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Backstage Fights
As the WWE Universe is occasionally reminded, disagreements between Superstars are not always limited to the squared circle, when the cameras are rolling.
Behind the curtains and far away from the public eye, fiery words — and, occasionally, even strikes —have been exchanged among some of the ring’s biggest names, reaching an almost mythical status among members of the WWE Universe over the years.
Through a combination of exclusive interviews and published accounts from the past, WWE.com has surfaced some of the more legendary scuffles and fabled backstage disagreements. Check out these 10 dustups that, at one time or another, enthralled the wrestling world.
For 173 consecutive matches, Goldberg was unbeatable inside a WCW ring. But backstage against an irate Chris Jericho in 2003, the powerhouse was all but humbled in a showdown.
Y2J chronicled the scene in-depth in his second book, the New York Times best-selling “Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps.” According to The Ayatollah of Pen-and-Scroll-ah, Goldberg criticized Jericho’s performance behind his back, and when Jericho confronted him with the accusation, Goldberg growled and grabbed Y2J’s throat.
The self-described “wiry kid from Winnipeg” shoved off Goldberg, the book states, and when the former NFL nose tackle charged for a takedown, Jericho snapped on a front facelock with a leg scissors. After fellow Superstars finally separated the two and cooler heads prevailed, Jericho and Goldberg — whose uneasiness dated back years earlier to WCW, when a brash Jericho mocked the pomp and circumstance of Goldberg’s security-escorted entrance — shook hands and decided they’d keep their fighting to the ring.
While at a SummerSlam commercial shoot in May 2006, former World Champions Booker T and Batista got into a widely reported fistfight. It was a “brutal, bloody, vicious affair” that lasted at least five minutes, according to a day-of WWE.com report quoting WWE’s then-director of TV promotions. Even though the question of who got the upper hand appears to be open for debate, the prevailing belief is that Booker got the better of the exchange.
What can be said with more certainty is that the impetus for the fight had to do with a certain “r” word — respect. In his 2007 autobiography, “Batista Unleashed,” The Animal admitted the commercial-shoot fight involved a breached etiquette on his part: He hadn’t greeted Booker.
“… no matter how I felt, I should have at least been respectful and said ‘hello,’ not acted as if he didn’t exist,” he wrote. “He’s earned respect in this business. I didn’t show it, and I was wrong.”
An interview published by WWE.com days after the fight quoted Booker as saying he harbored no ill will toward Batista, but that he believed the hulking Superstar lacked an appreciation for wrestling’s past.
“There's a lot of us who paved the way in this business for men like Batista,” Booker said, adding later in the interview, “Respect isn’t a right. It’s a privilege.”
The rivalry between “Stone Cold” and Mr. McMahon was a key ingredient in The Attitude Era’s success, but behind the scenes, a professional disagreement between The Texas Rattlesnake and the WWE CEO led to Austin walking out on WWE on June 10, 2002.
On the 2011 DVD “‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time,” Austin owed the self-imposed exile to a combination of “fatigue and frustration,” and longtime friend Jim Ross noted “Stone Cold” was “burning the candle at both ends” during the period in question. Chief among Austin’s concerns was disappointment over how WWE was utilizing him. Austin’s match against Scott Hall at that spring’s WrestleMania X-8, for example, was treated as “just some match on the card,” according to an essay “Stone Cold” penned for the February 2003 edition of Raw Magazine.
Following Austin’s departure in June 2002, WWE and Mr. McMahon publicly acknowledged the situation in what Austin described as “the famous WWE smear campaign.” During an episode of Raw, Mr. McMahon told WWE fans that Austin “owe[d] an apology for walking out on every Superstar in that locker room … to the company he helped build … to each and every one of you, for walking out on you.”
Thankfully, time heals all wounds, and a meeting brokered by J.R. later that year allowed Austin and Mr. McMahon to resolve the matter.
Though the rivalry between The Rock and John Cena never came to blows backstage, theirs was a beef that originated far away from the bright lights of WrestleMania. Most trace the bad feelings back to comments Cena made about The Rock in a podcast interview in 2007 that were later printed by U.K. publication The Sun.
“Associating with sports-entertainment doesn't do much for his acting career,” Cena said. “It only helps out the sports-entertainment audience, so I get why he doesn’t come back. Just don’t [mess] me around and tell me that you love this. That's the only thing that gets me really [ticked] off.”
The Cenation leader further criticized The Rock for appearing infrequently at WWE events. Never one to be left speechless, The Great One responded with an online video in which he accused Cena of competing night in and night out “for the paycheck,” primarily.
Whatever harsh feelings existed between the two subsided by the close of their two-year in-ring rivalry, which culminated at WrestleMania 29. After Cena regained the WWE Title from The Rock, The Great One graciously held The Champ’s hand high, for all to see.
Minds were blown in late August 1995 when news broke that Vader had gotten into a backstage scuffle with Paul Orndorff … and come out on the losing end. The reports were stunning not least of all because of the seven-year age difference and 200-pound size disparity between The Mastodon and the veteran Orndorff, who was nearing retirement and spending less time in the ring and more time behind the scenes.
