Scott D’Amore Reveals He Was The Masked Man Who Hit ‘Gore’ At TNA/IMPACT Slammiversary 2019

A secret D’Amore has held on to since 2019.

Former TNA President Scott D’Amore published the newest installment of his ‘D’Amore Drop’ column on Uncrowned.

He wrote about the masked man who got involved in the men’s WarGames match at WWE Survivor Series. D’Amore shared that it reminded him of a similar angle that was done at TNA/IMPACT Slammiversary 2019 when D’Amore was the co-Executive Vice President of the promotion.

The IMPACT World Championship match on the night was Brian Cage defending against Michael Elgin. After Elgin lost, he went after Cage and then-co-executive Vice President, Don Callis. A masked man entered the ring while Elgin had a hold of Callis and delivered a ‘Gore’ to Elgin. At the time, it was believed that it was Rhino who delivered the move.

Rhino was under contract to WWE at the time and was waiting for his deal to expire. He eventually showed up on IMPACT programming several weeks later.

Rhino was not able to do the Slammiversary spot, and Scott D’Amore wrote in his column that it was Don Callis who suggested that D’Amore put on the mask and perform the ‘Gore’ as if he were Rhino. Callis said he thought of Scott because he and Rhino had similar body types.

D’Amore said people really believed it was Rhino, and he even heard there were internal discussions within WWE about Rhino being ‘unprofessional.’ D’Amore added that there was talk of WWE potentially pursuing legal action against Rhino because they thought he showed up in another promotion while under contract.

I have never talked about this publicly, but when we were booking Slammiversary XVII in Dallas in 2019, Don Callis, my co-EVP with TNA at the time, looked at me and said: “We need Rhino to do a run-in. We need to set up what we’ll be doing for the rest of the summer.”

Now, Rhino was under contract with WWE. He was waiting out his contract. There was no non-compete period, and it was our intention to bring him in as soon as we were legally able. We already had big plans for Rhino, but those plans could not start at Slammiversary.

So I said, “Don, you know Terry cannot do the show.”

And Don looked at me with that Callis smirk and said, “Yeah, but Rhino can. We just need someone who looks like him, moves like him, and can hit a Gore like him. Someone under a hoodie who can fool the fans for 20 seconds.”

“That is crazy,” I told him. “There is nobody who resembles Terry. The size of his legs alone — nobody else has legs like that.”

And Don said, “Scott … you have legs like that.”

“And you trained Terry,” he added. “So if anyone can do the Gore and walk like him, it is you.”

The entire booking team loved it. And now they are all looking at me.

Eventually I said, “All right, let me at least get in the ring and try it.”

So I watched Rhino’s matches on my phone, how he moves, how he gets in and out of the ring — and most importantly, how he hits the Gore.

Now, if you are imagining me hitting Gore after Gore for days, getting closer and closer to the real thing, the truth is I spent most of the time stretching. It had been a long time since my last match.

Eventually I thought, “OK, I’m doing a half-decent impression,” and against my better judgment, I told Don and the guys I would do it.

So at Slammiversary I shaved and oiled my legs like Terry does, wore black basketball shorts, a black hoodie, short boots, and a wig with a ponytail under a black wrestling hood.

We also got Terry to tweet an image of Southfork Ranch, the famous house from the show “Dallas.”

That got fans freaking out that Rhino was going to be at Slam.

Still not sure anyone would buy it, I hit the ring. I crouched in the corner like Rhino does. I hit the Gore on Michael Elgin after the world title match and then did the taunt. Then I escaped through the crowd and went to the back.

When I took the mask off, even some talent — who would deny it if I named them — were shocked it was me and not Terry. Online it was reported like Rhino had been there and people started speculating he had breached his WWE deal.

I even heard WWE had internal discussions about it. “How could Terry be so unprofessional? Did he really think we would not know it was him? It was clearly him. Nobody else has legs like that.”

And then Shawn Daivari pipes up and says, “Hey, I think that was Scott D’Amore pretending to be Rhino.”

And Sonjay Dutt goes, “No way. I have known Scott for years and he is too crippled to move like that. That was Rhino.”

There was even talk about whether they should consider legal action against Terry.

Can you imagine me testifying under oath that I shaved and oiled my legs and hit a Gore?

And I had proof — my leg hair hasn’t grown back to this day!

Eventually Daivari convinced enough people it was not Terry.

But if you look online, you will still see reports that Rhino, still under contract to WWE, hit the ring at Slammiversary XVII. (It’s even on Rhino’s Wikipedia!)

.@MrGMSI_BCage retains the World Championship but CHAOS ERUPTS after the match!

Who is the MASKED MAN?

ORDER HERE: https://t.co/NMkaMOuSvc#SLAMM17 pic.twitter.com/SFQUA6IdFI

— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) July 8, 2019

Scott D’Amore would go on to become President of TNA. His time with the promotion came to an end in February 2024 when he was fired.

The current TNA President is Carlos Silva.