Life understandably changes a lot after wrestling, so it's also totally understandable that wrestlers wouldn't look the same after retiring from the ring. But these guys you might not even recognize if you passed them on the street.
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00:00Life, understandably, changes a lot after wrestling, so it's also totally understandable
00:05that wrestlers wouldn't look the same after retiring from the ring. But these guys, you
00:09might not even recognize if you passed them on the street.
00:13Half of the tag team, the Nasty Boys, Brian Nobbs — real name Brian Yann Drisavitz — got
00:18his start in the AWA in 1986, first trying to be a singles wrestler before forming his
00:23infamous tag team with Jerry Sags. The team then made their way to Florida Championship
00:27Wrestling and WCW. In 1990, the Nasty Boys jumped to WWE for the better part of three
00:33years. They were managed by Jimmy Hart and had feuds with the other big tag teams of
00:37the time. At WrestleMania VII, Nobbs and Sags reached the pinnacle of their success, defeating
00:42the Hart Foundation for the WWE Tag Team Championships. They lost the titles to the Legion of Doom
00:47at SummerSlam later that year.
00:49After returning to WCW in 1993, the Nasty Boys enjoyed their greatest sustained success,
00:55capturing the WCW World Tag Team Championships on three occasions. Nobbs returned to singles
01:01competition as well, going on to win three WCW Hardcore Championships before leaving
01:06the company in 2000. In 2007, more than 14 years after their previous appearance in WWE,
01:12Nobbs and Sags reunited as the Nasty Boys to work a dark match at WWE SmackDown, defeating
01:18Drew McIntyre and Dave Taylor. However, the Nasty Boys reportedly caused chaos at the
01:22SmackDown tapings, and their tenure was cut short. In 2010, the Nasty Boys briefly joined
01:27TNA Wrestling for what would be their final run.
01:30Nobbs was known to be a close friend of Hulk Hogan and has been seen with him quite a bit
01:34in recent years. Nobbs has also had two GoFundMe campaigns for health issues and appears at
01:39conventions and signings.
01:40It's gonna get crazy, it's gonna get wild, and it's damn sure it's gonna get nasty.
01:47Though he had some singles success, Rick Steiner did not have the championship career that
01:51his tag team partner brother, Scott, had after the Steiner brothers went their own
01:55ways. That said, his legacy definitely lives on through his son, WWE star Braun Breaker,
02:01who inducted both his father and uncle into the 2022 Hall of Fame class. Only Harlem Heat
02:06has more recognized WCW Tag Team Championship runs than the Steiners, who are tied with
02:11the Minnesota Wrecking Crew with seven.
02:13The real-life Robert Rex Steiner was a runner-up for the Big Ten Championship in collegiate
02:18wrestling at Michigan, where he held the record for fastest pin in school history at
02:22just 15 seconds. Steiner was introduced to pro wrestling by fellow WWE Hall of Famer
02:27George the Animal Steel, making his debut in 1984. Between 1985 and 1987, Steiner competed
02:33for several promotions, ending up in WCW and eventually aligning with Scott. The Steiners
02:38left for WWE in 1992, where they captured tag team gold twice.
02:43Since retiring from in-ring competition, Steiner has appeared on NXT, where he was
02:47abducted and locked inside a cage during Breaker's feud with Joe Gacy. Luckily, he was fine.
02:54Bob Backlund was one of the longest-reigning WWE champions in history, though there was
02:58some fudging of the records to give him that distinction. He actually lost the title to
03:03Antonio Inoki in 1979 and won it back a few weeks later. But Inoki's title reign is not
03:09recognized by WWE at all. They list Backlund's 2,135-day reign as unbroken.
03:16Backlund is probably best known for being the guy behind the guy who made Hulkamania
03:19possible. He dropped the title to the Iron Sheik at Madison Square Garden on December
03:2326, 1983. Less than a month later, Hogan beat the Sheik, and the rest was history. By then,
03:29Backlund had become something of an afterthought. By the end of 1984, he was gone from WWE.
03:34In 1992, Backlund returned, two years later adopting his Mr. Backlund persona and eventually
03:39winning the WWE Championship from Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1994, when Hart's mom,
03:45Helen, threw him the towel. Three days later, Backlund dropped the belt to Diesel at a house
03:50show. Backlund has made a few guest appearances for WWE in the years since. He even wrestled
03:55back in 2018 at 68 years old for Dredition Pro Wrestling in Japan.
04:00Gene Snitsky cut his teeth on the independent circuit beginning in 1997 before finding a
04:05home in Pennsylvania's World Extreme Wrestling. After three years there, he signed a developmental
04:10deal with WWE and reported to Ohio Valley Wrestling before hitting the main-roster house
04:15show circuit for a series of matches against Kane. The two competed in Snitsky's raw debut
04:19in September 2004 in the infamous angle that saw him accidentally injure Lita, who in storyline
04:25was pregnant, causing her to miscarry.
04:27Snitsky's run in WWE lasted about four years and included a stint in the WWE's ECW. He
04:33briefly returned in 2023 for a disturbing backstage segment with Chelsea Green on Raw,
04:39where he delivered his infamous catchphrase, "'It wasn't my fault.'"
04:42Since then, Snitsky has been mostly retired, though he has occasionally bounced around
04:46the independents, most notably Major League Wrestling. Outside of wrestling, Snitsky became
04:50a pitchman for the power-pressure cooker XL, where he adopted the persona of Turkey Dude,
04:55a social media marketing tactic intended to promote the product. Snitsky was featured
04:59on the product's website in a series of webisodes called The Adventures of Turkey Dude.
05:04"'Never suffer from dry turkey syndrome again.'"
