Kenny Omega Works The Ass & CM Punk's Speedo Weirdos: 10 Things You May Have Missed In Wrestling In August 2021

It's the greatest comeback since CM Punk returned on AEW Rampage last week; Ten Things You May Have Missed is back!

We're moving from the once-a-week TV model to a pay-per-view format here, as going forward Ten Things will look at all the tweets, beefs and missed deets from an entire month.

With the new monthly format you will, of course, be charged somewhere in the region of £29.95 for the pleasure.

August was quite the newsworthy month in wrestling, what with the returns of Punk, Becky Lynch and Brock Lesnar, some major shows, juicy backstage happenings and, sadly, the death of the great Bobby Eaton.

As always, however, with so much going on there are bound to be some things that slipped you by...

We're back, baby. Awooooo (wolf howl).

10. No Fan Of Da Man

WWE Network

The re-emergence of Goldberg in WWE on the road to SummerSlam was polarising amongst both fans and, it turns out, professional wrestlers.

Former WWE star Rene Dupree (who worked with Goldberg while the two were on the Raw brand between 2003-04) was asked about his thoughts on the former WCW World Champion and, well, he was less than complimentary.

Speaking with That 90's Wrestling Podcast, the French Tickler told a story of how Goldberg hit him so hard in the collar bone with a flag during a pre-taped segment that he still has issues with it to this day.

"Yeah he dislocated my collarbone. We (La Resistance) had a pre-tape in the back with Goldberg and he hit me with the French flag and we had to do five takes. To this day, if I try to flex it, it still hurts. Yeah he's the sh*ts. He's horrible, many wrestlers will tell you that. 

To me they (WWE) must be desperate. That’s the only thing I can figure. They can’t create new stars or they don’t have confidence in the people they have".

Dupree was later criticised for his comments by Booker T, who wondered why Rene didn't speak up at the time and then went into detail about the time Bob Holly beat up Dupree backstage (over an unpaid parking ticket that Dupree had gotten while driving Holly's car, leading to legal issues for Bob) and other ribbing he received backstage (such as having a new expensive suit superglued to the wall in the showers).

The French Phenom then responded to Booker's comments, clarifying that he didn't speak up at the time due to being young in the business and the unwritten rule that you don't complain about anything for at least the first six months you're on the road in WWE.

The whole back-and-forth really snowballed after the initial anecdotal story/opinion from Rene, eventually revealing a lot about WWE's backstage culture in the early 2000's.

To be fair to Rene, he has long maintained that he was the victim of harassment and bullying back then, and it seems he still can't catch a break with certain veterans.

9. Kenny Omega Works The Ass

WWE.com

Speaking of surly veterans with reputations, Bill DeMott was in the news again this month, after former WWE star tweeted about his 'Magic Carpet Ride' move, adding that DeMott was not a fan of it and suggested he rename it the 'Indie Bullsh*t Ride'.

Former WWE developmental prospect Kevin Matthews (who has been outspoken against DeMott and his training methods in the past), replied with a story about an exchange the old Tough Enough coach had with Kenny Omega when the AEW star was training on Deep South Wrestling.

Bill also told @KennyOmegamanX at DSW to not do any cool moves & work a body part. Omega worked his opponents ass. Won with a atomic drop off second rope .Bill - So.. the body part you chose to work…." Kenny - "The Ass, Bill." KO is a legend for more reasons than ppl know.

Omega then responded to that tweet by saying:

Too many experts out there thinking that wrestling is either "working" an arm, a leg, or sitting on a chin lock. A lot of them have sadly been in my business for decades. Get these frauds out.

Kenny, whatever you do, don't tell Jim Ross you frown upon working a leg.

8. You've Gotta Be Farooqing Kidding Me

WWE.com

Ever wonder why Ron Simmons had his name changed to Farooq, started wearing a powder blue singlet with a helmet and had Sunny as a manager when he showed up in WWE in 1996?

Of course you have!

Well, Bruce Prichard explained the thought process behind it all during a recent episode of the Something to Wrestling With podcast.

According to big Brucey P, Vince McMahon had the very specific vision in mind when he signed the former WCW Heavyweight Champion.

"Vince had this idea of Ron. I think that when he looked at Ron, from basically the eyebrows down, you had this incredible specimen, but yet, Ron had a receding hairline.  

