PeteF3 Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 Shinobu Kandori and the other LLPW ladies showing up on the LPWA Super Ladies' Showdown PPV. I'm not sure you've quite lived until you've seen a Shinobu Kandori match with commentary by Jim Cornette. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye12 Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 How about Ivan Koloff's brief 1990 WCW return where I think he may have had just one TV match and a promo where he put over the Horsemen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boondocks Kernoodle Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 It's not that obscure since all the early Raws are on the Network, but Jimmy Snuka's 1993 return was always strange to me. It was announced in advance as a one-night-only return, so he wasn't coming in for a run, though he did also work the Intercontinental battle royal (aired next week but taped the same night). He also worked an MSG show that same week (inexplicably against Brian Christopher, who was years away from joining the WWF roster). But why? He had only been gone for a year and a half, not long enough for him to become a nostalgic figure. And bringing in an old star for a one-shot appearance on TV just wasn't how WWF operated at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 EDIT: '93 WCW might be the biggest goldmine for this thread. i already saw the blackhearts mentioned, and there were a bunch of other random guys getting featured for a little bit there. big sky, the cole twins beating several "name" teams, charlie norris ripping off tatanka's gimmick right down to the undefeated streak, the colossal kongs as the world's fattest JTTSes, RVD as young martial artist "Robbie V"... Robbie V wrestled Raven in WCW once when he was (I think) Scotty Flamingo. Kind of a weird bit of ECW foreshadowing. Actually come to think of it I am not sure those two even had a major match in ECW, which makes it even stranger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye12 Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 EDIT: '93 WCW might be the biggest goldmine for this thread. i already saw the blackhearts mentioned, and there were a bunch of other random guys getting featured for a little bit there. big sky, the cole twins beating several "name" teams, charlie norris ripping off tatanka's gimmick right down to the undefeated streak, the colossal kongs as the world's fattest JTTSes, RVD as young martial artist "Robbie V"... Robbie V wrestled Raven in WCW once when he was (I think) Scotty Flamingo. Kind of a weird bit of ECW foreshadowing. Actually come to think of it I am not sure those two even had a major match in ECW, which makes it even stranger. They never had an ECW TV match to my knowledge. They wrestled once on Smackdown, and they were on opposite sides once and teammates once on Impact. Otherwise only battle royals together for TV. They did have a house show run in WWF when RVD was hardcore champion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Shinobu Kandori and the other LLPW ladies showing up on the LPWA Super Ladies' Showdown PPV. I'm not sure you've quite lived until you've seen a Shinobu Kandori match with commentary by Jim Cornette. On a similar note, a few weeks back I was working on listings for my HWA discs and it was the period where the WCW guys who'd been signed by WWF were assigned to the territory. Anyway, Jodie Fleisch and Jonny Storm had a match there on their 2002 US tour and it's quite the site trying to see Cornette (who was doing commentary with Les Thatcher) call a Fleisch vs Storm bout! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stomperspc Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Reckless Youth as “Technical” Tom Carter in 2003 ROH. ROH acknowledged that Carter was Reckless Youth but the story was that he was going by his given name in an attempt to show off a serious side and redefine himself as a mat wrestler. He wasn’t given much of a shot (three bookings over a four month period) but there was nothing about his run there that distinguished him from guys like Chad Collyer, Matt Stryker, John Walters, ect. that were doing similar mid-card gimmicks. It still might not have worked out, but I always thought a better idea would have him work as Reckless Youth, position him as one of the forefathers of that current indie wrestling scene (regardless if that is entirely accurate), and have him out to prove that he can hang with anyone in ROH. They would have gotten to the same end point (Reckless Youth showing he can wrestle a “technical” style) without all the silliness of the name change. TAKA’s brief 1999 ECW run. He was loaned out by WWE for a few months that spring and wrestled 10 or so matches for them including a PPV match versus Super Crazy. Actually, TAKA’s first half of 1999 would probably all fit in this category as a forgotten period of his career. When he did work for WWF during the first half of 1999 it was almost exclusively on Super Astros or the joint shows with IWA in Puerto Rico. It wasn’t until late in the year that he and Funaki were used more regularly on WWF TV. Vincent/Virgil wrestling as plain old “Mike Jones” in WCW during Kevin Sullivan’s run as booker in between Russo’s first and second stints. During Russo’s first stint, he worked as “Shane” (in reference to Shane McMahon) which I had completely blocked out until looking it up so I guess that stint would count as forgettable, too. The Mike Jones run always stood out because they had him cut a promo about how he was sick of going by all of these other names and identities and wanted to show how good he could be by being himself. He then proceeded to get beat in every match he wrestled under that gimmick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C.S. Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Vincent/Virgil wrestling as plain old “Mike Jones” in WCW during Kevin Sullivan’s run as booker in between Russo’s first and second stints. During Russo’s first stint, he worked as “Shane” (in reference to Shane McMahon) which I had completely blocked out until looking it up so I guess that stint would count as forgettable, too. The Mike Jones run always stood out because they had him cut a promo about how he was sick of going by all of these other names and identities and wanted to show how good he could be by being himself. He then proceeded to get beat in every match he wrestled under that gimmick. Didn't he also wrestle as Curly Bill briefly? What the hell was that? A veiled reference to Bill Watts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GSR Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Vincent/Virgil wrestling as plain old Mike Jones in WCW during Kevin Sullivans run as booker in between Russos first and second stints. During Russos first stint, he worked as Shane (in reference to Shane McMahon) which I had completely blocked out until looking it up so I guess that stint would count as forgettable, too. The Mike Jones run always stood out because they had him cut a promo about how he was sick of going by all of these other names and identities and wanted to show how good he could be by being himself. He then proceeded to get beat in every match he wrestled under that gimmick. Didn't he also wrestle as Curly Bill briefly? What the hell was that? A veiled reference to Bill Watts? Yup, when he was aligned with the West Texas Rednecks. No idea the reasoning behind the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimmas Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 Vincent/Virgil wrestling as plain old Mike Jones in WCW during Kevin Sullivans run as booker in between Russos first and second stints. During Russos first stint, he worked as Shane (in reference to Shane McMahon) which I had completely blocked out until looking it up so I guess that stint would count as forgettable, too. The Mike Jones run always stood out because they had him cut a promo about how he was sick of going by all of these other names and identities and wanted to show how good he could be by being himself. He then proceeded to get beat in every match he wrestled under that gimmick. Didn't he also wrestle as Curly Bill briefly? What the hell was that? A veiled reference to Bill Watts? Yup, when he was aligned with the West Texas Rednecks. No idea the reasoning behind the name. Maybe this? William Brocius (c. 1845 – March 24, 1882), better known as Curly Bill Brocius, was a gunman, rustler and an outlaw Cowboy in the Cochise Countyarea of the Arizona Territory during the early 1880s. His name is almost certainly an alias, and there is evidence linking him to another outlaw named William "Curly Bill" Bresnaham who had committed an 1878 attempted robbery in El Paso, Texas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRH Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Bill Irwin showing up out of nowhere in 1993 to job to Davey Boy at Superbrawl 3. Dont know what that was about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ButchReedMark Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Raven wrestles in generic trunks and boots on WWE Heat in 2003. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2PhoneShawty Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Lance Cade, with all due respect, wasn't that memorable, but his run as Jericho's protege had to be the least memorable run of his. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victory Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Dick Slater in the AWA around 88 or so. I barely remember it. I think he was some sort of bodyguard or associate of Curt Hennig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRH Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 How about Butch Reed's short lived "return" to WCW, which IIRC, only consisted of the Clash X match with Barbarian against rhodes/windham and a match on Power Hour with Butch Reed against Zenk and Jimmy Garvin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkdoc Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 ooh, just remembered a good one! steve disalvo in early 1991? WCW as Minotaur. by that time he looked like a fatter roided trent reznor, and his gimmick consisted of occasionally yelling into the camera with a goofy expression on his face. he also had a bionic arm because Reasons, and jim ross on commentary said he was wrestling at "a tortoise-like pace". think he