Former WWE star Heidenreich reveals the nickname he got for being heidenscared of heights.
During his recent appearance on the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Heidenreich looked back at when he read one of his Disasterpiece poems while sitting on top of the SmackDown fist on the September 30, 2004, episode. He had returned to WWE the previous month with Paul Heyman as his manager, and the latter was screaming for him to get down from there.
The former WWE star revealed that he was terrified of heights and, despite having a harness and a movie stunt coordinator helping him, he needed a literal shove to step onto the 60-foot-high SmackDown fist. Word quickly got around about his acrophobia, resulting in him getting the nickname “Scared of Heights.”
The former WWE star got the nickname ‘Scared of Heights’
“This is a story I just remembered. They used to call me Scared of Heights instead of Heidenreich. Scared of heights. Because I was terrified to get up on that thing, number one, because that’s like 60 feet. We practice it, and that lift raises me up, and I got a harness. Because I’m like, I’m not doing it. But when we practice it, the guy who does all the stunt stuff, he went up there with me. I think he was a guy who worked with WWE, but he was a real stunt guy for movies, but he went up there with me.
“When we pulled to that big fist, it was like right on it, there was no gap. When we went live, we lifted the thing up. It was like six inches. Six inches seemed like 20 feet to me. I was like, dude, man, it’s not all the way against the thing. He goes, you got to go. I said, I’m scared, man. He like shoved me, get out there. But I had a harness, but I was trying not to act scared on that fist.
“It’s a big fist, but still it’s 60 feet, and if you don’t like heights, because I used to get scared having to do the Legion of Doom finish to stand up on top of the turnbuckle that’s way up there. So I’d always get on it, and I’d go right away before I fell. But anyway, somebody found out I had a fear of heights, and they was like, ‘You’re not Heidenreich, you’re scared of heights.’ The camera dudes would be saying it, I’m like, shut up, man,” the former WWE star said.
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