Stories vary as far as what exactly precipitated the brawl, although several versions — including the one Vader told on a radio show — claim Orndorff was miffed that the three-time WCW Champion had arrived late to a TV taping at Atlanta’s Center Stage. Certain commonalities can be ascertained from various accounts: Vader struck first and “Mr. Wonderful” retaliated in a big way, although the precise number of punches and kicks thrown has been debated.
Vader has since suggested that concern for his job caused him to ease up on Orndorff after the first knockdown. Regardless, it wasn’t long afterward that Vader was removed from WCW’s pay-per-view that September, and by the end of the season, he and WCW parted ways.
Matt Hardy and WWE Hall of Famer Edge brought sports-entertainment to new heights when they, along with tag partners Jeff Hardy and Christian, respectively, reinvented the Ladder Match in WWE. Yet, the Hardy-Edge relationship is probably best remembered for the deeply personal overtones of their rivalry that transfixed the WWE Universe in 2005.
As detailed on the 2012 DVD release “You Think You Know Me? The Story of Edge,” the backstage hostility began when Hardy was injured and his then-girlfriend, the groundbreaking Diva Lita, began traveling on the road with Edge. As Lita and The Rated-R Superstar’s relationship went from platonic to romantic, the bad feelings between Hardy and Edge grew and eventually fell into the public eye.
Around this time, Hardy was released from WWE, only to return months later with a heated grudge against Edge. In a scenario that had the WWE Universe wondering if sports-entertainment was imitating life, or vice-versa, Hardy and Edge embarked on an explosive in-ring rivalry, which The Rated-R Superstar would later describe as a “cathartic” experience.
One of the most intriguing rivalries to play out both on- and off-camera during the Monday Night War was the beef between Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff. In his New York Times best-selling “To Be the Man,” “Nature Boy” contended that Bischoff used him to lure big names from WWE in the mid-1990s and that once the WWE expats were in the fold, Flair was relegated to “bit player” status. Subsequent backstage blow-ups between the two only further supported Flair’s theory that Bischoff “seemed to take pleasure in demeaning me,” he wrote.
The rivalry boiled over in April 1998 when Flair opted to attend a family event rather than appearing at WCW Thunder, setting in motion the wheels of litigation. WCW suddenly found itself entangled in legal issues with, arguably, its most enduring Superstar.
By no-showing Thunder, Flair abandoned WCW just as the organization’s war with WWE was kicking into high gear, Bischoff argued in his autobiography, “Controversy Creates Cash.” “He drew a line in the sand, and I felt I had no choice but maintain my position,” Bischoff wrote.
Flair remained off WCW TV until his contract was sorted out later that year. On Sept. 14, after re-signing with WCW, “Nature Boy” returned to Nitro in Greenville, S.C., where he famously aired much of the dirty laundry between him and Bischoff.
Dynamite Kid and Jacques Rougeau were members of two of WWE’s premier tag teams in the 1980s (The British Bulldogs and Fabulous Rougeaus), but a pair of behind-the-scenes run-ins between the two was reportedly sparked by a prank, not competitive spirit.
Details of the instigating incident are conflicting, but one consistency is that Rougeau returned to the locker room to find his clothing tampered with. He reasoned that the Bulldogs, infamous “ribbers,” were to blame, but Dynamite insisted he wasn’t involved, and taking exception to the accusation, he struck Jacques while Rougeau was playing cards.
Rougeau took his time getting back. Weeks later, at a WWE event in Indiana, he loaded his fist with a roll of quarters — a trick taught to him by his father, wrestler Jacques Rougeau Sr. — and slugged Dynamite with an admitted sucker punch, he told WWE.com. In his autobiography, “Pure Dynamite,” Dynamite remembers Rougeau wearing brass knuckles. Either way, both parties were impressed by his fortitude.
“I heard the crunch as four teeth went there and that,” Dynamite wrote. “That first shot knocked me dizzy, but I still managed to think.”
“Any other guy would’ve been knocked out,” Rougeau recounted.
As is the case with most locker room brawls, the two fighters were separated by their peers, including Dynamite ally Bad News Brown, before things could get any further out of hand.
In 2000, one minor league’s misguided attempt to spread word about its exploits spiraled out of control. The conflict occurred between Extreme Championship Wrestling and Xtreme Pro Wrestling, a fledgling California-based group that gained notoriety by knocking off ECW’s hardcore style.
The inter-promotional showdown occurred at Los Angeles’ Grand Olympic Auditorium, the site of Heat Wave 2000, ECW’s first pay-per-view on the West Coast. Several XPW personalities bought ringside seats for the event with the stated purpose of innocently wanting to grow brand awareness, not interrupt the card. As the show unfolded, however, the local competitors’ presence served to distract fans and irritate individuals in ECW’s double-tough locker room, many of whom perceived the outsiders’ arrival as a sign of disrespect.
Just prior to Heat Wave’s main event, the XPW wrestlers caused a ruckus and were ejected from the building. Assisting in their removal was the bulk of the ECW locker room, including the 500-pound-plus Sal E. Graziano. The ECW Originals, evidently, had grown weary of the minor leaguers’ tactics and saw to it that the invaders would disrupt the pay-per-view no more.
By mid-1997, the relationship between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels was known to be tense, but WWE fans attending Raw in Hartford, Conn., on June 9 likely had no clue that tempers between the two had flared so much that “Hit Man” and HBK would exchange blows off-camera, as ended up happening that night.
