10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Jan 18)

4. JBL Was Literally Thrown Out Before His WWF Tryout

JBL's early Stan Hansen-style cowboy gimmick 'Justin Hawk Bradshaw' doesn't come up much when his career is discussed. That rough-round-the-edges, super-stiff character was working for him in Germany before the WWF came calling, and that's where Bradshaw was when Bruce Prichard called him on a pay phone in Hanover.

Prichard wanted to set up a tryout, and the future World Champ was over the moon with the news.

So, Bradshaw turned up as instructed at a WWF taping and was raring to go. The only issue was that he was as green as grass and didn't really know who to talk to or where to go in the building. When he bumped into road agent Tony Garea, JBL told him he wasn't on the card but had a tryout. Amazingly, Garea threw him out of the arena.

JBL told this tale on Sean Mooney's 'Prime Time' podcast, and said he went back to the airport with a bad taste in his mouth. Things were smoothed over the next day. Bradshaw couldn't catch a flight out of the States at short notice anyway, and he figured he might as well show up to try again.