Fact or fiction? Just when wrestling has the answers, Reddit changes the question.
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00:00So, I think it goes without saying, but Reddit is a very strange, weird and wonderful place,
00:05but mostly weird. And when it comes to wrestling, there have been many, many posts about some
00:10obscure, mind-blowing facts that you truly wouldn't believe, but yet somehow appear
00:16to be true. As a time capsule for everything good and bad about wrestling, Reddit is the
00:20promised land for those looking to unearth some crazy facts about the sport that we love
00:24so much. So let's take a look at them, as I'm Jules, this is WhatCulture.com, and
00:28these are the 10 Weirdest Mind-Blowing Wrestling Facts, according to Reddit.
00:3210. Steve Blackman Nearly Died of Malaria Before His WWE Run
00:36Now, Steve Blackman was, and still is, hard as f**k. But he was given one of the toughest
00:41battles of his life long before he broke into the WWE in late 1997. Ironically, it was during
00:47his first attempt at Titan superstardom that a health concern outside of the ring almost
00:52took away his livelihood. After working for Stampede Wrestling in the mid-1980s, he was
00:56on the verge of scoring a full-time contract following some brief television appearances
01:00until he contracted near-fatal malaria during a tour of South Africa in 1989. It left him
01:06confined to a bed for almost two years, with the damage done to his health, size, and mobility
01:11enough to put paid to his hopes and dreams of ever making it in such a physically demanding
01:16trade. Until he did, because like I said before, he's hard as f**k and wasn't going to take
01:20no for an answer.
01:22In some sweet circular synergy, it was Stampede Cornerstone's Owen Hart and Brian Pillman
01:26that helped him back through the door.
01:289. Nobody Has Held The Original ECW World Heavyweight Title And A Major WWE World Heavyweight
01:34Title
01:35There's always a caveat with belt stats, but this one only makes the slice of trivia all
01:40that more appealing. WWE World Heavyweight Title refers to any iteration of the company's
01:45top strap over the last several years, whilst the original ECW World Heavyweight Title of
01:50course discounts everything post-2006. It's an important distinction to make, if only
01:55to rule out the first dual title holder, Rob Van Dam.
01:59But despite a who's who of industry icons serving as ECW's top star, none were ever
02:03selected to steward things in the WWE. That includes such luminaries as Don Morako, Terry
02:09Funk, and Taz, as well as a host of hardcore icons that Vince McMahon just seemingly never
02:14saw as one of his top stars.
02:16It makes for slightly damning reading, if not all that shocking. Shane Douglas, arguably
02:20the most famous franchise player in the Philadelphia Outfit's history, was reduced to the role
02:25of a cartoonish teacher during his short stint.
02:288. Taylor Swift Used To Babysit For Jeff Jarrett
02:32As comfortably the biggest country music-turned-mainstream megastar in music history, Jeff Jarrett knows
02:37a thing or two about making niche concerns huge. Taylor Swift, to a lesser extent, probably
02:42understands this, and it explains why the two interacted on a close personal level earlier
02:47in Swift's career. As Jarrett explained in an interview,
03:177. Jinder Mahal's Single WWE Championship Reign
03:27Is Longer Than All Four Of Edge's Combined
03:30The numbers don't lie, do they? And they spell disaster for Jinder Mahal at Sacrifice.
03:35If only Scott Steiner were cutting a promo on the modern-day Maharaja back when he was
03:40the WWE Champion in 2017, the reign might have actually stood half a chance. Alas, the
03:45run will be remembered for what it was – a panicked, multifarious failure that served
03:49only to devalue a belt already suffering questionable prestige. Although it typically wouldn't
03:54be, this quirky statistic is unfortunately most definitely one at Mahal's expense,
03:58rather than that of the rated-R superstar. Short title tenures often doomed the holder,
04:03but not here. Mahal's 170 days were painfully unremarkable, and when they weren't boring,
04:09they were too offensive to be genuinely hated.
04:11Contrast this with some legacy-enhancing runs against John Cena and others for an Edge character
04:15still very much on his ascendancy in the WWE at the time, and it is crystal clear who got
04:20the better deal.
04:216. Wrestler Talk Show Grifts – Various
04:24Now the image on screen that you'll see is a young Mickie James, innocently peering
04:27down the lens of a school photograph, not realizing that one day she'd be a contrast
04:32of herself, for a show profiling women that went from nerd to knockout in front of fictional
04:36school friends. This was the story of her appearance on a 2000 episode of Jenny Jones
04:41that's available to watch thanks to multiple uploaders on YouTube. It's extremely, uh,
04:46of its time in the worst possible ways, but at least gives you a semblance of agency to
04:50James as a budding pro wrestler.
04:53She wasn't the only one to give that era's crash TV circuit a try, according to some
04:57well-informed Redditors. Apparently Justin Roberts was on Jerry Springer, playing a guy
05:01whose girlfriend was cheating on him with his own sister? OK Volume 1 noted that Bill
05:05Dundee and J.C. Ice were on Springer pretending Jamie was pimping out some kid, and user MrDarks
05:11recalled watching MuJack pretend to be a guidance counselor on the Jenny Jones show.
05:17Wrestling and daytime scandal shows have never been so thematically close as they were back
05:21then. It's a wonder that almost every major name ever scribbled down on a format by Vince
05:25Russo didn't ply this trade at least once.
