Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”– Mark Twain
It’s back! Another round of stats, facts and otherwise useless pro wrestling info you will never need. Either way, it is all in good fun!
The Big Show is a Repeat
If there was a Guinness Book Of World Records for Heel/Face turns…I’d swear The Big Show would hold the record for most turns ever! Since his debut as a heel in 1995 in WCW…Show has turned face/heel at least 21 times in his nearly 20 year career. That is roughly a turn a year! In comparison, Ricky Steamboat has turned heel a total of zero times in his illustrious career.
The Ding Dongs Revealed!
When thinking of the very worst gimmicks former WCW head Jim Herd has ever created…many fans will point to the tag team of the Ding Dongs. In a promotion that spoiled its fans with great tag team wrestling with the likes of the Road Warriors, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, the Midnight Express and the Rock n Roll Express…the Ding Dongs were a bit of a culture shock.
Thankfully the duo wore masks to hide their shame as one of the very worst WCW has ever had to offer. Fortunately, wonder no more….the Ding Dongs identity will finally be revealed! The Ding Dongs were portrayed by two journeyman wrestlers named Richard Sartain and Jim Evans. No, they no longer actively wrestle….so no Ding Dong reunion….sorry.
In case you didn’t know…current ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ host Terry Crews appeared on WCW Nitro in 2000 under the moniker T-Money.
Shake, Rattle and Disco?!?
In 1997, Glenn ‘Disco Inferno’ Gilbertti was a free agent. According to Gilbertti…he was negotiating with Jim Cornette and Bruce Prichard to sign a deal to join the WWF. The belief was that Gilbertti would be used as the Honkytonk Man’s new protege. The negotiations were going nowhere because Gilbertti made the mistake of not talking with the head of talent development…Jim Ross. Sting swooped in and convinced Eric Bischoff to resign Disco to WCW. Of course the rest is history and the Honkytonk Man ended up with Billy ‘Rock A Billy‘ Gunn.
Speaking of what if’s…
According to Tommy Dreamer…WCW wanted to sign him to be Marcus Bagwell’s tag team partner as ‘The American Males.’ Dreamer turned down the offer and the gig went to Scotty Riggs.
The WWF was originally owned by Vince McMahon Sr and a man named James ‘Toots’ Mondt. Toots, in fact, took Vince Sr under his wing and taught Vince Sr the ins and outs of pro wrestling. After a falling out, Vince Sr bought out Toots Mondt to take over complete control of the promotion.
Speaking of Toots…ever wondered why a place like “Rio De Janiero” was chosen a the location for crowning the first ever WWWF world champion and WWF Intercontinental champion? Toots wanted to use Bobo Brazil as the man Buddy Rogers would defeat in a fictitious tournament to become world champion. Bobo refused they use his name. So as a rib in retaliation, Rio De Janiero, Brazil was chosen as the made up location of the tourney to spite Bobo Brazil.
Did you know WWE wrestler Justin Gabriel is a second generation wrestler? His father….Paul Lloyd Sr. was a wrestler/booker in his native South Africa. He wrestled under the name ‘Pink Panther.’
Mr. Ken (Kennedy) Anderson was the very last person to wrestle both Umaga and Eddie Guerrero before they passed away.
The very first WCW Cruiserweight champion was Shinjiro Otani….the very last WWE Cruiserweight champion was Hornswoggle.
Speaking of cruiserweight titles…WCW established a cruiserweight tag team division that lasted only 8 days and had 2 different champions.
In 1995, a couple of fans showed up at ringside to support the Undertaker. They were referred to as ‘The Creatures of the Night.’ One of those creatures was Doug Basham who would later get himself a WWE contract 7 years later.
While we are on the subject of cameos…former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts was spotted on camera a few times in the crowd of WCW Nitro events in the late 90’s.
NXT star Sasha Banks is cousins with the artist formerly known as Snoop Dog…
For all of you food connoisseurs, when good ol’ Jim Ross first debuted his own line of barbeque sauce…it had a signature black hat as the bottle cap. The newer bottles no longer have that black hat because people were stealing them from grocery stores without buying the actual sauce. Thanks a lot jack offs!
Kurt Angle’s WWF theme song entitled ‘Medal’ aka the “You Suck” song was used by two stars before Kurt made it famous. It was first used by the Patriot and then very briefly by Mark Henry.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=J0sKeydp2yI%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26fs%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26wmode%3Dtransparent
Raven has the distinction of having the most reigns of a singular title in WWE history. He was crowned the Hardcore champion a record 27 times. The most for any title in the WWF/E.
William ‘Paul Bearer’ Moody really worked in a funeral parlor before his wrestling career started…
Finally, we wrap up this piece with this little tid bit… Many believe that the final WCW broadcast was Monday Nitro on March 26th, 2001. That answer would be false. While it might have been the final WCW broadcast of original content…the real final WCW broadcast aired 5 days later on March 31st, 2001. The syndicated show ‘WCW Worldwide’ hosted by Mike Tenay and Scott Hudson.