One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every Year Of WWE History
28. 1997 - It Was Almost Hammer-Time
Wrestling is for “the boys”.
You need only look at the AEW roster to determine that nepotism is rife in pro wrestling. Luther doesn’t have a job because he’s great at getting heat on the outside. He’s not terrible at that but he sits under the friendship tree of Chris Jericho. He is Le Brutus Bourguignon of Le Champion. Similarly, Ava - she doesn’t have a surname, she’s the Rock’s daughter - isn’t the General Manager of NXT because she’s a good matchmaker with an arresting screen presence.
A lot of people have jobs in wrestling because they know people who are powerful and connected.
Back in 1997, roster depth was so frightening in the WWF that Marc Mero, who hardly held much in the way of sway, managed to get the quite useless Van Hammer, of WCW “fame”, a tryout. Hammer was one of several hundred useless muscle monsters who got a job purely on the basis of their physique. It’s almost funny that Van Hammer was big, and mates with somebody, and at absolutely no point did the idea of him potentially being talented ever arise.
He failed the tryout and didn’t join a roster that also featured Phineas I. Godwinn and Tiger Ali Singh.