What happened to Trytan? TNA's giant prospect

 

He was seemingly gone as quickly as he arrived, but what happened to Trytan, TNA’s prospect in the early days of Impact?

Real name Ryan Wilson, the six foot nine tall Trytan, billed as six eleven began his career in 2001. 

Around the time TNA was getting off the ground, Wilson was wrestling mostly for Nashville based

USA Pro Wrestling, as well as managing a chain of Golds Gym’s in the area. While injured he got to know some

of TNA’s wrestlers who would come to the gym, and that was his way in.

Wilson would serve as a member of Red Shirt security, hired guns working for Jeff Jarrett in a power struggle

with Erik Watt’s and his black shirt security. If you didn’t know already, early TNA was a bit weird sometimes.

After the dissolution of the red shirts, Wilson would disappear off screens in late 2003 following a loss to Raven,

the Sandman and Erik Watts. This would take place in Raven’s own gimmick match, the clockwork Orange House

of Fun.

In 2004 Wilson would wrestle a few dark matches for TNA under a new name, Titus. It seemed though, that

TNA might have big plans for Wilson, under yet another new name. For several weeks in early 2005, TNA aired

cryptic hype videos filled with stock footage and colour gradients. The videos claimed that a man with “superhuman

power from a distant beyond” was coming, which turned out to be a far cry from what we got.

Trytan’s first and only real feud would be with the Alpha Male of TNA, Monty Brown, who was coming off being

a main event level World title challenger in previous months. At Destination X the two would have their only singles

match, in which Wilson didn’t exactly look like a star. At one point he lifted Brown for a press slam, and almost

dropped him at a scary angle, despite just managing to help him land on his back. After about five minutes, as

Monty was going to attempt his Pounce finisher, the lights went out in the Impact zone. When they came back on,

a completely different bloke dressed all in black with a mask on was attacking Brown, who would promptly hit the

pounce on him. Despite this man clearly not being Trytan, Monty would pin him anyway, but the official decision

would be a no contest, as Trytan would be seen skulking up the ramp.

Trytan’s TNA career wouldn’t get too much more impressive from there. He would gain his one and only singles

victory on the following weeks Impact, a two minute victory over Buck Quartermain. While he would begin to

successfully team with Simon Diamond towards the end, Trytan would wrestle just seven matches, and would quietly

disappear by June.

After leaving TNA, Wilson would sign a developmental deal with WWE, which back then meant being shipped off

to Ohio Valley Wrestling. Wrestling this time as Jacob Duncan, Wilson would achieve some success in OVW, even

holding the OVW heavyweight title for fifty days. That same title had not long before him been held by CM Punk in

his stint in WWE developmental.

At times it looked like Wilson might get a chance on the main WWE roster, as he would wrestle a tour of house

shows on the Smackdown brand in Summer 2006, and another for the Raw brand in 2007, but as best I can tell he

never had a televised WWE match. Wilson would continue to wrestle in OVW through 2008, before seemingly

leaving wrestling.

What happened to Ryan Wilson once he left WWE in late 2008? Now Father of three and a manager of a in his

words ‘motorsports place’. He also noted that he had a proper job in medical sales from around 2010 until the

Covid pandemic hit, and that his last involvement in wrestling was around 2008, which is also when he left OVW.

Ryan says he left the wrestling business because despite spending time with Undertaker and Kane who he credits

as positive influences on him, he never got his big break, and so he chose to start a family with his wife when his

contract ended.

Sources:

Two man power trip podcast, February 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqxy8Cli_Do

TNA teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqtBB1MCiE8

Trytan vs Monty Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kLSizUE6IM

Cagematch profile https://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=1776

Words a new Wrestling fan should know

 

In my previous video about the rules of a pro wrestling match, I tried to not use too many inside or wrestling only terms, but here are a few that might be helpful. This isn't going to be a definitive glossary as there's a really good one on wikipedia for that, just some words that are commonly used that a new fan might not know. If you're not a new fan let me know in the comments what words or phrases I've missed that should be in a future part.

Babyface/Heel - A babyface, or face for short refers to a good guy, and a heel is the bad guy. This is similar to the old Westerns clearly defining their heroes and villains by the wearing of white hats and black hats. It's usually easy to tell who the good guy wrestler is, because the adult male fans will hate them just because and for no better reason. ***Admit it lads, we've all boo'ed the top babyface because he wins too much, or because he somehow looks good in jorts, or because you girlfriend has a massive crush on-ahem. Moving on...

The unofficial record for most turns between heel and babyface belongs top the Big Show, who over a thirty year in ring career, turned thirty six times. Them's some pretty worrying mood swings.

Booker - Less common but still around these days, a booker is the person in charge of the creative direction of a wrestling show or promotion, from what actually happens on shows to who is booked on them. Nowadays bigger companies have either a committee or a writing team, but the final say still usually falls with one person in charge, often the wrong person but more on that another day. The creative direction of a promotion is still often referred to by fans as 'booking'. It's even more often referred to as 'bad booking' whether it actually is or not.

Kayfabe - a term that comes from carny speak, kayfabe is an odd word to define. A similar word might be 'canon' as in kayfabe refers to what is being done in storyline or canon terms, rather than backstage or real life. You might use it in such a way as "in kayfabe, Ricochet was badly enough injured that we might never see him again, but in real life he's probably going to the other company for a shitload of money."

