Brian Damage
Yes, we are returning yet again with edition of professional wrestling facts, stats and all that other stuff. You give us two minutes and we will give you useless knowledge. At least nothing that will win you any money or an award. You may have heard of some of these before, then again…maybe not. Regardless, they are all meant to be fun. So relax and let’s learn a little, a lot or nothing at all.
The original WWE movie ‘The Marine’ in 2006, was written for and to star Stone Cold Steve Austin in the lead role. Unfortunately, Austin and the producers of the film couldn’t agree on various issues and Austin dropped out. John Cena eventually got the nod instead.
Speaking of Stone Cold Steve Austin, at the height of his popularity in the WWF…Austin made over 12 million dollars on residuals for the sale of Austin 3:16 merchandise.
Former television producer Kevin Dunn is credited with coming up with the actual renaming of the World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment after the company was forced to drop the WWF name.
When Bobby Heenan joined the WWF in 1984, he was originally booked to manage Jesse ‘the Body’ Ventura as his first client. Before that happened, however, Ventura retired for health reasons and Heenan chose his good friend John Studd from his days working in the AWA.
Former AEW wrestler Stu Grayson wrestled the longest match ever recorded. The match clocked in at 21 hours 49 minutes and 12 seconds. The match was for the Canadian Cancer Society and raised over 33,000 dollars. The match unfortunately did not get entered into the Guinness Book of World Records due to the organization required the promoters to pay a fee of $16,000 to have it entered.
WWE commissioned a brand new ECW heavyweight title belt after seeing how small the original belt looked in the possession of Mark Henry.
Alex Shelley created his ring name by combining the names of his favorite movie and band. Alex the lead character of the movie A Clockwork Orange and (Peter) Shelley from the punk band The Buzzcocks.
Bray Wyatt posthumously appeared in the movie Diary of the Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever voicing the role of a prison guard.
Late actor Norbert Grupe aka Wilhelm von Homburg who is best known for playing Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters II…is a former second generation pro wrestler from the 1960’s. He would team with his father Richard as the Vikings and later as the Von Homburg Brothers. He and his father were also boxers in Germany.
The band Disturbed wrote songs for both Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H. While Austin’s was used briefly, Triple H’s song was never used. Coincidentally, Disturbed front man David Draiman was married to former WWE diva Lena Yada.
Long before the Undertaker did a ‘casket match’…Dusty Rhodes and Ivan Koloff wrestled in the very first coffin match in October of 1980 for Paul Boesch’s Houston Wrestling.
There have been a total of 55 WWWF/WWF/WWE champions since the title’s inception in 1963. Of the 55 champions, Triple H has faced 36 of the 55 in singles matches.
Nikolai Volkoff (real name Josip Peruzović) had a younger brother named Luka Peruzović who was a famous footballer and coach in Croatia.
Mae Young and Fabulous Moolah are buried next to each other in South Carolina.
Mark Calaway graduated from Waltrip High School in Houston, Texas. Other alumni from that school include actress Shelley Duvall and actor Patrick Swayze. Both Calaway and Swayze played on the school’s football team.
The Big Bossman wrestled on the very first and very last WWF pay per views in the 1990’s. He wrestled at the Royal Rumble in 1990 and wrestled at Armageddon in 1999.
In September of 2003, TNA offered wrestling fans a “penny pay per view.” For just one cent, fans could see previously recorded matches from other weekly pay per views.
Jacques and Raymond Rougeau have a brother Armand who also wrestled. In fact, he was signed by the WWF in 1986 and just one month before he debuted with the company, he sustained a career ending back injury.
Verne Langdon was a professional wrestler and trainer, but was most known for being a successful movie make up artist. He worked on various movies and television shows including creating the make up for the Planet of the Apes.
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JR
Nikolai’s brother looks like Lalo from Better Call Saul
David Fullam
Verne Langdon was a jack of all trades. As a musician he gave us the Halloween album “Vampire at the Harpsichord,” he worked at Don Post Studios during their heyday and was responsible for getting their masks into the mail order pages of Warren Publications. He was also at Don Post during their time making props for movies and carnival showmen. He had a hand in making the infamous Minnesota Iceman.
Shane2Times
These fact columns are great, thank you!
Luke
Kevin Dunn coming up with World Wrestling Entertainment doesn’t surprise me, but wouldn’t the more appropriate word be “blamed”? We’re all used to it by now, but it’s got to be one of the stupidest names ever.
David Fullam
I think we also need to replace the name Kevin Dunn with “Cancer.”