Jonathan Coachman says Triple H once told WWE “Sign Guy” Rick Achberger that he would not have to buy another ticket to a WWE show for as long as Triple H was there.
Coachman shared the story on the Monday episode of The Coach and Bro Show with Vince Russo. Achberger died on Sunday, September 27, at the age of 54.
“I did want to give just a few minutes to a guy that was maybe as positive in the wrestling business as anybody I’ve ever met, maybe the most giving,” Coachman said. “I became good friends with him. I got to know his story. And Vince, when I tell you, there was not a human being that loved wrestling more than this guy.”
Coachman said Achberger told him why he went to so many shows and always sat in the first or second row. According to Coachman, it went back to a promise Achberger made to his wife before she died.
“His wife died, and on her deathbed, Vince, he said to her, ‘What do we love doing the most?’ And she said, ‘Going to wrestling shows. That’s what we love doing the most.’ So he promised her on her deathbed, and he’s telling me this. We’re sitting around having a drink one night. It’s just me and him, and he said, ‘So I promised her, Coach, that I would go to as many as I could afford to go to, and make sure and sit in the first couple of rows with my signs so she could see it.'”
Coachman said Achberger worked for Verizon, lived in Texas, and saved his money to buy tickets to shows in states including Arkansas and Oklahoma. He said that after several years, Achberger traveled to a show in California, and Triple H asked Coachman to bring him backstage.
“Triple H says to me, ‘Hey, Coach, I want you to text him and tell him I want to see him after the show.’ It’s one of my favorite Triple H stories. So I text him. I said, ‘Hey, don’t leave. We need to talk to you after the show.’ He goes, ‘Am I in trouble?’ I said, ‘No, you’re not in trouble,'” Coachman said.
“So we brought him backstage, walked him in, and he was so crazy about meeting Triple H, and Triple H says, ‘We appreciate your support, but in no way, shape, or form do we want you going into debt. Do we want you spending money that you don’t have simply so you can watch wrestling shows?’ So Triple H said to him in front of many of us, as long as I’m here, you will not buy another ticket to a WWE show. And every time you want to come, you just text us.”
“Vince, he was worth way more than the $150 he was spending on a ticket because he became synonymous with us, his signs when we were in the back, Vince, we used to talk about, oh, he has a sign for me today, or he has a sign. It was like a badge of honor,” Coachman said.
Coachman said Achberger became ill over the last couple of years, and that he heard from him often. He showed text messages Achberger sent him wishing him a happy birthday on August 12, 2025, and August 12, 2026.
“Every year on my birthday, I got a text from him,” Coachman said.
“He loved to cheer the good guys. He loved to boo the bad guys,” Coachman said. “He is what the wrestling business was built on. You cheer the babyfaces, you boo the heels, and guess what? He knew it was fake, but it was real to him. So if you were a heel, oh my God, he would crush me when I became a heel, crushed me, and I loved every second of it.”
“I don’t think he ever came backstage other than the one time that Triple H called for him to come back,” Coachman said. “I was probably like his best friend in the business, to be honest, because he just didn’t develop friendship because he liked that line of be a fan.”
Russo said he never crossed paths with Achberger, but pointed to photos of him shown during the segment. “Look at the smile on that dude’s face, man. Wrestling used to be all about having fun,” Russo said.
Click below to watch Coach tell the story about Sign Guy.
