10 Wrestlers With The Worst Motivations

by John Bills

1. A Battle Over Shampoo

Booker T Edge
WWE Network

WrestleMania is the biggest date on the wrestling calendar. Historically, the Showcase of the Immortals has been where the hottest feuds end, where gladiators do battle in the quest for immortality. This is where the incredible year-long Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage story ended, where an entire era came to a conclusion with the StoneCold/Rock trilogy, where careers have climaxed tremendously.

WrestleMania is also where Edge and Booker T fought about a Japanese shampoo commercial. Yes, ‘epic’ is the first word that springs to mind. A fictional company wanted a pro wrestler to front their new advertising campaign, and the five-time WCW Champion Booker T thrust himself forward for the gig. Booker started learning Japanese and even got the approval of renowned hair expert Test. Sure, Tajiri wasn’t convinced, but even the greatest stars have had their naysayers.

Unfortunately for the future King, the role in the commercial went to the flowing locks of the then-reigning King of the Ring, Edge. Now, fighting over commercial opportunities and the windfall that comes from them isn't exactly ridiculous in itself, this is pro wrestling after all. But a shampoo commercial? Adult humans fighting over a somewhat shady advert? Come on now. A fight for the sake of fighting might have made more sense.

It isn't difficult to see how this WrestleMania X8 match was put together in the booking room. The words 'Edge' and 'Booker T' were next to each other with a big question mark next to them, a query that stayed in place through the entirety of the booking meeting. The group spent all of its time working on stories for Hogan vs. The Rock, Triple H vs. Jericho and Flair vs. 'Taker, and no time was left to write a coherent story for Edge and Booker. Panicked situations produced panicked results, and a feud over shampoo was the result. The sign in the crowd makes an all too salient point.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.