No matter how much one loves wrestling, the industry can often be cruel as it involves a lot of infidelities, accidents, backstabbing, and whatnot. However, the wrestlers have another side, which the casual fans may be ignorant of. Since they are on the road for more than 300 days of the year, they pull off pranks on their colleagues to keep the wheel moving. The number and intensity of the pranks were so huge in the yesteryears since the wrestlers formed a closely-knit group back then.
Unless you are a rookie, pulling off pranks never got you into the wrestlers' court, which was where the entire locker room would play as a court room, with The Undertaker often being the judge. Examples of punishments in the court for a bad rib would be forcing a wrestler to buy Jack Daniels for the entire roster. The practice was that common that the wrestling industry coined an exclusive term for the practice – rib. Most of the pranks were lighthearted, but some would be extreme and would involve human feces; it is amusing how much feces have as much relevance as blood in professional wrestling. In the following article, the writer will take you through 15 dirtiest pranks the wrestlers have pulled off over the years. If you believe the writer has ignored the rib that cracked you up, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Curt Hennig, Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart will be mentioned often, and by the looks of things, the product will be much more interesting if the trio were still alive. Even if the McMahons decide not to hire them, their participation in Talk Is Jericho or the Steve Austin Show would have been gold. Most of the entries on this list are a bit older, so maybe after reading this, you should go and ask your favorite wrestlers for prank stories on Twitter so we can update the list later.
Here are 15 Pranks You Won't Believe Your Favorite Wrestlers Pulled Off.
15 15. Ahmed Johnson On The Tonight Show
British Bulldog and Owen Hart were the real D-Generation X of backstage, and their pranks were as funny as, if not funnier than that of what DX pulled off on screen. The duo called Ahmed Johnson pretending to be a spokesperson of the The Tonight Show and invited him to be a guest on their show. An excited Johnson purchased an outfit worth $4,000. Little did he know that it was the duo had set him up.
As he was waiting for his limousine to arrive, Owen asked Ahmed why his limousine had not arrived even after eight o'clock. It took Ahmed a moment to realize that he had never told anyone about the timings, and it took him another moment to realize that he had been ribbed. Apparently, Bret Hart laughed so hard at the prank that he fell into the bushes.
14 14. Randy Orton Stealing Cody Rhodes' Clothes
It is an unwritten rule in the wrestling industry that anyone who leaves the tanning bed room door open, would get their clothes stolen by their peers. Evan Bourne, Santino Marella, Chris Masters, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase Jr. and Randy Orton visited a tanning salon in Alabama. Rhodes left his door open, only for the Viper to steal his clothes out of no where. Motivated by the laughs he was getting from the other four, Orton went the extra mile and opened the door to find Rhodes naked with a towel over his face. They even clicked a picture of Stardust in his birthday suit but deleted it afterward to stop his whining.
13 13. The Kliq Welcoming The King To WWE
When Jerry Lawler jumped ship from United States Wrestling Association to the WWE, he did not get along well with some of the WWE employees, and was known to have a terrible attitude. The Kliq never had a problem taking care of business if someone was unapproachable backstage. With a small contribution from Curt Hennig, Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash filled the King's crown with human excrement. It marked the beginning of the reign of the Kliq, and according to the grapevine, the King then realized the importance of being a nice person backstage.
12 12. WCW "Superstar" Giving Christian A Call
Even casual fans should know that Christian and Chris Jericho are the best of friends, and the prank pulled off by the nine-time Intercontinental Championship holder only underlines their friendship. During its final years, WCW signed many men — not essentially wrestlers — and Lash LeRoux was one of the fortunate lads to gain some screen time. The Canadian friends relished ridiculing LeRoux's awful Cajun gimmick.
Much like every other former wrestler, he made money off his 'star value' as he enrolled himself to a celebrity calling service, and when Christian sustained a knee injury, his pal decided to sign up to the service to make the wrestler who had tickled their funny bones to wish him luck through the injury layoff. Though this hardly sounds outlandish, Jericho's move to inform the former WCW "superstar" that he was wishing a toddler in Jason Reso good luck (Christian's real name) was hilarious.