Weeks prior, Michaels stoked Hart’s ire with the infamous “Sunny days” comment on Raw, a thinly veiled implication that Hart had an extramarital relationship with the Diva named Sunny. Although a Hart-Michaels match scheduled for that year’s King of the Ring on June 8 had to be cancelled — “Hit Man” pulled out, in part, due to the nagging aftereffects of a knee surgery — the two ended up tangling backstage the very next night.
In his 2007 autobiography “Hit Man,” Hart wrote that he had sought out Michaels in Hartford in order to “straighten him out once and for all,” and upon finding HBK backstage, provoked him with the words, “You got something to say to me?” According to Hart’s account, HBK swung and missed, and “The Excellence of Execution” connected with a punch on the chin.
The fray was broken up quickly, and Hart summed up the brawl as “nothing but a scritch-fight really.” The supposed mild nature of the exchange, however, didn’t stop the WWE hotline from enticing Raw viewers to call in to hear the inside scoop.
Behind the curtains and far away from the public eye, fiery words — and, occasionally, even strikes —have been exchanged among some of the ring’s biggest names, reaching an almost mythical status among members of the WWE Universe over the years.
Through a combination of exclusive interviews and published accounts from the past, WWE.com has surfaced some of the more legendary scuffles and fabled backstage disagreements. Check out these 10 dustups that, at one time or another, enthralled the wrestling world.
For 173 consecutive matches, Goldberg was unbeatable inside a WCW ring. But backstage against an irate Chris Jericho in 2003, the powerhouse was all but humbled in a showdown.
Y2J chronicled the scene in-depth in his second book, the New York Times best-selling “Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps.” According to The Ayatollah of Pen-and-Scroll-ah, Goldberg criticized Jericho’s performance behind his back, and when Jericho confronted him with the accusation, Goldberg growled and grabbed Y2J’s throat.
The self-described “wiry kid from Winnipeg” shoved off Goldberg, the book states, and when the former NFL nose tackle charged for a takedown, Jericho snapped on a front facelock with a leg scissors. After fellow Superstars finally separated the two and cooler heads prevailed, Jericho and Goldberg — whose uneasiness dated back years earlier to WCW, when a brash Jericho mocked the pomp and circumstance of Goldberg’s security-escorted entrance — shook hands and decided they’d keep their fighting to the ring.
While at a SummerSlam commercial shoot in May 2006, former World Champions Booker T and Batista got into a widely reported fistfight. It was a “brutal, bloody, vicious affair” that lasted at least five minutes, according to a day-of WWE.com report quoting WWE’s then-director of TV promotions. Even though the question of who got the upper hand appears to be open for debate, the prevailing belief is that Booker got the better of the exchange.
What can be said with more certainty is that the impetus for the fight had to do with a certain “r” word — respect. In his 2007 autobiography, “Batista Unleashed,” The Animal admitted the commercial-shoot fight involved a breached etiquette on his part: He hadn’t greeted Booker.
“… no matter how I felt, I should have at least been respectful and said ‘hello,’ not acted as if he didn’t exist,” he wrote. “He’s earned respect in this business. I didn’t show it, and I was wrong.”
An interview published by WWE.com days after the fight quoted Booker as saying he harbored no ill will toward Batista, but that he believed the hulking Superstar lacked an appreciation for wrestling’s past.
“There's a lot of us who paved the way in this business for men like Batista,” Booker said, adding later in the interview, “Respect isn’t a right. It’s a privilege.”
The rivalry between “Stone Cold” and Mr. McMahon was a key ingredient in The Attitude Era’s success, but behind the scenes, a professional disagreement between The Texas Rattlesnake and the WWE CEO led to Austin walking out on WWE on June 10, 2002.
On the 2011 DVD “‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin: The Bottom Line on the Most Popular Superstar of All Time,” Austin owed the self-imposed exile to a combination of “fatigue and frustration,” and longtime friend Jim Ross noted “Stone Cold” was “burning the candle at both ends” during the period in question. Chief among Austin’s concerns was disappointment over how WWE was utilizing him. Austin’s match against Scott Hall at that spring’s WrestleMania X-8, for example, was treated as “just some match on the card,” according to an essay “Stone Cold” penned for the February 2003 edition of Raw Magazine.
Following Austin’s departure in June 2002, WWE and Mr. McMahon publicly acknowledged the situation in what Austin described as “the famous WWE smear campaign.” During an episode of Raw, Mr. McMahon told WWE fans that Austin “owe[d] an apology for walking out on every Superstar in that locker room … to the company he helped build … to each and every one of you, for walking out on you.”
Thankfully, time heals all wounds, and a meeting brokered by J.R. later that year allowed Austin and Mr. McMahon to resolve the matter.
Though the rivalry between The Rock and John Cena never came to blows backstage, theirs was a beef that originated far away from the bright lights of WrestleMania. Most trace the bad feelings back to comments Cena made about The Rock in a podcast interview in 2007 that were later printed by U.K. publication The Sun.
“Associating with sports-entertainment doesn't do much for his acting career,” Cena said. “It only helps out the sports-entertainment audience, so I get why he doesn’t come back. Just don’t [mess] me around and tell me that you love this. That's the only thing that gets me really [ticked] off.”
