While appearing on a recent episode of Hot Ones, Cody Rhodes shared the two matches he regularly shows students at the Nightmare Factory, where he serves as co-owner and coach. They include Sting vs. Ric Flair from the 1990 Great American Bash and Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect from SummerSlam 1991. He said,
“We watch two and I actually have to kind of think. There’s so many you could use as a third. The first one we watch is Sting versus Ric Flair from The Great American Bash. Second one is we watch Bret Hart versus Mr. Perfect from SummerSlam. I might say WrestleMania 40, which I’m in. I went from being the guy who was away from there, trash talking it, started a whole another thing, and to come in, earn my place back, and then them say, ‘Hey, it’s all yours.’ Like literally, how? So it might be 40 [as a third watch].”
During a recent appearance on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Ric Flair discussed his role in convincing Hulk Hogan to join WCW following Hogan’s 1993 departure from WWE. Hogan ultimately signed with the company the following year. He said,
“I took him down to Orlando, he was filming ‘Thunder in Paradise,’ and like I said, Eric [Bischoff] walked in and it worked out well. Hulk was always surrounding himself with very intelligent people, like Peter Young and Henry Holmes and all of that, they cut a hell of a deal and then…All I wanted to do was work with him.”
He added, “Oh God. We had great chemistry! It wasn’t Ricky Steamboat-chemistry, but I know how to make big guys look good; I’ve always done that. And you know what? He wasn’t shy about using the sword, which is something that I live by every day; the blade! Anything Hulk touched worked, I mean, it is what it is! Hulk, you know, they used to call a [him], a guy – a former wrestler and agent – J Staum, would call [Hogan] the golden goose. Anything that Hulk touched worked out. I mean, he was over that much!”
During a recent appearance on the “Busted Open Radio” podcast, Bully Ray commented on what Vince McMahon taught him when the Dudley Boyz signed with WWE. He said,
“In 1999, Vince McMahon taught me an important word when it came to the world of the WWE, and that word is opportunity. An opportunity can mean a bunch of different things to a bunch of different people and a bunch of different scenarios in the WWE, but they have an opportunity. If Seth is pulling the wool over everybody’s eyes, they have an opportunity to catch some crazy ass lightning in a bottle with the heat that he can get off this, and the Seth-Punk thing has now breathed new life into it. We’ve seen Seth-Punk a bunch of times. I still like the rivalry, I still think there’s something there, but what would be there? This would give it something. Now it’s like, ‘You son of a bi**h, you fake that whole knee injury, you’re walking down the block with your daughter. You had your wife and your daughter in on it, too? You put out that video so we would believe you were really hurt? We go, oh, Seth, we feel bad for you. Look at you trying to hobble down the street with your daughter, and this is what you’ve done to us.’”
During a recent video on his YouTube channel, D-Von Dudley commented on a very scary table bump that Matt Hardy took during their TLC match at WWE SummerSlam 2000. He said,
“I’ll be honest with you, that one probably has to be the scariest one out of that whole match, because you’re going backwards and there’s no telling if your head’s gonna hit the back of the barricade or not, so it’s a bump that I wouldn’t want to take, but Matt took it. Matt, my thumbs are up to you, because Lord knows, D-Von couldn’t have done that one. You know something, Matt actually came up with this spot, which is crazy in itself. Why would you want to jump off of a ladder backwards, or be pushed off a ladder backwards, at least, I would say, a good 10 to 15 feet up, and to go backwards through two tables? That’s insane, but he did it. So again, Matt, very, very good. How scary that bump in itself probably could have been for him, so on the D-Von Testify Table Scale, I’m probably most likely gonna have to give this a five. Let me explain why. You cannot deny that going on top of a ladder as high as you can, and then being pushed off it by somebody lifting the ladder and making you go backwards into two tables. You have to hope that you don’t pull or jerk that ladder too much, because, again, it could throw you off, and going backwards, that’s never a fun thing to do.”