had all of 2 matches on TV and a brief house show run. did some jobs to JYD, who i didn't know was still around by that point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bierschwale Posted July 28, 2015 Report Share Posted July 28, 2015 Vincent/Virgil wrestling as plain old Mike Jones in WCW during Kevin Sullivans run as booker in between Russos first and second stints. During Russos first stint, he worked as Shane (in reference to Shane McMahon) which I had completely blocked out until looking it up so I guess that stint would count as forgettable, too. The Mike Jones run always stood out because they had him cut a promo about how he was sick of going by all of these other names and identities and wanted to show how good he could be by being himself. He then proceeded to get beat in every match he wrestled under that gimmick. Didn't he also wrestle as Curly Bill briefly? What the hell was that? A veiled reference to Bill Watts? Yup, when he was aligned with the West Texas Rednecks. No idea the reasoning behind the name. Maybe this? I think that it'd be a half-and-half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarpetCrawler Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 The Nasty Boys turning babyface for the WWF in 1992. It still shocks me that after that face turn (which took place around Survivor Series '92), they still appeared on WWF TV until right before King of the Ring '93. I don't think they did anything at all for those six+ months. actually, they were money inc.'s main rivals. that feud was the focal point of their survivor series match, and i suspect that would've been the tag title match at mania were it not for hogan coming back. Yup, IIRC on one of the early RAW episodes the story was that the Nasties gave Hogan and Beefcake permission to face Money Inc. at Wrestlemania instead of them. Can't believe I forgot that one!! That was during the brief comeback of Beefcake with the goofy mask. Still blows my mind that Beefcake even had a match on RAW during that timeframe. Speaking of Beefcake and forgotten periods of wrestling, there's also his brief run in 1991 where he went out in a mask and just headbutted people after squash matches. How long did that last? I just remember Bobby Heenan being confused on commentary at Beefcake headbutting Earthquake out of the ring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Jackson Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 That's one I've always wondered about. It went on for a few weeks at least. I can remember my friends speculating on who it was. Wonder why it was dropped and what plans, if any, they had for the gimmick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Migs Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Bob Orton in the AWA in 1988. Apparently he and Adrian Adonis were a team for a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goc Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Bob Orton in the AWA in 1988. Apparently he and Adrian Adonis were a team for a bit. They had a really good match against The Midnight Rockers there. Not sure how long they were together as a team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilTLL Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 I think that it'd be a half-and-half. I doubt Bill Watts had the slightest thing to do with what Virgil was named in 1999. Curly Bill is a "generic Western" name that also happens to be funny when applied to a completely bald guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilTLL Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 That's one I've always wondered about. It went on for a few weeks at least. I can remember my friends speculating on who it was. Wonder why it was dropped and what plans, if any, they had for the gimmick The old conventional wisdom, assumption, Scott Keith bullshit, whatever...was that it was too soon after his facial reconstruction surgeries. Meltzer just describes his run-ins and then says "I guess [the character] has been dropped" when reporting the debut of the Barber Shop a few weeks later. The build seemed to be for an Earthquake feud, as Quake did the stretcher job for him during one of the layouts. And so I don't post a 3rd time like a jackass, the Nasties/Money Inc. feud produced some decent matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 ooh, just remembered a good one! steve disalvo in early 1991? WCW as Minotaur. by that time he looked like a fatter roided trent reznor, and his gimmick consisted of occasionally yelling into the camera with a goofy expression on his face. he also had a bionic arm because Reasons, and jim ross on commentary said he was wrestling at "a tortoise-like pace". think he had all of 2 matches on TV and a brief house show run. did some jobs to JYD, who i didn't know was still around by that point Man that is obscure. At first I misread that as Mantaur, which is another very short lived... thing... that is hard to explain. Good lord this is hilarious: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted July 29, 2015 Report Share Posted July 29, 2015 Sorry double post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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