Former WWE Star Says A Backstage Incident With Shawn Michaels Led Him To Contemplate Suicide

Bobby Horne, known to WWE fans as Mo from Men on a Mission, appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling to air a few grievances that accumulated throughout his wrestling career.

A backstage incident the former WWE Superstar had with Shawn Michaels at a 1994 event in Israel was one of the main issues he covered. Mo blames the WWE Hall of Famer for getting him pulled off television for a prolonged period of time after the event, which led him to becoming very depressed and contemplating suicide.

He said, “We were overseas in Israel, it was during Passover and one night we were at an event and Nelson (aka Mabel, Viscera and Big Daddy V) fainted in the hallway. So since we were overseas they wouldn’t take him to a hospital so they just took Nelson back to the hotel and we were working a program at the time against The Headshrinkers.

“The agent comes to me and the agent said, “Mo, you are going to work a singles match against Samu from The Headshrinkers and Fatu (aka Rikishi) is not going to work at all.” Fatu didn’t like that idea, he was pissed off, he was ranting and raving about it and I’m standing there going over the match with Samu. Shawn Michaels comes out of the shower and he hit me in the back harder then I’ve ever been hit on the football field, he just knocked the hell out of me.”

“The operative word from me was excuse me and his response was “fuck excuse me, you guys have no work ethic.” He said, “You young guys come up here with no fucking work ethic and your fucking partner fell down in the hallway, all he had to do was get his fat ass up and walk to the ring and you do all the work and there would be a tag match tonight instead of the bullshit singles match.’

“He thought Nelson should have sucked it up, went to the ring and stood on the side and work because the kind of tag match we worked, I take the heat anyway. So that’s what he was pissed off about and he took it out on me. My response was being the man that I am is if you put your hands on me again, I’m gonna beat your fucking ass.

“Did I pay for it? Yeah, dearly. What did it get me? It got me pulled off TV for nine months and I had to travel on the road for nine months and not work. In that nine months I got highly depressed and I attempted suicide.”

Additional highlights from the interview are as follows:

Former WWE wrestlers and Nelson Frazier’s wife holding Vince McMahon liable for medical issues and forcing performers to work hurt: “I’ve really thought about that myself, even with some medical issues that I’ve had myself and basically I worked there for three years and I’ve never seen Vince McMahon force anybody to do anything they didn’t want to do. I’ve never seen Vince McMahon ask anyone to work hurt, though I’ve done it before myself. As far as taking care of talent after they leave the company, I think it’s a great and noble thing, the whole drug rehab thing. The medical stuff, I don’t think he should be held responsible for that simply because and here’s the deal, Nelson and I wrestled in this business for more than three years before the WWE, then there is all the years after it so if we wrestled three years together in WWE and the whole three years that we wrestled there we worked every day, every month and we didn’t sustain any major injuries the whole three years we were there.”

Holding the business responsible rather than one single promoter: “There’s a million and one of us guys that worked for Vince and worked for Turner and worked for Crockett and worked for Bill Watts and worked for ‘Joe Shit The Ragbag Promoter’ or ‘Jeff To The Left’ and ‘Eddie Damn Spaghetti’ and in some way taken a chance and got hurt or whatever. Ten years removed from working for Vince McMahon we are sick, we are broke down, we may even die but should Vince McMahon be held liable for that? Or should we have a list of every single promoter that each one of us worked for and include every single one of those into that lawsuit?”

WWE not recognizing Men on a Mission’s Tag Team Championship win: “There were a couple of matches on TV where for example me against Owen Hart that it was mentioned about the tag team championship on TV. I think Ted Dibiase and Stan Lane were doing the commentary and Stan Lane always pushed that and always put that over. It was mentioned a couple of times on TV but it just kind of faded away.”

The backstory as to why the title win is not addressed: “During the ‘New Generation’ era at the same time Vince McMahon was having the steroid trial. So of course, we were getting drug tested two or three times a week and back then in that era if you failed a drug test and if it was like a steroid or cocaine thing or a narcotic failure of a drug test you immediately got suspended. But, if you failed a drug test, first offense and you had marijuana in your system (THC) you would get fined. Up to a certain point maybe your fifth or sixth violation you were suspended. A member of our team, which will remain nameless loved smoking the wacky-weed, loved it and because they loved it JJ Dillon came to me one day and said “Let’s just say, we put the tag team gold on a particular tag team and we put the titles on you Sunday and then you go to a house show on Monday and fail a drug test and one member of the tag team has to be suspended, why are we going to take a chance or risk of putting the tag team titles on somebody if there is a possibility of one member of the team getting suspended” and that was the hold back right there.”

Taking the hit when your team is under fire: “At some point you’ve got to take responsibility for yourself and you’ve got to tell the truth and the truth is whether it’s Men on a Mission or The Hardy Boyz or The Dudley Boyz or Edge and Christian as a tag team if there is one member that screws up it’s going to effect the whole tag team. That’s why it was on one day and off a couple of days later. It was given because it was deserved but it was taken away at the same time because there was an issue that needed to be resolved. But by the time the issue got resolved all this other stuff had happened with Shawn Michaels. In ’94 is when we got the tag belts. It was another tour overseas in ’94 when the issue with Shawn Michaels happened and so I’m out for nine months.”

What kept Men on a Mission from leaving WWE to go to WCW: “When those nine months are up in 1995 we are at the Royal Rumble and Nelson and I had decided because it was driving me crazy we decide we’re going to leave in January of ’95. I had been on the shelf for nine months and it wasn’t going the way we wanted. The deal to keep us there and not leave was the King of the Ring.”

Mo also discusses Mabel’s King of the Ring win, heat with The Undertaker, how Lex Luger defecting to WCW stalled plans for a further push and more. You can listen to the interview here.