The Top 7 Wrestling Mysteries – The Greater Power, Who Ran Over Stone Cold, More

Last week’s edition of SmackDown Live almost ended in disaster for Roman Reigns. The Big Dog was on his way to an interview with Kayla Braxton when all of a sudden, some random backstage equipment fell onto him! It was pretty scary there for a few seconds, but fortunately Roman was able to get the equipment off of him and walk off like nothing was the matter. Dude didn’t even need to be checked out by medical staff.

Lord only knows what would have happened if somebody else was involved.

Reigns was willing to accept that it was an accident, but he got much more suspicious after somebody attacked him with a car on Raw. Obviously, somebody is out to get Roman Reigns. Who is it? Well, that’s the mystery, right? Typically, we’d draw this out for at least a few weeks before getting some kind of answer. Since it’s 2019 and people need answers here & now, we found out it was Rowan & Daniel Bryan on the SmackDown leading into SummerSlam. Without any kind of an explanation. Needless to say, we won’t be talking about this “Who Done It” years from now.

Today, we look at the seven most magnificent mysteries in wrestling history. Some have been solved. Others remain mysterious.

7. Who raised the briefcase?

Brie Bella raised the briefcase at King Of The Ring 1999. Nikki knew, but she didn't tell anyone #GrowingUpBella

— IVPvideos (@IVPvideos) September 2, 2014

1999 featured a couple of mysteries that end up making this list. Say what you will about the in-ring product, but the writers at this time sure knew how to hook people into wondering who did something. That year’s King of the Ring event featured Stone Cold Steve Austin taking on Vince & Shane McMahon in a ladder match with control of the WWF on the line. See, Linda had gone and made Austin the CEO after Vince & Shane pulled something over on her & Stephanie that we’ll get to later on in the countdown. Austin was about to win the match, but all of a sudden, when he reached for the briefcase containing control of the WWF, it raised high towards the ceiling.

Who would do such a thing? Apparently, people have been wondering this for years. Me? I stopped wondering around the end of the video below:

I’ve always assumed it was the Big Bossman. He had a bit of a falling out with the Corporate Ministry in the days leading into KOTR. Based on what happened in this segment, with him hugging it out with Vince & Shane, I assumed that he was the man behind the curtain raising the briefcase in order to prove his loyalty to the McMahon family. Vince & Shane weren’t afraid when Bossman came down to the ring, so they knew what was up. The only reason that some think it wasn’t answered was because they didn’t connect the dots.

6. The Black Scorpion

Ric Flair passed the torch to Sting at the 1990 Great American Bash. This was all right. Sting’s next top challenger? A man named the Black Scorpion that claimed to know Sting back in the day. He was able to do magic tricks and all sorts of things. They were clearly alluding to Sting’s old tag team partner, the Ultimate Warrior, but Warrior had better things to do at the time. At one point, Al Perez was scheduled to be the man behind the mask, but either Perez flaked out or somebody realized that wouldn’t have been a satisfying answer. Or both.

It ended up being Ric Flair. At least for one night at Starrcade 1990. I’m not sure anybody will ever be able to explain why this whole Black Scorpion thing was a good idea.

5. Who is Mr. McMahon’s bastard son?

Hey, don’t yell at me, that’s what Vince said! Dear Leader Vince had a rough stretch in the middle of 2007. He was nearly killed by an unidentified assailant while sitting in a limo that exploded, but actual wrestler deaths soon afterward led to Vince kicking out of that. WWE’s idea of retconning involved Vince saying he faked his death to see what people would do. Among these things: a paternity suit involving a illegitimate child, which happened to be a male member of the WWE roster.

The popular theory was that it would be Mr. Kennedy, which made sense because his last name was Vince’s middle name, and he was somebody WWE wanted to strap a rocket to. Unfortunately, Kennedy got himself suspended while this storyline was going on, so WWE needed to go to a less desirable option. Which was Hornswoggle, and went as poorly as anybody outside of WWE Creative would have predicted.

4. Who is behind GTV?

I liked GTV. It provided a reason for a camera to be backstage catching things that theoretically we weren’t supposed to see. Typically, wrestling companies just have magic cameras everywhere that wrestlers don’t even notice. The big mystery for months was simple: Who was capturing all that beautiful bean footage? What WWF Superstar was invading their fellow wrestlers’ privacy and filming things that would embarrass them, get them in trouble, or both?

