ICP's Violent J Looks Back On Wrestling Journey Through WCW And WWE

Pro wrestling in the late '90s was filled with crossovers with pop culture and at one point hip-hop duo, Insane Clown Posse, appeared in both WWE and WCW. Later, the duo, Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope, went on to form their own promotion, Juggalo Championship Wrestling, thanks to their background in wrestling.

Violent J recently appeared on "Kliq This," where he recalled the experience, and revealed what led to appearances on both promotions. 

"We were having fun in WWE — F at the time — man, we had a f**king blast in WCW, you know," he admitted. 

Violent J recalled how ICP's WWE appearance came into play, and claimed that the promotion, specifically Jim Johnston, called them after they had their first platinum record. But the promotion wasn't aware that they could wrestle. ICP ultimately made their WWE debuts at SummerSlam, where they ended up in the same locker room as The Undertaker and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

"And so, we flew out to Stanford and f**king wrestled, you know what I mean? I mean, Joey wrestled Tom Prichard, and we wrestled each other, and then we debuted at f**king SummerSlam, you know what I mean?" he said. "So, they stick us in a f**king room, the only people behind us in this big a** locker room with all these mirrors is Stone Cold and The Undertaker, going over the main event that night, you know what I'm saying?" he recalled.

According to Violent J, while Insane Clown Posse appeared on WWE, the duo missed tour dates and had built a wrestling fanbase that had no idea they were rappers. He said that he and his brother, Shaggy 2 Dope, became concerned that fans would think their appearances were just a wrestling gimmick.

He explained that they put together a 30-second commercial with their music that WWE promised to play on screen at some time, and even stopped caring about the money they were making. Then WWE writer Vince Russo promised that the clip would be aired every week, which eventually didn't happen. 

"I don't know why he kept f**king lying, but that's why I want to get on a podcast with him," he claimed.

After some time, their manager simply told them to walk out of WWE. "And we were like, 'Alright,' we were paid up and everything. We walked out," he claimed. 

Interestingly, Violent J pointed out that there was no heat between ICP when they met Russo in WCW when they appeared there later, and suggested that it could likely have been because he was higher up than he was in WWE.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Kliq This" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.