Stories from Luther Reigns’ time in WWE.
In the early 2000s, Matt Wiese a.k.a. Luther Reigns was offered a WWE developmental contract and a year after agreeing to that deal, he was brought up to the main roster.
It was in 2005 that Wiese exited the WWE. There was a point during his run that he was a part of a program with The Undertaker. A story from that program was shared while Wiese was on Café De René with René Duprée.
Before a match with the aforementioned WWE Hall of Famer, Wiese took 10 pain pills. He ended up getting gassed out during the bout as a result, which Undertaker was not happy about. Once Wiese returned backstage, Michael Hayes confronted him.
When I wrestled Taker, I blew up, right? It was supposed to go like 14 minutes and it went 11. So here’s what happened, I did a bunch of pain pills before I went out. Those pain pills, they cause respiratory suppression. I didn’t know that at the time. So I was just popping f*cking pain pills left and right and I popped like 10 before I went out to the ring, and then after like 11 minutes, I blew up and Taker told me, he said, ‘Punch me.’ I said, ‘Taker, I got nothing.’ He’s like, ‘Ah, f*ck.’ I don’t know if he held it against me but, he wasn’t that happy, you know? And Michael Hayes was the agent for that match. So when I went backstage, Michael Hayes kind of, you know, got in my ass a little bit.
Wiese’s introduction to WWE television was as Kurt Angle’s assistant while Angle was the General Manager of SmackDown.
Wiese claims that before he was called-up to the main roster, members of the writing team visited developmental and told him that he was going to be brought up to be Stone Cold Steve Austin’s protégé prior to Austin walking out of WWE in the summer of 2002.
Yes. Signed (to WWE’s main roster) in early 2003. Yup… I think I was down there (in developmental) for about, yep, nine months to a year. Yep. When the writing team first came down and they said, ‘Matt, we’re gonna make you Stone Cold’s protégé,’ and I’m like, ‘Cool.’ I’m like, ‘Let’s go…’ I was jacked, I was big, I could talk on the f*cking mic… I wasn’t a great wrestler but, being as big as I was, you really didn’t have to know that much… Then Stone Cold got in a fight with Vince (McMahon) and he walked out. I don’t know the whole story, but I’m sure you know more about it than I do.
Wiese’s in-ring career ended a year after his WWE exit. He last wrestled in 2006 at an independent show in Arizona.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Café De René with René Duprée with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