Blading - This is one of a few words used to describe the act of a wrestler cutting themselves, usually on the forehead, to draw blood. Other words you might hear include juicing, gigging, getting colour, bashing the bishop, spanking the monkey or choking the chicken. Wait, what were we talking about again? Blood is typically used to add more drama to a wrestling match, though some wrestlers clearly have a kink for it. As the old and slightly cynical adage goes, red equals green, meaning that a blood feud will always draw a paying crowd back to the arenas. Wrestlers will often hide a sharp object or 'blade' somewhere on them, or will be handed it by a referee, and will use it at the opportune time, or if you're reffing a Jon Moxley match, whenever he damn well asks for it so it seems.

Dirt sheet - This used to refer to specific newsletters, which were the primary source for fans to get behind the scenes information, mixed with ridiculous rumours, from inside the business. Nowadays this is a catch all term for the many, many websites that report on inside information usually behind a paywall, the aggregate sites that report on those reports, and the twitter accounts that clickbait the lot of it. Basically, always consider the source, and if they look shifty don't believe them...

Outlaw mudshow - a fairly modern term used by more negative fans and wrestling personalities, often to dismiss anything unusual, comedic or quirky, that doesn't fit traditional standards. While I at first included this to be a sarcastic, there is a serious point to be made here. Please please please, like what you like, and don't hate on other fans for liking what they like. There's too much of that these days, and it just makes everyone dislike each other more than they naturally would. As you delve deeper into wrestling quite frankly, you'll see some mad shit. Some good, some bad, but thats all subjective. Well, nearly all subjective. Some things are universally mocked.

A beginners guide to the rules of Pro Wrestling

This video was inspired by two things. Firstly, my girlfriend (yes, I have one), who recently watched an episode of Smackdown with me and has since become a fan of Cody Rh- I mean wrestling. She knows nothing about it though, and so this was made with her in mind, but if you're not a new fan I've also peppered it with a ton of sarcasm, so I hope you also get something out of it. The other inspiration is that last month marked twenty five years since the first time I saw wrestling and became a fan instantly. So yes, these are the ramblings of an old fan, aimed at a new one, sort of.

The rules of a wrestling match

There are many, many different types of wrestling match with different rules. Some are more traditional while others seem to come from the minds of absolute maniacs. Here are the standard rules of a wrestling match on top of which everything is based.

- The two main ways to win a standard pro wrestling match are pinfall or submission. A pin fall occurs when your opponents shoulders are held down on the ring mat until the referee counts to three. Seemingly, it is also an unwritten rule that wrestlers aren't allowed to break a pin at a one count, as it only seems to happen every time the groundhog see's its shadow.

Pinfalls can be broken by lifting a shoulder off the mat, sometimes helped by a wrestler kicking their legs up, which is where the phrase 'kick out' comes from. A wrestler can also break the count by touching or reaching under the ring ropes, known as a 'rope break'. This can be done with any body part, hand, foot or otherwise, but much like in sex, the tongue is usually more impressive.

The other key way to win, submission, occurs when a wrestler, usually in a hold of some kind, either verbally gives up or repeatedly taps the mat as a sign or surrender, known for short as a 'tap out'. It's most commonly thought that while tap outs existed in other sports, the ECW wrestler Taz innovated them in wrestling. His claim to this is that his finishing hold the katahajime, or the Tazmission, involves him wrapping his arm around the opponents jaw, thus disabling a verbal submission, so there had to be another way of wrestlers admitting defeat. Knowing Taz's reputation for being not the most pleasant man back in his wrestling days, its equally likely that no wrestler wanted to give him the satisfaction that comes from a verbal submission, and so would rather tap.

- Another way to win a wrestling match is by count out. This occurs when a wrestler is outside the ring for longer than the referees count of ten, and is declared the loser. When outside the ring, the referees count can be broken if a wrestler re-enters, and exits the ring again. In most companies the referee will count to ten, but some promotions particularly outside the US, the count can go up to twenty. In Europe this is so that the crowd can have a siesta part way through and not miss anything, because twenty counts feel like a fucking long time.

- The final way a match can end is by disqualification. This typically follows some kind of rule breaking. There are many, many things that a wrestler can be disqualified for, most of which are fairly obvious like low blows, joint manipulation or fish hooking. None of which are as kinky as they sound by the way. A DQ can also happen if a wrestler uses a weapon, sometimes referred to as a 'foreign object', or as we're supposed to say these days, 'international items'. Damn woke brigade.

Outside interference by anyone not officially part of the match will also cause the person on whose behalf they are interfering for to be DQ'd. The last thing to note about DQ's is that if a defending champion gets disqualified, they usually don't lose their title. This is in storyline, a way of ensuring that championships are won and lost fairly, but behind the scenes this is a way of letting a champion loose for whatever reason without taking the belt off them.

This is as the title says, a beginners guide, but if you are a long term fan like me I'd love to know what you think is relevant that I haven't talked about, so please let me know in the comments.

 

Rob Van Dam's bizarre appearance on an NBC kids show in 1999

When Rob Van Dam arrived in WWE in 2001, many used to say that nobody gets higher than RVD. Poor young naive me didn't get the joke at the time, and neither apparently did NBC. This is a story from the June 21st '99 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and it caught my eye because it's an interesting example of how ECW stars might have had some trouble breaking into mainstream media, but also because mid-99 was a tough time for ECW as a whole, with a lot of big changes coming.