A dumbfounded Christian, upon knowing that he had been pranked, pulled off one of the funniest — and scariest — pranks wrestlers, let alone any close pal can pull off; we'll get to that later.
11 11. The Smoking Gunns Shave X-Pac's Eyebrow
X-Pac has been known to be a prankster, but he was not immune to pranks as well. On his 21st birthday, the Smoking Gunns bought him enough booze for him to pass out on. They then proceeded to shave off one of his eyebrows as a birthday present. Much to the dismay of X-Pac, the WWE shot his promo pictures the next day; the picture of him without eyebrows followed him for many months afterward.
Being a rookie did not stop X-Pac from taking revenge on the Smoking Gunns. When the WWE toured El Paso, he applied synthetic glue to the brim of the Gunns' cowboy hats, and much to his excitement, his prank worked. Legend has it that this particular prank helped him earn a seat in the Kliq's vehicle.
10 10. Gertrude's Threats Towards Jericho
Christian yearned for revenge for the Lash LeRoux celebrity call mentioned earlier, and with the help of Daivari, he pulled off a terrifying prank on his pal Chris Jericho. Christian created a fake deaf Jericho stalker named Gertrude, who weighed more than 350 pounds. He set up a deaf calling service to call him once every week, to keep the prank alive.
Apparently, he made them tell Y2J that she knew that the Fozzy's songs were written only for her, even though she had a hearing impairment. She would also tell him that they should soon start living together. When the WWE was touring England, he made the make believe Gertrude tell him that she would track him all the way to his hotel room and have intercourse with him with a knife on his chest. A terrified Jericho even had chills while exiting the elevator and spent the night in horror.
9 9. Bret Hart Drugged Owen Hart
Owen Hart is known to be a teetotaler, and he should have known that his pranks would come back to haunt him. Little did he know it would arrive through his brother Bret Hart. Bret spiked his non-alcoholic drink with Halcion, and unsurprisingly, Owen was totally wasted and passed out.
Owen sought his revenge by wrapping his hands with sardines that he had left under the ring before locking Bret in a camel clutch. Although Owen had pranked almost everyone in the locker room, hardly anyone had a bad word to say about him. Coming across as a nice person as well as a prankster speaks volumes about the personality of Owen.
8 8. Sable Traveling With X-Pac's Poo
Sable apparently had huge attitude issues and even took credit for the blossoming of the Attitude Era. Her attitude infuriated the Kliq; Sean Waltman decided to teach her a lesson in his peculiar way. On her final show in England, X-Pac emptied his bowels in a cup, and placed it in her travelling bag.
She and her then-husband Marc Mero traveled with his excrement from Wembley Stadium to the United States, and upon becoming aware of the abominable prank, she contemplated carrying out a DNA test on the feces. An unfazed X-Pac only laughed at her contemplation. X-Pac even confirmed the authenticity of this prank on the Steve Austin Show podcast.
7 7. Curt Hennig serving it to Ultimate Warrior
Wrestlers often come from under the ring as a surprise, and rumor has it that they sometimes may spend the entire night under the ring until their segment. When it was The Ultimate Warrior's turn to be under the ring, Curt Hennig decided to leave him a gift for being an abominable person backstage. According to the grapevine, he left a bucket of human feces under the ring.
Since most wrestlers backstage loathed him then, everyone had a good laugh thinking about how horrible the Warrior's night was spending more than three hours next to a bucket of feces. Feces and professional wrestling seem to get along well.
6 6. Mark Henry Biting Into The X-Pac Sandwich
Here is X-Pac's third entry in this article. Mark Henry allegedly had attitude issues in his early days; perhaps, the fact that the WWE paid him ridiculous wages and offered him a 10-year contract must have gotten into his head. Reacting to a minor rib, the World's Strongest Man was put in a situation that couldn't be more embarrassing.
After reacting poorly to a prank where wrestlers hid his crutches, Henry was subject to another Kliq prank. His aggression acted as the inspiration for X-Pac to add a secret ingredient to Henry's sandwich. Unaware of the fact that his sandwich contained feces, Henry bit into it only to throw up in the toilet.
