Was Marc Mero Going To Be Vince’s Top Guy?

Whether you knew him as the flamboyant Johnny B. Badd – a precursor to the Velveteen Dream – or as the ‘Wildman’ Marc Mero, the former Intercontinental Champion was a part of all of our childhoods in some shape or form.

Your writer first saw him in World Championship Wrestling in 1991 exploding colorful firecrackers and losing to Sid Vicious on the company’s Worldwide program. From there, he would have notable outings and feuds against the like of ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin (Great American Bash Tour 1991), Sting (Clash of Champions XVI: Fall Brawl), an oddly entertaining enmity with Maxx Pain (various, 1992), and capture the WCW Television Championship from Steven Regal at WCW Fall Brawl 1994.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW7bTc7PbaI

Then, shockingly for a wrestling fan at the time – especially a 9 year old one – he appeared out of nowhere at WrestleMania XII, rescuing real-life spouse Sable from Hunter Hearst Helmsley. He’d left WCW after disagreeing with a storyline involving the then Kimberley Page and was now competing under his own name. Though a feud with the blue-blood ended his WWF Intercontinental Championship reign, it’s fair to say that his time in the company wasn’t a success.

It didn’t stop him from competing, however, as Mero returned to the ring in the early noughties for TNA Wrestling under his Johnny B. Badd moniker.

Now, the self-professed ‘Bad Man’ has spoken to the Noonan Speaks podcast, opening up for the first time about his career. In a revealing interview that covered many aspects of his life between the ropes, Mero spoke at length about the expectations placed on him when he signed with WWF, his regrets, and shockingly, the plan to make him WWF Champion which never came to fruition:

“I mean, at that time, when I first came in, Vince [McMahon] talked about wanting to put the world strap on me right away. I mean, he had such big hopes for me, and, unfortunately, it did not go [that way]. They gave me the Intercontinental strap, and, of course, that didn’t go well and I blew out my knee. And at that time, it was eight months off. And in those eight months, coming back it was never the same.”

Refreshingly, throughout the entire interview, Marc doesn’t blame one single person for his run being a flop. In a conference such as this we’re used to hearing how ‘he’ did this to sabotage a livelihood, or ‘they’ didn’t like the way a wrestler was performing so buried them on the under-card:

“Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out and I don’t blame anybody. I blame myself really, but it’s so crazy because even though that character didn’t work out, I’m married, I’m in love with my wife [Sable] and her character takes off. It was like me becoming successful too because we were one. She did really well and I couldn’t be happier for her or for us in our marriage.”

Though the marriage would end in divorce in 2004, Sable eclipsed Mero in every way possible. In their on-screen relationship, she was the star whilst Marc hung on to her coattails for as long as he could. It was just bad timing that Mero got to WWF at a time when the audience was favoring a new generation of female talent. Had he arrived earlier, maybe history would have read differently. Sable would re-marry Brock Lesnar, you might have heard of him, even if you haven’t seen him for three months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pQtFYwtQjU

Finally, Marc Mero opened up about his regrets in the industry, and the effect that infamous Sable Bomb had on his career:

“I have no regrets. I mean, people say I ended my [pro wrestling] career when I allowed her to Sable Bomb me, the powerbomb, in one of our disagreements we had in the ring. I understood a lot of guys wouldn’t work with me after that because they said I allowed a girl to beat me up on national TV. But, again, remember, we were a married couple. We realized that this was only going to be a short part of our lives and we would be able to live the rest of our lives financially secure, so, at that time, you don’t think about maybe the other side, the detrimental effects. I mean somebody could look at that later in life and not understand how someone could think like that. That I could certainly understand and respect it. But I would not change anything. I couldn’t be happier in my own life now.”

It’s heartwarming to hear that someone is enjoying life and has no regrets. We’ve all seen, too often, how life ends for a professional wrestler who hangs onto the past. Marc Mero may have been a small fish in a big pond but in the minds of an entire generation he was a vital part of many a childhood. For that, his place in history is assured.

 

Let us know what you think of Marc Mero’s words and your memories of his career in WCW and WWF. Should he have been bigger or was he in exactly the right place? Come and join the family on Twitter and Discord today.