Like many stars of the wacky cartoon era that was the WWE in the early 1990s, The Berzerker isn’t a character you’d forget in a hurry.
Managed by the dastardly Mr Fuji, the eccentric Norseman spent two years wrestling for what was then Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation – now known as the global mega brand that is WWE.
Crudely portraying a Viking, the real life John Nord would march to the ring with his trusty sword and shield, complete with Viking helmet.
Yelling ‘Huss! Huss!’ before, during and after his matches, he managed to convince a generation of fans that the Berzerker character was a sandwich or two short of a picnic.
In truth, the man under the helmet and shield has also lived life on the edge, not least in a wrestling career that spanned a relatively short life of just 14 years.
Beginning in the mid 1980s, the now 64-year-old wrestled in the AWA across two spells, with a stint at WCW in between.
It would be his WWE stint that perhaps stands the test of time in people’s memory, though.
He burst on to the scene in 1991 and featured at high-profile events like Survivor Series and the following year’s Royal Rumble.
The Berzerker even challenged Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart for championship gold in the summer of 1992, before going on to have one of his biggest WWE outings at the iconic SummerSlam at Wembley Stadium.
More than 80,000 watched on as the crazed caper fell to defeat at the hands of a then undefeated Tatanka.
For many, however, it’s a fleeting feud with The Undertaker that The Berzerker is best remembered.
In one chaotic meeting, bosses planned for Taker’s foe to utilise his sword as part of the match, the Viking going as far as to skewer the ring mat with the blade where the Phenom had lay just a second before.
The incredible scene was recorded for a match later shown on WWE’s Superstars television programme.
Recalling the bizarre moment, Nord later said in an interview that he’d not taken the stunt as far as he could, claiming: “The one thing I felt bad about is that I didn’t trust him enough to move, so I stabbed the mat really late, and they had to adjust the film.
“I wish I’d made it a lot closer a stab, but they asked me ‘do you think you can get that thing to stick in the ring?’ and I said ‘yeah, I’ll make sure I can.’
“By just luck, it happened, because the actual sword wasn’t super sharp, but it was real metal.”
As if using a real – albeit slightly blunted – sword in a wrestling match wasn’t bonkers enough, The Undertaker even took the Bezerker’s shield to the head for good measure.
The Minnesotan added: “Before I did [the sword] to him, I hit him in the head three times with the shield, and I hit him really hard.
“He came and said to me in the locker room after: ‘You hit me too hard with that shield, why did you hit me that hard?’”
The grappler wrestled in Japan and again in WCW before his career wound down – his life outside the ring at times appearing equally as chaotic.
In 2019, a District Judge gave him probation following a string of seven arrests for driving under the influence of drugs.
Ill health eventually meant the former star was spared prison, with the judge commenting: “Life has handed you a lot of special things,” he told Nord. “On the other hand, it’s taken away a lot of what makes you you.”
The ruling at the time meant he was confined to restricted housing and effectively banned from driving.
News Summary:
- I’m the 1990s WWE star who wrestled at Wembley, almost stabbed The Undertaker with a real sword and got arrested SEVEN times
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