It's no secret rookie wrestlers used to get relentlessly hazed. Where most quietly took it on the chin, others chose to fight back. And we loved every minute of it. Here are the top 10 wrestlers who fought back against hazing.
0:00 - Introduction
1:13 - #10
1:58 - #9
2:50 - #8
3:45 - #7
4:33 - #6
5:33 - #5
6:26 - #4
7:19 - #3
8:20 - #2
9:14 - #1
#WWE #WWETop10
WrestleTalk Podcasts are moving here 👉 https://bit.ly/3pEAEIu
Adam Blampied's lists are moving here 👉 https://bit.ly/32JJsCv
Wrestling Daily has moved here 👉 https://bit.ly/3j3BXOZ
WrestleTalk stays here 👉 https://goo.gl/WfYA12 |
SUBSCRIBE TO THEM ALL! 🔔Make sure to enable ALL push notifications!🔔
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
0:00 - Introduction
1:13 - #10
1:58 - #9
2:50 - #8
3:45 - #7
4:33 - #6
5:33 - #5
6:26 - #4
7:19 - #3
8:20 - #2
9:14 - #1
#WWE #WWETop10
WrestleTalk Podcasts are moving here 👉 https://bit.ly/3pEAEIu
Adam Blampied's lists are moving here 👉 https://bit.ly/32JJsCv
Wrestling Daily has moved here 👉 https://bit.ly/3j3BXOZ
WrestleTalk stays here 👉 https://goo.gl/WfYA12 |
SUBSCRIBE TO THEM ALL! 🔔Make sure to enable ALL push notifications!🔔
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00For the longest time, and in many ways it still is, wrestling was one of those industries
00:03built on a rigid and unwritten series of social traditions. Respect given and earned through
00:08ritual, whether it's shaking the hands of everyone in the room as soon as you arrive
00:12at a show, undercarders helping to put up and take down a ring, all the way to enduring
00:15the ribs or pranks of the veterans. And hey, pranks are fine, then Justin Roberts having
00:20his passport stolen and not giving it back to him so that he missed a flight, that's
00:24not really a prank, that's just you being a dick.
00:26While the wind of change blew through WWE in the 2010s, and we'll get to that, hazing
00:31of newer talent by veterans went unpunished in the company, and hey, to be honest, I wouldn't
00:35want to police a bunch of testosterone giants hopped up on adrenaline and compensating for
00:39professional frustrations by clinging to their last vestiges of social clout either, which
00:43makes it all the sad that I took it till they liked me is how most hazing stories end. Most,
00:48but not all. I'm Adam, hailing from partsFUNknown, and here are 10 WWE wrestlers who fought back
00:53against hazing.
00:55And just before we kick into the list, please subscribe to partsFUNknown, some people who
00:58watch our stuff watch it but don't subscribe, and that's fine in a way. But also, if you
01:04do subscribe, and help us add the numbers to the current number, the big numbers means
01:09we can get money and make content for the numbers.
01:14Number 10, Brock Lesnar. Jesus Christ, why would anyone want to haze a 280 pound amateur
01:18wrestler that looks like the abominable snowman with alopecia? I mean hell, Kurt Hennig tried
01:22to tussle with Brock Lesnar on a plane ride from hell, and the vanilla meat storm tussled
01:25back so hard it almost KILLED EVERYONE. WWE history books are full of Brock giving back
01:30as good as he got, but so far my favourite story I've found during my research was
01:33a fresh-faced Brock Lesnar being summoned to wrestler's court, an unofficial dispensary
01:38of justice for perceived breaches of wrestling etiquette, and Brock allegedly didn't show
01:42up for his court date. When JBL tried to retrieve him, Lesnar simply responded, fuck off. And
01:47fuck off JBL did. Although when Lesnar jumped ship from WWE to the Minnesota Vikings, they
01:52managed to get a successful haze on him, taping his ankles together, dumping water on him,
01:56and having a receiver pin him with a three count.
01:58Number 9, Lio Rush. While the crueler examples of backstage hazing have widely diminished
02:03in the internet age, there's still expectations of newer talent to act subservient, an issue
02:08recently brought to light by Lio Rush, who was having none of it. Last year, Rush took
02:13to Twitter to share an email he privately sent to WWE management in November 2018, which
02:17was around the time he was working as Bobby Lashley's mouthpiece, detailing how an unnamed
02:21WWE colleague took him to one side and told him how it was expected for new talent to
02:26buy beers for veterans, carry coolers off the tour bus, and even carry some of the older
02:30guy's bags for them, to which Rush responded, um, no, that's not my job, which in his
02:36own words, led to a severe amount of heat backstage, with other wrestlers spreading
02:39damaging lies about him and his attitude behind his back. Just an example of how, even in
02:44the modern era, people may not be shitting in each other's food anymore, but failure
02:47to know your role can still hold talent down.