According to a New York Post gossip column by Richard Johnson, the Teen NBC show City Guys had just taped an episode with Van Dam as a guest star, only to find out later about his very public personal habits. City Guys was created by Peter Engel, who also created Saved by the Bell, which will become relavent later on.

Johnson writes: "NBC has unwittingly put a pot-head in its squeaky-clean Saturday morning kiddie lineup. Extreme Championship Wrestler Rob Van Dam–who brags about his cannabis consumption and wears a High Times t-shirt in ECW promos". Johnson would later express why this might be controversial, when he adds that "Network insiders say the hire is embarrassing for the show’s producer, Peter Engel, who has crusaded for clean kids’ television." The column also goes on to explain how and why RVD would have ended up on the set of a Saturday Morning kids show. An NBC rep is quoted as saying "“We did a storyline regarding professional wrestling and needed a professional wrestler,” ... “We went through the normal channels we go through to get guest stars, and that’s how we got Rob Van Dam. Nobody had any idea about his pot smoking and he certainly wasn’t smoking pot while he was here.” Aye, likely story on the last bit there.

RVD defended himself at the time by noting that ECW wasn't aimed at kids, and his so his behaviour on Hardcore TV shouldn't affect his appearances on shows for another audience. Van Dam appeared to be trying to do more in TV around this time too, as the the record holding ECW television champion would appear in an episode of the X-Files in 2000, credited as 'Burt's Opponent', and also in 2000, he would also appear in an episode of VIP starring Pamela Anderson. His imdb credits are an interesting read, with my favourite credit being a starring role in the 2015 film 3 headed Shark Attack. A film I'll be looking for when I've uploaded this video probably...

I mentioned at the start of the video that mid-99 was a pretty unique time for ECW, and here's what I meant by that. Elsewhere in the same Wrestling Observer, Dave Meltzer writes that ECW was treading water a little at this time. This is firstly because of the impending departures of three of the company's biggest stars, Taz, Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley, but also for another reason that Dave says something really interesting about, the impending arrival of ECW on TNN.

Dave writes "There seems to be the attitude of simply keeping things going and not to shoot any major angles this summer, figuring when TNN starts that is the time to hit the major angles and perhaps re-do some of the angles of the past but with new characters figuring a lot of the audience, if not the vast majority will be people who have never seen the angles in the first place". While at the time Dave wrote this is was likely just speculation, it's really interesting given that the early months of ECW on TNN heavily featured the rekindled feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven, which would take some interesting turns such as the two becoming unlikely tag team champions together, it would never reach the heights of the original story, where Tommy tried for two years to defeat Raven.

Meltzer also noted that the TNN deal may affect the way ECW had always produced matches on their shows. "These shows will be done live-to-tape, rather than the heavy amount of post production miracles that Paul Heyman is noted for in editing 15:00 matches down to 3:00 of high spots and making many wrestlers appear to look a lot better than they really are." This smoke and mirrors style of editing is really noticeable when you look at old episodes of ECW on the network, as often matches might be joined in progress or will be presented in highlight form.

Getting back to RVD, while I was unable to find the whole original New York Post column, I did find a rather unique one also featuring Rob Van Dam many years later. In 2019 the New York Post's website hosted an article about his divorce to his wife of seventeen years Sonya. In said divorce his estranged wife apparently received a Mini Cooper,  a grandfather clock and the ashes of their two deceased dogs. If thats not strange enough, the article describes his following actions as a 'revenge tour' of sorts, showing photos from his instagram if him with his new partner, fellow wrestler Katie Forbes in various hot tubs. I guess it really is true. nobody gets higher than Rob Van Dam.

Sources:

Observer June 21st 1999: https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-21-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-hart-family-files-lawsuit/

NYP Ending: https://nypost.com/2019/09/27/wwe-legends-divorce-revenge-tour-features-many-hot-tubs/

The many inspirations behind Kane: WWE's most enduring monster

Kane, the big red machine especially in his early years was a fully formed horror movie monster, in a time and place where he fit right in. He was pre-introduced with his own backstory, and there were details left unexplained, that played out through more than just his wrestling. The costume, the mannerisms, and of course the mask, but also some really minor details you might not know the ideas behind. In this video we're going to explore all of these and more, from the perspective of several people who have been credited as being influential in Kane's creation. You'll hear accounts from Jim Cornette, Bruce Prichard and yes, even Vince Russo, to see if their accounts match up. Then we'll go straight to the source, and look at Glenn Jacobs' own words from his autobiography. The man behind the mask offers some insights and explanations I'd never heard before, but we have to start with the original idea behind the big red monster.

- Bruce Prichard

Lets start with the longest tenured WWE employee who plays a role, Bruce Prichard. Having arrived in the company in 1987 working both behind the scenes and later as on air talent Brother Love, Bruce has for decades been heavily involved in the inner workings of WWE. He also has a long history with the wrestler who is the reason Kane as a character ever existed, the Undertaker. The name Kane has long been accredited to Bruce, but it might be that Bruce was far more involved in creating Kane than that.

