10 Wrestlers You Won’t Believe Were Once Paul Heyman Guys 9

9. Tommy Rich

Tommy Rich is the answer to one of wrestling’s great trivia questions, being one of the shortest-reigining NWA World Heavyweight Champions of all time, beating Harley Race in April 1981, only to drop it back to Race a mere four days later.




However, Rich had a long and successful career, and one territory that he shone in was the notorious Memphis area, run by Jerry Lawler, the perennial headliner there. Rich’s path crossed with Heyman’s way back in 1987. Heyman was managing another Memphis icon, “The Universal Heart Throb” Austin Idol, in a headline feud with Lawler. In April 1987, Idol and Lawler’s feud was due to come to a climax with a hair vs hair steel cage match. After much previous interference, the cage meant that nobody could get in or out of the ring, and there had to be a WINNER. However, Tommy Rich hid under the ring FOR THE ENTIRE EVENT before emerging during the main event and helping Idol defeat Lawler. Heyman’s master plan had come off, and not only did Lawler lose, but he had to face the humiliation of having his head shaved. The fans in Memphis were livid and one of the most famous nights in Memphis was etched into history.
Another perennial Memphis legend, Bill Dundee, sided with Lawler in a tag team feud with Heyman’s team of Rich and Idol, culminating in a tag team scaffold match where Heyman legitimately broke his arm falling off the scaffold. Rich left the PROMOTIONsoon afterwards, which was usually what happened to headlining heels in the territorial days, but Heyman never forgot him. In 2000, Rich turned up in Heyman’s ECW promotion as “The Don” of the Full Blooded Italians stable, despite not having a drop of Italian blood in him. He retired in 2012, with his last match being against former ECW World Champion Steve Corino.


via www.whatculture.com