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Canadian Bulldog's Breaking News: Peanuts Creator Schulz Watched Wrestling In Later Years

By Canadian Bulldog
Feb 27, 2007 - 1:00 PM


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Breaking News: Peanuts Creator Schulz Watched Wrestling In Later Years

Good Grief

Above: One of Schulz’s scrapped drawings - “Hollywood” Charlie Brown and the Peanuts World Order. Woodsting lurks in the background.

 

By Canadian Bulldog, World Wrestling Insanity News

(Santa Rosa, CA) - Charles M. Schulz, the legendary cartoonist behind the “Peanuts” comic strip, developed a fondness for professional wrestling in the years leading up to his death in 2000.

Schulz began dabbling in wrestling-themed comics in the mid-1990’s at the apex of the Monday Night Wars, although none of those comics were ever published. The results were discovered by his family members recently while going through old sketchpads.

Good Grief

Above: Chuck delivers the bottom line to Lucy.

“At first, I didn’t understand these cartoons at all,” explained his daughter, who we’ll call Mary because we don’t know her real name. Or if he even has a daughter. “One featured Lucy and Peppermint Patty rolling around on the ground, while someone yelled ‘Caaaaat-fight!’ from the distance.”

In addition to watching the original Extreme Championship Wrestling (e.g. the one that doesn’t suck ass), Schulz also paid attention to the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling in his final years.

Good Grief

Above: A rare editorial cartoon by Schulz, delivered through Linus.

According to planned storylines, Charlie Brown’s softball team was scheduled to have an unbeaten streak a la WCW’s Bill Goldberg. The Peanuts World Order (or pWo) included most of the major Peanuts Gang characters, who would have later split into Peanuts Hollywood and Peanuts Wolfpac factions.

Meanwhile, Brown himself was being positioned as an anti-authority figure who wouldn’t take crap from his parents, the Kite-Eating Tree, or the teacher who kind of sounded like someone playing a saxophone.

 

Good Grief

Above: Schroeder utters a popular catchphrase before inexplicably bludgeoning Lucy with his toy piano.

One of the strip’s longest-running storylines – a budding romance between Linus and Sally – was apparently being written to show opposition from both character’s family members. This would foreshadow a 2001 WWF angle where Spike Dudley and Molly Holly saw each other behind the backs of The Dudley Boyz and The Holly Cousinz.

“Um, I guess it’s possible that my father was submitting story ideas to the WWF shortly before his death,” Mary said. “Let’s face it – it’s a lot better than most of the shit they’re coming up with right now.”

Good Grief

Above: Schulz allegedly was working on a marketing deal to make Joe Cool the face of WWF Attitude before his untimely passing.

It wasn’t the only time Schulz’s storylines mirrored what he watched on wrestling. Snoopy once slammed Woodstock through his doghouse roof, similar to what the late Bam Bam Bigelow did to Tazz in ECW.

(Yes, we’re saying that Bam Bam once slammed Tazz through a doghouse roof, okay? As if either he or Schulz are really going to dispute that point now.)

There was even an animated special being pitched to CBS television executives that had been written under the working title, “I’ve got two words for ya, Charlie Brown.”

When contacted by World Wrestling Insanity News, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon confirmed Schulz’s interest in professional wrestling.

“Quite frankly, Charles Schulz was a tremendous fan of our product,” McMahon said in one of his many interviews with World Wrestling Insanity News. “He even wanted to battle me at WrestleMania X-8. That would have been quite something. Good grief!”

-30-

Canadian Bulldog is a borderline journalist who writes weekly for World Wrestling Insanity and Online Onslaught and has published his own book of nutty e-mails to wrestlers. See his obscenely expensive Canadian BullBLOG for more details. He welcomes your comments at CanadianBulldog@worldwrestlinginsanity.com

 


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