Vince thought if we could put something on Ron’s head that he could work in like a helmet of sorts that it would take 20 years off his look. He would look 20 years younger. Actually, it really kind of did, but Ron was Ron. Ron looked like a badass man that would kick your ass if you crossed him in general because Ron's the real deal.  

Vince explained that he saw Ron, he had a whole vision of the character of what he saw, Faarooq Asaad, of what he saw there. 

He said, 'I want to change your name. I want you to be Faarooq. I want different gear'. He saw the blue, and 'You will pop in the blue'. Vince had a very specific vision, and the cool thing about it was as we were pitching this, we weren’t just pitching Ron, we were pitching Lottie (his wife) too.

Ron brought Lottie to hear this thing out as well to make sure that she was comfortable with Ron going back on the road and that she was comfortable with him continuing his career. Then we got to Sunny.  

Vince explained, 'I would like for you to have a manager. The manager is Sunny. She's a heat seeking missile because I think there's going to be a lot of people that are going to look at you and want to cheer you, but they won't cheer you with this heat seeking missile next to you. Let her stir the sh*t and you do the work'.  

It was a package and it was a vision that was one of those that Vince clearly had in his head".  

I think I can hazard as guess as to what Simmons' reaction was after hearing the pitch...

7. The Anatomy Of Milk-O-Mania

WWE.com

Kurt Angle's The Angle Show podcast continues to be a great listen, with a recent episode covering the August 20, 2001 episode of Raw being a highlight.

Taking place right in the thick of the WCW and ECW invasion of WWE, the episode of best-remembered for the show-closing segment where the Olympic Hero drove a milk truck to the ring and doused The Alliance with tonnes of the white stuff.

Angle talked through the planning of the segment and what it meant to his career, as well as the uncomfortable post-show flight.

"I didn't know [we were doing it] until the day of. They approached me and told me we had to do a run-through just to bring the guys out there and make sure everybody fit around the ring. Get Stone Cold in the ring with Paul Heyman and Debra and Stephanie, and I had to do the run-through with the milk truck to make sure the truck actually fit underneath the Titantron to get into the arena and make sure it would go all the way to the ring. So it was a quick run-through. But I was so excited to do this because this was my moment to shine as the top star in the company. This was such a great moment for me.

Actually, when I got done, I had to catch a red-eye and I had to get to the airport. I had two hours to catch my flight and the airport was an hour and 20 minutes away. I got there, so I couldn’t change after I did this deal with the milk truck. My shoes and clothes were drenched with milk. I went straight there to catch a red-eye flight – a six-hour flight – home that night, and when I got onto the plane, two hours into the flight my shoes started stinking real bad. Everybody on the plane was like, 'Where's that smell coming from?'. The guy next to me kept giving me dirty looks because he knew it was me. I took my shoes off and let them sit there and try to dry out. It was the most horrible trip I ever took".

Intensity, Integrity and Intolerable aromas.

6. Kofi Turns 40

Twitter.com/WWEBigE

A happy fortieth birthday to Kofi Kingston!

The New Day member hit the big four-zero on August 14.

Luckily, Big E was on hand to celebrate with his buddy backstage at that night's live event in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Money in the Bank briefcase holder got Kofi a plethora of gifts to remind him of his advancing years, including a 'pecker erector', inflatable walker and cane.

WWE's gift to Kingston was booking him and Xavier Woods to put over Bobby Lashley and MVP on the show that night.

5. The Man Of 1,000 Holds But Few Words

WWE.com

Konnan was recently featured on AEW Dynamite, giving him the chance to mingle backstage and catch up with some old friends.

One of the people who spoke with was former WCW colleague Dean Malenko, who told him the story of how he ended up quitting WWE after working there for almost twenty years as a talent and backstage producer/road agent.

Per the K-Dawg via the Keepin' it 100 podcast:

"I was at a table. Arn Anderson was there. Dean Malenko was there. Mark Henry was there. They were just burying WWE. At the end, Malenko told me that Johnny Ace [Laurinaitis] said to him, 'Hey man, I heard that you want to quit. Why don't you think about it?'. Malenko said, 'Yeah, I've been thinking about it for nineteen years. I quit".

I mean, what else can you say to that but 'fair play'?

4. Incompatible Opponents

WWE.com

Not much of a story here, but Oney Lorcan sure can paint a picture in 140 characters or less, can't he?

He recently tweeted a story about the time he was supposed to wrestle a WWE Hall of Famer, only for the legend to take umbrage with something Lorcan couldn't exactly control.

