Whatever happened to Nailz? If you were old enough to watch pro wrestling at the time, then you might remember that Nailz came into the WWF in 1992 for a big heel feud with The Big Boss Man. It seemed as if there were bigger plans for him but he was fired after only a few months. So what happened? Why was he fired? Why haven’t we heard from him throughout all of these years? And was he in the plans for a big match at WrestleMania 9? We’ll dig into all of that today.
Watch the video below (includes a recent photo of Nailz) and scroll down to read more.
Nailz before pro wrestling and AWA run
Nailz’s real name is Kevin Wacholz from Bloomington, Minnesota. After competing in Toughman contests in the early 80s, he got his start in the business under the name Thor in World Class Championship Wrestling. He also worked a little in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Bill Watts’ Mid South Wrestling but his big 80s run was in the AWA as Kevin Kelly. He began as a babyface mid-card guy and then turned heel and challenged for the AWA World Title. His time in the AWA ended sometime around 1988 and he continued to work in other promotions and he got some tryout matches with the World Wrestling Federation at various times in 1989 and 1991 but his big break came in 1992 when he was repackaged as Nailz, an ex-convict who claimed to have been mistreated at the hands of The Big Boss Man.
Kevin Kelly becomes Nailz
In early 1992, WWE aired vignettes to hype Nailz’s debut. Fans were not shown his face but they played his distorted voice with B-roll footage of a prison cell. In real life, Nailz had a high-pitched voice so to make him sound menacing, they used an audio-distorting device in the vignettes and for his later interviews. Nailz claimed to be innocent of the crimes he was alleged to have done and he vowed to get his revenge on Boss Man.
Nailz attacks Big Boss Man
He followed through on that promise on the May 30, 1992 episode of WWF Superstars. After Boss Man won a squash match, Nailz came out of the crowd while wearing his orange prison jumpsuit and he brutally attacked Boss Man with his nightstick. At the time, WWE was pushing a family-friendly product and the attack was out of the ordinary from the cartoonish storylines they were presenting at the time.
Throughout the summer, Nailz destroyed jobbers and won his first pay-per-view matcha against Virgil at SummerSlam. In September, he brutally assaulted Sgt. Slaughter and the Nailz-Boss Man feud continued at the house shows, leading up to Boss Man getting the win over Nailz in a Nightstick match at Survivor Series.
Nailz begins feud with The Undertaker
The Boss Man feud seemed to have reached its conclusion but it was very clear at the time that there were bigger plans for Nailz. Nailz and The Undertaker had an in-ring staredown on the October 24 episode of WWF Superstars, seemingly setting up a future match for a pay-per-view but less than two months later, Nailz was gone from the company.
The Taker-Nailz photo was used on the January 1993 cover of WWF Magazine. So what happened and what were the plans for Nailz in 1993?
Nailz fired by WWE after incident with Vince McMahon
In December of 1992, Nailz was fired for allegedly assaulting Vince McMahon. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Nailz and McMahon had been arguing for almost an hour about Nailz’s SummerSlam payoff. Nailz reportedly demanded more money and then jumped across the room, grabbed McMahon by the throat and then threw him down. Sgt Slaughter, Gorilla Monsoon, Dave Hebner, and Arnold Skaaland ran in to pull him off of Vince and Nailz reportedly ran to the phone to call the police so he could claim that McMahon sexually assaulted him. No charges were filed and McMahon claimed that Nailz tried to extort $150,000 out of him.
Eyewitness accounts on the Nailz-Vince McMahon incident
Bret discussed the incident in his autobiography. He said:
“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.” Bret continued, “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.”
During an interview with Hannibal TV, John Nord described what Nailz said to him on the day of the incident:
“We’re driving to Green Bay to Brown County Arena and we got a Lincoln rental car and I’m driving and Nailz is in the passenger seat. And Kevin says, ‘I’m gonna beat the sh*t out of Vince, you know?’ And I said, ‘really? Tonight?’ And I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ And he goes, ‘well sit outside on the bench. And when you hear the sh*t hitting the fan, I’m gonna scream. He put his hand on my d**k!” And so that’s what happened.”
Nailz in WCW as The Prisoner, later life
Nailz went on to work on some independent shows in 1993. He was brought into WCW under a $150,000/year deal but he ended up only working one show, the Slamboree 93 pay-per-view as The Prisoner in a match against Sting. He continued to work for various promotions over the years until 1998 and he worked one final match in 2001 at a bar in Minnesota.
Nailz and McMahon sued each other but both suits were dismissed. Nailz later testified in the McMahon steroid trial and alleged that McMahon told him to do steroids, despite the fact that the Nailz character was covered from head to toe in the orange prison suit.
Nailz hasn’t done anything wrestling-related in over 20 years and the last we heard was that he was selling trailers in Farmington, MN. The company website for JW Trailers lists Wacholz as a “trailer sales expert with over 25 years of experience.” You can see a recent photo of Wacholz in the video posted higher up on this page.