02:50Number 8, Parma Cannon. Ah yes, the first of what will be many entries about how JBL
02:55is not a nice man shots fired. Parma Cannon was an on-screen authority figure in the mid-2000s
03:00who, much like the right to censor before him, was an on-screen parody of meddling network
03:04execs championing for political correctness gone mad. Parma Cannon's initials were PC.
03:11Get it? Do you get it? However, Parma Cannon's WWE career would come to an immediate end
03:17in April 2006 when he walked away from a WWE tour in Italy, flying himself home and demanding
03:23his release from the company. The reason for this? Chris Benoit, JBL, and their constant
03:28wrestlers caught bullshit, including allegedly duct taping him, throwing him in the showers,
03:32and threatening to sexually assault him. And yeah, turns out you don't need to work for
03:36a company that allows that kind of thing to happen backstage, and while it's sad to
03:39see anyone being driven out of a company in that way, fair play to Cannon for deciding
03:42that a decent wage wasn't worth that kind of bullshit.
03:457. Bubba Ray Dudley Another example of wrestling not being real
03:49until someone decides to make it real, by far the most common form of hazing in WWE
03:53was having veterans wrestle newcomers stiff, striking and grappling them harder than they
03:57otherwise would in order to gauge that newcomer's toughness. Because yes, a good way to test
04:01someone's wrestling ability is for Bob Holly to chop them in the throat and see what happens.
04:04In an interview, Bubba Ray Dudley looked back on a time where JBL put him through his paces,
04:08and according to Bubba, Vince had taken Bradshaw to one side and instructed him to quote,
04:12beat the shit out of this kid, which to be fair is exactly what Oli Davis told Luke to
04:16do to me when I first started at WrestleTalk. According to Bubba, JBL started punching him
04:20full in the face for real, so the ECW alumnus returned fire and started painting the Texan
04:24with stiff shots of his own. After the match, Bradshaw said to Vince of the Dudleys, these
04:28kids are gonna be alright, and that's equal parts heartwarming and downright psychotic.
04:336. Ken Shamrock Why would you haze him? Look at him. Look
04:38at him. He looks like eight wolves. He looks like if neck veins gained sentience. He looks
04:42like if Robert De Niro and David Hasselhoff had a baby and that baby grew up in the wilds
04:45of Siberia. This incident happened during Shamrock's time in WWE, but actually dated
04:50back to 1990 in South Atlantic Pro Wrestling, a Carolinas-based promotion. The Nasty Boys,
04:55who were about to leave the promotion for WWE, were in a club with a few guys, including
04:59Shamrock, one of Shamrock's friends, and that friend's girlfriend, whom the Nasty Boys repeatedly
05:03drunkenly grabbed at, despite Shamrock's warnings not to. Later that night, an irate
05:07Shamrock stormed the Nasty Boys' hotel room when Sags hit him from behind with a metal
05:11plate underneath a telephone, before beating the hell out of him and nearly throwing him
05:14over a balcony. Nasty Boys, you're twats. And so the story went for years that Jerry
05:18Sags had beaten up Ken Shamrock, until one fateful day in 1998 when all three men ran
05:23into each other at an airport. WWE guys began to rib Shamrock about the fight, and he flipped
05:28out, challenging the Nasty Boys to a rematch, which both men politely declined before hightailing
05:33it. 5. Scott Hall
05:35Spoiler alert, the moral of this story is, don't mess with Scott Hall. This story dates
05:39back to before Scott's time as Razor Ramon, back when he was working in the AWA in the
05:44late 80s. The details of the incident are that Marty Jannetty, who was riding high in
05:48the AWA as part of the Rockers, checked into a hotel with a friend for the night before
05:51proceeding to trash their room. The only problem was, the name they'd given at hotel check-in
05:56was Scott Hall's. The hotel then proceeded to call the AWA to complain when Scott Hall
06:00got wind of what actually happened. He approached the AWA's booker, Bob Brown, to ask permission
06:05to enact brutal revenge on Jannetty, which was given. Scott Hall proceeded to the locker
06:09room, where he found Jannetty sleeping, and consciousness being no object, rained down
06:13upon him with great vengeance and furious anger. Since he'd only been there for six
06:17months, Hall expected to be fired for the outburst, but was simply told, hey, next time,
06:21do it after the show, because now Marty can't work. Oh, wrestling, you're f***ing terrifying
06:25all of the time. 4. Steve Blackman
06:27And now begins a trilogy of entries that I like to call, JBL F***s Around and JBL Finds
06:33So Bradshaw really enjoyed his role as unofficial policeman in the Fed, prosecuting whenever
