10 Wrestlers Who Go Back Further Than You Think
Adam Pearce wrestled for WWE way back in 1997!
Adam Pearce is a former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, but that won't feature as part of the build to his unlikely Royal Rumble Universal Championship match with Roman Reigns. 'The Tribal Chief' cares about much in kayfabe about Pearce's prior achievements as Vince McMahon does about them in real life, even if they include holding the fabled "10 Pounds Of Gold" for 1078 days over five reigns a decade ago.
In WWE, it's rarely about what a wrestler has done before this moment right here right g*ddamn now, pal. The job of the sponsor-friendly Superstar is to live in whatever reality they've been booked to accept, history be damned. Even if that history is relevant to the new story, or took place under WWE's umbrella, it's typically an ugly inconvenience rather than the helpful context it should actually be.
More on Pearce specifically later on, but list should highlight why it's quite fun to look back on some of the minuscule moments the company would rather we didn't. Most are a credit to the performer for sticking at it anyway - for every Ronda Rousey, there's a few thousand others that have the long-forgotten matches and appearances that are bound for the extras section long before the wrestlers themselves even get the tribute documentary. These are some of the best...
10. Tommaso Ciampa
The former NXT Champion's turn as a cartoonish lawyer during the ill-fated 2005 Undertaker/Muhammad Hassan feud has been well documented, but less attention is paid to him having an actual match against Jamie Noble around the same time.
The former and future Ring Of Honor alumni's had a really rather enjoyable battle on Velocity, designed to reintroduce Noble as an edgier version of the daft hillbilly character he'd played years earlier. To this end, the former ROH World Champion really laid his sh*t in against the young Ciampa, including a chop loud enough to force the announcers to ask aloud if Noble carried a license for it.
Overcoming a slight height disadvantage, Noble then proceeded to wallop Ciampa with some wicked crossface strikes before angrily putting him away with a choke submission. A maximise-your-minutes squash for Noble now also acts as a showreel for young Ciampa's babyface selling. The poor guy takes such a sh*tkicking out there that you'll actually want to root for the lawyer the next time you watch that rank Undertaker segment.