10 Weirdest Mind-Blowing Wrestling Facts According To Reddit
Fact or fiction? Just when wrestling has the answers, Reddit changes the question.
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00:00 So, I think it goes without saying, but Reddit is a very strange, weird and wonderful place,
00:05 but mostly weird. And when it comes to wrestling, there have been many, many posts about some
00:10 obscure, mind-blowing facts that you truly wouldn't believe, but yet somehow appear
00:16 to be true. As a time capsule for everything good and bad about wrestling, Reddit is the
00:20 promised land for those looking to unearth some crazy facts about the sport that we love
00:24 so much. So let's take a look at them. As I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and
00:28 these are the 10 Weirdest, Mind-Blowing Wrestling Facts, according to Reddit.
00:32 10. Steve Blackman Nearly Died of Malaria Before His WWE Run
00:36 Now, Steve Blackman was, and still is, hard as f*ck. But he was given one of the toughest
00:41 battles of his life long before he broke into the WWE in late 1997. Ironically, it was during
00:47 his first attempt at Titan superstardom that a health concern outside of the ring almost
00:52 took away his livelihood. After working for Stampede Wrestling in the mid-1980s, he was
00:56 on the verge of scoring a full-time contract following some brief television appearances
01:00 until he contracted near-fatal malaria during a tour of South Africa in 1989. It left him
01:06 confined to a bed for almost two years, with the damage done to his health, size, and mobility
01:11 enough to put paid to his hopes and dreams of ever making it in such a physically demanding
01:16 trade. Until he did, because like I said before, he's hard as f*ck and wasn't going to take
01:20 no for an answer. In some sweet circular synergy, it was Stampede cornerstones Owen Hart and
01:25 Brian Pillman that helped him back through the door.
01:28 9. Nobody has held the original ECW World Heavyweight title and a major WWE World Heavyweight
01:34 title There's always a caveat with belt stats,
01:37 but this one only makes the slice of trivia all that more appealing. "WWE World Heavyweight
01:43 title" refers to any iteration of the company's top strap over the last several years, whilst
01:48 the "original ECW World Heavyweight title" of course discounts everything post-2006.
01:53 It's an important distinction to make, if only to rule out the first dual title holder,
01:58 Rob Van Dam. But despite a who's who of industry icons serving as ECW's top star, none were
02:03 ever selected to steward things in the WWE. That includes such luminaries as Don Morako,
02:08 Terry Funk, and Taz, as well as a host of hardcore icons that Vince McMahon just seemingly
02:13 never saw as one of his top stars. It makes for slightly damning reading, if not all that
02:18 shocking. Shane Douglas, arguably the most famous franchise player in the Philadelphia
02:23 Outfit's history, was reduced to the role of a cartoonish teacher during his short stint.
02:28 8. Taylor Swift Used to Babysit for Jeff Jarrett
02:32 As comfortably the biggest country music-turned-mainstream megastar in music history, Jeff Jarrett knows
02:37 a thing or two about making niche concerns huge. Taylor Swift, to a lesser extent, probably
02:42 understands this, and it explains why the two interacted on a close personal level earlier
02:47 in Swift's career. As Jarrett explained in an interview, "She had a friend in the family
02:51 and we became family friends. She's in the community. When 'Mine' came out, she came
02:55 over to the house and Jeremy Borash and I, we were having a creative meeting downstairs.
02:59 Taylor would come over and get the girls to take them back to her house and they'd bake
03:03 cookies and all that kind of stuff. One day Taylor brought over Joe Jonas. The 'Mine'
03:07 video is so creative, my daughter Jacqueline looked like a little Taylor. We were out on
03:11 the lake, Taylor pulled up and as bold as she always is, was just like, 'I want Jacqueline
03:15 in the video, OK?' We flew up to Maine where we shot the video, had to turn over your cell
03:19 phone on set and all that stuff. It was a good experience for the kids. Ain't she great?"
03:24 7. Jinder Mahal's single WWE Championship reign is longer than all four of Edge's combined
03:30 The numbers don't lie, do they? And they spell disaster for Jinder Mahal at Sacrifice.
