Stand FACT: More and More Useless Wrestling Facts, Stats and Trivia Tidbits.

Brian Damage

Here we go again! Another round of completely useless pro wrestling facts to entertain and educate. Sure, some of these facts are well known and some may not be so much. In any case, they are all in good fun. So let’s start learning…or not.

Brock Lesnar winning the WWE title on January 1st, 2022 makes him the 5th wrestler to win the championship in three different decades. They are Hulk Hogan (1984, 1991 & 2002) The Rock (1998, 2000 & 2013) Triple H (1999, 2000 & 2016) Randy Orton (2007, 2010 & 2020) Brock Lesnar (2002, 2014 & 2022)

Nick Campofreda was a former pro football player turned pro wrestler. He wrestled from 1936 until 1944. After retiring from wrestling, Campofreda returned to football to become a coach. He was hired and became a member of the very first coaching staff of the Baltimore Colts in 1947.

There is a high school stadium named after wrestling legend George ‘the Animal’ Steele aka Jim Myers in Madison Heights, Michigan.

The Funk family are originally from Hammond, Indiana…not Amarillo, Texas

AEW star Darby Allin once appeared on a TLC channel reality show called, ‘Sex Sent Me to the ER.’ His story was he had sex in the woods with a woman and accidentally rolled onto a bees nest. Allin would later admit he made up the story.

Harley Race defended his NWA world title against ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes in New York City’s Madison Square Garden on a WWF show on December 17th, 1979. Vince McMahon Jr. did play by play for the match.

On the heels of the success of the WWF’s ‘The Wrestling Album’ which had WWF wrestlers singing songs and launched the Rock N Wrestling Era….came the ‘Wrestling Rocks’ Album in 1985. It was put out by Rhino Records and featured the likes of Jerry Lawler, Adrian Street and Jimmy Valiant among others.

Bronson Rechsteiner aka NXT champion Bron Breakker is a playable football player in the Madden ’21 video game.

Diamond Dallas Page received a WWF tryout as an announcer in 1990. He worked alongside ‘Lord’ Alfred Hayes.

‘The Nature Boy’ Buddy Rogers once had his own line of booze. It was sold in his liquor store/Lounge.

The very first Royal Rumble was held on October 4th, 1987 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, Missouri. It featured just 12 wrestlers and was won by the One Man Gang.

In June of 1994, a 16 year old Jeff Hardy wrestled Razor Ramon on Monday Night Raw under the ring name of ‘Keith Davis.’ Jeff was a last minute substitute for the real Keith Davis who no showed the show.

Seamstresses Terry Anderson and Julie Youngberg are credited for coming up with the pink and black color scheme the Hart family would make famous in wrestling. To this day, they still create outfits for Natalya.

In the year 2000, the WCW World Heavyweight title changed hands 20 times and was vacated a total of 6 times.

Christian Cage was involved in the main event for WWE, Impact and AEW in 2021.

In 1986, Big John Studd had his own line of multi-vitamins.

Steve Austin legally changed his name twice. He was born Steve Anderson and then changed it to Steve Williams to honor his stepfather and in 2007, legally changed it to Steve Austin.

Despite being a top star with WCW for 7 years…Hulk Hogan only competed in 3 Starrcades (WCW’s top pay per view). He had a losing record of 1 win and 2 losses.

The term “Pencil Neck Geek” originated while Fred Blassie wrestled on the carnival circuit in the 1930’s. It came from an individual he knew and considered a carnival geek who bit the heads off of live chickens and had a slender neck. The term stuck and has been used all over the country and outside of the wrestling business for years.

AEW’s Cody Rhodes and Frankie Kazarian have their own line of cigars called ‘American Rebel’ Cigars.

Andre the Giant was the co founder and owner of one of Canada’s top promotions called Lutte Internationale. He owned it from 1980 until 1984.

Trish Stratus holds the record for fastest WWE Women’s title defense against Nidia at just 4 seconds. It happened on July 5th, 2004.

CM Punk has a total of 52 tattoos all over his body. His most famous is the Pepsi logo on his shoulder. While Punk is a fan of the soda, he wears it more to signify his straight edge lifestyle. While others usually tattoo their favorite brand of alcohol on themselves…Punk chose Pepsi instead of beer or whiskey.

Beth Phoenix is a classically trained pianist and also plays guitar. She debuted her first album in November of 2021 called ‘Stone Rose and Bone.’