06:37wrestlers committed faux pas, breaking in new talent in the ring, and, check's note,
06:42feeling up new talent in the showers. Well, I guess that's tough. Sorry, I guess I don't
06:46really understand tough guys. Bob Holly detailed a story in his book about how JBL's little
06:51habit of goosing his workmates almost cost him big time when he tried against the lethal
06:55weapon Steve Blackman, the toughest man to ever walk around with a block of cheese on
06:59his head. At an airport, a drunk JBL repeatedly patted Blackman on the bottom, to which Steve
07:04responded, and I'm paraphrasing here, kindly refrain, lest you encourage bad news. A few
07:09more pats later, Blackman repeatedly popped JBL in the face until they were broken up,
07:13with Steve threatening to kill JBL and only being placated by JBL apologising to him in
07:18front of the entire locker room. 3. The Blue World Order
07:22Who run the world? Blue. Look, I haven't told this story in a while, so just leave
07:26me alone. One night stand, 2005, and during the closing WWE vs ECW brawl, an intoxicated
07:33JBL repeatedly punched the Blue Meanie for real because JBL is repeatedly a tool for
07:38real. It's generally one of the most egregious and public showcases of someone violently
07:41big-leaguing a talent because they aren't from round here, but oh boy did they make
07:45Bradders pay for it less than a month later on the 7th July 2005 episode of Smackdown,
07:50which by the way was also the episode featuring the terrorist angle that got Muhammad Hasan
07:54ceremoniously sacked, so an all-round great episode of telly. Featured on the card was
07:58a no-DQ match pitting Meanie against JBL's, which saw Stevie Richards avenge Bradshaw's
08:03hazing by cracking him with one of the hardest chair shots we've ever seen, dealing JBL
08:07a whopper concussion, and like, are we supposed to see that as a Yass Queen moment? Because
08:13dude's getting a disciplinary head injury on public telly, it's just like, get an
08:17HR department that works WWE, for f***s sake. 2. Joey Styles
08:22Alright, this one's a pretty feel-good moment. Joey Styles, acclaimed ECW branded
08:26throat destroyer, enthusiastic exclaimer and the father of AJ Styles, knocked down JBL
08:31with a single punch. During WWE's visit to Iraq in 2008 for that year's tribute
08:36to the troops, JBL reportedly spent much of the tour off his ass drunk, and making Joey
08:40Styles' life a living hell. During the plane ride home from Iraq, JBL poured a bucket
08:44of ice over a sleeping Lillian Garcia, it being another unwritten rule of wrestling
08:48etiquette that falling asleep on a plane made you fair game. This, combined with days of
08:52torments saw JBL and Styles get into a shouting match, with wrestlers rushing to pull them
08:56apart. When Bradshaw broke free and rushed Styles, Joey struck him down with a single
09:00punch, which is a George McFly finally taking down Biff kind of movie moment that makes
09:04you wipe away a tear. Apparently Styles gave JBL a black eye that was so visible that on
09:08the next episode of Raw, the 2008 Slammys, JBL wore his hat super low to keep the eye
09:13in shadow. 1. Luchasaurus
09:17Yes despite having a Jurassic gimmick, Luchasaurus has no time for outdated air quotes, traditional
09:22hazing bullshit. Although he wasn't Luchasaurus at the time, instead he'd been going by
09:25the name Judas Devlin in NXT. Devlin was released from NXT in 2014 after an injury, and a few
09:31months later, in early 2015, took it upon himself to blow the whistle on then NXT head
09:36trainer Bill DeMott's brand of army boot camp break-em-to-make-em style of training.
09:40The man currently part of the Jurassic Express shared to Reddit an email he'd previously
09:44sent to WWE's HR detailing just some of DeMott's horrendous treatment of young talent, including
09:49dangerous drills, grabbing an injured Dax Harwood by his neck, ripping a shirt off
09:53the superstar then known as Rusev while he was recovering from neck surgery, and much
09:58more. The post led to a number of other talent coming out with their tales of Performance
10:01Center cruelty, including EC3 tweeting,
10:04A heart can stretch me any day, a know-nothing dipshit slapping me when I'm concussed is
10:08different.
10:09Amidst the scandal, DeMott stepped down as head trainer, and this could be seen as the
10:12symbolic end of the old school ritual of hazing, of mean-spirited violence and torment, dressed
10:17up as rites of passage. Although how much still goes on behind the scenes is anyone's
10:21guess, because wrestling is super weird. It is super weird.
10:26And that's our list. Have we missed any famous examples of wrestlers fighting back
10:30against hazing? Let us know below and don't forget to like and share this video if you
10:33enjoyed it, and make sure you're subscribed to PartsFunKnown for more silly wrestling
10:36content. Jam that Jam.