Some interesting facts about the WWE and its stars

Here are some interesting facts about the WWE and its stars that you may have not heard of.

What is Damien Sandow’s real name and wrestling background?

Damien Sandow’s real name is Aaron Haddad, and he was trained by Killer Kowlaski, making his debut in 2001. If you were watching WWE closely through the 2000s, you have actually seen him briefly before as one half of the “Teacher’s Pets” tag team with KC James, that represented the debut of those two and their manager, Michelle McCool.

Sandow was actually in WWE’s developmental system off and on for a full decade as Aaron “The Idol” Stevens. While he was there he was lauded repeatedly as one of the most promising talents under contract, but WWE just could never find the right character to give him to bring him up to the main roster. After WWE dropped OVW as their developmental territory and changed to FCW, they re-signed Sandow and then finally brought him up to the main roster in a featured role in 2012.

Why did Kurt Angle leave WWE?

Kurt Angle was essentially released from the WWE for his own good. His health was eroding quickly, and his neck injuries were creating a scary situation. At the time, Angle was going through a tough time in his marriage and wasn’t in a very good situation, and the belief was that he’d just keep wrestling until he killed himself, and WWE had to step in and make him stop wrestling. Angle has since said in recent interviews that they were right to do it, because he was a shell of his former self and it was a wake up call.

Kurt signed with TNA and has recovered to a large extent, allowing him to have a very respectable second half to his career. TNA’s much lighter schedule has kept him much healthier, and now if he comes back to WWE, it will be in a much better way than it would have been if he stayed.

Can Divas still do Playboy? Who was the last one?

From the late 90s to the mid 00s, a number of WWE Divas appeared in Playboy magazine due to a partnership that was formed between the two brands. Among those who posed were Chyna, Sable, and Torrie Wilson, and it used to be a yearly reveal before Wrestlemania. The last one to do so was Maria Kanellis in 2008, after which WWE decided to move to a more serious and respectable women’s wrestling division. In terms of how they dressed, I mean. Not in terms of how credible they were made to look.

Amusingly, after this TNA decided to get in on the Playboy publicity and Tracy Brooks posed for them, only to have her photos get bumped from the magazine after new management at Playboy decided that they wanted nothing to do with the wrestling business.

How exaggerated is Mark Henry’s ‘strong man’ gimmick is, and also, why doesn’t the WWE scout these contests for talent?

Recently Dave Meltzer and the Observer listed Henry’s credentials for being called the World’s Strongest Man. To read the context and find out about other contenders in wrestling for that title you’ll have to check out the newsletter, but the relevant bit goes like this:

“…Mark placed first at the Arnold Strongman classic in 2002 but he also has the highest five-lift total in history (i.e. the three power lifts plus the two Olympic lifts — all set in drug tested competition). He snatched 180kg, clean and jerked 220kg, squatted 432.5kg, benched 265.5kg and deadlifted 410kg. All done without squat suits or bench shirts.”

In other words, dude is STRONG. And he has as much right to that title as anyone.

As to why WWE doesn’t recruit from Strongman competitions, the answer is pretty simple. What would they do with them? Most of the competitors are older than people WWE looks for and have no experience in physical competition. So the return on investment is much lower than, say, a football player. Plus, enthusiasm for Strong Man events in the United States has dwindled considerably in any case.

Why did the Ultimate Warrior keep leaving the WWF?

Well it’s been less about the Ultimate Warrior leaving, and more about him being tossed out on his ear. The first time he left, it was because he held Vince McMahon up for more money before he would perform at Summerslam in 1991. Vince paid it, and then promptly suspended Warrior for threatening to not show up. Warrior tried to get his release and was told he was under contract until 1992, conceivably while people in the office made rude gestures at him.

In 1992, Warrior was brought back in, only to be released for real in the weeks before Survivor Series 1992. It’s not 100% clear as to why, but the common belief is that Warrior failed a drug test, and WWE was on trial for steroids at the time. And then in 1996, Warrior made another comeback, only to be released again for no showing some shows, the cause for which WWE and Warrior have very disparate views of.

So yeah, Warrior was his own worst enemy during a volatile time. That pretty neatly sums it all up.

How many nationalities have held the WWF/WWE title since its conception?

If we’re counting anyone who was not born in the United States, and only the WWE Championship, and not the World Heavyweight Championship, here’s a list of the first wrestler from each nation to win the title:

Bruno Sammartino (Italy)Ivan Koloff (Canada)Antonio Inoki (Japan)Iron Sheik (Iran)Andre the Giant (France)Kane (Spain)Sheamus (Ireland)Alberto Del Rio (Mexico)

Why did Mickie James leave the WWE?

WWE released James, saying that they wanted to move the division in a new direction. Without getting too deep into things, James had been on the wrong end of a number of dangerous looking botches, and her character had taken a huge credibility hit after the whole “Piggy James” fiasco, so whatever the reason, the time was probably right to move on.

Who has better ratings? TNA now or WCW in it’s dying days?

TNA has pretty much averaged a 1.0 throughout its entire lifespan as on television. There have been fluctuations in either direction, but never more than half a rating point, and then it always creeps back to the average. WCW, on the other hand, averaged a 2.3 through its last year on television, which is actually a little bit better than the ratings that WWE Smackdown gets now.

Of course, there are all sorts of factors involved here, like cable’s growth in the years in between, the decline of wrestling interest and traditional cable viewers in general, and all of that jazz. So you could say that TNA’s 1.0 is more impressive than WCW’s 2.3. But in literal terms, WCW’s were higher.