On Something to Wrestle Bruce once explained, "finding opponents for the Undertaker is not the easiest task in the world". He elaborates "You have to sometimes create opponents for him. He's a unique character, and its tough to make someone believably competitive with The Undertaker." That is certainly true when we look back at the many, many characters that were invented mainly to feud with the deadman, many of whom either flopped completely or didn't last long. Giant Gonzales, Mordecai and the Underfaker are more famous examples that come to mind. Of all the characters that were designed to feud with Undertaker, the only two I can think of that actually stood the test of time would be of course Kane, but also Mankind, who held victories over Taker in his early run.

Bruce goes on to claim that the backstory of Kane was his idea. In his own words, "I just started freestyling. I said what if Undertaker had a brother? And as I'm going through this thing I'm literally just thinking out loud. What if the Undertaker had a brother that he thought was dead. But in reality he lived, and he's been living away from the Undertaker and he's hated the Undertaker his entire life and you can go back and tell the story that the Undertaker when he first came in went by the name Kane The Undertaker in memory, and as a memorial to his brother Kane, who he thought had died as a small child." I've quoted a lot there so I'll paraphrase the rest, Bruce goes on to say that Undertaker has to feel responsible for his brother's presumed death.

Finally Bruce noted that he believes that this pitch would have occurred some time not long after Wrestlemania 13, which might well be accurate since Paul Bearer teases the arrival of Kane for the first time on the May 12th '97 episode of Raw. Also in listening to Bruce talk about Paul Bearer actually being Kane's father, it only just dawned on me to check when making this video but in real life Paul was only thirteen years older than Kane, but that was never part of the storyline, even in the attitude era.

When Bruce gets to the look of Kane. He says that in storyline the Mask and costume were to cover up the burns Kane would have suffered in the fire, but in real life they were to cover up the fact that this was the same man who played Dr. Isaac Yankem, and to not make it obvious to the fans that the two were the same person. There was in fact another reason for Kane's very unique costume that Glenn Jacobs revealed in his autobiography, but we'll get to that later. Bruce credits Debbie Bonanzio of creative services with the design of Kane's costume, the concept art for which has floated around online for years. 

- Vince Russo

This will be a fairly short part of the video, as Vince doesn't actually take a lot of credit for Kane like he does other aspects of the Attitude era. At least he doesn't when speaking not behind his paywall, and Bro's getting none of my money. According to Vince Russo speaking in 2016, Bruce Prichard was always closely involved in Undertaker's creative, which is both a blessing and a curse when you consider some of the booking of Undertaker in the 90's. He also credits Bruce with the idea of the Undertaker having an evil brother, as well as the childhood fire. On Wrestling Inc's YouTube channel where he dedicated a full video to the origin of Kane, he claims that the concept of a steel cage with a roof on it and room to fight around ringside was his arch enemy Jim Cornette's idea. Interestingly the biggest thing I can find Vince claiming any credit for is coming up with the name for that cage, 'Hell in a Cell'.

Perhaps the reason for this might be Vince's lack of a reputation for long term booking. In a Kayfabe Commentaries interview about WWE in 1997, Jim Cornette goes into detail about how Vince seemed to find it hard to come up with ideas to keep Kane and the Undertaker separated from Kane's October '97 debut until Wrestlemania 14 in March of the next year. As I hope you can understand given the history between Cornette and Russo, I'm paraphrasing Jim here, because I'm wording that statement far more politely than he did.

The other thing that Vince claimed that I found interesting is that the Kane character wasn't actually pitched with Glenn Jacobs in mind. In fact, it was at least in the idea phase invented with nobody in particular in mind behind the mask.  I'll get to how Glenn Jacobs was chosen in the role shortly, but it raises the question can you realistically imagine anyone else that might have been put in that role? The only name that came to my mind is Kurrgan, who was signed by WWE in 1997 and was a member first of the Truth Commission, and later the Oddities. Could there have been anyone else around in 1997 that could have been put in that position and survived as long as Glenn did? At least they didn't try to bring Gonzales back.

- Jim Cornette

I'm going to largely be referencing two specific interviews Jim has done, as his story is fairly consistent every other time I've heard it. First his Kayfabe Commentaries Timeline of 1997 which I mentioned earlier, and secondly an interview with Inside the Ropes. As Russo said, the Kane character wasn't created with Glenn Jacobs in mind, but Glenn was already in the WWE system since Cornette helped him in thanks to a reference from Dutch Mantel who had booked him in Puerto Rico, Cornette booked Jacobs in Smoky Mountain Wrestling most famously as Unabom, but also briefly as the Christmas Creature. This feels like an appropriate time to point out that Cornette, the guy who frequently complains that wrestling ain't laak it used to be, booked a Christmas Creature. He also wrestled a ninja Turtle but thats neither here nor there...

Jim Cornette told Inside the Ropes this about Kane's early development. "Halloween is one of my favourite horror movies, and Michael Myers to me was just so cool. And Undertaker was already doing the sit up and he was doing some of the mannerisms, and I thought boy if we did the original videos for Kane where you're looking through the eyeholes of the mask and you hear the breath. And maybe you're looking and you see pictures and clippings of the Undertaker on the walls in a room somewhere because he's been obsessing about the Undertaker." He goes on to describe the look they went with as like a "superhero", more on that soon...