05:08Considering that his character was an adult film star, it isn't hard to put together that
05:12the peak of Val Venus' WWE career was during the envelope-pushing Attitude Era of the late
05:171990s. His first feud was with the villainous Kayentai Stable, and it instantly became infamous
05:22among fans. The group's manager, Yamaguchi-san, attempted to cut off Venus' most prized asset
05:27with a sword after Venus had an affair with his wife. Venus was only saved with some help
05:32from John Wayne Bobbitt. Seriously.
05:34From there, Venus had a string of storylines in which he was said to have slept with opponents'
05:39wives, girlfriends, and family members. His transgressions were symbolically avenged when
05:43he lost to Chyna in the first round of the 1999 King of the Ring tournament. He took
05:48a hiatus and returned with a dialed-back character, who eventually became an authority figure
05:52working under Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff. By 2009, with WWE in its PG era, Venus was
05:58off to the independent scene, where he stayed active until 2023, almost always under the
06:03Venus persona. He also had a short in TNA in 2010 under his real name, Sean Morley.
06:09In recent years, Morley has become a cannabis advocate and entrepreneur. He also describes
06:13himself as an anarchist on social media, where he promotes some controversial apparel and
06:18regularly espouses his anti-trans views.
06:23Haku's reputation as one of the most legitimate tough guys the wrestling industry has ever
06:26seen has been corroborated by many of his peers. Born Tonga Fafida on the island of
06:31Tonga, Haku played rugby in high school. At 15, he was sent to Japan by the King of Tonga
06:35to study sumo wrestling. He reached the third-highest division of the Japan Sumo Association. A
06:41dispute with the administration led Haku and his countrymen to retire from sumo, and he
06:45moved on to study professional wrestling.
06:48Within a year, Haku and Tonga Kid, a.k.a. Tama, were wrestling in WWE as the Islanders,
06:53as they would continue to do until Bobby Heenan transferred the King's crown from fellow Heenan
06:57family member Harley Race, who was injured, to anoint Haku as King of the Ring in the
07:02summer of 1988. His reign would last until April 1989, when he lost the crown to Hacksaw
07:07Jim Duggan. Haku moved on to form the colossal connection with Andre the Giant and capturing
07:12the WWE Tag Team Championships. Haku then became Ming for a six-year stint in WCW, often
07:19tagging with the Barbarian in the Faces of Fear. He returned to WWE at the 2001 Royal
07:24Rumble to spark a run that lasted through early 2002. He remained semi-active, last
07:29wrestling for ACW in April 2024. He was seen and name-dropped by Paul Heyman at the 2024
07:36WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. His sons, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa, recently debuted
07:41in WWE.
07:44Fred Ottman had a pretty good career overall, but he'll forever be infamous for one moment
07:48— the debut of the Shockmaster. But we'll get to that in a minute. Ottman began his
07:53career in 1984 and would eventually debut on WWE TV as Tugboat Thomas in 1990. Tugboat
07:59later aligned with none other than Hulk Hogan, and if you could get past his toot-toot rallying
08:04cry, made for a pretty solid wingman for the Immortal One in his budding rivalry with Earthquake.
08:09No good alliance lasts forever, and the pair split when Tugboat turned on his teammates,
08:13the Bushwhackers, in a six-man tag against Earthquake and the Nasty Boys. He then aligned
08:18with Earthquake and changed his name to Typhoon to form the Natural Disasters, under Jimmy
08:22Hart's guidance. The team captured WWE Tag Team Gold, but by the end of 1993, both Earthquake
08:28and Typhoon were both gone from WWE.
08:31This led to the Shockmaster in WCW, who famously fell down and lost his helmet the very first
08:36time fans saw him. Ottman revealed in an episode of Dark Side of the Ring that he still
08:40gets significant residuals from Shockmaster merchandise, autograph signings, and so on.
08:45So he got the last laugh, it seems.
08:47I have a shock for you. The Shockmaster is coming.
08:53Ed Leslie has been known by many names but is forever Brutus the Barber Beefcake, his
08:58WWE persona which led to a 2019 Hall of Fame induction. But it's worth noting his many
09:03other gimmicks — Brute Force, Brother Brute-Eye, The Bootyman, The Butcher, The Man With No
09:08Name, The Disciple, Ed Boulder, Eddie Boulder, Dizzy Golden, Dizzy Hogan, Eddie Hogan, and
09:13who could forget The Zodiac? If it wasn't clear, Beefcake goes way back with Hulk Hogan,
09:18all the way to high school, growing up just a few blocks away from each other in Tampa,
09:22Florida.
09:23Leslie's WWE run lasted from 1984 to 1993, but his barber gimmick was undoubtedly the
09:29He earned the nickname after helping Roddy Piper defeat Adrian Adonis in a hair match.
09:34From there, Beefcake started strutting and cutting his way to the ring, garden shears
09:38in hand. Eventually, he aligned with Hogan against Randy Savage and Zeus. Any momentum
09:43he had from that was unfortunately thwarted by a horrific parasailing accident in 1990.
09:48His injuries required complete reconstructive surgery. Necessitating an incision from ear
09:53to ear, his face peeled down and his scalp pulled back, so the doctors could reconstruct
09:58the bones of Leslie's face.
10:00His return to WWE in 1993 only featured a pair of televised matches. The most memorable
10:05moment was the Barbershop talk show episode that featured Shawn Michaels superkicking
10:10Marty Jannetty and then ramming him through the set's window to end the Rockers as a tag
10:14team.
10:15With WCW from 1994 until 1999, Leslie endured a litany of terrible gimmicks before departing
10:21for good, toiling around the independents until retiring in 2015. Leslie was recently
10:26the focus of an episode of Dark Side of the Ring.