03:35 If only Scott Steiner were cutting a promo on the modern-day Maharaja back when he was
03:39 the WWE Champion in 2017, the reign might have actually stood half a chance. Alas, the
03:45 run will be remembered for what it was, a panicked, multifarious failure that served
03:49 only to devalue a belt already suffering questionable prestige. Although it typically wouldn't
03:54 be, this quirky statistic is unfortunately most definitely one at Mahal's expense rather
03:58 than that of the rated-R superstar. Short title tenures often doom the holder, but not
04:03 here. Mahal's 170 days were painfully unremarkable, and when they weren't boring, they were too
04:09 offensive to be genuinely heated.
04:11 Contrast this with some legacy-enhancing runs against John Cena and others for an Edge character
04:15 still very much on his ascendancy in the WWE at the time, and it is crystal clear who got
04:20 the better deal.
04:21 6. Wrestler Talk Show Grifts, Various
04:24 Now the image on screen that you'll see is a young Mickie James, innocently peering down
04:28 the lens of a school photograph not realizing that one day she'd be a contrast of herself,
04:33 for a show profiling women that went from nerd to knockout in front of fictional school
04:37 friends. This was the story of her appearance on a 2000 episode of Jenny Jones that's
04:41 available to watch thanks to multiple uploaders on YouTube. It's extremely, uh, "of its
04:46 time" in the worst possible ways, but at least gives you a semblance of agency to James
04:51 as a budding pro wrestler.
04:53 She wasn't the only one to give that era's crash TV circuit a try, according to some
04:57 well-informed Redditors. Apparently Justin Roberts was on Jerry Springer, playing a guy
05:01 whose girlfriend was cheating on him with his own sister. OK Volume One noted that Bill
05:05 Dundee and J.C. Ice were on Springer pretending Jamie was pimping out some kid, and user Mr.
05:10 Darks recalled watching Mujak pretend to be a guidance counselor on the Jenny Jones show.
05:17 Wrestling and daytime scandal shows have never been so thematically close as they were back
05:21 then. It's a wonder that almost every major name ever scribbled down on a format by Vince
05:25 Russo didn't ply this trade at least once.
05:27 5. Jeff Jarrett almost took a Val Kilmer Hollywood role. Back to Double J again, with comments
05:33 from a Cheap Heat interview - and big shoutout to Fightful for the transcript - that made
05:37 it to Reddit about an intriguing Neely moment for the King of the Mountain. He said,
05:41 "That opportunity literally dropped out of thin air sitting in my desk. I'll never net
05:46 because I've told this story. I've got an email, they said, 'Hey, Val Kilmer was supposed
05:49 to read for this part but he dropped out.' They're like, 'Would you like to read for
05:53 this?' I'm like, 'Yeah, sure.' I thought it was a joke because it was a cold email that
05:56 I received. Anyway, I did the read in my office and sent them back and you got it and they
06:00 say, 'Oh yeah, Selena Gomez is in the movie and Vanessa, all of these stars and look I've
06:05 got five kids, four of them are girls and you know, years ago Disney Channel and Selena
06:08 and all that. I was very excited that they were going to get this opportunity to meet
06:12 her, but it was a fun part. But I don't have plans to go off to Hollywood." Read that "no
06:16 plans" as being "just yet."
06:18 4. Christian Cage was Nick Khan's first wrestling client. Now most notably tied to one of the
06:23 most ruthless cost-cutting endeavors in WWE history, current company president Nick Khan
06:27 wasn't entirely brand new to the world that he entered in 2020. According to Redditor
06:32 CactusMac, Christian Cage was Nick Khan's first client as a sports agent, helped negotiate
06:37 his move to TNA, and was friends with Samoa Joe around the same time. The specific wrestler
06:42 details aren't the easiest to track down on Google, which is as good a barometer as any
06:46 of how true they may be, but some of Khan's employment history is thanks to his WWE.com
06:51 profile. And the following passage would at the very least match up with the timeline
06:55 of Cage's departure to Orlando. Which reads, "Khan, a former practicing attorney, transitioned
07:00 to international creative management in 2006 where he launched their sports media department
07:05 and represented the biggest names in sports broadcasting." He's apparently also lifelong
07:08 friends with The Rock, further tethering him to a world that he's rapidly shook up.
