No bare knuckle Rourke

He's not a wrestler, but he plays one in the movies.

Word from Mickey Rourke's publicist via Defamer is that the Oscar-nominated Comeback Kid won't step into the ring with WWE's Chris Jericho at Wrestlemania after all. Never mind that call-out on the red carpet of the SAG Awards -- Rourke just punked out. There will be no "Ram Jam" signature move outside the bleak Darren Aronofsky drama.

The statement:

"Mickey was very honored to be asked as he has the greatest respect for WWE however he will not be participating in Wrestlemania. He is focusing entirely on his acting career."

As we'd pointed out yesterday, it wasn't necessarily the April appearance that was causing such an awards season dustup -- that's long after the Oscars -- but it was the aggressive marketing certain to take place around that event that had the potential to short-circuit Rourke's hard campaigning work.

Seems Rourke was having second thoughts as soon as that promotion kicked in, on "Larry King Live" this week where he demured to a smack-talking Jericho and mumbled something about boxing or bare knuckle fighting instead of WWE-style grappling.

Jericho, of course, was ready to take that bait. (Watch the video here).

But it's not to be. 

We keep flashing back to "The Wrestler's" premiere in L.A. that was packed with pro wrasslers like Rowdy Roddy Piper, Rick "The Nature Boy" Flair, Diamond Dallas Page, Brutus Beefcake and others, who described how touched they were by the movie and Rourke's performance. It was real and true, they said, free of Hollywood artifice, and they've been vocal proponents to their significant and loyal fan bases.

Wonder what they're thinking now?