Shamrock: The World's Most Dangerous Man by Jonathan Snowden

Author:Jonathan Snowden [Snowden, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hybrid Shoot
Published: 2020-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

Shamrock’s tumultuous visits back to the Lion’s Den were few and far between. The WWF had an aggressive road schedule and Ken was booked almost nightly for most of the year. He took two weeks off after the Vader match before stepping back into the ring for a string of house show main events for Bret Hart’s world championship.

It was a somber time for the locker room. On October 5, Brian Pillman, one of Shamrock’s early travel partners, was found dead in a hotel room. Ross’ fears that led him to lecture Ken earlier that year had been realized—only it wasn’t Shamrock in the casket, or his young kids who were left fatherless.

The death shook Shamrock, who had spent a lot of time with Pillman, who for better or worse was one of the wrestlers who indoctrinated him into life on the road.

“On one of my early trips, Brian was riding with me because he couldn’t rent a car,” Shamrock says. “He didn't talk a whole lot and was drinking these Diet Cokes, one after another. There were four of them on the ground. He seemed a little bit off.

“We get out to eat at this diner where all the boys had gone and he can't walk. I thought he was dying. I went in and I grabbed Stone Cold. I was really worried. Steve came out just to laugh at him. I thought he was dying but they told me he had just taken some gimmicks. That's what they called somas22.

“He was literally drooling all over himself. Everyone was laughing at him and I thought it was so cruel. I dropped him off in his room and thought 'these people are wacked.'

“But just a couple of months into it, I was right there with everybody else. Later that night, I went down to get some water because I couldn't sleep. And I see Brian Pillman walking around just blitzed. I remember thinking he’d be sleeping it off all night, but he was right back at it. Two or three weeks after that, he overdosed. I was introduced very early to how ugly it could be.”

Not even death could slow the WWF freight train. A little more than two weeks later, Shamrock was in the ring for a title bout with Hart. This was not only Shamrock’s first title bout on RAW (and Hart’s last), it was a match that suddenly took on added importance behind the scenes.

Unbeknownst to the viewing audience, Hart had accepted a deal with WCW and would soon be departing WWF for its bitter rival down south. This kind of talent exchange was becoming the norm, but this departure had an added wrinkle—Hart was the reigning WWF champion and wasn’t keen on losing the belt to his real life nemesis Shawn Michaels.

Shamrock was on a short list of the wrestlers Hart was willing to do the job for on his way out—but WWF boss Vince McMahon was just as insistent that it be Michaels as Hart

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.