10 People You Had No Idea Worked For WWE
When "Five Stars in the Tokyo Dome" was a list of wrestlers Dave Meltzer told Vince McMahon to sign.
At Hell In A Cell 2020, WWE transferred the Money In The Bank briefcase over to The Miz just hours before shifting the WWE Championship from Drew McIntyre to Randy Orton. Fantasy bookers and generic fantasists alike drew one conclusion from these same-night switches - it was happening again.
On November 22nd 2010, The Miz cashed in on a weakened babyface Champion Orton to become the company's top talisman for the first and (at time of writing) only time in his career. Inside Orlando's Amway Center fans (including, as it happens, your writer) were rejoicing at the sense of newness this shift appeared to represent, save for one young girl with raging eyes that looked like they were about to do to the 'A-Lister' what the Elimination Chamber pyro had done to The Undertaker earlier that year.
Round Two of this seemed inevitable. Have Orton take a Survivor Series pasting from Roman Reigns before Miz returns to the same place and same victim to reclaim what he's missed this last decade or so. The possibility of locating that same now-adult fan scowling through a Thunderdome screen made the whole thing seem like a worthy pursuit.
It didn't happen, but the fact that it could have highlighted just how ruddy bloody WWE the two key players are. Another version of it played out on the November 30th Raw - John Morrison and Sheamus fought, just as they had on November 29th 2010.
They're all so remarkably familiar as part of Vince McMahon's company. Unlike...
10. The Young Bucks
There are numerous wrestlers that did semi-regular extra/jobber duties for WWE on their way up the pro wrestling ladder, but perhaps none of the hard yards then resonate as much now as those of Matt and Nick Jackson.
Thought to be "killing the business" before they brilliantly turned the phrase (and indeed the wrestling industry) on its head, The Young Bucks were fearless daredevils with much to learn but even more to offer as the North American scene scampered around in the dark of the mid-2000s looking for its next boom.
Due to size and relative inexperience in 2008 - the pair were well-regarded, but not well-known, and short of some seasoning - they were both pasted in their passing WWE positions. But one appearance in particular rather cutely foreshadows the distant future.
Cas as DX impersonators for The Miz and John Morrison to humiliate, the Jacksons' later reached Shawn Michaels and Triple H's level of wrestling royalty own their own terms. No cheap imitations have ever been needed since.