (Pat being an exception for obvious reasons), but Mean Gene really stands out, taking every opportunity to ogle the women & seemingly always describing them as "one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen".
- Fan Disservice: The Legends in their swimming gear, to varying degrees.
- Fanservice: Ashley, climbing out of the pool in a bright yellow bikini.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Roddy Pipper & Jim Duggan. What's most impressive about it, is that they both admit to barely knowing one another before the show, despite working for the same companies numerous times.
- Hide Your Gays: It's well known that Pat Patterson is gay within the wrestling community and among hardcore fans. The show has seemingly gone out of its way to avoid the topic, even when Tony Atlas makes a faux pass at him in the tanning booth.
- As per Mood Whiplash below, in episode 8, Pat danced around the issue without coming right out and saying it during a group heart to heart.
- Finally averted in the final episode, when he flat out said he was gay.
- Hidden Depths: Tony Atlas's artistic skills are shown prominently in one episode, and he's apparently a very talented painter and artist.
- Kayfabe: Mostly absent from the show, although many of them have been living their gimmick for so long it's hard to tell. Mean Gene particularly.
- Large Ham: Given their lifelong careers in Professional Wrestling, its no surprise that all of the cast can be this from time to time.
- Mood Whiplash: Episode 8 goes from featuring the Legends preparing for a roast of Piper & the actual roast, to a discussion about the line between the Legends' on-screen characters & their real personality with a heavy subtext about Pat's homosexuality, to Jimmy talking with Tony about his daughter's death.
- Obsessed with Food: Half of every episode seems to center around who's making dinner, why dinner is taking so long, etc.
- Once an Episode: Ashley drops by the house, and gives the Legends some sort of task to complete.
- One-Steve Limit: Highly averted. In a show with eight people, 3 are named with variations of Jim. However, only Jimmy Hart is referred to by his given name, with Hillbilly Jim being referred to by his nickname & "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan being referred to by his nickname of last name.
- Picky Eater: Jimmy Hart in spades. His diet appears to consist of beans and potatoes and poo poo's most all food offered.
- Self-Serving Memory: Jimmy Hart has a tendency to remember his actions as being more noble than they actually are, to the point of reaching Blatant Lies since the cameras clearly show what actually happened.
- Sibling Rivalry: Most of their infighting on the show seems to be this, as they almost always cool down quickly and refer to their "brotherhood." Averted so far with Duggan and Atlas, who seem to have problems going back decades with each other.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Piper. Full Stop.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Duggan and Atlas. They had bad blood from way back and neither seemed interested in getting past it.
- So Bad, It's Good: Invoked - In a contest where two teams have to make a local commercial, this was cited as the reason why Roddy Piper's team won.
- Viva Las Vegas!: One episode the cast travels to Las Vegas, where they participate in a Chippendale's routine, complete with manscaping ahead of time.
- Weird Trade Union: Pro Wrestling, of course. Even among long-time members like Howard Finkel don't quite know all the rules to it. For instance, he was unaware of the "King's Chair" rule for the limo (and probably most of the audience) and is baffled at Roddy Piper's anger at him over not taking charge when the cop pulled them over on the way to Vegas.
