For many fans, the most notable thing about former WWE star Gangrel’s career was his entrance, where he would emerge from the floor of the entrance ramp surrounded by fire. It was an entrance that, unfortunately, led to him getting burned for real. Appearing on “Insight with Chris Van Vliet,” Gangrel discussed the 2004 incident, which occurred while rehearsing his entrance for a match where he and Viscera would face The Undertaker. Gangrel revealed that the cause of it all was because WWE no longer used the lift they had for Gangrel’s original entrance, leading him to using the much smaller lift Rey Mysterio used.
“We went to do a dry rehearsal, but what they didn’t guess, and I heard they fired their whole pyro crew for that, is when they started the fire, because it was such a small hole, it backdraft in, so it pulled the flames in on me,” Gangrel said. “So I was standing in this little whole getting barbecued, you know?”
Gangrel jumped out of the hole as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, it didn’t prevent him from suffering serious burns.
“I could see the skin, my skin was just hanging off,” Gangrel said. “So I jumped and I was hanging on to my skin…I get up there…and I go ‘No no, it’s cool.’ You know…a smart guy would’ve went and sued and retired or something.”
Instead, Gangrel would work the match as planned after receiving medical attention. Alas, it still didn’t prevent Gangrel from missing time afterward.
“What they did is they cut the skin off, cleaned it up, and bandaged me up,” Gangrel said. “And then I went [and] I wrestled. If you look at the match, you’ll see the arm is still bigger because I had it all bandaged up. And I went, and I was out 3, 4 months. I had to get skin grafts and stuff like that.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
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