07:12 3. Vince McMahon vs. Burritos, Snow Cones, Social Media, and His Own Staff
07:17 It's an oldie but a goodie at this point, but Vince McMahon chowing down on a steak
07:21 wrap and not realizing that the rest of the world knew it as something different remains
07:24 as delightful as the food is delicious. As were these other morsels shared by a user
07:29 known as Moss Covered Grudenza, with a loose connection to the original source.
07:33 And here we go. This is what they had to say, "Just the ones I can think of off the top
07:37 of my head. I'll respond with further when I recall more of them. The steak wrap/burrito
07:42 is absolutely true. He would, apparently, eat them all the time and never, ever call
07:46 it a burrito. He said he never heard the 'snow cone' story before. Doesn't mean it isn't
07:50 true, but he had personally never heard it. When it came to social media, as it was growing,
07:54 he always wanted The Miz to become one of the first guys they were really promoting.
07:58 It sounded like he had a lot of faith in The Miz to be a guy who could run it. For many
08:01 other wrestlers, he was indifferent about social media use. This was years and years
08:05 ago, so obviously things have changed a bit. He very much did fire people on a whim. Some
08:09 my old boss felt were justified, others were not."
08:12 And then concluded by saying, "Keep in mind these are not first-hand accounts from me.
08:15 They all come from my former boss. And I realize this means nothing coming from a random stranger
08:19 on the internet, but the person I used to work for very much did work on this for WWE
08:24 and Vince."
08:25 2. WrestleMania 19's main event is the only one to feature both wrestlers using their
08:30 real names
08:31 As nice as it is weird, this cute trivia note adds yet another layer to the neck-breaking
08:36 onion that is/was the terrifying conclusion to the WrestleMania 19 event. Brock Lesnar's
08:41 shooting star press was the headline coming out, replacing the panic around Kurt Angle's
08:45 frazzled fame on the way in, with very little remembered about an excellent match between
08:50 two ex-amateurs who desperately wanted to prove who was the best to turn pro.
08:54 The fact that both worked with their real names is such a neat addendum to that. Angle
08:58 was an ultra-established sports entertainment polymath by 2003, and Lesnar wasn't far behind
09:04 him as both the next big thing and the beast, but going by their own monikers linked each
09:08 man to a simpler, but no less skilled, time.
09:11 The record is soon to hit its 20th anniversary with no end in sight, not least with the likes
09:16 of Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch sure to be on at least one side of the ring for years
09:20 to come.
09:21 1. Finn Balor's 6 Minutes of Magic
09:23 It apparently took just six minutes for New Japan pro wrestling bosses to make up their
09:27 mind on whether or not to sign the future Finn Balor. It was after Fergal Devitt had
09:31 worked this match that NJPW scouts allegedly got him an offer to attend their dojo, thus
09:36 opening the door for him to kick off a legendary and life-changing run for the king of sports.
09:41 This was confirmed by Reddit user and former wrestler Nikita Alanov, Soviet shooter, who
09:46 added some additional color.
09:47 "Holy s**t, I didn't know there was actually a decent video of this show floating around.
09:51 I worked this show, might have even been the match right after this. Dave Marquez was there
09:55 representing NJPW and the showcase match from the Inoki Dojo was Alex Kozlov vs Tommy Chang.
10:02 As far as I know, Devitt was the only person to get an offer to go to the dojo directly,
10:06 but Chad Allegra, Chance Prophet, and myself all got offers to go to the dojo in LA."
10:11 And there we go my friends, those were the 10 weirdest mind-blowing wrestling facts according
10:15 to Reddit. I hope you enjoyed that and please let me know what you thought about it down
10:18 in the comments section below.
10:19 As always I've been Jules, you can go follow me over on Twitter @RetroJWithA0 or you can
10:24 swing by Live and Let's Dice where I do all of my streaming outside of work and it'd
10:27 be great to see you over there.
10:28 But before I go I just want to say one thing, I hope that you're treating yourself well
10:31 with love and respect because you deserve all of the best things in life my friend and
10:35 do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise. You are a massive legend and I
10:39 want you to go out there and absolutely smash your life goals today. I believe in you.
10:43 As always I've been Jules, you have been awesome, never forget that and I'll speak
10:46 to you soon. Bye.