101 Shocking Wrestling Plans You Won't Believe Almost Happened
80. Jackass Beats Umaga
Umaga would fit snugly onto today's WWE roster as part of The Bloodline or maybe even as a Jacob Fatu-esque lone wolf who stayed a lone wolf and refused to acknowledge Roman Reigns. Good lord, just imagine the kinds of matches Umaga would've been able to have with the 'OTC' in his prime.
Speaking of his prime, Vince and his trusty team of clearly celeb-obsessed coat-tail riders decreed that Jackass cast members Steve-O and Chris Pontius would be ideal bumpers for "Umanga" (cheers, William Regal!) at SummerSlam 2007. The stunt show duo had even shown face on an October 2006 edition of Raw. It didn't go smoothly, but WWE still wanted to do business with the Jackass lads.
Reportedly, it was the shocking Chris Benoit situation that changed Chris and Steve-O's minds about the whole deal. Without trying to be crass, you know things are grim when the Jackass lot and their management want nothing to do with you - that show was never any stranger to controversy, but Benoit's double murder and suicide was obviously next level in terms of harrowing impact.
Incredibly enough, the Jackass lot (led in chief by future Sami Zayn enemy Johnny Knoxville) were actually pencilled in to go over Umaga at SummerSlam '07. Clearly, that wouldn't have done anything for the 'Samoan Bulldozer', so he probs wasn't too gutted when Knoxville bashed WWE publicly and the match was cancelled in a hurry.
Why in the name of Armando Estrada would Umaga want to put Chris f'n Pontius over on one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year?!