Listen up, class is in session.

It still freaks me out a bit when I learn the real name of a famous person. You know, John Wayne was really Marion Morrison, Boris Karloff was really William Pratt, Gene Simmons is really Chaim Witz, Elvis Costello is really Declan Patrick McManus. You get the drift. Same thing with wrestlers.

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Did you know that Rey Mysterio Jr. is really a fella named Oscar Guttierrez? Or James Hellwig transformed himself into the Ultimate Warrior? I know you need the big stage name to sell your gimmick (or protect your family), but I'm still easily amused by the truth. In my book, it's always fun to peek behind the curtain.

So that's what we're going to do this week, run down the real names of your favorite sports entertainers. We'll keep it simple: yesterday and today. There's a lot of history to this circus, so the list from yesterday will be a bit longer.

Yesterday:
Kerry Adkisson: The Texas Tornado, Kerry Von Erich
Tom Billington: The Dynamite Kid
Richard Blood: Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat
Terry Gene Bollea: Hollywood Hulk Hogan
Steve Borden: Sting
Adolpho Bresciano: Dino Bravo
Chris Chavis: Tatanka
Eldridge Wayne Coleman: Superstar Billy Graham
Barry Darsow: Repo Man
William DeMott: Hugh Morrus
Lillian Ellison: The Fabulous Moolah
Sidney Ray Eudy: Sid Vicious
Paige Falkenberg: Diamond Dallas Page
Roy Wayne Ferris: The Honky Tonk Man
Keith Franke: Adrian Adonis
Frank Goodish: Bruiser Brody
George Gray: The One-Man Gang
Jim Harris: Kamala, The Ugandan Giant
Raymond Louis Heenan: Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan
Michael Hegstrand: Road Warrior Hawk
James Janos: Jesse 'The Body' Ventura
Joe Laurinaitis: Road Warrior Animal
Edward Leslie: Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake
Reggie Lisowski: The Crusher
Marty Lunde: Arn Anderson
Robert Marella: Gorilla Monsoon
Troy Martin: Shane Douglas
Edward McDaniel: Chief Wahoo McDaniel
John Minton: Big John Studd
James Myers: George 'The Animal' Steele
Chris Pallies: King Kong Bundy
James Parris: Ivan Koloff
Josip Peruzovic: Nikolai Volkoff Larry Pfohl: Lex Luger
Randy Poffo: Randy 'Macho Man' Savage
Jim Raschke: Baron Von Raschke
James Reiher: Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka
Sylvester Ritter: The Junkyard Dog
Al Rogowski: Ole Anderson
Dustin Runnels: Goldust
Virgil Runnels Jr.: Dusty Rhodes
Joe Scarpa: Chief Jay Strongbow
Scott Simpson: Nikita Koloff
Aurelian Smith Jr: Jake 'The Snake' Roberts
Rod Toombs: 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper
Kozrow Vaziri: The Iron Sheik
Sean Waltman: X-Pac
Larry Whistler: Larry Zbyszko
John Wisinski Jr.: Greg 'The Hammer' Valentine
John Wisinski Sr.: Johnny Valentine

Today:
Mark Callaway: Undertaker
Adam Copeland: Edge
Richard Morgan Fliehr: The Nature Boy Ric Flair
Peter Gruner: Billy Kidman
Michael S. Hickenbottom: Shawn Michaels
Booker Huffman: Booker T
Chris Irvine: Chris Jericho
Glen Jacobs: Kane
Jean-Paul LeVesque: Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Scott Levy: Raven
William Moody: Paul Bearer
Al Sarven: Al Snow
Monte Sopp: Billy Gunn
Rob Szatkowski: Rob Van Dam
Paul Wight: The Big Show
Steve Williams: Stone Cold Steve Austin

Next week, we'll run down the WWE Bad Blood pay-per-view, where Jean-Paul LeVesque meets Michael S. Hickenbottom in a "Hell In The Cell" match!

One other programming note, check out the debut of TNA wrestling on FOX Sports Net starting today!

Any comments? Questions? E-mail me by clicking right here!.

Class dismissed.

Prof. Wrestling is a masked employee of Internet Broadcasting Systems. At times, even he doesn't know his own real name.