10 Wrestlers Who Always Followed The Money

2. Kevin Nash

Ultimate Warrior Money
WWE

Kevin Nash was often fond of quoting Captain Lou Albano, who said the only thing real about professional wrestling is the money and the miles.

Nash actually was interested in the other wrestling maxim, leaving the industry better than he'd found it, for a few years. For a massive unit, he threw himself around the ring (mostly when he shared it with his friends in the Kliq, granted) and used his standing as a top star to push the WWF into a more cool direction. He didn't take a pay cut to join WCW, quite the opposite, but he was dialled in as an 'Outsider'.

As a character playing the cool interloper, anyway.

In the ring, even as early as his very first WCW match, the main event of Bash At The Beach 1996, he wasn't nearly as dynamic. The match didn't need to be a classic, since everybody was only going to talk about the seismic post-match angle, but he took that excuse and ran with it - or rather walk-and-brawled with it.

He turned it on here and there. At Starrcade 1998, he didn't learn his own lesson; his main event with Goldberg was awesome, but people only talked about him going over.

Beyond that, Nash was so openly interested in making money that he developed a meta character around it for years in TNA. The disdain was funny in and out of canon, but he did stigmatise the promotion as something closer to a retirement home than a must-watch passion project.

He went there to make money, but was so transparent in doing so that he never drew any.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!