The Cenation leader further criticized The Rock for appearing infrequently at WWE events. Never one to be left speechless, The Great One responded with an online video in which he accused Cena of competing night in and night out “for the paycheck,” primarily.
Whatever harsh feelings existed between the two subsided by the close of their two-year in-ring rivalry, which culminated at WrestleMania 29. After Cena regained the WWE Title from The Rock, The Great One graciously held The Champ’s hand high, for all to see.
Minds were blown in late August 1995 when news broke that Vader had gotten into a backstage scuffle with Paul Orndorff … and come out on the losing end. The reports were stunning not least of all because of the seven-year age difference and 200-pound size disparity between The Mastodon and the veteran Orndorff, who was nearing retirement and spending less time in the ring and more time behind the scenes.
Stories vary as far as what exactly precipitated the brawl, although several versions — including the one Vader told on a radio show — claim Orndorff was miffed that the three-time WCW Champion had arrived late to a TV taping at Atlanta’s Center Stage. Certain commonalities can be ascertained from various accounts: Vader struck first and “Mr. Wonderful” retaliated in a big way, although the precise number of punches and kicks thrown has been debated.
Vader has since suggested that concern for his job caused him to ease up on Orndorff after the first knockdown. Regardless, it wasn’t long afterward that Vader was removed from WCW’s pay-per-view that September, and by the end of the season, he and WCW parted ways.
Matt Hardy and WWE Hall of Famer Edge brought sports-entertainment to new heights when they, along with tag partners Jeff Hardy and Christian, respectively, reinvented the Ladder Match in WWE. Yet, the Hardy-Edge relationship is probably best remembered for the deeply personal overtones of their rivalry that transfixed the WWE Universe in 2005.
As detailed on the 2012 DVD release “You Think You Know Me? The Story of Edge,” the backstage hostility began when Hardy was injured and his then-girlfriend, the groundbreaking Diva Lita, began traveling on the road with Edge. As Lita and The Rated-R Superstar’s relationship went from platonic to romantic, the bad feelings between Hardy and Edge grew and eventually fell into the public eye.
Around this time, Hardy was released from WWE, only to return months later with a heated grudge against Edge. In a scenario that had the WWE Universe wondering if sports-entertainment was imitating life, or vice-versa, Hardy and Edge embarked on an explosive in-ring rivalry, which The Rated-R Superstar would later describe as a “cathartic” experience.
One of the most intriguing rivalries to play out both on- and off-camera during the Monday Night War was the beef between Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff. In his New York Times best-selling “To Be the Man,” “Nature Boy” contended that Bischoff used him to lure big names from WWE in the mid-1990s and that once the WWE expats were in the fold, Flair was relegated to “bit player” status. Subsequent backstage blow-ups between the two only further supported Flair’s theory that Bischoff “seemed to take pleasure in demeaning me,” he wrote.
The rivalry boiled over in April 1998 when Flair opted to attend a family event rather than appearing at WCW Thunder, setting in motion the wheels of litigation. WCW suddenly found itself entangled in legal issues with, arguably, its most enduring Superstar.
By no-showing Thunder, Flair abandoned WCW just as the organization’s war with WWE was kicking into high gear, Bischoff argued in his autobiography, “Controversy Creates Cash.” “He drew a line in the sand, and I felt I had no choice but maintain my position,” Bischoff wrote.
Flair remained off WCW TV until his contract was sorted out later that year. On Sept. 14, after re-signing with WCW, “Nature Boy” returned to Nitro in Greenville, S.C., where he famously aired much of the dirty laundry between him and Bischoff.
Dynamite Kid and Jacques Rougeau were members of two of WWE’s premier tag teams in the 1980s (The British Bulldogs and Fabulous Rougeaus), but a pair of behind-the-scenes run-ins between the two was reportedly sparked by a prank, not competitive spirit.
Details of the instigating incident are conflicting, but one consistency is that Rougeau returned to the locker room to find his clothing tampered with. He reasoned that the Bulldogs, infamous “ribbers,” were to blame, but Dynamite insisted he wasn’t involved, and taking exception to the accusation, he struck Jacques while Rougeau was playing cards.
Rougeau took his time getting back. Weeks later, at a WWE event in Indiana, he loaded his fist with a roll of quarters — a trick taught to him by his father, wrestler Jacques Rougeau Sr. — and slugged Dynamite with an admitted sucker punch, he told WWE.com. In his autobiography, “Pure Dynamite,” Dynamite remembers Rougeau wearing brass knuckles. Either way, both parties were impressed by his fortitude.
“I heard the crunch as four teeth went there and that,” Dynamite wrote. “That first shot knocked me dizzy, but I still managed to think.”
“Any other guy would’ve been knocked out,” Rougeau recounted.
As is the case with most locker room brawls, the two fighters were separated by their peers, including Dynamite ally Bad News Brown, before things could get any further out of hand.
In 2000, one minor league’s misguided attempt to spread word about its exploits spiraled out of control. The conflict occurred between Extreme Championship Wrestling and Xtreme Pro Wrestling, a fledgling California-based group that gained notoriety by knocking off ECW’s hardcore style.
