There is no shortage of monster heels in pro wrestling, gigantic imposing men whose duties involve squashing jobbers and other less-important performers until it’s time to lose to a top babyface. WWE has enjoyed countless versions of this character over the years, with Andre the Giant being one of the most famous examples. But then there’s King Kong Bundy, an underrated monster heel who was famously Hulk Hogan’s opponent at WrestleMania 2.
Fans likely don’t know much about Bundy, a solid performer who one would never describe with words as “iconic” or “legendary” the way they would Andre. Let’s take a look at some backstage stories about King Kong Bundy, so fans know a little bit more about him.
10 Amateur Wrestling With Bret Hart
Despite his famous monster heel persona, King Kong Bundy had a reputation among his peers for being a likable, fun-loving jokester backstage. Many of the below stories about Bundy involve members of the Hart family in some way, with Bret Hart praising the big man for constantly making him laugh backstage. In a never-officially-released shoot interview series with Larry Sharpe, King Kong Bundy shared a story of himself and The Hitman having an impromptu amateur wrestling contest, claiming to beat Bret Hart in an eight-second match.
9 Getting Revenge On The Fans
According to King Kong Bundy himself, working heel can take its toll, as performers have to regularly endure jeers and insults from fans. While working for Mid-South Wrestling in New Orleans — where he’d take on Butch Reed and other stars — Bundy would park his car only to be pelted with insults by people living in the adjacent apartment building, but couldn’t react fearing that they would damage his car in retaliation. On his way out of the territory, however, he finally got his revenge. While driving away, a gaggle of rowdy children from the building followed him, so he slammed the brakes, causing a bunch of them to run face-first into the back of his car.
8 Sumo Wrestling With Jim Neidhart
The Hitman wasn’t the only member of the Hart family to take on King Kong Bundy in “legitimate” contests backstage. In the 1980s, Bundy was travel buddies with The Hart Foundation, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, and Hart claims to once have goaded Bundy and Neidhart to engage in some sumo wrestling backstage.
According to Hart, the two collided in the least ideal circumstances, with Neidhart naked and fresh out of the shower, and Bundy in full gear, having just finished a match. King Kong Bundy ended up slamming the sizeable Jim Neidhart against the wall, an achievement that Bundy never let his friend live down.
7 Inspired Married… With Children
King Kong Bundy shares a surname with the Bundy family of the 1980s-1990s sitcom Married... With Children, a fact that’s actually no coincidence. The creators of the show were actually wrestling fans and not only went as far as naming the family after the wrestler, but also got King Kong Bundy on the show. At first, Bundy appeared as Peggy Bundy’s brother, Uncle Irwin, but then appeared several seasons later as himself in an episode where Bud Bundy accidentally gets himself into a wrestling match with King Kong Bundy.
6 Getting An Indie Wrestler To Break Character
Even later in his career, King Kong Bundy was no stranger to having fun. Former indie wrestler turned Survivor blogger Gordon Holmes wrote a blog post called ”My Stupid Little King Kong Bundy Story”, detailing an amusing incident with Bundy. At an indie show, Holmes was told to sell a heart punch from a top heel as if he actually died, which Bundy himself openly thought was silly. After it happened and Gordon was subsequently placed on a gurney, he opened his eyes to see an “upset” King Kong Bundy over-acting and shouting things like “He was so young!” in an attempt to get Holmes to break character. To his credit, he never did.
5 Rescuing Jeff Garlin
Comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm star Jeff Garlin has his own wild King Kong Bundy story. In the 1980s, Jeff Garlin was doing standup in a bar in Chicago when a drunken maniac attempted to attack him with a giant rubber phallus. The bouncer — a shockingly large bald man — grabbed the attacker and threw him out of the bar, after which Garlin recognized the man as King Kong Bundy, working a side job. Hilariously, the owner of the bar forced Garlin to finish his set, but Bundy walked him back to his car.
4 Felt Guilty Over Little Beaver
A year after his main event bout with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 2, King Kong Bundy made it onto the WrestleMania 3 card. This time, he teamed with little person wrestlers Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo against Hillbilly Jim and two other little people, Little Beaver and The Haiti Kid. The bout would end in a DQ after Bundy lost his temper and attacked Little Beaver, breaking the mixed tag team match rules.
Bundy’s treatment of Beaver in the match was pretty rough — so much that he felt guilty when Little Beaver died about eight years later. Despite his guilt, reportedly Little Beaver’s death was the result of emphysema rather than any trauma from taking a beating from King Kong Bundy.
3 Fascinated By Spaceships
Bret Hart’s travels with King Kong Bundy in WWE resulted in a rather sweet anecdote, rather than one with shenanigans or multiple children technically getting hit by a car. While driving through Florida, Bundy stopped their car so that they could watch a space shuttle launch that was happening in the distance. The two watched the shuttle fly off into space, a moment that the former WWE Champion looks back on fondly, as it served as a reminder of the world outside of wrestling that’s easy for performers to lose sight of.
2 Fined By WWE
Billed at six-foot-four and weighing 458 pounds, King Kong Bundy was a huge man, and certainly ran hot on even the most comfortable of days. While working for WWE, at some point the company implemented a dress code for its performers, something that Bundy was unaware of when he arrived at work. One of the road agents approached him to tell him that WWE was fining him for wearing shorts on a plane — despite his size and the fact that it was summer.
1 Refusing To Tap To Bret
In 1994, King Kong Bundy returned to WWE for a lackluster run that involved being part of The Million Dollar Corporation and losing to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 11. However, that period of time would result in an anecdote shared by Sean Waltman — a.k.a. 1-2-3 Kid and X-Pac — who was also working there at the time. While on tour in Europe, Bundy was booked to take on his old buddy Bret Hart, who was WWE Champion at the time, in a small show in Germany. However, Bundy refused to tap out to Bret Hart’s Sharpshooter finisher, claiming that he never submitted before, so he wasn’t going to start so late in his career.