10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (March 11)
Did the fans cost Jake Roberts a money feud opposite Hulk Hogan?
Today, Jake 'The Snake' Roberts looks healthy, coherent and happy. Just a few short years ago, that wasn't the case and the man's life was in pretty poor shape. The demons which have plagued Jake during his life have been well-documented, so it's heartening to see the man getting his existence back in fine fettle.
Thanks to the help of Diamond Dallas Page and his closest friends, Roberts has turned the sinking ship into a more healthy vessel. The former WWF and WCW star also has pro wrestling fans to thank for getting things back together, but at the same time he can't help but think back to a time when they pretty much cost him a lot of money.
In this week's article, find out about Jake's thoughts on the feud that never was against Hulk Hogan. Words spoken to him by Vince McMahon clearly still wrangle the man, but he's not alone in divulging interesting stories.
There's also a fascinating story shared by D-Von Dudley about his early days in the WWF system, as well as amazing facts related to the likes of 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan, Shawn Michaels, 'Mr. Wonderful' Paul Orndorff, Bray Wyatt and even TNA Knockout Velvet Sky.
10. Velvet Sky Was Inspired By Lita's WWF Debut
Amy 'Lita' Dumas wasn't paired with The Hardy Boyz when she first joined the then-World Wrestling Federation and she instead acted as the valet for Essa Rios, a performer who mainly worked in the Light-Heavyweight division.
Together, they made their WWF debuts on the February 13, 2000 edition of Sunday Night Heat.
There, Rios defeated Gillberg to become the new WWF Light-Heavyweight Champion. Lita did much more than simply act as a cheerleader for her male counterpart, and even performed his trademark Hurricanrana and Moonsault moves on opponents.
In the crowd, a future female wrestler was watching. That woman was TNA star Velvet Sky.
During an interview about her career with DoubleGSports, Sky revealed that she was at the Smackdown taping that Sunday Night Heat was taped before and saw Lita perform that night.
Completely taken aback by her involvement, this only influenced Sky - who was interested in training to become a wrestler - to pursue her passion.
Velvet later made her own wrestling debut in 2003, and counts Lita as her biggest inspiration.