The inter-promotional showdown occurred at Los Angeles’ Grand Olympic Auditorium, the site of Heat Wave 2000, ECW’s first pay-per-view on the West Coast. Several XPW personalities bought ringside seats for the event with the stated purpose of innocently wanting to grow brand awareness, not interrupt the card. As the show unfolded, however, the local competitors’ presence served to distract fans and irritate individuals in ECW’s double-tough locker room, many of whom perceived the outsiders’ arrival as a sign of disrespect.
Just prior to Heat Wave’s main event, the XPW wrestlers caused a ruckus and were ejected from the building. Assisting in their removal was the bulk of the ECW locker room, including the 500-pound-plus Sal E. Graziano. The ECW Originals, evidently, had grown weary of the minor leaguers’ tactics and saw to it that the invaders would disrupt the pay-per-view no more.
By mid-1997, the relationship between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels was known to be tense, but WWE fans attending Raw in Hartford, Conn., on June 9 likely had no clue that tempers between the two had flared so much that “Hit Man” and HBK would exchange blows off-camera, as ended up happening that night.
Weeks prior, Michaels stoked Hart’s ire with the infamous “Sunny days” comment on Raw, a thinly veiled implication that Hart had an extramarital relationship with the Diva named Sunny. Although a Hart-Michaels match scheduled for that year’s King of the Ring on June 8 had to be cancelled — “Hit Man” pulled out, in part, due to the nagging aftereffects of a knee surgery — the two ended up tangling backstage the very next night.
In his 2007 autobiography “Hit Man,” Hart wrote that he had sought out Michaels in Hartford in order to “straighten him out once and for all,” and upon finding HBK backstage, provoked him with the words, “You got something to say to me?” According to Hart’s account, HBK swung and missed, and “The Excellence of Execution” connected with a punch on the chin.
The fray was broken up quickly, and Hart summed up the brawl as “nothing but a scritch-fight really.” The supposed mild nature of the exchange, however, didn’t stop the WWE hotline from enticing Raw viewers to call in to hear the inside scoop.
Doink The Clown (Matt Borne) Dead At 56
"Maniac" Matt Borne, the second-generation star who funnelled his own personal issues into the twisted Doink the Clown character in the WWF, has died. He was 56 years old.He was apparently found dead this morning by his girlfriend in their Plano, Texas home.
Matt Wade Osborne, who was born July 27, 1957 in Oregon, was the son of "Tough" Tony Borne, a star in the Pacific Northwest and Texas.
Matt was a high school wrestler who began slowly making his way into Portland Wrestling as a professional.
Under the "Maniac" Matt Borne, he wrestled in numerous places. In WCW, he was Big Josh, a lumberjack.
But it's his role as Doink the Clown in the WWE that always seemed closest to his heart -- and his real personality.
It was based partly upon his upbringing, and his relationship with "Moondog" Lonnie Mayne.
In 1994, Borne recalled the initial meeting with WWF boss Vince McMahon about the character: "Vince just asked me, 'What was it like growing up in the business for you?' I told him about Lonnie, how Lonnie had such a big impact on me when I was a kid. He was always pulling practical jokes in the locker room, and locking guys' cowboy boots together and this and that. I was just a little kid sitting there watching that. Heck, I would start doing it ... then they'd came back and find out it was me and they wanted to kill me. It was okay if one of their comrades did it, but here's this little 10, 11-year-old kid doing it. They wanted to kill me! But I just wanted to be one of them."
Eventually he would be.
First, Borne went to Portland State University, and helped his father manage an apartment building he owned. One of his neighbors was Jesse Ventura and his wife Terri, and they became good friends.
"I'd go over there every night and sit and watch Saturday Night Live with him, have a beer and party a little bit with him. Him and Terri and I, it became a regular thing," recalled Borne. "When Jesse would get home from wherever he was working, he'd call me and say, 'Matt, what are you doing?' So I'd go over there and we'd hang out. I didn't know what the heck I wanted to do. I was going to Portland State and I was in my third year of college. Heck, I decided that I wanted to start wrestling. My dad, he didn't try to discourage me, but just didn't want me to ... he wanted to make sure that it was really in my heart. So, he waited and waited and I kept hounding him."
Roddy Piper encouraged him.
"When I started, Roddy Piper just came in the Portland area and we became friends, and kind of took me under his wing. A lot guys, the oldtimers back then, they'd see a second-generation wrestler come in, they'd automatically think 'here's another guy that wants it on a silver plater' -- which I never did, but I had a lot of negative things that I had to deal with ..."
Once Matt Borne was finally in a professional ring, things moved quickly.
"Hell, I only got in the ring and did a few things maybe two, three times when Don Owen booked me in a tag match with my dad on December 9, 1978."
Tony Borne once shared his thoughts on his son becoming a pro wrestler. "I tried to get him to stay in college. He went down to Southern Oregon. I tried to get him to stay in college. He called me one day and said, 'Dad, I want to be a wrestler. I want to do it now. If you help me get in to the business, okay. But if you don't, I'm going to try to get into it myself,'" Borne remembered. "Matt was a very good amateur wrestler. He was a better amateur wrestler than I was. I picked up the phone and called Don Owen. I said, 'Book me and my son in some team matches.' Because at this time, I had more or less slacked off from wrestling. I would wrestle once in a while when Don needed someone to fill in.Matt could laugh about his debut: "It was my very first match. I think I needed his guidance just a little bit. I was by no means ready to have a match ... I just froze out there so many times. But I got through it."
