There were a lot of big crowd reactions during the two nights of WrestleMania, none bigger, of course, than the ones for Stone Cold Steve Austin, but if you were to make a list of the biggest pops of the entire weekend, it would have to include the one Wee Man got. The daredevil made a surprise appearance along with Party Boy Chris Pontius and other Jackass stars during Johnny Knoxville’s match with Sami Zayn, and the crowd of more than 75,000 roared their approval, climaxing when Wee Man picked up Knoxville’s opponent and body-slammed him.
The match, which has been the culmination of a months long feud, started with Johnny Knoxville eating a vicious boot to the head and continued with the Jackass star absorbing a fair amount of punishment. Partway through, as things looked particularly bleak for Knoxville, Chris Pontius did his Party Boy bit to the roar of the crowd. It went over quite well before he too took some shots and was thrown to the outside. He later crawled under the ring, and as Zayn reached in, he got hit with a punch and out came Wee Man.
The crowd went nuts. They cheered like it was a main event babyface. Zayn rolled into the ring, Wee Man followed him, delivered a kick and then executed a nice little body slam, which had fans on Twitter referencing Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 3. Check out the tremendous moment below…
Everything about this match just worked, including by the way that well-executed Tornado DTD by Knoxville you could see at the end of that clip. The crowd was into it throughout. Sami Zayn did a tremendous job of playing along and selling for the entire crew. Knoxville took a few big bumps, including one through a table, and there were just the right number of surprises. That’s the thing. It’s not about always trying to do the most technically sophisticated match. It’s about doing what’s right for that particular match, and everyone involved here just nailed this one.
Other big spots during the match included Knoxville hitting Zayn with a bowling ball in a less than ideal location, Zayn being thrown through a table with mousetraps on it and Wee Man eating a vicious Heeluva Kick to the face. We also got to see others from the Jackass Crew, as well, as Jeff Tremaine, Jasper and Dark Shark also jumped from their ringside seats to help Knoxville put Zayn into a giant mousetrap for the pin. All that were missing were Steve-O (who had a tour date), Preston and a few other favorites who missed for various reasons.
The body slam was also a fair bit of revenge for Wee Man. Knoxville made an appearance earlier this year at WWE’s Royal Rumble. During that weekend, the crew ran into Brock Lesnar out to eat at a restaurant, and after some good-natured shit-talking, Lesnar picked up Wee Man and threw him through a table. The story made national news and was hilariously discussed during a segment on The Pat McAfee Show. Now Wee Man has his own body-slamming story.
If nothing else, the entire match is a terrific example of how much goodwill the Jackass crew has built over the years, both with WWE audiences and with fans in general. I love these dudes, and more than 75,000 people at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas showed how much they love them too, cheering for every single moment, none more so than Wee Man’s unexpected body slam.
