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What are some interesting backstage stories you have read or heard throughout the years in the world of wrestling?
- A story I've I see popping up lately on the internet happened way back before WrestleMania 14. The story goes that HBK was suppose to put Austin over at WM 14 but he refused to do it because he famously said to Vince McMahon that he refuses to put anyone over.
The Undertaker who was already pissed off about the Montreal Screwjob as he was on Bret Hart's side in the fiasco and thought HBK was a prima donna. Anyway one day he was taping up his fists in front of HBK and said to him if you don't put Austin over he was going to beat the s**t out of him.
After his match at WM 14 the Undertaker was in the gorilla position with Vince waiting for HBK if he didn't do what was right for business. HBK was scared shitless and did what was best for business and ultimately the Austin Era began.
- In October 1975, a Cessna 310 plane crashed while transporting a promoter and four wrestlers to a match in North Carolina. One of the wrestlers on board was Tim Woods, also known as Mr. Wrestling (presumably because he spent all his imagination on "Mr.").
Woods suffered a concussion, bruised ribs and a compression fracture in his back. But all he could think about as he lay in the wreckage was "This could lead someone to find out that wrestling is fake!"
You see, another wrestler, his archnemesis and scheduled opponent for the evening, Johnny Valentine, was also on the plane. He suffered a back injury so severe that he was paralyzed for life. But what really matters here is that the crash could mean that people might find out they had been traveling together.
Tim Woods was one of the industry's most popular good guys at the time, while Johnny Valentine was a reviled villain. Good guys can't chum around with bad guys -- that would be like Skeletor pedaling a tandem bike with Prince Adam. So while Woods was being rushed to the hospital after surviving a plane crash that killed one man and paralyzed another, the first thing he did was give a different name and lie about who he was (he pretended he was a promoter instead of a wrestler) so as not to ruin the illusion. And that wasn't all.
You see, despite this, rumors still began to circulate that Mr. Wrestling had in fact been in a plane crash with Johnny Valentine, so Woods did the only logical thing: He wrestled two weeks after the crash and acted like his back wasn't broken. You know, to prove he hadn't been on that plane.
Again, two of the four wrestlers on the plane (including Johnny Valentine) were so badly hurt that they never wrestled again, the pilot was killed and the fourth wrestler (who was actually Ric Flair) didn't do another match for six months. Tim Woods had no business doing what basically equates to stunt work before he had completely recovered from the crash, but damn it, the mythology of Mr. Wrestling had to be protected at all costs.
http://www.cracked.com/article_20029_5-insane-true-tales-wrestlers-refusing-to-break-character.html
- A story I've I see popping up lately on the internet happened way back before WrestleMania 14. The story goes that HBK was suppose to put Austin over at WM 14 but he refused to do it because he famously said to Vince McMahon that he refuses to put anyone over.
The Undertaker who was already pissed off about the Montreal Screwjob as he was on Bret Hart's side in the fiasco and thought HBK was a prima donna. Anyway one day he was taping up his fists in front of HBK and said to him if you don't put Austin over he was going to beat the s**t out of him.
After his match at WM 14 the Undertaker was in the gorilla position with Vince waiting for HBK if he didn't do what was right for business. HBK was scared shitless and did what was best for business and ultimately the Austin Era began.
- In October 1975, a Cessna 310 plane crashed while transporting a promoter and four wrestlers to a match in North Carolina. One of the wrestlers on board was Tim Woods, also known as Mr. Wrestling (presumably because he spent all his imagination on "Mr.").
Woods suffered a concussion, bruised ribs and a compression fracture in his back. But all he could think about as he lay in the wreckage was "This could lead someone to find out that wrestling is fake!"
You see, another wrestler, his archnemesis and scheduled opponent for the evening, Johnny Valentine, was also on the plane. He suffered a back injury so severe that he was paralyzed for life. But what really matters here is that the crash could mean that people might find out they had been traveling together.
Tim Woods was one of the industry's most popular good guys at the time, while Johnny Valentine was a reviled villain. Good guys can't chum around with bad guys -- that would be like Skeletor pedaling a tandem bike with Prince Adam. So while Woods was being rushed to the hospital after surviving a plane crash that killed one man and paralyzed another, the first thing he did was give a different name and lie about who he was (he pretended he was a promoter instead of a wrestler) so as not to ruin the illusion. And that wasn't all.
You see, despite this, rumors still began to circulate that Mr. Wrestling had in fact been in a plane crash with Johnny Valentine, so Woods did the only logical thing: He wrestled two weeks after the crash and acted like his back wasn't broken. You know, to prove he hadn't been on that plane.
Again, two of the four wrestlers on the plane (including Johnny Valentine) were so badly hurt that they never wrestled again, the pilot was killed and the fourth wrestler (who was actually Ric Flair) didn't do another match for six months. Tim Woods had no business doing what basically equates to stunt work before he had completely recovered from the crash, but damn it, the mythology of Mr. Wrestling had to be protected at all costs.
http://www.cracked.com/article_20029_5-insane-true-tales-wrestlers-refusing-to-break-character.html