Tony Borne had the connections and soon Matt Borne was out of Portland, learning his trade abroad. One spot was in Dallas, Texas, for World Class.
One Texas program had Al Perez, with Gary Hart (the booker) in his corner, dueling with Matt Borne, who eventually brought in his father.
"We would have great matches, hour Broadways all the time. We went an hour one night with my dad in one corner and Gary Hart in his corner. The timing of it was perfect. When that hour was up, the bell rang. Gary and my dad each asked for 15 more minutes. This was in the heat of the summer. I looked at Al, I'm going, 'Holy shit' because I just lost 10 pounds of sweat in that hot Sportatorium. But we kicked. I was in my prime and so was he. We went 15 more minutes. We went an hour and 15 minutes, and we got a standing ovation. The place was packed, and everyone in that place stood up. It was believable. We had those people for an hour and 15 minutes. It's a tough thing to do, let alone keep your wind and be able to go, go, go, but to have the people with you too! That's probably the best match I ever had, with Al Perez."
When Frank Goodish, a.k.a. Bruiser Brody, had the book in Dallas, he would push his friend, Matt Borne. "Brody and I were really good friends. Heck, I couldn't believe it. Every TV taping, it was like the Bruiser Brody and Matt Borne hour. He took care of his own business because he wanted his overseas stuff keep strong, so he pushed himself. And he always pushed the hell out of me too. It was unbelievable."
Also in Dallas, Matt Borne was in a championship tag team with Buzz Sawyer.
It "could have transpired into a great tag team," admitted Borne. "If we each could have been a little more mature and diplomatic and level-headed and this and that. We had the psychology down. But we just always butted heads outside the ring and it always carried over. I have to say, usually mostly on his part because he would be this dick, like he was going to outshine me instead of working with me. Buzz was a phenomenal worker. He could do things that I couldn't do."
In his efforts to improve and get known, Borne worked in a lot of places, a lot of territories. Sometimes he had to leave quickly, such as in Georgia in the early 1980s, when he and Arn Anderson had formed a tag team that was getting a push, and Borne was accused of a sexual assault.
In Bill Watts' Mid-South/UWF promotion, Borne was a part of the "Rat Pack" with Ted DiBiase Sr. and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. He also made several trips to Japan, Australia, Europe, and even to Egypt to wrestle.
He was even on the first WrestleMania, taking on Ricky Steamboat, whom he had wrestled before in the Mid-Atlantic territory. "At the time, it was just like another show," he said in 2001. "Looking back, I really don't think that I thought about it. I thought it would be like an annual thing, I kind of knew that. I didn't really know exactly where the business was going, I really didn't give it much thought. I knew that Vince was putting everybody out of business, and I felt pretty fortunate that I was able to be on the card. It was the biggest show that I had ever been on up to that point."Nine years later, he would be in a more featured role at a WrestleMania, as Doink the Clown.
But first he had to get through his time in WCW as Big Josh.
"It was different, that's for sure," laughed Borne. "I didn't have a model to go by. I was just given that, asked if I minded changing. I was okay with that because I wanted the job. I was told what it was. So actually I just did what I was told. I really didn't have a chance to give it much thought. Didn't have anybody to role it after, but it was probably actually a great opportunity and a great thing for me as a precursor to me doing Doink, getting out of my own self.
"It was probably good for me to do that Big Josh thing to give me a little testing grounds for something was later to come, which was Doink."
Did Big Josh succeed as much as he could have?
"It's all in the booking and how it's booked. If it had gotten a push, yeah, it could have got over more. Whoever has got the pen in their hand, how much success it could have got, I don't know, I don't know. But whoever has the pen in their hand is in charge and whether something gets over to large degree has something to do with it. Sure, you've got to be able to carry it. Who's in charge is huge in determining that."
As the villainous Doink the Clown in the WWE, beginning in March 1993, he was a featured performer, feuding with Brian "Crush" Adams, Bret Hart and others. Sometimes there were other Doinks, too, including Steve Keirn and Ray Apollo, and midget Tiger Jackson as Dink the Clown.
Borne's drug habits derailed the push though, and he was out of the WWF in late 1993.
Aside from a short stint in ECW, Borne was off the national scene from then on. He kept wrestling independents and appearing at fan fests, helped book in Portland for Sandy Barr, did heavy construction -- whatever it took.
Borne was never shy talking about his his personal isses.
"I put myself through rehab, the White Deer Run in Allenwood, Pennsylvania," he said. "I tried to do it myself, I tried to keep my problems a secret, which is kind of impossible to do when you've got drug problems. But I tried to seek help just myself, try to do it myself, but I just couldn't do it. Finally I just decided I wanted help. I was tired of repeating the same mistakes. I guess I would have some success then I would sabotage myself."
It was a similar story in his personal life, and Borne was married a number of times, with children from multiple relationships. "I hurt a lot of people," he admitted.
