Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
You take three unused wrestlers and have them form a faction. You make them wear leather pants, guyliner and play air guitar. It might not seem like something that would “get over” with fans…but that’s exactly what this gimmick did. This is the true story of three men thrown together and somehow made it stick. This is the story of the Three Man Band.
Jinder Mahal, Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre all started their WWE careers in pretty big ways. Mahal was supposed to be Indian royalty who was geared for a big push. McIntyre was deemed “The Chosen One” by none other than WWE chairman Mr. McMahon. As for Slater, he was in a hot invasion angle as a member of the faction called Nexus. For various reasons all three wrestlers careers stalled at different times and found themselves languishing on the lower mid card losing matches or not being used at all.
All of that changed in the Fall of 2012, when producer and former Freebird Michael Hayes came up with an idea for the self proclaimed ‘One Man Band’ Heath Slater. Slater had bounced around for a few years being a member of factions like the aforementioned Nexus and The Corre. He was now nothing more than comedic fodder and a glorified enhancement talent to put over bigger named stars. Hayes approached Slater with an idea for him to form his own “rock band” of sorts.
Slater was extremely excited for the opportunity to lead his own faction in WWE. A few named rumored to join Slater in this Band was Curt Hawkins and Fandango. It was Vince McMahon who took a look at the roster sheet and handpicked both Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre. All three men were initially hesitant about the odd combination, but knew this was their opportunity to be utilized. For storyline purposes, the three men united after Brodus Clay defeated all of them in singles matches in consecutive weeks on TV.
Jinder and Drew attacked Clay and formed a partnership with Slater. The trio were originally just referred to as ‘The Band’, but later altered to ‘The Three Man Band’ or 3MB for short. The new heel group actually ran into a little bit of trouble out of the gate. While celebrating after a match, the trio were not in unison with their routine. Slater was playing air guitar, while Mahal was doing a Bollywood dance and McIntyre was doing pelvic gyrations. Vince was not happy at all with that and scolded the team to look and act more like a rock band.
From that point on, 3MB dressed alike and acted more like wannabe rock stars. It didn’t take long for 3MB to attract a fan following. Between their air guitar performances before matches and their funny backstage segments…the Three Man Band were getting over. Despite growing popularity, 3MB weren’t exactly piling up victories. Unfortunately for 3MB, another trio of wrestlers debuted a month after they did called The Shield. It was the Shield of Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns who were being treated more seriously and pushed harder.
The team would give themselves nicknames whenever they were in a new town or country. For instance, they referred to themselves as the Union Jacks when WWE was on tour of England. They also called themselves the Rhinestone Cowboys and the Plymouth Rockers. Overall, during the course of 3MB’s run of nearly two years…they compiled a win/loss record of 12 wins and 75 losses.
In 2014, Hornswoggle joined the group and they jokingly became the 3 1/2 Man Band. They had a very entertaining series of matches against Los Matadors and El Torito. Unfortunately, that would be the last notable feud 3MB would have together as a unit. The fans of 3MB would refer to it as the day the music died in WWE when the company made the surprising decision to release both Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre….thus killing the faction.
Of course, we know that Mahal and McIntyre were eventually rehired by WWE. With that, both men were repackaged and became WWE champions. In 2020, Heath Slater was released as a part of Covid-19 budget cuts. Talk of a “3MB Prophecy” emerged where fans said that Slater needs to eventually return to WWE and win his own world title.
As of now, I seriously doubt that will ever happen. What we do know is that 3MB made the most of a situation thrown at them. Maybe they were nothing more than glorified enhancement talent, but truth be told, they were very entertaining for many.