Show will include Danny Bonaduce, Dennis Rodman and Dustin Diamond

By Matthew B. Zeidman

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/7/08 – With his daughter, Brooke, taking over the family reality show on VH1 next season, professional wrestler Hulk Hogan has turned to CMT for a celebrity-packed weekly program of his own. “Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling,” scheduled to begin airing sometime this fall, will feature stars in training to become professional wrestlers.

Hogan will serve on the requisite triumvirate of judges, which will also include his former manager, Jimmy Hart, and president of the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Eric Bischoff. Close friends and fellow wrestlers Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake and Brian Knobbs will act as trainers.

Among the list of confirmed participants are a few reality/sitcom veterans, including Danny Bonaduce (“Breaking Bonaduce,” “I Know My Kid’s a Star”), Todd Bridges (“Celebrity Boxing,” “The Surreal Life”) and Dustin Diamond (“Celebrity Boxing,” “Celebrity Fit Club”).

Trishelle Cannatella, who has also appeared on her share of reality TV (“The Real World: Las Vegas,” “The Surreal Life”), will join fellow Playboy alum Nikki Ziering as part of the cast. Also on board are boxer and mixed martial artist Eric “Butterbean” Esch, former “Bewitched” child star Erin Murphy, retired Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman, actor/singer Frank Stallone (brother of Sylvester) and 1980s pop idol Tiffany.

Many of the aspiring combatants have a pre-existing affiliation with the professional wrestling industry. Current World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Diva Ashley Massaro was once Bonaduce’s personal trainer, Cannatella was featured in a GoDaddy.com commercial with WWE Diva Candice Michelle last year, Esch competed in boxing matches held by the WWE in the late 1990s, Diamond fought on Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2002, Rodman briefly appeared as an ally of Hogan for the WCW and Stallone’s mother was a promoter of women’s wrestling.

In addition to starring in “Hogan Knows Best” on VH1, Hogan is a co-host on NBC’s newly revived “American Gladiators.” Because of Hogan’s recent divorce proceedings and the jailing of his son, “Hogan Knows Best,” which focused on the entire Hogan nuclear family, will continue as “Brooke Hogan Knows Best” and focus solely on Hogan’s daughter’s personal and professional life.