After the AJ Styles vs. Akira Tozawa match on Monday night’s edition of Raw, there was a curious moment where it appeared that a fan had jumped the rail and rolled into the ring, trying to be part of the show. Security wrangled him down, and the show abruptly went to commercial.
Pro wrestling’s had an ongoing problem with fans running in when they shouldn’t, from the relatively innocent (like that time a fan tried to “join the Shield”) to the scary and dangerous, like WWE legend Bret Hart being assaulted at the Hart Foundation’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
The question here, though, was, “since when do drunk fans who get in the ring during Raw wear suits?”
As it turns out, this was no fan: it was the actor who played the pastor in last week’s Lana and Bobby Lashley wedding, hitting his cue a little early and getting in the ring for this week’s Lana and Bobby Lashley wedding. Apparently, WWE security didn’t know he was part of the show until someone ran out to hand him his Holy Bible prop.
The pastor from the wedding last week got in the ring and I guess no one told security because they tackled him and dragged him out of the ring. #RAW #RAWOKC pic.twitter.com/Bqle7oNpxW
— Sean Thurmond (@seanthurmond) January 7, 2020
Get the man a lanyard!
The pastor — played by New York based actor Rick Malone, presumably for the last time — got it together for the segment despite being beaten down by security, and even got a small acknowledgment from the announce team: “That is the gentleman who was attempting to get in the ring before the break!”
It ain’t easy being an independent contractor.
UPDATE: You can read comments from Rick Malone himself on the incident and see new video at this link.
