Wrestling with History - March 22 (Patreon)

31 years ago:

Kevin Nash gets “super shredded” for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II

Before Dave Bautista guarded the galaxy or John Cena made peace with HBO, Kevin Nash knew the secret of the ooze. It wasn’t Big Dave, Cena or even Nash’s former Master Blaster tag partner becoming Sabertooth in X-Men that set the pro wrestler/comic book movie precedent, leave that designation to Big Daddy Cool in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze.

Nash looked all sorts of Master Blaster as he donned the samurai head gear of Shredder and became the mutated version of the Turtles’ main villain. In a 2019 interview with GameSpot’s Chris E. Hayner, Nash talked about the literal weight on his shoulders when dressed up in Super Shredder regalia.

“The people that made the original Batman outfit made the Super Shredder outfit. So, that cape is latex, but it's double-lined latex. That cape weighed about 105 pounds, was bolted onto you. So, when you put that thing on... Like, they used to put me in everything except the helmet, take me to set, and I would sit in the back of a pickup truck gate, and they would take me to set, because there was no way I could walk that far. That thing was so heavy.”

“I don't remember if it was a rib or what, but the first scene I ever shot, they brought me in, only me, on Saturday, and all I did was took this hand, went through that wood, went like this, and made the first movement. They had me do that for six hours. I don't know if they did it, and it was just like, "This guy doesn't know. We'll just see how long he'll do it." And I'm like walking over, I'm looking at the takes, and I'm like they all look eerily similar! Maybe they just wanted to get some overtime, I don't know what it was, but it was at my cost. I mean, I look back, and like doing comic-cons and stuff like that... I sign a lot of Secret of the Ooze VHS boxes.”

The film was a box office success, roping in $78.7 million in the United States and becoming the second highest independent film to do so, right behind the first movie. In 2004 Nash would dip his cinematic toe back in the comic book movie genre by portraying “The Russian” in The Punisher, starring Tom Jane and Roy Schieder.

29 years ago:

Andre The Giant was inducted into the first WWF Hall Of Class posthumously. Andre was the solo inductee of 1993.

18 years ago:

WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero defeated Triple H by disqualification on an episode of Monday Night RAW.

Follow Dominic DeAngelo from WrestleZone on Twitter @DominicDeAngelo. Thanks to @LetsGoBackToWCW for curating the historical moments.