 In that quote Jim noted that his idea for Kane when Bruce pitched the childhood fire was for Kane to be an evil horror movie monster who has chosen his time to come back for revenge, but in his words, "they went for the superhero shit". What does he mean by that though? Well earlier I mentioned that I would explain why Kane wore the very over the top costume he did, and you might have seen before that early on in his run on non-televised events, Kane would experiment with walking to the ring wearing a cape that was quickly abandoned. To my knowlege this cape never made it to WWE television, but it does open up a different insight into Kane's character that might not have been otherwise obvious to the fans. While the rest of the world might see a young Kane injured in a fire that ended his parents as a victim, Kane would grow up seeing himself as the hero of his own story, and his brother who the masses loved as the villain. In this version of the story Kane spends his adolescent years training himself up to avenge his parents and himself against the Undertaker. In Kane's mind, he is Rocky Balboa after Ivan Drago kills Apollo Creed. The costume, the cape and the mask, all there to hide his scars, but also because Kane is in his own mind the hero, a superhero even. Remember that for later. In reality though, and as we see it, an eye for an eye makes the world blind.

- Glenn Jacobs' Autobiography

Now let's hear straight from the source, the man who wore the mask, Glenn Jacobs from his 2019 autobiography, Mayor Kane. Glenn gives a pretty interesting take on much of the concept behind Kane, much of it I haven't heard from anyone else. Annoyingly, Glenn claims that he was first approached by either Bruce or Jim, but he can't remember which... He does confirm that the character was created purely to feud with Undertaker, and had to be fast-tracked because from the sounds of it, Undertakers next opponent post Wrestlemania 13 was supposed to be Vader until his arrest in Kuwait for assaulting a television host live on air who implied that wrestling might not be totally legit.

Here's another thing I'd never heard anywhere else, the original name from creative services for the character that he was pitched was not Kane, but Inferno, a name he very much hated. He claims that Bruce hated it too, so their combined efforts got it changed. While nobody else as best I know has talked about this, there are similar stories from around this time of creative services pitching lists of ridiculous names that were never going to work. A famous one being an up and coming wrestler who was pitched the name "Chilly McFreeze". Thankfully this wouldn't be chosen, and the name that would be settled on was Stone Cold Steve Austin. Mick Foley has a similar story around the creation of Mankind, where the name pitched to him was "Mason the Mutilator", and thankfully he managed to convince them that Mankind was better. On screen right now is a list printed in Chris Jericho's second autobiography of names that were suggested for what would become known as the Walls of Jericho. Many of which are daft, with my favourite, or least maybe being the 'Jericoil'.

Glenn also says that he wasn't initially keen on the Kane costume we have all grown to know. He says "I saw Kane as more like an escaped mental patient, or perhaps a maniacal hockey mask wearing Jason Vorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise." Interestingly this seems to relate well to Jim Cornette's interpretation of Kane. Around the time that this was happening, Glenn noted that Paul Bearer had already begun appearing on Raw teasing the imminent arrival of Kane, drip feeding us more information every week. It wasn't a matter of if but when these detailed had to be finalised. What made Glenn change his mind on the costume though? He attributes that to a phone conversation with Vince McMahon that made him see the character through a completely different, and previously unexplained lens. "He said he understood where I was coming from about the look of my character. It made me feel better, but Vince also said I was wrong about who Kane really was. Kane wasn't someone from a mental institution, or a mere sadist. Kane, Vince insisted has a scarred ego. He's a tortured soul compensating for his ugliness, and emotional dysfunction by becoming a super hero. Also, he's not disfigured as much as he perceives, that's just another example of how insecure and unfulfilled Kane is." When Kane finally removed the mash in the Summer of 2003, some fans were disappointed to find Kane wasn't the scarred monster we had been told he was? Here is the explanation for why that was. For all the ridicule Vince gets for many of this creative ideas over the years, some of which rightfully so, I'll give him credit for sticking with this one six years after he originally pitched it.

There is one other aspect of Kane's look that I always wondered about, and Glenn provides an answer for it. I'm referring to the one contact lens that he would wear, which according to Glenn's book was a suggestion by Jim Ross. Upon seeing Kane wearing the costume for the first time backstage at an event, Jim pitched the contact lens with a maybe unlikely inspiration. "Vince kept stressing that the operative word with Kane is 'cool'. JR responded 'You know what would be cool? He then brought up shock-rock singer Marilyn Manson who at the time was at the height of his career, and noted that during performances the singer wore one contact lens that made his eye look sinister." This was, frankly a genius suggestion from JR, as not only does it serve to make Kane look more menacing, but it takes us further away from that superhero like figure that the Kane character sees himself as.

Now we get to maybe the most iconic part of Kane's look, the design of his mask. Glenn noted that they had trouble finding someone to make it, eventually finding a couple based in New York who specialised in leather S&M gear. Whether they made anything for Demolition or not is not disclosed... If you're interested in how the first mask was produced, a mold was made of Glenn's face, which is then wet, and heated in an oven to create the creases. This only really applied to the initial mask, as later ones would be made out of latex, noting that one time the creases in the leather actually cut him upon landing on his head in a match.

