'The Last Dance': How Dennis Rodman skipping practice for WCW wrestling led to a stint in the squared circle

A brief history of Rodman's time in the squared circle

Even though there was already an episode of "The Last Dance" that was supposed to be dedicated to the outlandish personality and eccentricities of Dennis Rodman, viewers of Sunday's final two episodes got another look at just how weird life can get with The Worm on a team's roster. It's a story of what happens when a wrestling show coincides with an NBA Finals series.

Under normal circumstances, one would expect that, if given the choice, a professional basketball player would choose to do everything they can to win a championship instead of, say, blowing off practice to take part in a WCW taping. But the latter is exactly what the notably abnormal Rodman did.

Rodman caused quite a stir when, after a Game 3 blowout of the Utah Jazz, he flew to Detroit from Chicago to attack Diamond Dallas Page with Hulk Hogan.

This wasn't Rodman's first time doing some wrestling promotion. He had made WCW appearances, most notably joining the nWo, throughout the 1997-98 season, but mostly in the offseason and at times that didn't interfere with his NBA career. But this was apparently an important TV spot to set up a tag-team match against DDP and real-time rival Karl Malone -- Rodman teamed up with Hulk Hogan.

It was a very bad match, but with the big names involved, plenty of people were paying attention to it.

Just a few months later, the Basketball Hall of Famer sued WCW under allegations that he wasn't fully paid under two pay-per-view contracts with WCW. The case was ultimately dismissed in June 1999.

Rodman returned to WCW in 1999, where he got into a feud with a new-look Randy Savage. That bit included one moment where Savage interrupted an interview Rodman was doing with Jay Leno, and speared the forward. The Worm went on to lose the match the stunts had led up to.

The turn of the millennium saw Rodman continue in the wrestling world under a different promotion. In the short-lived i-Generation Superstars of Wrestling, Rodman wrestled against Mr. Perfect, who was going by his birth name Curt Hennig at the time, in an Australian Outback match. The Worm ultimately lost that match as well by disqualification. 

Rodman went on to officially retire from professional wrestling after that match. Although he competed in a celebrity wrestling match promotion that was hosted by his pal Hulk Hogan, his 2000 loss was the final real match of his career.