WWE superstar was 'banned for life' after backstage altercation that involved five other wrestlers

A WWE superstar's short-lived spell in the company came to a swift end after a backstage incident where he allegedly choked Vince McMahon.

A slew of wrestlers have been released by WWE for many different reasons over the years but in December 1992, one superstar was fired after an attack on long-time owner McMahon in his office.

Kevin Wacholz debuted in the company, then known as WWF, with tryout matches but then got his big break when he was repackaged as a completely different character - a former convict called Nailz.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit, he immediately targeted the Big Boss Man, who had a prison guard gimmick and accused him of abusing him.

Nailz worked with legends like Bret Hart, The Undertaker and The Ultimate Warrior but by the end of 1992 he was no longer contracted to the company.

At a show in Green Bay, Wisconsin, it's alleged that Wacholz went after McMahon and demanded more money in a heated argument.

With wrestler John Nord allegedly guarding the door, the altercation became physical when Wacholz pushed McMahon, grabbed him by the throat and got him on the floor - with Sgt Slaughter, Gorilla Monsoon, Dave Hebner, and Arnold Skaaland rushing in - according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Wacholz accused McMahon of sexually assaulting him but all charges were dropped before the two sued one another unsuccessfully.

Vince McMahon was involved in a physical altercation with one of his talents. Image: Getty

Two-time WWE Hall of Famer Hart gave his version of events in his autobiography, recalling: “Vince had problems to deal with in Green Bay. For the past six months, he had been building Kevin Wacholz as a psycho killer ex-con named Nailz.

"Kevin cornered Vince in his office and screamed at him for 15 minutes about all the lies he’d been told. His yelling got so loud I got goosebumps up my back as I listened from down the hall.

"Suddenly, there was a loud crash. Nailz had knocked Vince over his chair, choking him violently, until Lanza, Slaughter and a swarm of agents teamed up to pull him off. Nailz walked out and immediately called the police and accused Vince of making a sexual advance toward him. Vince was charged of sexual assault.

"The charges were dropped soon after. Some of the boys actually admired Nailz for snatching Vince while covering his tracks to not get charged himself. The last thing Vince wanted was another scandal.”

Wacholz would later testify in a steroid trial against McMahon, claiming he told him to take steroids.

Speaking many years later, Wacholz, after denying many other claims made about the incident, stated that he had no regrets about how things played out and revealed he had the support of many of his peers.

Nailz did not work for WWE again after the incident. Image: WWE

"I'm fine with what happened," he told Mike Johnson of PWInsider.

"I don't have any regrets. Never got too many thank you calls and thank you letters in my life. People that I hadn't heard from in years were sending me cards. A lot of people that ended up working for him later were the same guys that came and thanked me for what happened. People would say, 'must have taken a lot of guts to do that. I wish I was in your position that I could have done that years later.' He did step on a lot of toes and he made it tough for a lot of people. He made a lot of promises that he didn't fulfill and a lot of guys were in a bad predicament because he lied to them."

He continued his wrestling career in rival promotion WCW, adopting a similar character to begin with and proceeding to work on the independent scene.

The 67-year-old has his final match back in 2001 and proceeded to sell trailers, with JW Trailers in Farmington, Michigan calling him a “trailer sales expert with over 25 years of experience.”