The Ruthless Aggression Era, lasting from roughly 2002 all the way to 2008, saw a lot of talent come and go in WWE, with many seemingly promising talent getting pushed only for things to peter out for one reason or another. Gene Snitsky is a great example of this, a potential major monster heel who was never able to make it to the main event scene.
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But fans at the time remember Snitsky for one major storyline and a catchphrase, thus making him a wrestler worth knowing about. Let’s take a look at Gene Snitsky’s career, which surprisingly only recently came to an end.
10 Football Background
Gene Snitsky didn’t start out wanting to be a pro wrestler. Rather, like many future wrestlers, he got his start in American football. Starting in high school, Snitsky scored a scholarship to the University of Missouri, playing for the Tigers, and continued on to get signed to a pro team. Unfortunately, Snitsky wasn’t quite as successful in this endeavor, playing for the Canadian Football League in the 1995 pre-season and getting signed to the San Diego Chargers before getting injured during training.
9 Trained By Afa Of The Wild Samoans
Upon deciding to enter pro wrestling, Gene Snitsky initially received training under Dory Funk Jr. and got his start as a competitor wrestling Samu of the Samoan Swat Team (a.k.a. The Headshrinkers). Through Samu, Snitsky got further training from Samu’s father, Afa of the Wild Samoans and wrestled for Afa’s own promotion, World Xtreme Wrestling. There, Snitsky worked a football gimmick in a tag team and captured the tag title before going solo to win WXW’s top title.
8 The Birth Of “It Wasn’t My Fault”
After a tryout match for WWE in 2003, Gene Snitsky was immediately signed to the company and began performing in WWE’s developmental territory at the time, Ohio Valley Wrestling. Almost a year later, he debuted on the main roster against a notable opponent who’d help define his career: Kane.
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During the match, Lita — who was the kayfabe mother of Kane’s child — distracted Kane, and Snitsky used the opportunity to strike his opponent with a chair. The impact caused Kane to crash into Lita, causing a (again, kayfabe) miscarriage. The following week, Snitsky was interviewed about it, and said “It wasn’t my fault,” coining his infamous catchphrase.
7 Wasn’t Intended To Stick Around After The Kane Match
Hilariously, the whole “It wasn’t my fault” thing wasn’t actually meant to happen. The whole premise of Snitsky’s segment with Kane was that the miscarriage incident would unexpectedly happen during what appeared to be a by-the-numbers squash match, after which Snitsky would go back to developmental at OVW. Instead, the segment with Kane was deemed successful enough that Snitsky was rushed back to television to become a full-time member of the main roster, while Kane embarked on a face turn.
6 Had A Lengthy Feud With Kane
With Snitsky officially part of the WWE main roster, a feud with Kane was in order, which involved Snitsky punting a baby doll into the live crowd at one point. Their first bout following the Lita incident would be a Chain Match at Taboo Tuesday in October 2004, with Snitsky coming out victorious over Kane. With bouts at New Year’s Revolution and episode of Raw, their feud would continue all the way to the end of January 2005, where Kane would defeat Snitsky in a Steel Cage match on Raw to end the rivalry.
5 Various Tag Partners
After losses to The Big Show and John Cena, Gene Snitsky ended up making his way to the tag team division, where he teamed up with Tyson Tomko, making two unsuccessful attempts at beating Kane and Big Show for the World Tag Team Championship. From there, he moved on to tag teams with Goldust and Val Venis, failing to dethrone the Spirit Squad for the belts with the former. As 2006 went on, Snitsky’s appearances on minor show Heat increased, seeming to become a glorified jobber on Raw.
4 Repackaged In ECW
The year 2007 marked a dramatic change in Gene Snitsky’s presentation, as he shaved off all of the hair on his head — including eyebrows and facial hair — and yellowed his teeth. To go along with the aesthetic change, his persona shifted that to a chaotic monster heel that squashed everyone in sight and disrupted matches.
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After four months, Snitsky would bring the act back to Raw, where he’d prove to be one of those monster heels that could beat pretty much everyone provided they weren’t important. By the summer of 2008, however, his losses increased, and he left WWE at the end of the year.
3 Briefly Part Of Impact
Following his WWE release, Gene Snitsky wrestled on the indies before returning to major pro wrestling television by entering the Impact Zone. In late July of 2014, Impact fans saw the debut of Snitsky in Impact wrestling alongside Rycklon (formerly Ezekiel Jackson) as the two were introduced as henchmen of heel boss Dixie Carter. This resulted in a Hardcore War match weeks later, with Snitsky, Rycklon, Rhino, and Ethan Carter III losing to the team of Bully Ray, Devon, Tommy Dreamer, and Al Snow. As a result of their loss, both Snitsky and Rycklon were kayfabe fired by Carter, and disappeared from the promotion.
2 Continued To Wrestle On The Indies
As established, many fans might have assumed that Gene Snitsky left pro wrestling after his WWE release, which isn’t uncommon, but that’s far from the case. Instead, Snitsky continued to consistently wrestle on the independent wrestling scene, returning to WXW where he got his start as well as performing in indies all over New England. Notable foes during Snitsky’s indie run include fellow WWE alums like Billy Gunn, Kevin Nash, and even Jerry Lawler, among countless others.
1 Wrestled His Final Match In 2020
In late June of 2018, Gene Snitsky announced, at age 48, that his pro wrestling career was winding down, as he would only wrestle a handful more matches before hanging up his boots His stated reasons for retiring included a loss of passion, displeasure with the direction of the business, and a desire to focus on weight training. Snitsky actually ended up wrestling his last match in October of 2020, taking part in a six-man tag team match for New Jersey’s Superstars of Wrestling Federation.
