Ryan Seacrest Gets Playfully Headlocked by Contestant on Wheel of Fortune!

Let’s get ready to…rumble?

In simpler terms, this well-known phrase could potentially find its place among the collection of catchphrases used on the show “Wheel of Fortune“, as a recent competitor demonstrated to host Ryan Seacrest some moves from his wrestling repertoire.

In the March 24th episode of the show, contestant “Big” Bill Page disclosed that he was once a professional wrestler. Naturally, Ryan questioned Bill about the wrestling moves he could perform for the spectators, to which Bill showed off what he considered the simplest move in wrestling: a headlock.

Later on, Bill secured a gentle headlock around Ryan, aged 50, and the host chuckled before lightly knocking against the wheel. Following the show, the Delaware native shared with Maggie Sajak – daughter of the retired Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak – about his past in professional wrestling, detailing how he began wrestling during high school and later joined the East Coast Wrestling Association.

In the interview, Bill stated, “I executed every single move: the top-rope stunt, being slammed down, even a blow to the head – you name it. It was thrilling, and I was inducted into their Hall of Fame.

Even though Bill couldn’t figure out the last puzzle, he still walked away with a $24,600 cash reward and an exciting trip to St. Maarten.

This isn’t the first time Ryan has had an unexpected interaction with a contestant.

In early 2021, a fellow contestant named Daniel Thomas gave Ryan quite a literal lift off his feet. During the January installment of the competition, Daniel successfully completed the final puzzle and, in excitement, embraced the former American Idol contestant. Unfortunately for Ryan, he lost his footing after the hug and tumbled down.

Later in the same month, Ryan and co-host Vanna White played a significant part in helping a past contestant turn into a fiancée. In October 2023, contestant Rhea Mathew, who was on the show then, successfully solved a puzzle that read: “Will you marry me.” As if timed perfectly, her boyfriend Robin appeared with a ring, and she graciously agreed to his heartwarming proposal.

For more on the classic game show, keep reading…

1. Originally developed by Merv Griffin, the daytime game show “Wheel of Fortune” initially aired on NBC in 1975 and was modeled after the classic word game, “Hangman.”

2. Pat Sajak became the host in 1981, with Vanna White joining as co-host the following year. In 1983, “Wheel of Fortune” transitioned to syndication. The spin-off show, “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune,” premiered on ABC in 2021.

3. Born in Chicago, Pat Sajak began his career in the broadcasting industry. His biography reveals that he enlisted in the United States Army in 1968 and served with Armed Forces Radio in Saigon during his time in Vietnam. Following this, Pat continued to work at various radio and TV stations, holding positions such as staff announcer, talk show host, and weatherman.

Intriguingly, he was employed as a prominent weatherman in Los Angeles when Merv Griffin contacted him about hosting “Wheel of Fortune.” As he reminisced to his daughter and “Wheel of Fortune” social correspondent Maggie Sajak in a June 2024 video, Pat admitted, “I swear, my first thought was, ‘There’s nothing for me to do.’ I mean, ‘Yes, there are three R’s’ is hardly career-defining… It shows what I know.”

4. Speaking of Vanna, she hails from South Carolina. Her biography mentions that she attended a fashion design school in Atlanta and later ventured into modeling. After moving to Los Angeles, she dabbled in acting before being noticed by Merv and trying out for Wheel of Fortune. In her own words to CBS 58 in 2019, “I was more anxious than any other contestant who auditioned, and 200 girls tried out—and I was the last one.”

5. Interestingly enough, Wheel of Fortune disclosed that the very first letter Vanna illuminated on the puzzle board was ‘T’.

6. On a different note, Jim Thornton became part of the Wheel of Fortune team as an announcer in 2011. Prior to this role, he lent his voice to various films, TV shows, and commercials such as Monsters, Inc., Rugrats, and Celebrity Deathmatch.

