Ken Shamrock Recalls First WWE Match Against Vader, Accidentally Busting Him Open

Ken Shamrock recently looked back at his first match in WWE and how he accidentally busted Vader open during the bout. Shamrock’s in-ring debut in WWE came at WWF In Your House 15: A Cold Day In Hell where he defeated the late WWE Hall of Famer. Shamrock recently looked back at the match and why Vader was the right opponent for him in an appearance on Wrestling Life Online.

During the conversation, Shamrock talked about how everyone asked him if he was okay after as they thought it was a very stiff match. Shamrock was confused until Vader came into the back with a busted nose. You can see highlights from the discussion below:

On Working With Vader In the Match:

“Yeah, I really enjoyed it. Vader was the right guy for me to be able to put me in there and at least get a feel for what it’s supposed to be. Because what we did wasn’t what it was supposed to be. [laughs] Because I know when I went in there — I think the understanding with most people that are are watching or listening to us right now is that I come from a world where five to six days a week for however long it was going into a fight, I would go into a gym. I would put people that were training partners and friends and all that. And we would literally go in there and we would spar. And by sparring, means that you’re protecting one another like you would in wrestling. The difference is, what we’re doing is we’re hitting each other. Like we’re literally hitting each other. Sometimes you knock them down, sometimes you hit them in the gut, you take the air out of them. You kick them in the leg, they get some bruises. So it’s not — you’re hitting, like these things are happening.

“So when I go in there, I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to dial it back a lot. But I’m not going to throw a punch that doesn’t land,’ because I’m not going to be an idiot, and everybody just says, ‘That didn’t land.’ So my idea was to just — because I was good enough with my hands and all my other stuff that I had great control where I could tap guys and hit them and tap them. And so going into that, Vader understood that, and it was good that Vince put that match together. Because anybody else, they would have walked out. They’ve said, ‘I’m not wrestling this guy.’ But I think Vader understood the task and Vader’s a big, strong, tough person himself.”

On the Match Itself:

“And so we went in and had the match and I remember thinking to myself, ‘This is easy.’ Like, ‘Wow, this is easy.’ And I remember at the end of the match after we started doing our stuff, and I thought nothing of it. I literally thought that we had a really good match. And we did, but not at a standard that I could work with everyone like that, right?

On Vader Getting Busted Open:

“And so I kind of walked out and I thought to myself — I felt good about it. When I got back there people are like, ‘Dude, what a great match. Are you okay?’ And I’m like, ‘What?’ Like they’re asking me if I’m okay in a pro wrestling match. And I’m looking at him going, ‘Is this a work? Like, are you guys playing me?'”

“And then Vader comes out and his nose, he’s bleeding. I’m like, ‘Ooh.’ I didn’t even know it. Like, I had no clue. And I guess he — I think it was a knee when I was kneeing or doing something. I don’t remember what it was, but he kind of went into it as I was doing it. And I remember, from what he he kind of explained it to me like, we were just going the same way at the same time, which is the knee I believe it was. And I didn’t think anything of it, because I didn’t hit him with the bone part of it. I hit him with the thigh because that’s how I protect everybody when you’re throwing knees. You don’t hit him with the knee, you hit him with the thigh because it’s soft. And I guess he went down into it and he came back and he was fine. Like he wasn’t angry, he just kind of laughed about it.”

On Learning From That Match:

“But everybody was saying it was a really, really good match and it looked stiff as all get out. And I was like, ‘So what does that mean?’ So I remember after that match, I remember Bret and them were, ‘We got to dial it down, because not everybody’s going to–‘ So I learned a lot from the first match. Because my sparring or my easy isn’t the same thing as their easy.

“And so I had to make those adjustments. And thankfully I was able to, because if I would have went against anyone other than someone who had already understood who I was, and the strength and the capability with Vader, and being tough as he is? I don’t know if anybody else would have trusted me enough after that.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Wrestling Life Online with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.