I was supposed to wrestle Brutus The Barber Beefcake at a carnival once but as soon as he saw me he turned to the promoter and said "guy's got no hair" and promoter just looked at me with his hands on his hips.

Since no record of such a match exists (Oney did say 'supposed to wrestle'), one can only assume The Beefster used his clout to get a new opponent.

Lance Storm did reply with a very good point, wondering why Brutus couldn't have compensated with 'more struttin’ and less cutting’.

Please be serious for a minute, Lance. For once in your life, be serious.

3. No Heart For The Highlander

Impact Plus

One of the best new additions to the wrestling podcast genre is My World with Jeff Jarrett.

Double-J and host Conrad Thompson continually bring the quality content while looking at Jarrett's long and varied career. A few weeks back, we got the first 'Ask Jeff Anything' episode, where fans were encouraged to pose questions to the former WCW, WWE and TNA star.

One listener wrote in to ask if Jarrett had any regrets about showing WWE's Robbie (of The Highlanders fame) on camera during a March 2008 episode of Impact, since that was largely attributed as the reason he got fired from WWE very shortly afterwards.

"I don't, and the reason being is that there were so many things going on. 

In 2008, and this was WrestleMania season, I remember hearing the buzz. They were like, 'Hey man. This WWE talent is out in the crowd'. I said, 'Why isn't he back here?'. They said, 'He doesn't want to come back here'. 

I couldn't put that together. I do remember being asked, and I said, 'Of course you're going to show him on camera. What is the downside?'. I didn't think the guy would put his job at risk by coming to a show, so I thought, okay, if he's going to be here, he's at least willing to take the risk, or he has taken the risk.

Does he think we're going to shoot around him? He knew the industry. I hate that he got fired, but that’s all post mortem".

Seems to me like the wrestling business has made J-E-Double F J-A-Double R-E-Double T a little bit C-A-Double L-O-U-S. 

2. Feel Old Yet?

All Elite Wrestling

If you're looking at a picture of the babyfaced Jungle Boy, odds are you probably do feel old. Unless, of course, you are a literal baby yourself.

The enviable AEW star was a guest on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette this month, discussing his late father Luke Perry, original desire to become a Hollywood stuntman, relationship with Anna Jay and much more.

He also talked about something that I am sure will make some readers feel really, really old when he mentioned the group that got him back into wrestling again after becoming a lapsed fan (he did some training when he was 10 years-old).

"I was a freshman in high school and I remember I was kind of on a date with this girl who was a sophomore. And she was at my house, and it was kind of awkward and I didn’t know what to say. I put the TV on for some background noise or whatever and we got to talking and all that. Somehow I sat on the remote or whatever it was and it flipped on to wrestling. 

I saw it out of the corner of my eyes and went 'ugh what is this?'. I thought 'I'll just watch 'til the commercial and then changed it'. And then I ended up watching three hours of it with this girl sitting right there. I was back in and I was hooked again. I think The Shield was just becoming a big thing. I had been out for awhile so I had never seen any of those guys. And I remember thinking 'this is neat'".

And look at little Jack Perry now. Now he DRIVES the school bus!

Check out the whole interview if you get the chance, it's really good.

1. Bad News, Online Weirdo Fanboys...

WWE.com

Everyone clearly wants a piece of man of the moment CM Punk, as evidenced by the crazy amount of units his first AEW t-shirt has shipped in the short time since his Rampage debut.

Those wishing to take things to the next level and perhaps acquire something that Punk himself has worn throughout his career, however, are out of luck.

A the Straight-Edge Superstar told WrestleZone, he's a collector of memorabilia and is not willing to part with any of it, especially his ring gear:

"I definitely feel like as I get older I'm more of a memorabilia guy, but memorabilia gets f*cking expensive for the stuff that I like. I want horror movie props. 

I just never sold any of my gear, because I think that's strange. I don't want somebody… I mean, I wore trunks, essentially underwear, right? I'm not selling my Speedo to some weirdo fanboy on the internet, I don't care how much money they're offering because I just feel weird about that".

Well, he said he wouldn't sell it. He didn't say anything about sneaking into his house in the middle of the night and taking it, did he?

Do your thing, online weirdo fanboys!*

*please DON'T break into CM Punk's house and steal his old wrestling gear, it was a joke, please don't do that, promise me you won't!