Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to another edition of useless pro wrestling facts. We will continue to amaze or bore you with facts, stats and trivia pertaining to the business that is professional wrestling. Some you may be well aware of and others perhaps not so much. In any case, it simply all in good fun.
Peter Polaco paid fellow ECW wrestler Bilvis Wesley $150 to obtain the naming rights of ‘Justin Credible.’ It was Wesley who came up with the wrestling name, but decided not to use it for himself.
Outback Jack was an Australian wrestler that was briefly with the WWF from 1986 until 1988. Outback Jack holds the distinction of having the lowest selling item of merchandise in WWE history. An autographed boomerang that only had 300 units sold.
Logan Paul is the third longest reigning United States champion in WWE history. He has the seventh longest U.S. title reign overall (NWA/WCW/WWE). In that time, he has defended the title a total of three times.
Legendary pro wrestling journalist Bill Apter was hired by the WWF in the mid 1990’s. His job was to procure old wrestling items like boots, robes, masks etc to be used for an actual WWF Hall of Fame that was planning to be built. Apter was employed for just 18 months before leaving after Vince McMahon decided against building a Hall of Fame.
Mike Jones aka Virgil/Vincent/Curly Bill was added to the West Texas Rednecks faction by WCW management, due to fear of the group being labeled as ‘racist.’ The West Texas Rednecks were getting cheered loudly while acting as heels against Master P and the No Limit Soldiers who were supposed to be faces. Behind the scenes, the Master P camp suggested the Rednecks were racist and so Curly Bill was added.
Former WCW/WWE/AEW seamstress Sandra Gray was first introduced to pro wrestling by Marc and Rena Mero. When Mero was booked to portray the WCW gimmick ‘Johnny B. Badd’, Mero looked in the want ads and hired Gray out of his own pocket to design outfits for himself. Gray was also responsible for creating the iconic blood dripping outfits that Scott Hall wore.
Immediately after the infamous ‘Montreal Screw Job’ in November of 1997, WWE made an amendment to Owen Hart’s contract. He was already locked in on a 5 year deal, but they increased his downside guarantee by adding an additional $150,000 and also added a unique clause, where Owen could opt out of the contract if he felt his push was “substantially” decreased.
On June 15,1993…The Great Kabuki wrestled The Great Muta for New Japan’s IWGP heavyweight title. Muta used the same gimmick that Kabuki initially made famous. Muta was even referred to as Kabuki’s son for a period of time. The Great Muta won this match.
Bobby Heenan was credited with coming up with the ‘Diamond Cutter’ name for Diamond Dallas Page’s finisher. Heenan said that DDP bought him a bottle of wine as a thank you.
Leon ‘Vader’ White bought a Lincoln after completing his first tour of Japan. According to his son, Vader bought the luxury car to symbolize getting out of poverty which he lived in almost his entire life. Vader always dreamed of being rich with nice cars and a big house. At the time, Vader and his family were living in a two bedroom apartment. Vader bought a big house after this.
WWE executive Bruce Prichard’s nephew from his late brother Ken is named Kane Prichard. He was named after the WWE character. Incidentally, Bruce’s other brother Tom runs a wrestling school (Jacobs-Prichard Wrestling Academy) with the man who wrestled as ‘The Big Red Monster’ Glenn Jacobs.
Before the WWE Performance Center opened in Orlando, Florida in 2013, the company trained its potential WWE wrestlers in a 10,000 square foot warehouse located in Tampa, Florida which opened in 2007. The warehouse was formerly a BJ’s Wholesale Club.
Jinder Mahal’s one reign as WWE champion was longer than all of Edge’s reigns, combined.
Brock Lesnar has his own brand of BBQ seasoning.
2001: Space Odyssey theme is most recognized music for ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. He also has used songs such as ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ by ZZ Top and ‘Easy Lover’ by Philip Bailey with Phil Collins. Incidentally, easy Lover was also the official theme song for the very first Wrestlemania.
Billy Kidman was trained by Wild Samoan Afa in 1994. His very last match as a wrestler was against Afa’s son Afa Jr. in 2008.
When Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty first formed a tag team in the AWA, the original name chosen for the team by Verne Gagne was ‘The American Express.’ Realizing they would be confused with a credit card company, it was Curt Hennig that came up with the name Midnight Rockers for the team’s love of partying after shows. Verne rejected the name at first, thinking they would be compared to rocking chairs, but Shawn Michaels convinced Verne otherwise.
Trish Stratus was offered a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine several times while wrestling for WWE. She repeatedly turned them down, despite them being very substantial offers. Stratus felt that if she wanted to be taken seriously as a wrestler, then posing nude would hurt her reputation.
Athena has been the longest reigning Ring of Honor Women’s World champion since the title’s inception back in 2020. She is also the second longest reigning singles world champion in ROH history just behind Samoa Joe. Athena has been ROH women’s champ (as of this writing) 597 days…Samoa Joe was ROH Men’s world champion for 645 days until losing it in 2004.
In 1979, Handsome Jimmy Valiant recorded a song called ‘Son of a Gypsy.’ The song became very popular in the Memphis area and was regularly played on Memphis radio stations for several years.
The World Wrestling Federation launched its first website WWF.com on June 1 1997. Before that, WWF had its own section on America Online.
The Survivor Series PPV/PLE is considered one of WWE’s “Big Four” events that include Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble and Summerslam. It is also the second oldest event behind Wrestlemania. In 2010, Vince McMahon made the decision to scrap Survivor Series concept after the 2009 show and rebrand it into a completely different event. It was quickly reinstated after a large outcry of calls and mail from fans demanding that Survivor Series remain in place.
Instead of taking a salary to become the new booker of ECW, Paul Heyman received 49% ownership of the company.
One of the biggest names in Lucha Libre…Ultimo Guerrero opened up a very successful hamburger stand in Mexico during the Covid pandemic. With all wrestling being suspended and no money coming in, Guerrero and his wife opened a hamburger stand to pay their bills and survive.
The hit NBC sitcom Seinfeld had its first four episodes funded by the network taking money away from the WWF’s Saturday Night’s Main Event in 1989. Jerry Seinfeld revealed…“They gave us a pilot, they didn’t like the pilot. Then, Rick Ludwin said, ‘You know what, I think this show isn’t that bad.’ Everyone disliked it, and Rick Ludwin said, ‘I’m going to take some money from Saturday Night Wrestling.’ In those days, professional wrestling replaced Saturday Night Live once a month. He took the money from one of those and it was enough money to make four episodes.“
