Bret Hart's Erotic Illustrations & Vince McMahon's CM Punk Request: Ten Things You May Have Missed In Wrestling In October 2021

So that's October nearly over then, is it?

We're getting into the business end of the year now. Thanksgiving. Christmas. AEW Full Gear. No more messing about.

It was a relatively quiet month, to be honest, with some quality shows (including a pleasantly good Crown Jewel) and few real major happenings.

Well, besides Ring of Honor releasing their entire roster, that bizarre Charlotte Flair/Becky Lynch segment and WWE confirming they've lost the plot by not pulling the trigger on Steiner Junior.

Feel free to get over that tragedy with Ten Things You May Have Missed in Wrestling in October 2021, including stories about cartoon orgies, career sabotage and two - yes, two - tales revolving around backsides.

10. The Excellence Of Illustration

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Bret Hart is widely regarded as one of the best wrestlers of his - or any - generation.

An artist on the wrestling canvas, if you will. But The Hitman is also an actual artist, known for drawing humorous cartoons of his fellow wrestlers.

While killing time before shows, Bret would often adorn locker room whiteboards with his OTT interpretations, something that could ruffled the feathers of his contemporaries.

During a Highspots Virtual Signing, Hart talked about how and why he started doing it and the reaction it received from the boys in the back:

"I remember drawing a lot of wrestlers on the blackboard in the locker room. I used to draw wrestlers in orgies and stuff on the blackboard. Really, it was out of boredom. In the beginning, nobody knew it was me so I would draw this big orgy on the blackboard and all these sexual positions and stuff. 

It was just to make guys laugh. No one knew it was me. I would be getting dressed, there would be a big orgy on the board, and people were like, 'Who did that?'. 'I don't know'. George Wells would come into the dressing room and he would touch it up. Everyone would come and they thought he was doing the drawings and he's going, 'I swear to God I didn't draw it'.

Eventually, they knew it was me and then wrestlers would ask me to draw them. They would go, 'This happened last night' and then I would draw a perverted made up version of what happened the night before at the bar with some girl. I would draw something and I would notice Andre The Giant would laugh so hard. He really loved my drawings. The crazier, the better. 

When I say Andre laughed, he was in a lot of pain, but he would laugh so hard and loud. I used to draw Steve Lombardi in the middle of the orgies and he would get mad. I would go, 'Steve, I'm drawing for Andre. I won't draw you ever again, but the next time I draw you, just stop and look over at Andre. If he's not laughing his head off, I will never draw you again'. He came up to me and said, 'You can draw me anytime you want'. Andre used to laugh and laugh hard.

I drew one of the agents on the blackboard and he got really mad. He told me to never draw him again and 'what if my wife saw that' and he got really upset. He would ream me out pretty good. I remember thinking, 'what would your wife be doing in the dressing room anyway?'. He gave me hell for it. 

The next day, I show up at the TV tapings and Vince McMahon is standing there and he had his arms crossed and was holding a big piece of chalk. As I walk past him, he hands me the chalk and goes, 'You draw anything you want, any time you want, and if anyone has a problem with it, you come see me'. So I started drawing anything I wanted and it got to be a tradition where a lot of guys had hurt feelings because I didn’t draw them".

9. Shane McMahon Is No Fan Of The Macho Man

WWE.com

Whatever happened between Randy Savage and Vince McMahon/WWE must have been really quite bad indeed, since the Macho Man was one of only a select few people who was never welcomed back to the company.

Many point to unsubstantiated rumours about Savage and a member of the McMahon family, something that will surely only intensify after former WWE magazine editor Brian Solomon told a story about how Shane reacted to seeing a poster of Randy in the WWE magazine offices in Titan Towers.

Appearing on the 6:05 Superpodcast with Brian Last, Solomon spoke about how he did an interview with Savage following the death of his ex-wife and fellow WWE superstar Miss Elizabeth in 2003.

Asked why he believed the former Intercontinental and WWE Champion was persona non grata, he had this to say:

"Nobody ever said why. I have to be honest without getting into all that. I never knew any of that while I was working there. I found out years later at least whatever rumours there were. I can tell you it was definitely a name that you can’t bring up. Among the jobber crew of us working there, you can say whatever you want. Among certain people, you definitely didn't want to bring that name up. 

We were such marks in that magazine. That division of the company was definitely composed of people who loved wrestling so we would do markish things. We would have wrestling posters on the wall. We had a Randy Savage one up. I remember at one time I was working for Shane McMahon. He was the head of our department for a little while. 

I remember he came out of his office. He saw the Randy Savage poster tacked to the wall. He walked over to it. He literally poked it as hard as he could with his fingers repeatedly until it fell off the wall, then he stepped on it, and walked back into his office".

