WWE Hall Of Famer Reveals Backstage Jealousy Upon Debut

WWE

The positive acclaim surrounding Bad Bunny and Logan Paul’s recent performances has rightfully ranked them among the best celebrities turned wrestlers of all time.

While names such as Pat McAfee and Lawrence Taylor could easily be placed amongst them, it can be argued that the man who laid the groundwork for celebrity wrestlers in WWE was Mr. T.

The A-Team and Rocky III actor would, along with Cyndi Lauper, help bring about the Rock N Wrestling period of WWE in the mid eighties, around the time of the inaugural WrestleMania event.

Mr. T would take centre stage at the event, headlining the first WrestleMania alongside Hulk Hogan in a tag-team match against Rowdy Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff.

While Mr T’s involvement was crucial for WWE’s early growth, in a recent appearance on the comPODres podcast, Mr. T would reveal that his implementation was not warmly received by many in the WWE locker room, explaining:

“When I came in, at first, some of the wrestlers were a little jealous. Number one, they didn’t know I could bring it. I was a wrestling champion in the city of Chicago. I knew how to wrestle.

“They didn’t realize the business of wrestling. Vince McMahon brought me in to elevate wrestling.

“Those guys, sure, they had been around and had it hard. I’m bringing light to wrestling, and they didn’t see that. They were a little jealous at first. They thought that, me coming in that I couldn’t hold my own. They found out real quick.”

Mr. T would follow up his WrestleMania appearance with another at the following year’s event, facing off once again against Rowdy Rowdy Piper in a boxing match.

His contributions to wrestling in the eighties would be recognised by WWE with an induction into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

Here are results from the May 15 episode of WWE Raw:

Shinsuke Nakamura def. The Miz

It was announced Liv Morgan had suffered an injury and the scheduled Women’s Tag Team Championship match was cancelled

Mustafa Ali won a battle royal to become #1 contender for Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship at Night of Champions

Becky Lynch returned and cut a promo on Trish Stratus, challenging her to a match at Night of Champions

Dominik Mysterio def. Xavier Woods

As JD McDonagh left the arena after an interview, there was a tease of Finn Balor scouting him to recruit him for Judgment Day

Indus Sher (Sanga & Veer) def. two jobbers

Cody Rhodes promo on Brock Lesnar ahead of their Night of Champions match

Raquel Rodriguez def. Chelsea Green

Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) def. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn after interference from Imperium, which had been instigated by Paul Heyman doing deals with Judgment Day and Imperium earlier in the night

Transcript courtesy of Fightful

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• WWE Hall of Famers
• Mr. T
• WrestleMania
• wwe

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