Monsters of Wrestling V

Even more weirdos and freaks from the world of professional wrestling….

Bray Wyatt

Going from cult leader of hillbilly weirdos to apparently having some semblance of supernatural powers, Bray Wyatt has been a constant fixture on WWE-TV for the past few years. His win-loss record isn’t very good, but “the New Face of Fear” always there trying to stir things up and play mind games with people.

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Willow

Jeff Hardy has always been a strange character, but his time in Total Nonstop Action/Impact Wrestling allowed him to further delve into the bizarre when he reactivated his alter-ego of Willow in 2013. The Willow character was previously used by Jeff in the late ’90s in the Hardy Boyz-owned OMEGA promotion.

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Papa Shango

The voodoo priest Papa Shango had fairly short but somewhat notable run in the WWF in the early ’90s when he briefly feuded with the Ultimate Warrior and did a run-in on Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VIII. Papa Shango just one of a number of character played by Charles Wright who would go on to portray Kama the Supreme Fighting Machine/Kama Mustafa and, most famously, the Godfather.

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James Mitchell

Throughout James Mitchell’s career in wrestling as a manager, he was surrounded by plenty of other monsters and creeps. Throughout his runs in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, WCW, ECW, and TNA he was known as Daryl Van Horne, James Vandenberg, Sinister Minister and Father James Mitchell. The name may have changed, but he was always a cackling devilish figure. Wrestlers he was paired with include: Prince Kharis (a mummy), Abdullah the Butcher, Mortis, Wrath, Raven, Abyss (probably his best known association), Black Reign, Rellik, Judas Mesias, and Vampiro.

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Mankind

When Mick Foley debuted under the moniker of Mankind in 1996 in the WWF, it was a frightening character and unique character. He was pulling out his hair, rocking back and forth on the ground while screaming, using the feared Mandible Claw on his opponents and going toe-to-toe with the Undertaker. The character would go from a fearsome psychotic to an extremely popular comedy face as more and more of Mick Foley’s true personality was allowed to come through.

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The Demon King

A more recent edition to WWE, Prince Devitt and would often use body paint to cover himself in freakish images when he wrestled in Japan and all over the world. Now signed to WWE and renamed Finn Balor, the body paint is saved for special occasions when Balor decides to unleash his alter-ego of “the Demon King”. Most recently, Balor debuted the Demon King on the main roster to do battle with Bray Wyatt.

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Monsters of Wrestling IV

A new installment to a series I debuted way back in 2008. More of professional wrestling’s weirdos, creeps and freaks!

The Road Warriors/Legion of Doom

One of the greatest and most popular tag teams of all-time were Hawk & Animal, collectively known as The Road Warriors. They were often referred to as the Legion of Doom as well but that was only officially their tag team name while working for the WWF.

In the 1980’s, few wrestlers had as much muscles, power, energy and intimidation factor as these two guys did. People loved them so much that promotions couldn’t keep these guys as heels and they spent most of their career playing the role of good guys.

There were a few variations/spin-offs to the team throughout the years. Hawk (as Hawk Warrior) formed a team called The Hellraisers with Kensuke Sasaki (as Power Warrior) in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Hawk & Animal got a WWF Attitude era update as “LOD 2000” and were briefly a three-man team with Droz. After Hawk passed away, Animal found himself back in the WWF in 2005 with an awful new version of the Legion of Doom with Heidenreich as his partner. The final (?) variation of the team came in the form of The Hell Warriors in All-Japan Pro Wrestling where Animal (as Animal Warrior) was partnered up with Sensuke’s Power Warrior.

None of these versions ever captured half of the popularity, mystique and chemistry and Hawk & Animal had during the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

Demolition

Ax and Smash of Demolition were the WWF’s answer to the NWA’s Road Warriors. Ax was played by Bill Eadie while Smash was originally portrayed by Randy “Moondog Rex” Colley. A contract dispute with Colley led to Barry Darsow taking over as Smash.

