Today we’re going to get into a story I have not ever run across before. This incident happened in either 1985 or ’86, exact dates aren’t specified. While I am a fan of Sammy Hagar and Van Halen and I’ve also been a pro wrestling fan at various points in my life, I have never heard this story before at all until I stumbled onto this video last week.

This presentation is from Dark Side of the Ring, an outfit that puts together documentary episodes about (usually) the seedier side of pro wrestling. If you know anything about wrestling, you know that there’s a lot of seedy stuff. They also do a podcast called Unheard to cover things that don’t really fit into the main documentary episodes and that’s where today’s story comes from.

The episode in question was about the tragic story of former wrestler Adrian Adonis, but the actual meat of today’s story came from legendary grappler Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Bret was being interviewed about Adrian and told this story during the sessions. The filmmakers couldn’t wedge the story into Adrian’s episode but felt they had to tell the full story, and I’m glad they did.

I have posted the video and I fully encourage everyone to check it out to see Bret tell the story. But I will also recap it here.

Bret Hart was flying into New York City with Adrian Adonis and Bret’s brother in law, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Bret was sitting next to a guy who was dressed in a sort of “rock n’ roll” style, not uncommon in the mid-80’s. The guy picks up on Bret and his cohorts being wrestlers and tells Bret that he is a rock star. Bret asks who he is and the guy says he is Sammy Hagar.

Jim Neidhart was rightfully skeptical that the man in question was Sammy Hagar, who at this point had just joined Van Halen. Jim picked up on the guy wearing a cheap Timex watch, something the real Sammy Hagar probably wasn’t doing by this point as he’d made a fair share of cash. It’s worth noting that none of these wrestlers knew what Sammy Hagar looked like, this was the days before the Internet and ready access to photos and all that.

Something else would happen to actually change Jim’s mind though – the group went to Madison Square Garden, the spiritual home of the World Wrestling Federation (now Entertainment). In the back, “Sammy Hagar” took up Adrian on an offer of the currency of the 1980’s, cocaine. “Sammy” snorted a huge line and had a bit of a nosebleed after, this caused Jim to exclaim “It IS Sammy Hagar!”

Celebrities were a common presence at WWF shows, especially at MSG, so “Sammy Hagar” was actually introduced and made his way to the ring. The clip of this hilarious scene is below, and I’m sure anyone who reads this blog can instantly tell that the person is certainly not Sammy Hagar. The crowd were pretty easily able to ascertain that this guy was not Hagar and the very brief appearance got jeered by the fans waiting for the next match.

The podcast goes over another few funny moments of this story – an unnamed New York Yankees ballplayer was also backstage and knew Sammy Hagar personally, he instantly ratted the imposter out. Also, Bret and Adrian and company had to deal with the fallout of bringing a faulty version of Sammy Hagar to the wrestling event, as WWF head Vince McMahon has long been famous for his calm temperament in such matters… But this being a MSG broadcast in the mid-80’s, the Fed was able to sweep this mishap under the rug until just recently.

This story is a really funny slice of entertainment from the ’80’s and, if left where it is, is perfectly fine. The only loose thread is this – who was Not Sammy Hagar? The podcasts hosts wonder if the guy is even still alive and are curious as to who this legend of rock and wrestling might be. It seems as though this guy’s identity might be totally lost to time and mortality – that is, unless you want to engage in a bit of conspiracy theorycraft.

A few of the podcast viewers picked up on something I wouldn’t have honestly considered – the Sammy imposter looks familiar. It’s certainly not Sammy Hagar, but this guy could have easily passed for Dana Carvey. At the time in question Dana Carvey was just getting ready to join Saturday Night Live and become known to the wider world. But had the celebrity impersonation been Dana Carvey, this guy could have pulled it off without a hitch.

That is, barring one further consideration – what if this guy wasn’t a ringer for Dana Carvey, but was Dana Carvey? Dana would become a household name by 1987, but at the time of this wrestling show he was not very well known. He’d had some bit acting parts but wasn’t an SNL cast guy yet. There is some speculation that this actually was Dana Carvey, who wound up on a plane next to Bret Hart and decided to pull a gag.

I think it would be hilarious if it actually was Dana, but logical speculation leads me to believe it wasn’t. Dana has had 40 years to tell this story if he did indeed pull this ruse, and to my knowledge he has never brought it up. I’d think it’d have to be a story he told at some point in time over the decades of interviews he has done. So I am going with “no” on this one.

I have noticed comments indicating that someone does know this person, they aren’t Dana Carvey, and the person is still around. Maybe we’ll get a feature with this dude someday, I really want to hear what he has to say. I’m not saying I necessarily believe that anyone really has a hook-up to this guy, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

So here’s to the legend of Not Sammy Hagar appearing at a WWF live event in 1986. It probably wasn’t Dana Carvey but maybe it was, or maybe we’ll get to hear from the perpetrator of this hoax sometime down the line. And if not, well, we at least have this great story from a time when pro wrestlers, the world’s biggest bullshit artists, got bullshitted to a huge degree.