See, it's not just his company's fantasy booking. Shane is a tough guy in real life, too!

7. Eric Bischoff Avoids A Very Special Club

WWE.com

When Eric Bischoff joined WWE as a strictly on-air talent in 2002, he had to have known that some receipts were coming his way.

After all, you don't antagonise (let alone beat) Vince McMahon so publicly and expect to get away with it.

While The Bisch did have to suffer the indignity of taking Rikishi's Stinkface, a thong-clad Mae Young bronco buster and had his face shoved into Big Dick Johnson's backside (among other humiliating things), he was somehow spared induction into the notorious Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club.

Speaking on a recent edition of 83 Weeks, Eric mentioned that it was pitched to him not too long after his arrival but how, after he questioned the creative reasoning behind it, the segment was suddenly dropped:

"The only time I spoke up about creative was not too long after I first got there. I got emailed a scene in the ring. That scene would have resulted at the end of it, this was back when Vince had the 'Kiss my Ass' club, it built up and led to Vince making me kiss his ass in the middle of the ring like so many others had done before me.

I read that and went, 'That makes no sense'. I get it at the moment. I get it for that episode and that scene. Yeah, that's a good scene. But in a larger, broader context, it makes absolutely no sense. There was no heat, no angle, no buildup, no nothing. It was just a spontaneous moment that would have gotten a cheap pop. It would have absolutely cast a really dense fog over anything else that I was going to do in the future. It would eliminate many potential storylines going forward.

I got that email on a Saturday. I was supposed to leave on Sunday to fly to Monday Night RAW on Sunday. Before I left, I gave a call and said, 'Look, I'll do it if that’s what you guys want me to do. You're paying me to perform. You're not paying me to critique your creative. I firmly believe that. If that's what you want me to do, I'll do it, but here's why I don't think it makes any sense right now. Maybe down the road, but right now, this makes no sense'. I left it at that. I didn't hear another word. I got to TV on Monday and it was gone. Not another word was said about it".

Way to dodge that arse-shaped bullet, Eric.

6. NXT Didn't Let The Juice Loose

WWE.com

Credit must go to the former CJ Parker, who has reinvented himself on the independent and international scene as Juice Robinson since being released by WWE in 2015.

Parker never got called up to the main roster and was still trying to make some noise in NXT when he got wished well in his future endeavours. Like many in his situation, he was actively trying to remain on the books by pitching new characters and storylines at the time of his release.

As revealed to Fightful, one of the characters he came up with got him in hot water with management:

"I can clear the air now. This was awesome. To me, all I was trying to do – I'm gonna just leave it all out there right here – I was trying to be super, super, super left-wing. Almost a caricature of a hippy or what call a hippy. Just funny stuff. I kinda had some CM Punk/Straight Edge Society like that, weird, out there, almost disconnected with actual reality. That kind of 'heel'. That's what I was going for. I was trying to not lose to people in two minutes on TV. That's what I was trying to do".

Not exactly the most controversial thing in the world I'm sure you'll agree, but what got Parker the heat was his decision a promo in front of Sea World:

"So me and another guy, I can't remember who, came up with it, but next thing I know we're outside of Sea World doing the tear going down my eye and sad music, the orcas are swimming and I called it Slave World. You can't say that, of course. It was meant to be an idea. What could have been. 

Anyways, I showed it to Dusty [Rhodes] and he loved it. Absolutely loved it. However, somebody else said, 'Don't show that again'. Well, I ended up showing it again. Apparently, Anheuser-Busch sponsors Sea World. Anheuser-Busch also is with WWE or something, I don't know. Bureaucratic bull crap. It never saw the light of day, but it was very, very entertaining. Very tongue-in-cheek, very pro wrestling".

That's where you went wrong, pal. Pro wrestling? We sports-entertain here in WWE!

Robinson further stated that he doesn't have the promo but that he does know where it is and that it could possibly be released in the future.

6. A Big Sexy Apology

WWE.com

When it was announced that the original lineup of the New World Order would be returning to WWE in early 2002, top stars like Steve Austin, The Undertaker and The Rock were weary of the impact they would have in the locker room.

The reputations of Hall, Nash and Hogan - particularly from their time in WCW - preceded them.

It didn't take long for them to start ruffling feathers, with The Bad Guy doing his best to antagonise his co-workers on his first night in (including telling the Dudley Boys he couldn't wait to 'kick out' of their 3D) and Big Sexy getting into a spat with The Great One.

Nash and The Rock had heat, which mainly stemmed from the Brahma Bull adlibbing during a promo and calling the former Diesel 'Big Daddy B*tch' while also trying to lay out matches and segments to his specification.

