• OLD SCHOOL HISTORY (July 1, 1995) – WWF Superstars
On this day in 1995, the World Wrestling Federation aired an episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF Superstars’.
This episode was pre-taped at the Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and featured matches & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WWF In Your House 2: The Lumberjacks’ PPV.
Here’s the card:
– The 1-2-3 Kid vs. Ken Reaper
– Lex Luger & Davey Boy Smith vs. Billy Mack & Lloyd Lanui
– Waylon Mercy vs. Bill Weaver
– Adam Bomb vs. Henry Godwinn
• Mark Henry Reveals Who Came Up With The Rock’s “Know Your Role & Shut Your Mouth” Line
During a recent appearance on the Stone Cold Podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry talked about working with The Rock during the Attitude Era.
Below are the highlights:
On how The Rock helped him:
“[Working with The Rock] was masterclass. I had learned wrestling and I had learned psychology, but I hadn’t learned how to apply it in the ring. There’s never been a wrestler more studied than Dwayne. He was over prepared. We would talk in the car and he’d have VHS tapes of matches of the people that he was going to wrestle against. We used to carry video games and he would carry a VCR on the road with him and he would watch tapes at night when we got to the room.
He would always be writing promos and practice those promos on you in the car. He’d say, ‘I just wanna ask you a question, how do you feel about driving down to New York?’, ‘Well, it’s…’, ‘IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW…!’ He would practice everything. He told me that I played too much and that I needed to focus. He said I could be good. If I focused on wrestling the way I focus on video games and college football, I’d be great. And he was right. I needed to get serious.”
On being on the road:
“Jerry Lawler took us so we could learn to work on the road. So, we went down to Memphis and started working and driving five hours. I thought we were going to fly and [Rock] said, ‘No, spoiled dude, it’s over. You’re on the road now. This is what it really is. I used to do this with my dad’. He was destined for greatness because he had already knew everything. He had accepted it a long time ago. He tried explaining it to me but I was in my own world.”
On not wanting to be in The Nation Of Domination:
“‘They’re going to bring you into The Nation [of Domination]. [Rock said] ‘I’ve been talking to Vince about you being the muscle for The Nation.’ And I was like, ‘Man, I don’t want to be the muscle for you. I want to be my own guy.’ I was stupid. He’s like, ‘Look man, you’re going to be on TV. I’m trying to bring you in and help you out’.”
On who came up with The Rock’s “Know your role & shut your mouth” line:
“We got to the building and Ron [Simmons] said, ‘Look, all you got to do is keep your mouth shut and do what I ask you to do and you’re going to be alright’. And there’s never been truer words. Now, a lot of people think that Dwayne was the one who came up with the ‘Know Your Role and Shut Your Mouth’ but that was Ron Simmons.
Ron Simmons was the one who said, ‘Look, you need to know your role and if you can shut your mouth…’ and Dwayne took that and made it – it was one of the things that helped him out. So it was one of those things where we were all benefiting.”