While I've compared Kane to a horror movie character in this video, I think part of what drew me to Kane is that he doesn't just have the slow lurching mannerisms you might expect out of a monster character. He was athletic enough to regularly jump from the top rope, and even once off the top of a steel cage onto the much smaller X-Pac. There was clearly more thought put into how this character would react in different situation. One example of this that Kane explained himself on Talk is Jericho, involved how he would try to convey emotion, which is difficult for any wrestler wearing a mask. Instead of making grander full body expressions as a luchador might, Kane would tilt his head to the side slightly, allowing the viewer to interpret this themselves. What might be going through Kane's mind? Kane went on to explain that he had gotten the idea from his dog, who as many do would tilt it's head when talked to. You could interpret this gesture as Kane being somewhat simple, but also as him trying to process what is being said to him through the prism of his troubled life experiences.

This brings me back to the scars that Kane didn't have when he took the mask off in 2003, they're intended to be psychological, but we wouldn't see that until his face reveal. Exposing Kane's face to the world after years of self delusion would alter his mental state for the worse. During that 2003 run Kane would develop an obsessive and incorrect idea that people were laughing at him. This led him to turn on his friend and tag team partner at the time Rob Van Dam, and would also cause him to set Jim Ross on fire during an interview. Without the mask, his hero-like perception of himself was gone, and he dealt with it in the worst way, by lashing out. This was the Kane that I loved back in the day, the absolute monster version of him that we only really saw in his early years. It's why to this day and multiple times on this channel I keep coming back to the subject of him.

Sources:

Prichard: Timeline 1997

Something to Wrestle August 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g98q8Nr7bYM (Currently privated)

Something to Wrestle November 23rd 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cB_yaeoN9I

Cornette: Timeline 1997, Kayfabe Commentaries

Cornette Inside the Ropes on Kane: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9peUAarBOU

Russo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73iUbSJAvYw 14:50

Talk is Jericho #435, 2018

Kane: Mayor Kane: My life in Wrestling, 2019

What happened to Kona Reeves? NXT's Finest

Do you ever remember a wrestler you haven't seen in years and wonder what happened to them? NXT star Kona Reeves, who was trained at WXW by Afa of the Wild Samoans, joined WWE in 2014. He wrestled originally under the name Noah Kekoa and was usually on the losing end of his televised matches.

In 2018 he underwent a bit of a rebrand, declaring himself to be the Finest, with a decent look and pretty cool entrance music as most in NXT had at the time.

After a fairly stop start NXT career, Kona Reeves was last seen on WWE TV on February 19th 2020, losing to North American Champion Keith Lee in just 15 seconds.

As recently as July 2023 at least Kona has worked as a stuntman at Disney's Hollywood studios, playing a German mechanic in Indiana Jones' Epic Stunt Spectacular. For a man who has Hawaiian, Chinese, Dutch, Indonesian, Filipino and Spanish ancestry, playing a German feels like a bit of a reach, but more power to him.

According to Cagematch Reeves has wrestled a match or two a year as recently as April 2024 for WXW's Grand Finale event. The last match I could find that is freely available was on an NWA vs BRCW event in July 2023, where he you guessed it, lost to NWA television champion Thomas Latimer.

Looking back at his time in NXT, the finest could have had a very different run in a different era. He was around at a time when NXT was recruiting much bigger stars, but who knows if he could have done better in the 2.0 era that was built around more home grown talent. We'll never really know.

Sources:

Keith Lee match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w11_nwORDww

Disney pic: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/137qvqi/kona_reeves_now_works_at_indiana_jones_epic_stunt/

Insta confirms disney: https://www.instagram.com/noah_pang_potjes/?hl=en-gb

US Sun confirms July 2023 https://www.the-sun.com/sport/8712731/wwe-kona-reeves-stuntman-indiana-jones/

NWA last streamed match:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06zCNBZgMso    42 min

Surprising Wrestlers Interviewed by Conan O'Brien

About a year ago I made a video about wrestlers appearing on Saturday Night Live, then I made one about the Jerry Springer show. Next I thought I'd look into wrestlers you might not expect being interviewed by Conan O'Brien. While Conan was on TV in the UK for a few years and that's how I found him, late night talk shows aren't really a thing in the UK like they are in America. Over the years Conan has had some pretty interesting interactions with WWE stars. Most famously he's interviewed the likes of the Rock, Triple H and Stone Cold several times over, but did you know he's also encountered many wrestlers you might not have expected him to? This isn't going to be a comprehensive list, just a few that I found unique and unexpected.

Also please let me know in the comments what modern day wrestlers you think would make great late night guests?

1) Yokozuna

Well, this goes about as awkwardly as you might imagine. On November 22nd 1993, just two months in to Conan taking over Late Night from David Letterman, Conan interviewed then WWF champion Yokozuna. Conan has many times talked about how in the early days his show was on constantly on thin ice, to the point that it was for a time renewed on a week by week basis. I can't imagine how that pressure must have felt. Conan has also noted that in the early days it was hard to get guests, which might have played a part in this weird interview taking place.

Yokozuna enters not to the tune of some jazzy live band like we are used to, but to his WWE entrance music, and the sight of him and Conan in the same shot is enough to get his audience laughing. It's a little bit misleading for me to have not yet mentioned Mr. Fuji, who is the one who does all of the talking in the interview, while Yokozuna looks like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world, maybe down the hall at SNL, what a host he would have been? Maybe the only funny part of the interview was Conan trying to get Yokozuna's attention, with Yoko just staring into the middle distance. Mr. Fuji does his best and is interesting to listen to, but it's weird hearing him playing the foreign heel in front of an audience that isn't reacting that way a wresting crowd would.