Osborne was a regular user of Facebook, and on April 23, 2012 posted, "My children, Anthony, Rena, Teagan and Matthew are the most important people in my life. Being estranged from them is sometime more than I can handle. Not looking for sympathy just cherish your children and their lives."
Friday, June 21, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Nikki Bella's Relationship With John Cena
Nikki Bella recently sat down with TribLive Radio to discuss Total Divas, her relationship with John Cena and her own personal “Twin Magic”.
The former Divas Champion was asked about Total Divas, and she revealed when filming started.
“We started WrestleMania week. Basically, they are going to show our lives inside and outside the ring. You’ll have drama, you’ll have rivalry, you’ll get to see our personal relationships and you are also going to see backstage WrestleMania and never before seen footage of that so that alone is going to be extremely exciting,” Nikki reveals. “I’m just very excited to show the world my life.”
An all-access look at the Divas means nothing is off limits on Total Divas, including Nikki’s high profile relationship with WWE Champion John Cena.
She said: “You will definitely see John and I on the show. You will see us just how we are in our every day lives together so I think the world has been awaiting that. People will finally get to see it and I’m exciting to share it.”
Nikki also reveals for the first time how she and Cena really became a couple.
“The first opening line was, ‘Hey, do you want to go to dinner with me?’ and I was kind of like, ‘WHAT?! With me?!’ When you’re friends with John for so long… It just kind of started out like a dinner date and I have to admit we were friends for so many years but then when you make it romantic, I couldn’t even say a word to him,” Nikki said.
“My face was like on fire. Brie kept teasing me, calling me ‘Hot Cheeks’, and I was like, ‘Brie, shush!’”
Nikki’s breast enhancement (codenamed “Twin Magic”) is also brought up.
She said: “On my time off I went and got my own set of ‘Twin Magic’. If the Bella Twins weren’t enough, I wanted my own twins. ”
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Monday, June 17, 2013
Dolph Ziggler Injured
After suffering a brutal assault at the hands of Alberto Del Rio during their World Heavyweight Championship Match at WWE Payback, it has been determined that Dolph Ziggler is not medically cleared to compete at this time.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Wrestling History: Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake
Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake went to WCW with Hulk Hogan, and after some time as a bad heel he turned into the "Booty-Man" and was accompanied by Kimberley Page before the Nitro Girls were even started.
Friday, June 7, 2013
The hardcore Life Of Mick Foley
Body slams onto tacks. Body slams onto metal steps. Body slams off of (and through) a 20-foot steel cage. But it wasn’t until he became a New York Times best-selling author that the ‘Hardcore Legend’ got mainstream respect outside the wrestling ring.
The book, 1999’s Have a Nice Day, was a shock to anyone with preconceived notions of wrestlers. “Wait a minute,” was the general reaction, “this guy can write?”
And act. And perform. And enthrall a crowd without getting a single chair shot to the head.
The Rock and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin were the undisputed stars of World Wresting Entertainment’s ‘Attitude Era,’ but Mick Foley was its spokesman – an engaging, funny and unconventional personality who tapped into the new generation of wrestling fans’ hunger for what went on behind the scenes. The book stunned everyone, including Foley, when it topped the Times’ nonfiction bestseller list.
“In 1999 i was looking at the end of my career, having no idea what I might do after that, and the book opened a lot of doors,” says Foley, who appears Saturday (noon to 4 p.m.) at this weekend’s Niagara Falls Comic Con. “It brought a sense of closure to my career … and it was a towering achievement just to sit down and do it by hand, and do it in a way people found enjoyable.”
Foley’s book wasn’t just a personal milestone, it was a turning point for the wrestling industry. With precise, often hilarious detail, Foley took fans into the stories behind the stories – the backstage drama, the real-life issues between wrestlers, the things that happened when the cameras turned off. Its huge success inspired other wrestlers to crank out their own books, though few could compare.
“And I apologize for that,” cracks Foley. “Actually it’s a good thing, because so many other wrestlers had stories to tell, and I’m sure all of them feel good just having it on the shelf, whether or not they made money.”
Foley’s bestseller days weren’t over. The follow-ups Foley is Good and The Hardcore Diaries also did well, prompting Foley to write fiction (Tietam Brown, Scooter) and even children’s books.
The books led to public speaking (not standup, Foley wants to clarify), where he discusses his life on the college circuit. Then, of course, there are fan conventions, where Foley signs everything from action figures to books to pictures of his bloody mug after any number of gruesome matches.
One match stands out, however. The one fans can’t get enough of. Foley has talked plenty about that night in Pittsburgh in 1998 … at least what he remembers. They don’t call it the night that changed everything for nothing.
During a Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker, Foley was determined to make history. With the match barely underway, and the two rivals fighting on top of the cage, Foley was tossed 22 feet onto the announcer’s table below. The crowd was stunned, the announcers terrified. “As God is my witness, he is broken in half,” yelped Jim Ross.
What happened next secured Foley’s place in the hearts of wrestling fans forever. As he was being stretchered up the ramp, Foley – with a dislocated shoulder – broke free and climbed the cage again to resume the match. Minutes later, in a spot he wasn’t prepared for, Foley was chokeslammed through the steel cage onto the mat below, capped by a steel chair falling on his face. He blacked out for a moment, shook it off, then continued the match in a daze. Now with a dislocated jaw and loose tooth hanging beneath his nose, Foley’s night ended when the Undertaker slammed him onto thousands of thumbtacks.