Well, nearly two decades later, it seems as though it is all water under the bridge.

After Nash tweeted a picture of himself following a workout, The Rock replied 'You're an inspiration my brother. In tremendous shape! Way to raise the bar!'.

Kev then responded by saying 'Following your lead. You're [sic] work ethic is amazing. You're [sic] filming schedule would kill most mortals but the promotion for your films is the grind. You film and promote at the same time. Sorry I was such a dick to you when I came back in 2002. Just trying to keep my spot'.

The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment was understanding, writing 'Never a need for any apology big brother, but thank you very cool of you. You guys had to come back with some bite & venom. I was living in the house you helped build, so I was pumped you, Scott & Hulk were coming back cause #1) I was always a fan and #2) most importantly..'

I'm not sure what number two is, because neither man followed up, but I'd have to assume it's something to do with making lots of money.

5. The 'Real' Plane Ride From Hell

WWE Network

Much was made last month of Vice's Dark Side of the Ring episode on the infamous WWE Plane Ride from Hell.

While that resulted in people getting fired at the time and, close to twenty years later, the reputations of some of the participants being badly damaged, that was not actually the worst WWE flight from that era - at least according to former referee Jimmy Korderas.

Korderas was on the Plane Ride From Hell and, as he told the Wrestling Inc. Daily, tried to keep quiet by playing cards and didn't even venture out of his seat to use the bathroom (lest he become a target for a rib or become otherwise involved in the surrounding madness).

On another flight to Australia, however, he and everyone else onboard were very much fearful of what might happen to them.

As Korderas details it, he and the rest of the SmackDown crew were worried that they may not even make it back to the United States due to bad weather and the aircraft's technical faults:

"There was another flight that I call 'the real plane ride from hell' when we almost crashed in Russia. It was a charter flight. We were heading over to Australia, but this was an older aircraft, and it had to stop and refuel. So as we were going over, we stopped in Alaska, refuelled, spent the night. 

Then coming down, there was a coastal city where we had to stop and refuel, but this was in the dead of winter. So as we're coming down, the plane is shaking violently, and it’s doing all this crazy stuff. Everybody strapped in and going, 'What the heck!'. And then the plane goes back up again, and we're like, 'What the heck!'. And they circle around.

It was on the third attempt that we finally landed after we thought that we're going down. I hate to put it this way. Everybody's looking at Ric Flair because he's the only guy on the plane that's been in a plane accident. So they're looking to see him react. Big Show's seat broke and landed in Brian Hebner's lap. 

It was insane, and then we finally landed on the ground. We hit the ground. There's these cross winds and snow, and it's a blizzard. We make to the ground. Everybody's like, 'Yes, thank you'. We're not getting off, but apparently, where we landed was a Russian military airport.

So we couldn't get off the plane. Russian military boarded our plane with rifles. 'Okay, you guys are gonna refuel, and then you're going to take off again'. And we're thinking, 'What?'. We ended up taking off in that blizzard, and thankfully, obviously, we made it, but my goodness, it was terrifying. It was horrible, but then again, we made it to Australia, and we were on the opposite side. 

We were in Perth and had to fly back over back to North America, and as we're flying across Australia, we had to stop in Kearns because they had engine trouble and had to repair the plane. It was horrible".

I wonder if the Nature Boy was doing his 'helicopter trick' when they all glanced over at him...

4. The Anatomy Of A Pipe Bomb

WWE.com

It's nice having CM Punk back in wrestling again, isn't it? I'm really enjoying this 'old gunslinger' run of his and, somewhat controversially, I actually think he suits the long tights.

It's great watching the Straight-Edge Superstar in the ring, but it's equally fun just seeing Punk give interviews and talk about the business.

One topic that is destined to come up for him until the end of time is his iconic 'Pipe Bomb' promo. While talking with the Heel Turn Sport 1 Wrestling Podcast, Punk gave some interesting details about what went into it and the one request Vince had beforehand:

"I had to make an outline for Vince and I didn't say anything I wrote in the outline, I just know that I needed him to agree and then I went out there and said whatever I wanted. 

I knew what I wanted to say, I knew I wasn't stepping over the line and I knew nobody was going to be pissed at me. The thing with live television is, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. If I would have asked him to say all that stuff, he would have been like, 'Don't mention Brock, don't mention Paul Heyman'. 

Those guys, at the time, were persona non grata. He would have been like, 'What the hell is Ring of Honor? Don't mention New Japan!'. I knew to make it the special piece of art that I wanted it to be, I had to go out there and say all of that. I wrote up a mock draft of it and he said, 'Yeah, this is great'. He asked me to add something making fun of Stephanie. I was like, 'Okay'. I went out there and I did it and it was good so it doesn't matter".

