We didn't know that Tony Stark's competitive nature carried over into Robert Downey Jr.'s real life personality, but his hilarious story about a disastrous ping-pong match with Tom Cruise proves that may be the case. In 1996, Downey Jr. paid a visit to "Letterman," with legendary host David Letterman. The actor was invited on the show to promote his latest movie, "Restoration," when the conversation flowed into his relationship with fellow actor Cruise. Of course, nobody in the audience was expecting the story of how the two actors first met.

Downey discussed how one of his first times interacting with Cruise was at a mutual friend's house. To keep the party lively, Cruise challenged Downey Jr. to a game of ping pong. The "Risky Business" star likely wasn't expecting the match to become quite as competitive as it did, though. Downey Jr. admitted that when the score was 21 to 4, with him on the losing side, he decided to do something drastic. "I jumped the net," the beloved actor admitted as the audience gasped and laughed. "I splintered this thing into about six thousand pieces."