WWE SmackDown Debut Wrestlers: Where Are They Now?

Val Venis was a quintessential Attitude Era staple. He’s a former Intercontinental, European, and Tag Team Champion who made a real mark on the company’s midcard, but that’s not what we remember him for. Attitude was defined by its colourful, outlandish characters and gimmicks, and few were more extravagant than the Big Valbowski’s pornstar shtick.

He lost to the Blue Blazer that night, but Venis’ WWE career stretched all the way through to 2009. Reborn as a Right To Censor member, then again as Raw’s “Chief of Staff” Sean Morley, Val drifted in and out of prominence following the Attitude Era’s conclusion. Barely featured by the end of his run, Venis was released from his contract in 2009. He had a short run with TNA under his real name in 2010, and continues making fleeting independent appearances to this day.

Venis’ real focus lies far away from professional wrestling these days, however. Since leaving WWE, Val has adopted a goofy online pseudonym (“The Kaptain”) as part of his campaign for the legalisation of cannabis across America. He currently runs his own medicinal marijuana business, Purple Haze Lounge, in Mesa, Arizona, and runs a semi-regular YouTube podcast focused primarily on cannabis’ decriminalisation and his Libertarian political views.