The Nasty Boys Embarrassing WWE Return In 2007, Revealed

Hamish Woodward

The Nasty Boys are a tag team from WWE history that have gone somewhat forgotten over the years, despite being big stars in the day.

The duo of Jerry Sags and Brian Knobbs ran riot over the wrestling world in the 1990s, with their all-out brawling style becoming a nightmare for jobbers all over the US.

They were not the best in-ring technician, but made up for their deficiencies with one key skill – being friends with Hulk Hogan.

This afforded them all the backstage beatings they could dish out, with the biggest star in the company in their corner, ready to bail them out of trouble.

The duo spent time in both the WWE and WCW, and by 2007 were past it as a duo.

This did not stop Vince McMahon from considering them to come back to the WWE, for one last run with the company.

They had a chance to impress the boss, before a Smackdown taping in 2007. The Nasty Boys took on the all-British team of Dave Taylor and Drew McIntyre, both at different ends of their respective careers.

The match has not been made publicly available, but live reports noted it as being not very good – although that is definitely an understatement.

Upon entering the stage, Saggs and Knobbs began acting as if they were huge stars. They took their time getting to the ring, slapping hands and conversing with the crowd as they enjoyed their final match in the big leagues.

Their entrances were so long that the show ended up running late, with the crew rushing to build the ECW set on time for their taping.

In the match, they began to take liberties with their opponents. Brian Knobbs and Jerry Saggs laid into their opponent, hitting stiff shots on Drew McIntyre, who was then only 21 and new to the WWE.

They then began to do the same to Dave Taylor, who was a veteran of the industry and a well-respected member of the locker room. This did not ingratiate them to the crowd, nor the WWE management watching the match behind the curtain.

The Nasty Boys actually defeated Dave Taylor and Drew McIntyre, before the November 20th, 2007 episode of Smackdown.

However, this would be their last match in WWE, as Vince McMahon was not impressed, and elected not to sign the two gentlemen to full-time deals with the company.

Drew McIntyre, presumably, was pleased by this.

Dave Meltzer wrote about the match in that weeks episode of The Wrestling Observer, noting that the match went down with the live fans, but management were not impressed.

The Nasty Boys tryout may have gone well with the live audience that popped big singing the first stars on the taping and as a surprise but not so well backstage they were criticized for playing to the crowd and delaying the show and it was felt they worked too stiff with McIntyre and Taylor it delayed the start of SmackDown so they were running late and had to rush to get the ring ready for ECW by its live 10 p.m start

Bruce Prichard also talked about the Nasty Boys last match in the WWE, which you can listen to in the video below.

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