Andrew Lutzke
This series of articles aim to cover the times when pre-determined professional wrestling matches became all too real. This will not cover stiff shots that were delivered in the course of battle or backstage brawls but true moments when the punches were no longer pulled and shit got real!
Tyree Pride vs. The Vampire Warrior
The Vampire Warrior (better known as Gangrel) was trained for pro wrestling by Boris Malenko. Malenko and Karl Gotch practiced shoot fighting and submission holds during their primes decades earlier and later Malenko infused those same methods into his training camps in order to prep his students for anything. From what I can uncover, Pride did not have any significant combat sport training prior to becoming a wrestler in the early 80’s.
The two men crossed paths at an Indy show in September of 1993 and things unexpectedly got out of hand. Warrior was still green at the time and Pride (who was also promoting the event) seemingly tried to take liberties with the youngster by no selling his offense. Warrior responded by no selling anything Pride tried to do. Pride then attempted to use very real punches to Warrior’s face to get him to sell but Warrior shook them off. Pride then decided to fight again another day and walked off. A few minutes later back in the locker room, Pride came after Warrior with a screwdriver and another scuffle broke out. The police were called and both men ended up detained but no charges were filed.
“Hardwork” Bobby Walker vs. Jerry Saggs
Walker was the nephew of southern wrestling legend “Thunderbolt” Patterson whom he followed into the business in the late 80’s. He would enter WCW in 1992 but found little success. While participating as a jobber in a match with WCW tag team champions The Nasty Boyz, things got out of hand and Saggs attempted to ground Walker and bite at his face. The match went so obviously haywire that the film of the bout was never shown on TV. After the match, Saggs attacked Walker once again in the locker room and agent Blackjack Mulligan was forced to jump in and break the men up.
Chad Austin vs. New Jack
On April Fool’s Day of 1996, Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie were scheduled to compete against the Gangstas at an ECW TV taping. Richards suffered a cracked orbital bone during a previous angle and had to bow out. Chad Austin, a prelim worker, was called in to duty as his replacement. Prior to the match, Austin and Jack were discussing how the match would unfold and Austin rubbed Jack the wrong way by trying to layout a match where he’d get to work like a guy on the Gangstas’ level. Jack would take out his frustrations on Austin during the course of the match by intentionally delivering a stiff chair shot to Austin’s face from the top rope, then taking the chair and cracking Austin’s leg with it five times – the end result being a broken bone in Austin’s leg. Austin and Jack had a previous run in while both were working for Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Austin had fabricated connections to ECW that he really didn’t have and New Jack called him out on his bullshit.
The Nasty Boyz vs. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash
Jerry Saggs had missed some time with a concussion as well as a neck injury, and asked the Outsiders to avoid delivering any chair shots to his head to prevent further issues during their match in January of 1997. Reports differ as to what happened next, but Saggs was hit in the head with a chair from behind. Now enraged, Saggs jumped on Scott Hall and delivered a series of punches that ended with Hall unconscious and suffering from injuries that would result in oral surgery being required. Once things returned to the locker room, Kevin Nash confronted the Nasties in the shower with a baseball bat and vowed that he’d use his stroke to seek revenge. Saggs was fired soon after and he ended up suing WCW for wrongful termination. He won the case but has said the payoff was barely enough to cover the medical bills incurred from the chair shot.
The Great Sasuke vs. The Dirt Bike Kid
The Dirt Bike Kid was a British worker who was became a bit of an Internet darling at one time. He was invited to Japan to participate in a masked man tournament, but immediately rubbed Sasuke the wrong way by talking himself up big as well as removing his mask before the tournament even began. Sasuke taught the Kid a lesson during the match, laying in numerous stiff kicks that ended up breaking DBK’s ribs. The match then ended with Sasuke locking on a very real choke hold until the referee stepped in and put and end to things
Perry Saturn vs. Mike Bell
What was designed to be a simple squash match ended up changing Saturn’s career forever. The match was going along unspectacularly until Bell delivered a pair of sloppy throws that ended up with Saturn landing on his head. At that point Saturn, in his own words, “freaked out” and began to throw some wild punches with bad intentions at Bell. He then tossed Bell out of the ring roughly and Bell took a nasty looking spill onto his head and neck. Things went back to normal after that sequence, but Vince McMahon punished Saturn for this shoot attack and stuck him in endless comedy bits for months on end.
Mickie Knuckles vs. Mike Levy
In a match that took place during the IWA-Mid South Queen of the Death Match tournament in the summer of 2008, the infamous Mickie Knuckles faced off with Mike Levy. Levy was never formally trained as a worker but Ian Rotten booked him anyway as a rib. Knuckles was scheduled to squash him but Levy attempted to get in some offense of his own and stiffed Knuckles with several headbutts and weapon shots. This was done more out of inexperience than malice, but it still infuriated Knuckles.
After the match, workers Tank and Devon Moore ran into the ring and began to rough up Levy. This attack included driving Levy’s face into a metal ladder with alarming force. Ian Rotten then joined in and all three men belittled Levy before Rotten’s son was brought in and allowed to use a Kendo stick on Levy.
Mark “The Hammer” Coleman vs. Shinichi Suzukawa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5E136z7gUM#t=352
Mark Coleman is a MMA legend with big wins in both UFC and Pride Fighting Championship main event battles. Before that he was a top-flight NCAA wrestler who later competed in the Olympics. Unfortunately age caught up with Coleman and he eventually had to walk away from the dangers of real combat. His resume and stardom allowed him to cash in on his name value and work some shots in pro wrestling. This led to the then 45 year Coleman to compete at the Inoki Genome 13 event in September of 2010 against Suzukawa, who had a background in Sumo before being kicked out of the sport for smoking pot.
The match was suppose to end with a Coleman victory but Suzukawa had other ideas. According to Coleman, he was scheduled to win in about three minutes but Suzukawa kept using the ropes to escape from the head vice or choke that was the predetermined finishing move. Coleman added extra pressure eventually to try and force the ending to go off as planned but he ended up gassing himself out in the process and ended up eating some very real blows. Coleman eventually realized that things were out of control, so he waved off the match and walked out. The money he was being paid wasn’t worth getting involved in a full on shoot over.
Next time: Bob Holly the bully, Kurt Angle humbled, Hacksaw Duggan shoots with Doink and more!