WWE’s Veer Mahaan is a former pitcher who was in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. A movie called ‘Million Dollar Arm’ was based on his life and baseball career.

Wrestlemania III was not the first time the WWF held a show at the Pontiac Silverdome. Their first venture happened on July 19th, 1986. The main event saw Hulk Hogan defend the WWF title against Don Muraco in front of 22,000 fans in attendance.

Ricky Steamboat’s brother Vic Steamboat briefly competed in the WWF under the name ‘Jesse Bolt.’

Bob Backlund’s second and last WWF title reign in 1994 only lasted three days. Before losing the title to Diesel at Madison Square Garden….Backlund actually successfully defended the title once at a house show against ‘The British Bulldog’ Davey Boy Smith.

Jerry Lawler created the tag team of Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson aka The Rock N Roll Express in 1983 for the Memphis territory. The main reason for their formation, was to fill dates on shows that the then very popular Fabulous Ones couldn’t make. The Rock N Roll Express eventually became a lot more popular.

Legendary singer Elvis Presley was a big wrestling fan. It was noted that Memphis wrestler ‘Treacherous’ Treach Phillips was his favorite wrestler.

Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger main evented both AAA’s Triplemania and CMLL’s Anniversary shows in Mexico. Both shows are their respective promotion’s premier events.

WWF Victory was the original name of the WWF/WWE magazine back in 1983. After just three issues, the name of the magazine was officially changed to WWF magazine. The last published magazine was in 2014.

Buddy Rogers was crowned the inaugural WWWF world champion by winning a fictitious tournament in Rio De Janiero, Brazil in 1963. The wrestler Rogers supposedly defeated in the finals was Antonino Rocca.

In February of 1995, Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch debuted in the WWF as babyfaces known as ‘Team Spirit.’ Their names remained Chris and Tammy and had a cheerleader gimmick. It would soon change to heel fitness instructors named Skip and Sunny aka The Bodydonnas.

George Washington Kendall was a former pro wrestler/promoter who competed under the name of ‘George Kennedy.’ He would go on to own the Montreal Canadiens hockey team from 1910 until his death in 1921

Prior to SummerSlam ’88 where the Ultimate Warrior squashed the Honkytonk Man for the intercontinental title in a matter of seconds….the WWF tried out the match three times on the house show circuit. Warrior beat Honky on house shows in West Virginia, Rhode Island and Connecticut for the IC title. Each time, the decision was reversed by President Jack Tunney. These were test matches to see the reaction the Ultimate Warrior would receive before committing the title on him for SummerSlam.

Al Snow’s brother Jake Sarven wrestled as ‘Logan Caine’ on the independent scene from 1997 until 2003.

Jim ‘The Anvil’ Neidhart was initially a singles wrestler managed by Mr. Fuji when he debuted in the WWF in January of 1985.

NXT’s Grayson Waller portrayed ‘The Nature Boy’ Ric Flair in the TV show “Young Rock.”

Keiji Mutoh worked a WWF promoted show on January 1st,1985 at Korakuen Hall in Japan. He was defeated by submission against Naoki Sano. The main event saw WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan & Samu battle Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami to a double disqualification.

‘The Macho Man’ Randy Savage’s signature “Oh Yeah” catchphrase was borrowed from ‘King’ Curtis Iaukea. Savage patterned his promo style from Iaukea…who used the “Oh Yeah” saying numerous times.

Max “Paul Bunyan” Palmer is the tallest wrestler in wrestling history. He stood 8 ft 2 inches tall.

Danny Spivey was Bruiser Brody’s scheduled opponent the day Brody was murdered in Puerto Rico. Spivey was also involved in Brody’s very last match which was a tag team encounter between Brody and Carlos Colon versus Spivey and Abdullah the Butcher.

Jimmy Hart’s old band ‘The Gentrys’ got their name after Hart spotted a box of condoms in a bathroom. The condom brand was named Gentry and thought it was a cool name.

The very last ECW event at the ECW Arena took place on December 23rd, 2000. The event was called ‘Holiday Hell’ and featured a main event where Steve Corino retained the ECW title in a Three Way Dance against the Sandman and Justin Credible. The company folded just a couple of months later.

The first ever black wrestler to hold a world championship of any kind was the Jamaican born Frank Crozier. In 1909, Crozier won the world middleweight title in London, England.