5 WWE backstage stories we learned this week: Brock Lesnar, Vince McMahon, Kane, and more
WWE is set to begin its latest new era over the next week, with RAW having its “season premiere” on Monday and SmackDown moving to FOX on Friday.
On-screen, there is plenty to look forward to from an in-ring perspective in the coming days, including Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio (Universal Championship) and Kofi Kingston vs. Brock Lesnar (WWE Championship), and then all eyes will be on the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view on October 6.
As regular readers of this weekly series know, the behind-the-scenes stories about WWE Superstars are sometimes just as entertaining as the characters that they portray on television.
For example, we all know what the perception of Brock Lesnar is like now at the age of 42, but this week we learned how he was perceived as an up-and-coming 23-year-old in the OVW development system.
To find out all the details behind that story, plus four others, let’s take a look at five of this week’s best backstage anecdotes from the WWE world.
#5 Angelo Dawkins did not believe WWE wanted him
Over the last two months, we have seen The Street Profits’ Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford as in-ring competitors on NXT and as backstage personalities on RAW.
This week, the former NXT Tag Team Champions sat down with Lilian Garcia on the Chasing Glory podcast to give an insight into their WWE careers so far.
One of the most interesting stories came when Dawkins revealed that he could not watch much wrestling growing up because he was discouraged from doing so by his mother.
He then became a successful amateur wrestler, which led to him being spotted at an event by WWE Hall of Famer Gerard Brisco, who was working as a talent scout for NXT at the time.
When Dawkins heard that one of Vince McMahon’s right-hand men wanted to speak with him, he did not think much of it and assumed it might have been a joke.
However, it turned out that Brisco was serious and the two men had a meeting later that day which ultimately kick-started Dawkins’ seven-year association with WWE.
#4 Brock Lesnar’s behind-the-scenes behaviour in OVW
Brock Lesnar came through the WWE ranks in 2000-2002 alongside high-profile names including Batista, John Cena, Randy Orton and Shelton Benjamin.
Nick Dinsmore, better known to WWE fans as Eugene, was part of the same OVW class, and he revealed on a recent episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast that Lesnar was always pleasant to be around behind-the-scenes during his time in the developmental system.
“He was always super nice. He was the first one to be at the arena. He’d set up the ring, take down the ring, last guy there. Just super, super nice.”
Dinsmore added that Lesnar had a special kind of “magnetism” around him in the early stages of his career, and it was no surprise to him when the former NCAA Heavyweight Wrestling Champion went on to be a success in WWE.
“There’s something about him, his magnetism, you see people like that walk in an airport or down the street, you’re immediately like, ‘I don’t know who this is but something about me is attracted to them’.”
WWE has used Lesnar’s questionable backstage reputation in storylines in recent years, notably in 2018 when he confirmed on RAW that he only appears in WWE for the money and he does not watch the product. However, it seems that he was very professional early on in his career!
#3 Kane almost had a different name
As every WWE fan knows, being a successful in-ring talent will only get a Superstar so far. To really connect with the audience, performers need the full package: wrestling ability, charisma, an intriguing character, meaningful storylines and, just as importantly, a good name.
In Glenn Jacobs’ case, he worked as various different personas in the early days of his career, from The Christmas Creature and Unabomb to Isaac Yankem and Fake Diesel, but he did not get his big break in the wrestling industry until he debuted as the Kane character at In Your House: Badd Blood in 1997.
Speaking in a new documentary on the WWE Network (‘That’s Gotta Be Kane!’), Jacobs revealed that people within WWE originally wanted to play into the backstory of Kane’s childhood traumas by calling the character ‘Inferno’.
However, WWE Producer Bruce Prichard always liked the name ‘Kane’ – so much so that his son is called Kane – and the ‘Inferno’ idea was scrapped.
“I remember initially they wanted to name the character ‘Inferno’, which I was like, ‘Inferno? That ain’t good at all.’ But Bruce Prichard had always been a fan of the name ‘Kane’. In fact, Undertaker was originally a man named Kane and Bruce’s son is named Kane.”
#2 Santino Marella reveals why his IC title gimmick ended
In August 2008, Santino Marella became a two-time Intercontinental Champion when he teamed with Beth Phoenix to defeat Kofi Kingston and Mickie James in an intergender tag team match at SummerSlam.
Known for his work as one of WWE’s best comedy characters, Marella began counting down the weeks until he would break Honky Tonk Man’s 454-day reign as Intercontinental Champion.
Every week, the ‘Honk-A-Meter’ would appear on the big screen, with Marella proudly boasting about how he is a certain number of weeks away from catching the WWE Hall of Famer’s tally of 64 weeks with the title.
Sadly for Marella, his reign only lasted 12 weeks before he was defeated by William Regal, meaning he fell an entire year short of breaking Honky Tonk Man’s record.
Speaking to WrestleZone this week, the 45-year-old explained that the ‘Honk-A-Meter’ gimmick ended when somebody in the creative team pointed out to Vince McMahon that the Intercontinental Championship should not be held by a comedic character. Shortly after, he lost his title and the ‘Honk-A-Meter’ story was over.
"People were so behind it. But they [WWE] changed their minds pretty abruptly. Because every time I go to a signing, when I meet fans, one of the things everyone always says is, 'I wish the Honk-A-Meter could’ve went longer, we loved it.'"
#1 Vince McMahon never wanted The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
Looking back at the last three decades of WWE programming, very few rivalries have reached legendary status in the same way that The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels has.
The two men competed in the first Hell In A Cell match at In Your House: Badd Blood in September 1997 – a match which is still considered to be one of the best that has ever taken place inside the steel structure – while their battles at WrestleMania XXV and WrestleMania XXVI are among the most iconic in the event’s history.
In another story from ‘That’s Gotta Be Kane!’, it was revealed by Michaels that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon never wanted HBK and ‘Taker to face each other, which explains why they did not meet one-on-one on television between 1990 and 1997.
“Prior to this storyline between The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, there had been times over the years when people within the WWE had presented, ‘How about Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid, against The Undertaker?’ And, of course, at the time, Vince McMahon was very emphatic about, ‘Those two will never be in the ring with each other’.”
The belief at the time, according to Bruce Prichard, was that it would have been difficult for both Superstars to emerge from the rivalry with their reputations enhanced.
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Arvind Sriram