Congratulations Mae Young -- WWE Hall of Famer! And a quick story about John Cena
You know, I never did get a chance to publicly congratulate Mae Young on her induction into the WWE's Hall of Fame. Mae is one of my favorite on-air performers of all-time -- her drunken old lady routine is just so darn entertaining to me. 
I was never a mark for getting pictures with the talent, but Mae was one who I always wanted a snapshot with, and it became a running gag with some friends backstage that I could never get a picture with her. That changed in 2002, on the night of SmackDown's Halloween party, when I got my favorite souvenir from my WWE days, a picture of me with Mae and the Fabulous Moolah -- all decked out in our Halloween costumes.
So congrats, Mae. You are awesome.
And speaking of the SmackDown Halloween party, let me take you back to that time with a little story about a guy named John Cena.
In the weeks leading up to the Oct. 31, 2002, SmackDown, we on creative knew we wanted a Halloween theme, and some of us were dispatched to talk to the talent to find out who they might want to dress up as. One of the people on my list was John Cena, and when I asked him, his face lit up as he instantly suggested Vanilla Ice. Knowing his vocal abilities -- I had made mention of them in a creative meeting months earlier, but nothing ever came of it then -- I smiled and told him I would do what I could.
I brought my list back to creative, and actually met a little resistance at first from one member of the team, who felt dressing him as a white rapper would bury him. But I and others fought for John to be given a chance.
A busride in England soon after helped matters. I was in the front of the bus with the other SmackDown creative team members, and John was in the back, I believe with Rikishi, Rey Mysterio and Nidia, among others. All of a sudden, John lets loose on this huge freestyle, and I could tell the other creative team members were totally impressed and were instant fans.
We went into the Halloween SmackDown with the plan for John to do a few raps, all of which he wrote himself, by the way. I remember him practicing at least one of them on me before the taping, and you could just tell this was going to be his breakout.
I've never actually seen the tape of the whole show, but I'm on camera a few times during the show (WWE used to use staffers as extra in backstage vignettes -- much cheaper than paying actors), dressed in a Dudley Do-Right costume. During the opening sequence, when Stephanie McMahon announces the matches for that night, I'm sitting right behind her, next to Cena, playing with a skeleton. Here's the grainy video from Youtube.
P.S. Funny story about that Tajiri line at the beginning. We had to do a number of takes because his line -- "I'm going to score!" -- kept sounding like he was saying "I'm going to squirt!" when he delivered it. Um, ya.
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Comments (6)
I'm sorry, who are you again...Seth? I don't believe I've seen you around these parts. They call me El Duke, if you stick around long enough I hear there's a guy who tells backstage stories that aren't well known. But hearing the story about Cena rapping on the bus for the millionth time was nice too.
By the way, John Cena used to rap? I thought he was some sort of marine, or a cop, or a gangster or something. What the hell is his gimmick again? At least heel Cena was funny.
He's not The Mountie...
Would you mind telling us why that whole Bischoff making out with Stephanie happened? And why you guys never built off that?
Man, WWE almost never disappoints when they come to Van Andel Arena, in my hometown of... Grand Rapids Michigan! (*pause for cheap pop*) I couldn't find any pre-InVasion records listed by venue, but I know that a few of the important "Attitude Era" events happened at the arena. Specifically, the episode where Austin crushes Rock's car with a monster truck was taped here. Plus...
- Raw August 27 2001: Birth of "Hurricane" Helms; Rock v. Rhyno for the WCW Title.
- Raw July 22 2002: The IC/Euro Title unification ladder match between RVD and Jeff Hardy; Rock v. Eddie in the "my kids have your posters on their bedroom walls" one-night storyline that was later included in one of the video games; the one-night reunion (no, really, the first one) of DX that led to Triple H's heel turn in the same segment; debut of Three Minute Warning; Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman jump to Smackdown.
- Smackdown October 31 2002: The Halloween episode; first John Cena rap; Steph and Eric kiss; an Angle v. Eddie match.
- Raw August 18 2003: Eric Bischoff kisses Linda (after "visiting her" at home) during the Shane McMahon v. Eric Bischoff feud; also, the Jericho v. Nash Hair v. Hair Match.
- Smackdown March 25 2004: The start of John "Bradshaw" Layfield as he explained his actions from Raw, as well as the first episode with GM Kurt Angle.
We also had the Smackdown go-home episode before Wrestlemania in 2007, where Stone Cold came out and gave JBL something like three Stunners.
Anywho, I second the vote for hearing why the Stephanie/Bischoff kiss happened in the first place, as well as why it was never mentioned again.
El Duke = Loser
El Dookie..did Seth kick sand in your face at the beach and take your girlie or something? Wow...such anger. Maybe you should be angry that you're 40yo, still live in your mom's basement, and drive a 78 Gremlin. At least then the bitterness would be justified....