The irony of all of this is that Yokozuna, as you likely know if you've found this video wasn't Japanese, but actually Samoan. The name Yokozuna isn't even a real name, it's the highest rank you can achieve in Sumo wrestling. According to this website I found, the literal translation of Yokozuna would be "horizontal rope", referring to one that would be worn by a Sumo wrestler. Yoko was commonly known behind the scenes as Rodney Anoai and as the name suggests he's actually part of the ever growing family tree of famous Samoan wrestlers. He was born in San Francisco and so in reality spoke better english than Mr. Fuji does in this interview.  Thats misleading too though as Fuji himself is playing up his accent, though he was actually born in Hawaii. His ancestry is half Japanese, as his real last name being Fujiwara like the armbar. Yokozuna was, as most wrestlers of that time were, very protective of his character, and so certainly wouldn't break that for a talk show appearance in the early 90's. There's a rare clip of footage filmed by an unknown fan in April 1994, in which the fan approaches various wrestlers in Burlington Vermont according the the source I found the clip for this video. One such wrestler is Yokozuna, who looks noticeably dismissive when the fan calls him "Yoko", but is clearly annoyed when the fan calls him Rodney. I say clearly but nothing is clear given how the footage was filmed on a potato. A thirty year old potato.

Getting back to the Late Night segment, things get more interesting when a character called Dizz enters, played by one of the shows writers, Michael Gordon. According to IMDB Michael would also play the Masturbating Bear, good for him. Dizz enters and runs around in a circle. This is an interesting character for Triumph to, well you know. Dizz does however wake Yokozuna from his boredom induced trance, as he leads Dizz by the hand out of the studio, but nothing more comes of this and Mr. Fuji resumes the interview. This whole segment is fairly odd to watch, and probably didn't earn Survivor Series 93, which Fuji was promoting, a single buy. A show by the way that Yoko lost on, as part of a Survivor Series 4 versus four main event against Lex Luger, The Steiners and the Undertaker.

2) Goldust

On March 21st 1996, Conan would interview a more eccentric WWE star, maybe the most eccentric of the 90's. Just days before Wrestlemania 12 where he would face Rowdy Roddy Piper in the wild Hollywood backlot brawl, Goldust would be interviewed by Conan. In his introduction, Conan noted that his guest is quote, "one of the most controversial figures in wrestling today.  This man uses sexuality, eroticism and mystery to defeat his opponents." He then introduces Goldust, accompanied by Marlena.

What exactly did Conan mean by this introduction though? On the night Goldust made his debut at In Your House 4 in October 1995, five months before the Conan interview, the commentators Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross refer to Goldust as 'bizarre' and 'strange' multiple times, but there's not much overtly sexual about his presentation or mannerisms. The closest thing is when Vince refers to him as androgynous. In a 2018 episode of WWE Photo Shoot, Goldust explains that the word androgynous was a key part of Vince's inital pitch of the character to him, but that it took him six months to get that part of the character right. Elsewhere on this episode, Goldust refers to a match he had with Savio Vega the very next night on Raw, in which there is a moment where Goldust rubs himself on Savio who is backed into the corner. Later in the match Goldust also kisses Savio in an attempt to take him off his game. Goldust says "Now you would think today in 2018 that's not so bad, everything is accepted, but back then it was something you did not push... I thought woah this is easy, I can do this, and Goldust was for a good solid year, year and a half was the most hated wrestler on the planet."

Much like Yokozuna, Goldust enters Conan's studio to his WWE theme music, but he does so through the audience with gold confetti falling. Immediately it's clear we're going to see something very different from the Yokozuna appearance, as Goldust makes a very grand entrance, even taking time to make Andy Richter very uncomfortable. Goldust repeatedly refers to Conan as Mr. Barbarian, and I can only imagine what someone who doesn't watch wrestling might be thinking as this takes place. If you were to line up many of Conan's more famous characters over the years, Goldust might not look that far out of place. Maybe they could have booked him in a match with Pimpbot at some point?

I had that thought even before Goldust disrobed, and made his way around Conan's desk, even puling a face at Conan's Eisenhower mug that sat on his desk for decades. Conan eventually calls security and Goldust proceeds to come on to them, and I think we can file this entire segment under "it was a different time". Also, I'm not sure this earned many buys for Wrestlemania 12.

3) The Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young

I never thought I'd be talking about Moolah or Mae Young on this channel. Moolah because of the Dark Side of the Ring related parts of her past, and Mae because I've never quite forgiven her for the damage my eyes endured watching the 2000 Royal Rumble. If you know, you know.

On March 23rd 2005 Moolah and Mae were guests on Late Night about two weeks before Wrestlemania 21, but thats not what they're here to promote. In 2004 they were the most famous of six subjects of a documentary called "Lipstick and Dynamite, the first ladies of wrestling". Remember how Goldust was very much in character, well Mae was too right out of the curtain, hugging Conan and holding him for a bit too long. Conan notes that they don't have much time, as they were the end of the show guests.

