10 Best Backstage WWE Stories From Bruce Prichard's Podcast

7. "Free James Brown" (Zeus)

Despite being tall, well-muscled and looking the part of a late-80s WWF Superstar, Tom 'Tiny' Lister didn't have the in-ring skills to back it up. That wasn't a surprise; Lister wasn't a pro wrestler. The WWF cast him as the hellish Zeus against Hulk Hogan's Rip Thomas character in their No Holds Barred movie anyway.

Working the set in Hollywood was one thing, successfully navigating a main event match at SummerSlam 1989 was another. The real workers involved, like Randy Savage, Hogan and Brutus Beefcake, had a massive job on their hands dragging Zeus through. Praise the Lord then for one, rather bizarre, phrase.

"Free James Brown".

Lister, a huge fan of Brown's music, believed the singer had been wrongly incarcerated following a car chase with police in 1988. Everyone else in the match stumbled upon the fact that using his name helped Zeus focus, and it made him remember spots in the SummerSlam headliner.

Certainly unique.