As a kid, these guys were terrifying to me. The studs, face paint, leather and black masks gave me the heebie jeebies. If a team like this came out today, I would just think they had an S&M gimmick, but as a child, these guys were scary monster. I remember the build-up to SummerSlam 1990 and thinking that the Hart Foundation had no chance against Demolition.

With Ax’s health failing, a third member named Crush was eventually brought in and Ax was slowly phased out of the group and the WWF. Smash & Crush didn’t have the same amount of success that Ax & Smash did. At this point, the WWF had already signed the originals (the Road Warriors) anyway, so there was no need for Demolition anymore.

Smash went on to become the Repo Man in the WWF (and assumed various other gimmicks in WCW) while Crush became a fan favorite who the Hawaiian culture, then became a biker, then simply became himself (Bryan Adams).

Believe it or not, Ax & Smash still occasionally team together on the independent wrestling circuit and there were apparently two short-lived Demolition members under the names of Blast and Hux on the indy scene as well.

WWE Unforgiven 2008 Predictions

Just another month, just another show. Even WWE must be thinking that way seeing as how we get the lame scramble match concept not once… not twice… but THREE times in one evening! This PPV hinges on HBK/Jericho, IMO, but who knows how that’ll even play out now?

As always, Bold is my predicted winner and the order of the matches is how I would book it from top to bottom. And away we go…

TNA Victory Road 2008 Predictions

I’ve been meaning to do rundowns of TNA’s PPVs for some quite, but the truth is, I keep forgetting when the PPVs are! Well, it’s late and I’m wide awake, so let’s go for it.

Bold represents the predicted winner.

TNA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Samoa Joe (c) vs. Booker T

Well, it’s Booker’s hometown, so I expect he’ll be treated as a babyface for the most part. I don’t think Joe has been very impressive as the champ, but it’s still probably too soon to pull the belt off him. I expect some shenanigans (and possible chicanery) from Kevin Nash to give us a DQ win for The Book.

FAN’S REVENGE MATCH FOR THE TNA TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
LAX (c) vs. Beer Money

Oh wow. What a horrible tag team name for Roode & Storm. This is supposed to be a “feel good” match for the fans, so I expect plenty of lashes that won’t feel good for Roode & Storm. They need to give LAX their edge back.

FAN’S PICK THE STIP – SIX MAN TAG TEAM WAR:
AJ Styles, Christian Cage & Rhino vs. Kurt Angle & Team 3D

This will probably be the match of the night, if given a good amount of time. The match stipulation will be decided through online voting once the PPV begins. What will we get? First Blood? No DQ? I’m not sure if the match options have even been listed, but I imagine we’ll get something like falls count anywhere with Angle & 3D taking the win to give us Angle vs. AJ and Team 3D vs. Rhino/Christian next month.

THE FINALS OF THE WORLD X CUP TOURNAMENT
Team TNA vs. Team Japan vs. Team Mexico vs. Team International

Um… I have no idea who is going to be in this and what’s going on in the tournament. Eh, I’ll say Team Int’l picks up the win here because they’ve got a good team and I’m sure they’ll want to push the WWE wrestler (Daivari).

GRUDGE MATCH
Jay Lethal vs. Sonjay Dutt

Will we see a Vince Russo Swerve™ with SoCal Val turning on Black Machismo? Who knows, but I have a feeling this feud, unfortunately, will not be ending anytime soon.

KNOCKOUTS WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Taylor (c) vs. Awesome Kong

So Taylor gave Kong a run for her money the first time, took the title & the money the second time, but I say this time Kong gets her revenge.

TNA KNOCKOUTS MATCH
Gail Kim vs. Angelina Love

I pretty much view the Knockout division as eventually coming to Kong vs. Gail again, so there’s no reason for Angelina to get a win over the top face Knockout. Roxxi helps Gail after Velvet tries to help Angelina.

 

Overall, not a very impressive looking show outside of the six-man and X Cup match. I’ve never ordered a TNA PPV in my life and I can’t ever see me ordering one. Their PPVs just look like 3 hour versions of Impact.