Moolah was 81 years old at the time, and Mae 82. For several years by this point they had carved out a niche in WWE for making cameos where Moolah would essentially act as Mae's handler, while Mae wanted to misbehave in ways unusual for her age, to put it as politely as I can. The two would occasionally take shocking looking moves. Moolah was actively wrestling into the 21st century, even winning the Women's title at age 76, and also took an RKO aged 80. Mae Young would take a powerbomb from Bubba Ray Dudley off the stage, and a splash from the three hundred pound Jamal of Three Minute Warning, or Umaga as he's more well known.

I didn't expect to say this as I watched it, but this is the interview I would actually recommend you go and find on YouTube, as it's pretty funny to see Conan interact with the two, especially when they show a clip of Mae doing a Bronco Buster, and Conan looks appalled. Even more so when Mae offers to demonstrate the move. The audience in particular seems to like their dynamic of Moolah acting sensible and Mae wanting to cause chaos, which of course, she does. To end this segment, I offer this image from the interview, with absolutely no explanation... Look at it, I had to.

4) The Great Khali

For this one we're post the year two thousand. Sorry, the year two thousaaand. On May 26th 2005 Adam Sandler was a guest on Conan's show to promote The Longest Yard. That movie stars several top wrestling stars, Steve Austin, Kevin Nash, Bill Goldberg among others, and of all of those names, Adam Sandler brought with him to Late Night Dalip Singh Rana, who would later be known as The Great Khali. Dalip at this point was a wrestler but was not yet signed to WWE, as that would happen the following year. Who knew Adam Sandler didn't always make the right choices...

Dalip had actually begun his wrestling career in 2000, wrestling his first matches for California based APW. Within a year he would debut for New Japan as Giant Singh, teaming with Giant Silva, known by WWE fans as a member of the Oddities. In 2006 he would be signed by WWE, wrestling only two televised matches in then developmental territory Deep South Wrestling before arriving on Smackdown two months later. And the rest, was misery.

Those of you who endured the Great Khali's WWE run at the time might remember that to put it kindly, he was never really renowned for his promo skills, and he doesn't say much here either. There is one elongated joke, that he is a very big man, then the interview just resumes with Sandler while Khali awkwardly sits there. Unlike Yokozuna who at least conveys an emotion of some kind, Khali is barely shown on camera again. When Sandler does try to include him, he implies that he doesn't understand what is being said.

Before I get to my bonus entry from much later in Conan's career, here's a trivia note about a small bit of influence Conan had on a WWE promo. Conan once claimed in an interview with Howard Stern in 2022 that he unintentionally inspired one of the Rock's promo lines. While speaking about a writer who after leaving his show went to work for WWE, Conan said the writer had heard him tell someone to partake in quote "a tall glass of shut up juice". A while later the Rock would use this line at the 2000 Royal Rumble, and fans would pick up on it after, even putting it on signs. It's maybe not in the top twenty of famous Rock lines, but what are? With that in mind here are the top twenty- sorry, I'm kidding with you, I'm not making that list. It's still interesting to think that a line the Rock used started out as a nod of sorts to Conan, and only the writer knew. To be honest with you, I initially thought this was a lesser known story until I googled it and discovered that when Conan told the story everyone with a fucking keyboard covered it.

5) Danhausen

For the last entry in this video we jump forward to Conan's modern day podcast era, and the excellent Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. Since 2018 the best part of every Monday for me has been Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, but in 2021 they added a Thursday podcast called Conan Needs a Fan, and the very first guest would be a pre-AEW Danhausen.

Speaking to both Chris Van Vliet and Rene Paquette on their podcasts after the fact, Danhausen explained that he had submitted a question to Conan's podcast about four months previously, and forgot all about it until he was contacted by a producer. After a conversation with him, he was asked to appear on a zoom call with Conan, Sona and Matt, and this would become the first Conan Needs a Fan episode. He also told them both the same thing he told Conan to his face on the podcast, that he considers Conan more of an influence on him than quote "any other wrestler", and you can see that in some of the weird elements of Danhausen's character, with him going as far as to say that the character is what might occur if Conan had been possessed by a demon, hausen.

In the episode Danhausen, going by his real name Donovan, which I wouldn't normally point out but he's talking as himself on the podcast not in character. The around ten minute segment mainly consists of Donovan explaining his character, with Conan getting very hung up on the jar of teeth Danhausen used to use, but he seems to have ditched this since arriving in AEW. Towards the end of the segment Conan sounds very enthused about somehow working his way into the canon of Danhausen, even pitched that he could one day be revealed as his long lost Father, as well as some more ideas, which brings me to why I have chosen to end this video on Danhausen.

I have in fact, and ulterior motive if I'm being honest. Conan was for over a decade at home on TBS, the current home of AEW Dynamite. What if Conan was to return to TBS, show up on Dynamite and interacted with AEW's roster? Can you imagine what could happen if he met Danhausen in person, or maybe even Toni Storm? I'm not normally one for plugging celebrities into wrestling, but in Coco I trust.

Sources:

Stern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm_L4V_B1M8  3:32

Yokozuna name meaning: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2018/09/21/sumo/sumo-101-yokozuna/

Yokozuna fan cam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te3A1fVFrAI 25:15

Photo Shoot - Goldust https://network.wwe.com/video/71877

Late Night interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot_cxF6mFwQ

Clueless Gamer WWE 2K14 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD7Afs6OxnY

Conan and Cassandro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgGyGKbSA30

Roster Cuts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2E6dlae70M