Well, since it was originally called GDTV, everybody kinda assumed it was Goldust. It certainly fit his MO since he was a bit of a film buff & a pretty creepy character. As it turned out, Dustin Rhodes left the WWF right around the time the gimmick started, and the name changed to GTV.

We never found out who was behind it, but Chris Jericho revealed during an interview with AfterbuzzTV years afterward that Tom Green was going to be the man behind it. Then Vince McMahon saw him on television, didn’t think he was funny, and nipped that idea in the bud. Glenn Ruth, also known as Headbanger Thrasher, would use a GTV clip to reveal that Chaz (Headbanger Mosh) was being framed by his ex-girlfriend, who was accusing him of beating her & using makeup for her bruises. I even thought for years that Glenn TV was actually a thing & everybody forgot about it besides me since it was a Sunday Night Heat segment, but after reviewing the footage it’s clear that Glenn didn’t take credit for filming the clip.

GTV remains a mystery, and unless Vince sees Tom Green on TV one day and finds him funny now, it’s likely to stay that way.

3. Who drove the white Hummer?

Randy Savage & Kevin Nash had quite the feud going in 1999. WCW threw every cockamamie idea they had at this one. Raw sewage, contortionists in bags, valets getting beaten but not actually beaten, and to top it all off, a crazed mystery person ramming into peoples’ limos with a white hummer! I still don’t know how Savage vs. Nash didn’t take Feud of the Year.

There were all sorts of suspects. Lex Luger accused Hulk Hogan. Sting was seen backstage sitting in a black Hummer. Eric Bischoff eventually hit Hulk Hogan’s limo with a white Hummer, but he neither confirmed nor denied being the man behind the wheel on other occasions. Carmen Electra was a popular rumor at the time, and once Savage started feuding with Dennis Rodman you could make some sense out of it given the connection there, but even WCW couldn’t figure out a way to make that happen. I think we’re supposed to assume it was Bischoff.

Does Eric know how to drive a forklift?

2. Who hit Steve Austin with a car?

Ol’ Stone Cold had to take some time off to have neck surgery towards the end of 1999. So what better way to write him out of storylines than by having him taken out by an unknown assailant? It gives Austin an instant feud for when he comes back & elevates a new opponent to a new level. Everybody wins! Right?

Well, not quite. Rikishi’s revelation that he did it for the Rock & did it for the people went over like a fart in church. Eventually Triple H was fingered as the mastermind behind the entire plan because anything that required a mastermind at the time needed Triple H, and nobody was buying Rikishi as a top heel. Fun mid-card babyface, sure. Grumpy main event heel, not so much. Worth a shot though.

Honorable Mention: Who hit Kevin Owens with a pie?

Who could have figured on a food fight breaking out during a holiday celebration at a wrestling show? SmackDown especially has seen a number of food fights over the years, and Kevin Owens thought he managed to avoid the carnage for a minute. Until an unknown assailant hit him in the face with a pie.

Who was it? From the looks of the camera angle, it appears to have been the cameraman. Who was holding the camera? We may never find out, but comment sections across the Internet haven’t forgotten about the incident.

1. The Greater Power

Have you noticed that 1999 WWF was full of mysteries? It seemed like every week we were introduced to another “who did it” saga meant to keep us from changing the channel. This one involved The Undertaker & his Ministry of Darkness doing evil things to Steve Austin & the McMahon family at the behest of a Higher Greater Power. Vince McMahon, of course, ended up being the shadowy figure behind all of these plans. It was somewhat disappointing because we were hoping for somebody (anybody) different in the role of the big bad.

Popular rumors around the time suggested Jake Roberts or Ted DiBiase returning to the WWF to fill the role. Bruce Prichard revealed years later on his podcast that the original idea was for it to be Christopher Daniels. As much as Daniels is revered in 2019 for all he’s accomplished over the years, his revelation as the Greater Power in 1999 would have gotten crickets chirping as a response. Most of us had never seen or heard of him before. Vince McMahon rejected the idea for his usual reasons concerning look & height. Even if the one thing missing from Daniels’ resume ends up being a good run with WWE, I’d say everything worked out well for him.