05:275. Jeff Jarrett almost took a Val Kilmer Hollywood role
05:31Back to Double J again, with comments from a Cheap Heat interview, and big shout out
05:35to Fightful for the transcript, that made it to Reddit about an intriguing Neely moment
05:39for the King of the Mountain. He said,
05:41That opportunity literally dropped out of thin air sitting in my desk. I'll never net
05:46because I've told the story. I've got an email, they said, hey, Val Kilmer was supposed
05:49to read for this part but he dropped out. They're like, would you like to read for
05:53this? I'm like, yeah, sure. I thought it was a joke because it was a cold email that
05:56I received. Anyway, I did the read in my office and sent them back and, and you got it and
06:00they say, oh yeah, Selena Gomez is in the movie and Vanessa, all of these stars and
06:04look, I've got five kids, four of them are girls and you know, years ago Disney Channel
06:08and Selena and all that. I was very excited that they were going to get this opportunity
06:11to meet her but it was a fun part. But I don't have plans to go off to Hollywood. Read that
06:15no plans as being just yet.
06:184. Christian Cage was Nick Khan's first wrestling client
06:21Now most notably tied to one of the most ruthless cost-cutting endeavors in WWE history, current
06:26company president Nick Khan wasn't entirely brand new to the world that he entered in
06:302020. According to Redditor CactusMac, Christian Cage was Nick Khan's first client as a sports
06:36agent, helped negotiate his move to TNA and was friends with Samoa Joe around the same
06:40time. The specific wrestler details aren't the easiest to track down on Google, which
06:44is as good a barometer as any of how true they may be. But some of Khan's employment
06:48history is thanks to his WWE.com profile. And the following passage would at the very
06:53least match up with the timeline of Cage's departure to Orlando. Which reads, Khan, a
06:58former practicing attorney, transitioned to International Creative Management in 2006
07:03where he launched their sports media department and represented the biggest names in sports
07:07broadcasting. He's apparently also lifelong friends with The Rock, further tethering him
07:10to a world that he's rapidly shook up.
07:123. Vince McMahon vs Burritos, Snow Cones, Social Media and His Own Staff
07:17It's an oldie but a goodie at this point. But Vince McMahon chowing down on a steak
07:21wrap and not realizing that the rest of the world knew it as something different remains
07:24as delightful as the food is delicious. As were these other morsels shared by a user
07:29known as Moss Covered Grudenza, with a loose connection to the original source. And here
07:33we go. This is what they had to say, just the ones I can think of off the top of my
07:37head. I'll respond with further when I recall more of them. The steak wrap slash burrito
07:41is absolutely true. He would, apparently, eat them all the time and never, ever call
07:46it a burrito. He said he never heard the snow cone story before. Doesn't mean it isn't
07:50true, but he had personally never heard it. When it came to social media, as it was growing,
07:54he always wanted The Miz to become one of the first guys they were really promoting.
07:58It sounded like he had a lot of faith in The Miz to be a guy who could run it. For many
08:01other wrestlers, he was indifferent about social media use. This was years and years
08:05ago, so obviously things have changed a bit. He very much did fire people on a whim. Some
08:09my old boss felt were justified, others were not. And then concluded by saying, keep in
08:13mind these are not first-hand accounts from me. They all come from my former boss. And
08:17I realize this means nothing coming from a random stranger on the internet, but the
08:20person I used to work for very much did work on this for WWE and Vince.
08:252. WrestleMania 19's main event is the only one to feature both wrestlers using their
08:30real names
08:31As nice as it is weird, this cute trivia note adds yet another layer to the neck-breaking
08:36onion that is slash was the terrifying conclusion to the WrestleMania 19 event. Brock Lesnar's
08:41shooting star press was the headline coming out, replacing the panic around Kurt Angle's
08:45frazzled fame on the way in, with very little remembered about an excellent match between
08:50two ex-amateurs who desperately wanted to prove who was the best to turn pro.
08:54The fact that both worked with their real names is such a neat addendum to that. Angle
08:58was an ultra-established sports entertainment polymath by 2003, and Lesnar wasn't far
09:03behind him as both the next big thing and the beast, but going by their own monikers
09:08linked each man to a simpler but no less skilled time.
09:11The record is soon to hit its 20th anniversary with no end in sight, not least with the likes
09:16of Roman Reigns and Becky Lynch sure to be on at least one side of the ring for years
09:20to come.
09:211. Finn Balor's six minutes of magic
09:23It apparently took just six minutes for New Japan pro wrestling bosses to make up their
09:27mind on whether or not to sign the future Finn Balor. It was after Fergal Devitt had
09:31worked this match that NJPW scouts allegedly got him an offer to attend their dojo, thus
09:36opening the door for him to kick off a legendary and life-changing run for the king of sports.
09:41This was confirmed by Reddit user and former wrestler Nikita Alanov, Soviet shooter, who
09:46added some additional colour.
09:47Holy shit, I didn't know there was actually a decent video of this show floating around.
09:51I worked this show, might have even been the match right after this. Dave Marquez was there
09:55representing NJPW, and the showcase match from the Inoki Dojo was Alex Kozlov vs Tommy
10:01Chang.
10:02As far as I know, Devitt was the only person to get an offer to go to the dojo directly,
10:06but Chad Allegra, Chance Prophet, and myself all got offers to go to the dojo in LA.
10:11And there we go my friends, those were the 10 weirdest mind-blowing wrestling facts
10:14according to Reddit. I hope that you enjoyed that, and please let me know what you thought
10:17about it down in the comments section below. As always, I've been Jools, you can go follow
10:21me over on Twitter at RetroJWithAZero, or you can swing by Live and Let's Dice, where
10:25I do all of my streaming outside of work, and it'd be great to see you over there.
10:28But before I go, I just want to say one thing. I hope that you're treating yourself well
10:31with love and respect, because you deserve all of the best things in life, my friend,
10:35and do not let anything or anyone else tell you otherwise, alright? You are a massive
10:38legend and I want you to go out there and absolutely smash your life goals today. I
10:42believe in ya. As always, I've been Jools, you have been awesome, never forget that,
10:46and I'll speak to you soon. Bye.