Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
He wasn’t a wrestler or a manager and hardly spoke one word in a promo. Yet, he was one of the most over characters for a brief amount of time in World Championship Wrestling. John Riker was his name and he was a truck driver making around $32,000 a year for WCW. It wasn’t until Chris Jericho spotted him backstage at a WCW event, that Riker’s world changed.
Chris Jericho had created a one sided program between himself and top WCW star Bill Goldberg. A program in which Jericho would continually mock Goldberg and his entrance. While Goldberg was dead set against the comedy routine, Eric Bischoff allowed it to make the airwaves. It was Jericho who made the decision to get himself a security detail, much like Goldberg had…but do it with a twist. Instead of getting muscle bound men to work his personal security detail, Jericho thought it would be better to hire guys who totally looked the exact opposite of that.
Riker and a couple of others were brought in to be a part of Jericho’s Personal Security team. While Riker was chosen off his oddball look of a huge gut and missing teeth, it was what helped Riker get over with the fans. Before you knew it, John Riker was working “security” solo and was becoming a bit of a star in his own right. So much so, he was given a name….Ralphus. The name of Ralphus was picked by Jericho who based it off a character in a 1970’s horror movie called ‘Blood Sucking Freaks.’
Ralphus would get paid 500 dollars every night he made an appearance with Jericho. As the Ralphus character’s popularity grew….Riker smartened up and actually hired himself an attorney. John Riker’s lawyer was able to get him a very lucrative contract of about $80,000 a year, plus appearance fees. In some cases, Riker was making more money than some active wrestlers on the roster. Chris Jericho stated in his first book that Riker developed an ego and even had his own groupies at WCW shows.
When Jericho left the company to join the WWF, it appeared that Ralphus was done as a character. That was not the case, however, as he became a comedic sidekick to Norman Smiley during his Hardcore title run. Ralphus would remain a character up until 2000…when he would return to driving a truck for a living.
For years following his disappearance, many fans asked whatever happened to Ralphus. He remained out of pro wrestling’s spotlight with no appearances at conventions or other wrestling promotions. He stayed off social media and lived a primarily low key life after his WCW days. It was the man that discovered John Riker…Chris Jericho who announced that John Riker had passed away in 2019. Sadly, little is known about Riker, as far as his age or friends and family goes. Whether we loved Ralphus or hated him, no doubt made a brief impact for one of the largest wrestling organizations in the world.