He lost, but it didn’t matter. Foley became a legend overnight.
“I don’t know what it was that got me to my feet,” he says. “The logical conclusion would have been to call it a night, especially after that second time. No one would have thought less of me, but at the same time no one would be asking me about the match.”
"WWE’s changed (now), and the match would have been called immediately. But in that case I was the beneficiary of the circumstances that surrounded me.”
Perhaps trying to top it, Foley had another infamously brutal match against The Rock the next year. Refusing to say the words ‘I quit’ which would end the match, Rock blasted Foley with 11 unprotected chair shots, opening up a gruesome gash on his head. The match was included in the wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat, which shows Foley’s family in the audience in tears.
Even Foley thought it went too far.
“It’s really not a fun match,” he says. “It’s not something you gather your friends around (to watch). If the Hell in a Cell match turns people into fans, the I Quit match kinda turns people off from it. It’s too barbaric.”
“It didn’t seem that excessive at the time. But geez, watching my family, it certainly was.”
These type of matches are forbidden in today’s more safety-conscious WWE, which has many fans clamouring for the Attitude Era (roughly 1997 to 2002) to return. But Foley says there’s plenty to like about the new generation of wrestlers.
“The new era forces people to be more creative,” he says. The Attitude era’s biggest problem, he adds, were wrestlers trying to be shocking because everyone else was doing it.
“I’m glad I was part ot it, and it was a very creative time because you had so many guys hitting their stride at the same time. But memory is selective, and there was a lot of stuff that was unnecessary as well.”
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
King Of The Ring
WWE King of the Ring Winners
The King of the Ring was a tournament prior to going on PPV here are the results from 1985-1991:
1985 King of the Ring: Don Muraco
1986 King of the Ring: Harley Race
1987 King of the Ring: Randy Savage
1988 King of the Ring: Ted DiBiase
1989 King of the Ring: Tito Santana
1990 King of the Ring: No Event
1991 King of the Ring: Bret Hart
The King of the Ring become an official WWE PPV from 1993-2002 , making a brief return in recent years:
1993 King of the Ring: Bret Hart
1994 King of the Ring: Owen Hart
1995 King of the Ring: Mabel
1996 King of the Ring: Steve Austin
1997 King of the Ring: Triple H
1998 King of the Ring: Ken Shamrock
1999 King of the Ring: Billy Gunn
2000 King of the Ring: Kurt Angle
2001 King of the Ring: Edge
2002 King of the Ring: Brock Lesnar
The King of the Ring held the last annual PPV in 2002.
2006 King of the Ring: Booker T
The King of the Ring returned in 2006 and a series of matches took place over several weeks leading up to Judgement Day '06.
2008 King of the Ring: William Regal
The 2008 King of the Ring was broadcast during a 3 hour RAW
2010 King of the Ring: Sheamus
The 2010 King of the Ring was broadcast during a 3 hour RAW
Adam's Wrestling: Poll Closed: King Of The Ring... Triple H: So the poll is closed. The results are in. The greatest King Of The Ring is officially Triple H
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Wrestling History
Bret Hart Wins The WWF Championship Belt!
Lex Lugar and Razor Ramon don't look very happy lol.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Crowd Member At 5-27 Raw Punched Security
John Cena taking on Curtis Axel during the main event of the May 27 edition of Raw wasn’t what caught the attention of fans in attendance and watching on TV.
Two fans who were at the event told EWrestlingNews.com that security guards escorted four members of the crowd from Calgary, Alberta’s Scotiabank Saddledome in Canada. Both fans maintain that one of these fans punched a security guard in the face.
While this was going on in the background, Axel yelled, “I’m the one you’re supposed to be paying attention to!” WWE cameras kept their focus away from the area of the crowd where this was seemingly happening.
One fan said, “During the main event security went up to talk to them and next thing I saw was one of them punch the security guard in the face. Within seconds there was about 15 security guards and a few cops there.”
Another fan said, “All I ended up seeing was a tidal wave of security rush over to the area, then I saw them get about 4 people out of there. There was one little guy who absoultely decked a security guard in the face.”
Two fans who were at the event told EWrestlingNews.com that security guards escorted four members of the crowd from Calgary, Alberta’s Scotiabank Saddledome in Canada. Both fans maintain that one of these fans punched a security guard in the face.
While this was going on in the background, Axel yelled, “I’m the one you’re supposed to be paying attention to!” WWE cameras kept their focus away from the area of the crowd where this was seemingly happening.
One fan said, “During the main event security went up to talk to them and next thing I saw was one of them punch the security guard in the face. Within seconds there was about 15 security guards and a few cops there.”
Another fan said, “All I ended up seeing was a tidal wave of security rush over to the area, then I saw them get about 4 people out of there. There was one little guy who absoultely decked a security guard in the face.”
Ryback Should Be WWE Champion!
Ryback should have been the WWE Champion at Extreme Rules...
Cena couldn't get to his feet and Ryback walked away...
in a LAST MAN STANDING MATCH!
Cena couldn't get to his feet and Ryback walked away...
in a LAST MAN STANDING MATCH!
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