Steve Blackman Reveals If He Ever Plans To Wrestle Again

Steve Blackman hasn't wrestled in 18 years, but the six-time WWE Hardcore Champion admitted that wrestling again has crossed his mind.

Appearing on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, The Lethal Weapon said:

"Sometimes I feel good, especially after my second neck operation. I don't have those headaches all day, every day, where I sit there and just do this, because I had four bone spurs digging in nerves in my neck. So every time I'd land or move, it was like pencil points digging in. So once I had those removed, [I used to] sit there all day just trying to find a spot where I could sit in where it wasn't jagging me. So now that that's been fixed, some days I feel good. I'm like, 'Man, I could go out there and do a couple matches.' It crosses my mind."

While it has crossed his own mind, Blackman hasn't held talks with anyone in WWE about an in-ring return.

"I haven't even really discussed anything with anyone. Don't get me wrong. I mean, there's times where I thought, 'Oh man, it'd be fun to go back there and do a hardcore match.' Or something like that, and just flow with it, and just to do it again. You know, it's been 20 years, but I don't really bring it up. I haven't talked to anybody about it," Blackman added.

Blackman briefly worked for WWE in the late 1980s and returned to the company in 1997. He wrestled for WWE until his contract expired in October 2002 and he has largely been away from pro wrestling outside of one indy match in 2004, a brief return for a battle royal on the 15th anniversary episode of WWE Raw in December 2007, and a WWE Vault appearance in 2024.

Blackman also revealed on Insight that his neck issues meant he was in pain constantly during his time with WWE.

"Yes, I think it would be like Monday I'd wrestle and get a migraine, and I don't mean a little headache where, oh, I have a headache. No, I mean feels like you're being stabbed in your head. Throw up, lay down, throw up, lay down, go to bed. The next day, sleep all day, wrestle the next day, the migraine again, go through that next day resting. So it'd be like every other day I'd have a migraine. I'm not being funny, but you can't imagine what it's like getting forearmed or body slammed when you have a migraine. You feel like a grenade went off in your head," Blackman stated.

"I wrestled Kane one night in a hardcore match. I landed on the back of my head on the floor. My foot got caught. I jumped off the rail, kicked him, my shoe hit him on the chest, and I landed on my back. The migraine kicked in in one second, just shot up through my spine. Every time he hit me, I felt like a grenade was going off. And that was the beginning of the match. We had 15 minutes more to go, and I'm like, 'Oh my God.' I'm just fighting through it, fighting through it," he continued.

"I'd sit out in the hall and just squeeze my head. And then at night in a hotel, I'd literally lie on my side. Sometimes I'd have a baseball in my bag. I'd put a baseball under my back, try to lay on it. I'd find a spot where I could pinch off the nerve going to my head. So finally, after about an hour, I could fall asleep, and then sleep the whole night and the next day I would just be tired from the pain, but I'd wrestle again, and that's what I went through for years." 

As a six-time Hardcore Champion, many of Blackman's matches were No DQ contests, which actually helped with The Lethal Weapon's neck issues.

"There were nights where I wanted to do more crazy stuff, and I just couldn't. My head hurt too bad. So I just do what I could to get by. But the hardcore stuff worked out great for me, because I could just showcase weapons and speed and things like that. It sounds funny, but I was getting cracked as much as them, but it was still easier on my neck," Blackman added.

After finishing up in pro wrestling, the now 61-year-old launched an MMA school and worked as a bounty hunter before transitioning to being a bail bondsman, something he still does to this day.

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