- Joined
- Feb 10, 2014
- Messages
- 5,278
- Name
- Dave
Usually, I'm the only overlap I see between Rams fandom and WWE (which is surprising given the overlap between the Rams and WWE)
If you're curious, I wrote this piece a while back:
For tracking the connections between our favorite team and my favorite pseudo-sport.
Bill Goldberg (DT: 1990 - did not make final roster)
E. Stanley Kroenke (Minority Owner: 1995-2010; Majority Owner: 2010-present)
James Laurinaitis (MLB: 2009-present)
If you're curious, I wrote this piece a while back:
For tracking the connections between our favorite team and my favorite pseudo-sport.
Bill Goldberg (DT: 1990 - did not make final roster)
- Bill Goldberg was drafted by the Rams with pick 302 (11th round) as a DT out of Georgia. He didn't make the team, but eventually went to Atlanta and had a 3 year career there playing in 14 games, starting 1. In WCW, he officially started his career with a 173 match winning streak, winning the WCW United States Title and then the WCW World Title (after which he forfeited the US Title). He would go on to win the US Title a 2nd time as well as a tag team reign with Bret "The Hitman" Hart. He would also have a short WWE run, winning their World Championship as well (although that belt is distinct from the WWE Title). His WWE tenure ended with a match against Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania XX that is legendarily bad due to the crowd turning on both wrestlers because it was known that both wrestlers were leaving the company after the match. He has historically had bad blood with WWE management since, but does appear in the newest WWE video game WWE '14.
- Fisher, then coach of the Tennessee Titans had an indirect impact on wrestling. During Adam "Pacman" Jones' year long suspension, Jones signed a contract with TNA Wrestling. However, when Fisher heard of this, he specifically forbade Jones' participation in any physical contact, stating that it would be a breach of contract. TNA, being kind of a joke in the eyes of most wrestling fans, still went ahead and booked Jones to become TNA Tag Team Champion with his partner Ron "The Truth" Killings (currently in WWE going by the name of R-Truth). Killings would later lose the title with a replacement partner instead of Jones, so Jones was never legally in the ring during his tenure as a champion.
- Appeared as an ally and tag team partner to former Chicago Bear Steve "Mongo" McMichael using the Powerslam as a finisher. Disappeared when McMichael turned on him to join the legendary "Four Horsemen" stable. Reappeared a few months later with Bill Goldberg as a tag team partner with the storyline logic that Greene and Goldberg were roommates in the Rams' 1990 training camp. He left wrestling in 1998 as the Carolina Panthers insisted that his contract contain a "no wrestling" clause.
E. Stanley Kroenke (Minority Owner: 1995-2010; Majority Owner: 2010-present)
- In 2008, WWE booked the Kroenke owned Pepsi Center for Monday Night Raw on May 25, 2009. However, the way the NBA Playoffs worked out that year, the Kroenke owned Denver Nuggets had a home playoff scheduled, so the Pepsi Center had to cancel the booking. Never one to let a good story go to waste, Vince McMahon made the rounds with the media while Kroenke remained characteristically silent. Denver's opponents in that playoff series, the Los Angeles Lakers, were able to offer WWE usage of their home arena, the Staples Center. McMahon played the issue to the hilt, including confronting and knocking out a Kroenke impersonator and booking a 10 man tag match as the main event where good guys John Cena, Montell Vontavious Porter, Batista, Jerry Lawler, and Ken Kennedy in Lakers jerseys vs. bad guys The Miz, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, The Big Show, and Ted DiBiase Jr. in Nuggets jerseys.
James Laurinaitis (MLB: 2009-present)
- Laurinaitis' father Joseph is more famously known as Road Warrior Animal. He teamed with Road Warror Hawk (Michael Hegstrand) to form a team known as The Road Warriors or The Legion of Doom depending on what promotion they were in at the time. Together, the two were a legendary team, winning tag team championships in many promotions around the world. They were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
- Lauriniatis' uncle John is more famously known as Johnny Ace. John worked in the United States for part of his career, most notably with Shane Douglas in an ill-fated tag team known as "The Dynamic Dudes", but had most of his success in Japan. He also appeared for a year on WWE television as a heel "General Manager" of RAW and later SmackDown as well.
- White was drafted in the 3rd round (pick #80) in 1978 and was a member of the Rams during Super Bowl XIV. He's not to be confused with a Linebacker of the same name who played for the Rams in the early 90s. After a short football career, he began wrestling and was eventually known as Big Van Vader, going on to have a legendary career in Japan and in WCW. He did have a short WWE run but was nowhere near as successful there.
