10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Sept 21)

4. WWE Rings Improved After Vince McMahon Started Bumping

Now for something a little more serious, and it's another story from Bruce Prichard's Something To Wrestle pod.

When Prichard joined the WWF in the mid-80s, their rings were hard b*stards that had zero give, painfully-tight ropes and felt like bumping on concrete. The middle, usually the springiest part of a ring, was no different; a large coiled spring directly underneath the canvas made taking back bumps there excruciating.

In 1998, that suddenly changed, and Bruce knows why. Vince McMahon had started to take some bumps in his role as the wretched Mr. McMahon, and he couldn't believe that his wrestlers had been so willing to fall on such an unforgiving surface for years. After that, Vinnie Mac made the call that his rings must be less like concrete and better padded.

The entire locker room let out a silent cheer when they found out that the rings would be changing. That old coiled spring was turfed, and the WWF began experimenting with a bouncier surface that had a little more give.