To add insult to injury, right after the prank Owen Hart told Henry that Vince McMahon wanted to talk to him immediately. Henry searched the arena only to learn that McMahon had left earlier that night.
5 5. Hardcore Holly Taking Al Snow To Suplex City
Hardcore Holly has been portrayed as a horrible backstage bully by the Internet Wrestling Community, but he also had a lighter side. Mick Foley wrote in his book about a particular incident, when Holly put Al Snow in an embarrassing situation. Al Snow and Holly were to lock horns at a house show, only for Holly to find out that Snow was wearing no underwear or a jock strap under his singlet. He decided to teach him a basic lesson; wear underwear, no matter where you go.
Holly lifted Al Snow up for a standing vertical suplex and proceeded to pull his singlet to the side for ten-odd seconds. Imagine the mental pain Al Snow would have gone through whilst being held upside down with all of his junk hanging in the wind.
4 4. Curt Hennig Toppling Yokozuna
Here is another Curt Hennig entry. Many interesting WWE stories have come from wrestlers' travels on planes, but nothing could be as hilarious and horrible as this one. Dropping laxatives and Halcion in drinks is not uncommon among wrestlers, but Mr. Perfect decided to lace Yokozuna's drinks with laxatives while on a plane.
When laxatives started kicking in, Yokozuna rushed to the toilet only to find out the toilet was too small to accommodate him. Rumor has it that the airplane employees set up bags and spread newspapers on the floor to help him carry out the inevitable deed.
3 3. British Bulldog Welcomes Michael Cole
Any newbie has to go through his share of embarrassing moments, before he could do the same to newbies in the forthcoming years. Michael Cole started his WWE career as a backstage interviewer, and much to delight and dismay, his first guests were the ribbing kings in British Bulldog and Owen Hart. Shortly before the camera started rolling, the duo poured a liter of coke down his pants, and with no time to react, the voice of WWE dealt with the situation well, and conducted the interview without any signs of discomfort. He may not have lasted as a WWE employee if he had not suppressed his initial reflex.
2 2. Lex Luger Busted By The Cops
While at Virginia, British Bulldog pulled off one of the funniest pranks despite being only half-aware of what he is doing. Bulldog shot water at a police officer's car while driving, and told them it was Lex Luger, who was trying to wind them up. The police officers then followed the car Luger, Davey Boy Smith, and Owen Hart were in, and when Luger realized that a car — the police's ghost car — was following his. Smith told him that it was Shawn Michaels, and that he was trying to race them. This led Luger to drive faster, and the officers then decided to put a light on the roof.
The police pulled them over and seized the license of Luger. Hart then shouted: "Blow it out your ass!" When the officers asked who shouted, Hart said it was Luger. They then proceeded to pull Luger out of the car to find a gun — the water gun Smith had placed — in his pockets. Even Smith divulging the rib could not make Luger come to terms with the fact it was all a work.
1 1. Vinnie Mac Sending The Coach To Prison
Vince McMahon has often been unjustly branded as a horrible employer, but this rib all but contradicts the popular claim. Jerry Brisco tempted Jonathan Coachman to enter a $10 football pool in 2001, and apparently, he got many wrestlers involved. However, much to his shock, a couple of police officers showed up in his room before a SmackDown taping in North Carolina, and said they were arresting him for running a gambling pool.
On their way to the exit door, the cops instructed him to inform Vinnie Mac of the happenings, and the Chairman proceeded to roast him for 45 minutes straight. At the end of his long monologue, the cops told him that $1,500 could get him out, and much to Coachman's shock, the Chairman turned down the offer and even threw a pair of sweaty gym shorts to cover his face.
Everyone, including The Undertaker, was stunned to see the cops escorting the handcuffed Coach out of the building. The cops drove him around for 10 minutes, and returned to the arena stating they had forgotten something. All along, the Coach was cursing himself in his mind for getting into a huge trouble over a football pool. However, upon arriving at the arena, he found everyone, including the Chairman, having the laugh of their lives. It should have been a terrific experience for a 26-year-old journalist aspirant.