I'd like to think that Vince asked Punk to make fun of his daughter not for any storyline purposes, but just because he himself thought it would be funny.

3. It Pays To Have Attitude

WWE.com

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to AEW announcer Jim Ross, who recently disclosed that he was diagnosed with skin cancer.

Good ol' JR was been great behind the desk recently and has also been providing consistent value with his Grilling JR podcast.

On a recent edition focusing on Chris Jericho's jump from WCW to WWE in 1999 and his first year in the company, Ross - who was working as WWE's Executive Vice President of Talent Relations at the time - talked about the negotiating process and let slip that, at that time, many performers were making seven figures per year, so hot was the product back then.

"The issue is that the offer we gave him was a lot of money. $450K is a good starting salary. I thought we were being very fair.

The key component of that was convincing him that our incentive program, in other words, getting paid on the house, old school, commission so to speak, payoff, was real. Without naming names, I gave him some illustrations of, this guy has a $300,000 downside, but last year, he made $1.8 million. At one time, we had 20-something guys on our roster that were making over a million. 

That's incredible. They got that million dollar number by productivity. They sold tickets, PPVs, and merchandise. I think that was part of the only hurdle we had to overcome that it was really a true payoff system".

Y2J was obviously sold on the idea and, based on how well he did in that first year, it's fair to say that he made many times his downside guarantee.

The Attitude Era had its pros and cons, for sure, but it was clearly good to many of those signed to WWE during it.

2. Career Suicidal

WWE.com

When Sabu first arrived in WWE in the summer of 2006, WWE had big plans for him.

That much was made obvious by the fact that his first feud was with top star John Cena. Not only that, but the Suicidal, Homicidal, Genocidal, Death-Defying former ECW standout was booked to get one over on Big Match John by putting him through the announce table with a huge triple-jump leg drop.

However, he may have sealed his fate in the company following a conversation with Vince McMahon, who wanted to talk through the move with Sabu beforehand.

Sitting down with Title Match Wrestling, Sabu explained how he put his foot in his mouth when speaking with his boss, who had injured his tailbone while taking a bump through the announce table (in his cage match with Steve Austin at St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1999).

Per Sabu:

"We walk out to the ring and he goes, 'I did a bump on this table and I busted my ass'. I went, 'Well, that's you'. But I shouldn't have said that. I go, 'That's you, of course you busted your ass. You're the sh*ts'. But I shouldn't have said that. 'Yeah, that's you but I'm not gonna do that'. Even if it's possible, I'm not gonna listen to him'.

Yes, he did [take offense to the comment], yes, he did". 

It wasn't just the table conversation that soured Vince on the man from Bombay, Michigan, either:

"Vince made a remark saying, 'You could be the Steve Austin or the Hulk Hogan of ECW', and I giggled. I went [laughs], 'Who the f*ck wants to do that?'. I didn't know he was serious. He wanted me to be like the King of ECW who didn't wrestle much, which I didn't understand at the time". 

The rest of Sabu's WWE stay (which lasted under a year) would be beset by disciplinary problems, and he was eventually fired after he arrived several hours late and without his gear to a TV taping.

1. The Perfect Counter

WWE.com

Curt Hennig was known in the wrestling industry to be a fan and master of pulling ribs, whether they involved shaving off eyebrows or pooping in a king's crown.

One of his best (and most good-natured) was pulled on Rikishi. Not in the locker room, either, but in the ring in front of tens of thousands of people.

As relayed on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw, Hennig found a novel way to counter Rikishi's signature Stinkface:

"You don't even see that coming. Kurt is that smooth. It couldn't have been a better place for him to do it than in front of 70,000 people. I believe we were in Australia. We were in Brisbane or Sydney and it was a big, huge coliseum we were at. I worked against Kurt, and Kurt comes with his towel. I'm thinking that he threw his freaking towel out of the ring, but by the time I come to give the Stink Face, he turns around and sticks that damn towel right up the crack of my ass. 

He would just sit there and just laugh and laugh about it and have a good time. That's how the old school cats were back in the day. Normally somebody would get hot, like, 'Hey, you f*cked my shit up in front of people. This sh*t ain't funny'. For us, it was like, 'Alright, you're one up. I'll catch you the next time'. 

You know what they say; 'You give a rib, you better learn how to take a rib', because you don't know what type of rib you're going to get". 

For those wondering, the rib in question didn't take place on a house show in Australia, but actually on the WrestleMania X8 pre-show (which was taped for Sunday Night Heat).

On the show, Rikishi teamed with Scotty 2 Hotty and Albert to beat Perfect, Lance Storm and Test.

You can view the spot (which I cannot believe wasn't pre-planned) here.