PeteF3 Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 '80s All Japan bringing in a random foreigner (whose name I've forgotten) in what may have been an alien gimmick as "The V.". He never made it to TV. If there's one thing I love more than random '90s AJPW foreign tourers, it's random Japan masked gimmicks. The V was GCW job guy and Deep South guy Don Sanders. Also... Dick Murdoch as the Tornado and Karl Kox as the Spirit, created just as masked guys to put over the Destroyer. Davey Boy Smith as Vampiedo, Charlie Fulton as "The USSR," Ray Candy as Super Mario Man, Mile Zrno as Silver Hurricane, Mario Milano as the Barracuda, Scott Irwin as the Asteroid, and Bobby Jaggers as the Mysterious Assassin. Among others. And for "peculiar," it doesn't get much moreso than Billy, Gary, and Bobby Gaspar--Bob Orton, Tyler Mane, and Karl Moffat plus a million other guys making random appearances and run-ins. Nothing like hockey mask-wearing pirates to build a major Inoki feud around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricR Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 WWE experimenting with changing Val Venis's ring name to "The Big Valbowski" for no apparent reason.This isn't that peculiar... just trying to name associate with a cool movie, The Big Lebowski. Yeah, but this was at least a year or two after the movie came out. (Which isn't unusual for the WWE, with their well-established history of jumping onto pop culture bandwagons long after their primes.) And absolutely nothing in Val's character, look, or gimmick even vaguely resembled anyone or anything in The Big Lebowski. WWE wasn't really behind the pop culture trend on this one. Big Lebowski wasn't very popular when it came out. It only played in my area for 2 weeks, and there weren't tons of people there with me when I saw it. Once I bought it (on VHS!) and had it with me at college, I remember it becoming a real favorite around the dorms to watch around my junior year, which would have been 2001/2002. First Lebowski Fest wasn't until 2002 or 2003. If WWE had jumped on it in '98, they would have been way ahead of the popular curve. As it was, they were pretty much in line with the popular trend (this may be the only case of that happening with WWE and pop culture). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Dennis Condrey & Doug Gilbert (The Lethal Weapons) being the lead heel team for IWCCW in 1990 with Tony Rumble as their manager You literally could just say "everything that ever happened in IWCCW" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Chaz randomly appearing for a show or two in ECW. Billy Black and Joel Deaten being around for one or two SMW tapings but being featured on the promotional video Cornette would send out to tv stations to try and get more markets. Jimmy Del Ray showing up as Jimmy Graffiti a WCW Nitro era jobber extraordinare Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Evans Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Terry Garvin as a jobber in 1988 USA Championship Wrestling Steve Austin as babyface Steve Williams touring USWA before he became Steve Austin Mike Shaw as Salomon Grundy's brother in CMLL in the early 90's. Joey Mags as part of the Southern Rockers in USWA when Steve Doll left. Joey and Rex King even won the tag titles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteF3 Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 I honestly don't see what's "peculiar" about any of those. The Austin thing looks that way in retrospect but wasn't at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.L.L. Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 It had been his nickname from the beginning and this was 4 years after his debut and the movie's release that it suddenly became his only ring name. "Val Venis" was no longer mentioned until they dropped it.Weren't they doing this because he had been traded to Smackdown, and UPN wanted the porn star gimmick toned down, and wanted the name rhyming with "penis" to go away? Which just makes it weirder since, when you listen to his promos, "The Big Valbowski" was rarely used as a nickname so much as it was as a euphemism for his cock. And that's the part that always struck me as weird about that period: his gimmick went from being a porn star to being his own penis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueminister Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Ron Reis's first WCW run: where he debuted as Dungeon of Doom's mummy named "The Yeti" at Halloween Havoc 96, reappeared as a giant ninja named "The Yeti" at World War III, then worked Saturday Night as non-Dungeon-affiliated Super Giant Ninja before being taken off TV. Three appearances, as apparently the same character, with very little name/appearance coordination. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Waco Posted March 5, 2012 Report Share Posted March 5, 2012 Actually WCW trying to redo the Loose Cannon/Pillman angle with Lenny Lane, including Lane appearing on WOL claiming he was released was really fucking bizarre in hindsight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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