10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Dec 14)

9. Duke Droese Refused To Work With Steve Austin

Back during the WWF's 'New Generation', realistic workers like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels shared the locker room with crappy gimmicks such as race car drivers, ice hockey players and garbage men. It was Duke Droese who drew the short straw and had to try make the latter work.

Droese actually wasn't too bad at his job (the wrestling, not the bin man gig), and he managed to get himself modestly over in 1995. Sadly, real-life demons would grip the Duke and force him down a toxic path of drugs and alcohol abuse. That then led to him believing he was being screwed by the company, and he became hard to deal with.

He also refused to do the job for Steve Austin in 1996.

Sure, Austin wasn't quite the big star he'd become a few years later, but he was still someone Vince McMahon was starting to appreciate. By his own admission on Austin's podcast, Droese concedes it wasn't the smartest play to point blank refuse to work with him, or to call McMahon's leadership into question.