• Vince McMahon Complained To U.S. Senators About What WCW Was Doing
Eric Bischoff shared an interesting story on his 83 Weeks podcast about Vince McMahon’s behind-the-scenes tactics during the Monday Night War.
According to Bischoff, McMahon went as far as to write letters to Ted Turner – and even to U.S. Senators – complaining about WCW’s use of blood during broadcasts.
“Vince was trying to get Turner executives and even politicians to put pressure on us,” Bischoff recalled. “He claimed we were setting a bad example because of blading.”
Ironically, not long after WCW banned blood to comply with the complaints, WWF started using blood on television again.
“That’s Vince,” Bischoff said. “He’d play the PR game, make us look like villains, and then turn around and do the same thing himself. It was classic manipulation.”
Bischoff called it a turning point in the rivalry, when he realized how far McMahon would go to protect his image while sabotaging WCW behind the scenes.
• D’Lo Brown Reveals Which Movie Inspired His Iconic Head Shake
Few taunts in wrestling history became as instantly recognizable as D’Lo Brown’s legendary head shake – a gesture so simple yet so iconic that fans still approach him decades later asking him to recreate it. But according to D’Lo, the move wasn’t planned, crafted, pitched, or rehearsed. It was a complete accident.
Speaking on the Muscle Memory podcast, D’Lo said the inspiration unexpectedly hit him after watching the movie “Friday.”
“I was watching the movie Friday… when Chris Tucker – Deebo gets knocked down – Chris goes, ‘You just got knocked the hell out.’”
The very next night, D’Lo was ringside during a match between The Rock and Ken Shamrock. As Shamrock took a bump and the show went into commercial, D’Lo noticed the camera zoomed tightly into Shamrock’s face.
On instinct, he ran over, leaned into frame, and shook his head exactly like Chris Tucker. “I run up to him and I just started shaking my head going, ‘You just got knocked out.’”
He thought nothing of it. In fact, he didn’t even remember doing it – until he walked backstage. “I didn’t realize I did it… got back up in Gorilla and Vince McMahon just said, ‘That thing you did – keep doing it.’”
Only then did D’Lo understand the power of the moment. “If I grabbed his attention… how many wrestling fans would it catch the attention of as well?”
The next time he walked through the curtain, the crowd was already mimicking him. “Next time I went out, there were people doing this and I’m like, ‘What?’”
That’s when D’Lo decided to “turn the volume up.” The subtle head shake became a major character element: stronger, faster, sillier, more animated. Then came the shoulder strut. Then walking to the rhythm of his theme music.
“Shoulder strut came, then walking to the rhythm of the music… it all went in a nice little row.”
Today, fans still approach him asking him to do the taunt – even in grocery stores.
“30 years later people walk up to me in the supermarket going, ‘Shake your head.’ It’s crazy.”
What began as an improvised, throwaway moment became one of the most beloved gestures of the entire Attitude Era.