1. By June 2024, Pat will have hung up his host’s jacket on Wheel of Fortune after starring in over 8,000 episodes spanning 41 seasons of syndication.

2. In 2019, he earned a Guinness World Records title for the longest tenure as a game show host on the same program.

3. Vanna has also made her mark in records. In 2013, she was bestowed with the “most frequent clapper” title by Guinness World Records, having clapped at least 3,480,864 times across 30 seasons. This equates to approximately 606 claps per episode, according to their estimation, considering her occasional absences.

1. Approximately 20 million viewers tune in to watch Wheel of Fortune each week, as stated in a press release from 2023.

2. It’s interesting to discuss the prizes. The show reported in 2024 that it awarded approximately 600 cars to contestants over 41 seasons.

3. Furthermore, by that point, it had given away nearly 5,000 vacations.

4. If you’re curious about the money Wheel of Fortune has distributed, according to their statement in 2023, they have handed out over $324 million in cash and prizes.

14. Vanna has accumulated quite a few steps traversing the game board, equivalent to two marathons (approximately 52 miles), according to the show’s data.

15. As for her stunning wardrobe, Vanna has donned over 7,000 dresses, but unfortunately, she doesn’t get to keep them.

16. Incredibly, Vanna managed to avoid repeating an outfit for almost four decades, a feat she shared with her social media followers in a September 2020 video while displaying a blue gown. “For the first time ever,” she said, “I wore the same dress twice. Oh no! This is so typical of 2020.

17. The essence of “Wheel of Fortune” lies in its spinning wheel, and this one is quite a heavyweight, tipping the scales at 2,400 pounds according to ABC News.

18. This wheel is truly unique. ABC News shares that the show transports it to every location by disassembling and then reassembling it, with the show usually traveling accompanied by more than a million pounds of equipment.

19. To add to that, ABC News mentions that the Bonus Wheel contains over 24 envelopes brimming with various prizes.

20. If you’re unsure about how the show functions, let Vanna clarify for you. In an interview with WLKY in 2015, she revealed, “We film for just four days, but produce six shows each day.”

21. Regarding the puzzle board, Wheel of Fortune upgraded to a single large screen in 2022. As Vanna explained in a YouTube video at that time, “This year, we switched to a laser. I no longer need to physically touch it; all I have to do is place my hand near it.”

22. Although prices may change over time, the show has kept the cost to buy a vowel consistent at $250 since its inception four decades ago.

23. You might be curious about how Pat knows the exact number of letters in a puzzle so quickly after a contestant guesses? He himself is eager to solve this mystery. In a 2021 YouTube video, he explained that the team behind the scenes listens to ensure the correct letter is called and then communicates the accurate count to him via a TV screen visible from his hosting position on the set.

24. In addition, there’s a pre-used letter board available for contestants to monitor which consonants and vowels have been previously used.

“This is something you don’t usually see at home, but our players do,” Pat mentioned in the video. “So whenever a letter is called, that letter gets removed from the board, its light turns off, and they know not to use it again—unless they do use it again….I joke about our players, but I understand the pressures they’re under.”

25. If you enjoy solving Toss Up puzzles, credit goes to Pat for that idea. As he explained, Wheel of Fortune was confronting a challenge:

“How can we increase content without consuming too much time?” Pat told Maggie. “So I did develop the Toss Up puzzles, and they’ve been successful. And then our producer added the Triple Toss Up. And then I proposed the $10,000 reward for solving all three because, after all, it’s not my money, so what do I care?”

26. In January 2015, reporter Christopher Ingraham published an analysis in The Washington Post examining 1,546 final bonus puzzles from the years 2007 to that year. Based on his study, he concluded that H, G, P, and O were the most common letters appearing in these puzzles at the time (since contestants are already given R, S, T, L, N, and E). However, Ingraham found that players chose these letters less frequently than they picked C, D, M, and A—even though, according to his analysis, the latter set of letters were less frequent back then.

2025-03-27 16:17

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