Forgotten Wrestlers - Big John Studd

Big John Studd is one professional wrestler that was forgotten and younger wrestling fans do not know much about him. His real name was John William Minton and was trained by well known legend of wrestling Killer Kowalski. Both of them started working together and Big John's first ever major title was the WWWF Tag Team title won in tag team with Kowalski. Both were then masked and members of a team called the Masked Executioners.

Big John Studd left the WWWF and eventually wrestled under different names like The Masked Superstar II, Captain USA and Chuck O'Connor. As time passed he had interesting feuds with Barry Windham, Sweet Brown Sugar and Dusty Rhodes. Some older wrestling fans will definitely remember his heel gimmick and the stretcher he brought to the ring. In 1982 Studd started a feud with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair and would eventually turn towards the WWF. That was when he started a huge feud with the WWF World Champion of the time, Hulk Hogan. In the WWF of the time we saw the wrestler managed by Bobby Heenan and we noticed one of the most memorable feuds of John Studd's career against Andre the Giant. There was a huge tag team match that showed Andre the Giant's hair being shaved after the match and the end of the feud was huge. Big John Studd offered $15,000 to anyone that could body slam him and this eventually led to a match between John Studd and Andre the Giant at the first ever Wrestlemania. The highlight was Andre body slamming Studd and claiming the money while also winning the match. The feud with Andre the Giant was probably the best feud that Big John Studd had in his wrestling career.

Big John Studd also participated in the well known Wrestlemania 2 Over the top Battle royal match. Studd set his focus on eliminating William Perry but eventually was eliminated by the professional football player, after the wrestler eliminated him. The winner of that Battle Royal was Andre the Giant. After this match and a tag team run with King Kong Bundy, Studd did not appear in the WWF for around 3 years. Big John returned to feud against members of the Heenan family and he eventually won the Royal Rumble of 1989. Unfortunately this was the most important moment of the wrestler's career. After serving as a special referee for the match between Andre the Giant and Jake "The Snake" Roberts at Wrestlemania V he started to take time off and eventually had to retire because of problems caused by taking growth hormones. Big John Studd eventually died because of Hodgkin's disease and liver cancer in 1995.

In conclusion, I would like to point out the ending of the famous Body Slam match against Andre the Giant at the first ever Wrestlemania! Enjoy!

Hulk Hogan helped Big Show to Lose Weight

Hulk Hogan is one of the biggest factor that helped Big Show in losing weight. It was the WWE Hall of Fame Legend that introduced Big Show to the boxing trainer Artie Artwell from Miami. Big Show wanted to get into boxing and Artie Artwell helped the wrestler lose over 100 pounds. To make it even better, Big Show had one entire year that was smoke free. This is also believed to be one of the reasons why the WWE let the wrestler back in the game. Now one fact that surprised me was that Hulk Hogan took some time to help one wrestling superstar of today.

Update on Hulk Hogan's Divorce

Everybody has been asking why Linda Bollea (also known as Hogan) filed for divorce and it does seem that Hulk was also surprised when hearing about it. According to the Tampa Tribune newspaper, she is currently accusing her husband of what was labeled as "legal shenanigans". Linda Hogan claims that Hulk Hogan tried to get her to sign a post-nuptial agreement and he is hiding $10 million USD obtained from a real estate transaction that was made in 2007.

Linda has asked Hogan's assets to be frozen and this includes everything. She also wants to get temporary injunction in this emergency motion filing. Her story is that Hulk took her to Les Barnett, a Tampa lawyer, saying that they will do real estate planning. It seems that the two presented her with a post-nuptial agreement instead of real estate deals. This incident led to her filing for divorce against Hulk Hogan. To make matters even more interesting, Linda Hogan took out $1.5 million out of a joint bank account when she noticed that her husband had "suspicious behavior" last year. The money was put into a limited liability corporation and the only individual that can access the funds is...are you ready? Eric Bischoff! This gets weirder by the day!

Bret Hart Appearing on Raw?

We all know about the problems Bret Hart had in the past with the WWE. This is why it does seem strange for me that Bret The Hitman Hart might appear on the 15th anniversary edition of WWE Raw. According to the Comcast Cable Preview, Bret Hart is listed as appearing on the show. Also, according to DirecTV and TV Guide, the anniversary Raw show will see wrestlers like Stone Cold Steve Austion, Undertaker, Bret Hart, the McMahon Family, Triple H and Hulk Hogan. There are also rumors that the Rock was supposed to appear on the show but he declined. As far as we know, WWE is trying to get everybody that has been a big superstar in WWE on the show. Too bad there are some wrestlers that have signed contracts with other wrestling federations like Kurt Angle or Diesel (Kevin Nash).