The One Year Midcarders of 1995

[The Brain]

You guys remember 1995, right? Sure you do. You may have tried to repress it but I know you remember. I know everyone loves to hate wrestling in 1995 but I’ve been seemingly the one and only guy to defend it. I think part of the reason people didn’t enjoy that year was because there were so many low to mid card wrestlers that debuted that year but were gone by early 1996. Because their WWF career was so short and not so memorable people classify 1995 as nothing more than a year of bad gimmicks. Mantaur, Phantasio, Man Mountain Rock, Jean Pierre Lafitte, Eli & Jacob Blu and Techno Team 2000 are certainly forgettable. They are a few examples of guys to debut in 1995 and not see 1996. Let’s take a look at a few more examples that either had a little more impact that year or had more potential but still barely saw 1996.

Dean Douglas: For those that were watching in 1995 we knew who Shane Douglas was before joining the WWF so we had some high expectations. Most people were disappointed when the edgy Franchise from ECW debuted as the school professor Dean Douglas. I don’t know why people had such a problem with the gimmick. Damian Sandow seems to be liked here. I think if Douglas didn’t have his Franchise reputation people would have been more accepting of the Dean gimmick. Besides, the Greenwich blueblood and evil orthodontist worked through their first gimmicks to go on to better things so I’m sure if Douglas had stuck around he wouldn’t have been the Dean for long.

Hakushi: I always liked Hakushi. He had a unique look, a sweet entrance theme, and an innovative style that was a bit ahead of its time in the WWF. He got off to a great start by starting a feud with Bret Hart shortly after his debut but once that feud was over it was downhill for Hakushi. A face turn at SummerSlam killed any momentum Hakushi had built and he would end up on the undercard until his departure in February 1996.

Waylon Mercy: One of my favorite “what if” guys. I loved this gimmick. A calm and polite southern gentleman on the outside but you didn’t have to look deep at all to find the dark soul of this sociopath. I loved how he shook the hands of the fans, referee, ring announcer, and his opponent before turning into a psycho as soon as the bell rang. It’s too bad this gimmick came at the end of Danny Spivey’s career when he was past his physical prime because this gimmick had potential to last.

Rad Radford: Who? Has anyone ever typed the name Rad Radford on this forum? You may know him better as Louie Spicolli. Grunge rock was popular in the 90s so Spicolli adopted a Seattle grunge gimmick and was named Rad Radford. Of course since grunge was popular Radford was packaged as a heel and as further proof that Vince is sometimes a bit behind the times a 90s grunge wrestler was given a name with an outdated 80s catchphrase. I’m not saying Spicolli would have had great success as a face but that gimmick never clicked right and could have been a little more.

Kama: His name might seem a little out of place on this list. Kama had a pretty long career in the WWF but his time as the Supreme Fighting Machine lasted for one year in 1995. I know he is best known as the Godfather and that gimmick fit right in the WWF in 1999 but I always liked Kama best as the Supreme Fighting Machine. He looked like a character out of one of those Streetfighter video games that were popular at the time. Kama disappeared after a feud with the Undertaker (pretty good casket match at SummerSlam) and wouldn’t be seen until two years later when he joined the Nation of Domination.

Skip: After reading about Chris Candido in the PWI magazines for a while I was happy to see him come to the WWF. I was disappointed that he was given the bodydonna gimmick and named Skip. Candido was already at a disadvantage because of his size but I felt he had the talent to overcome it. The name Skip wasn’t doing him any favors. It was hard to take him seriously. Not to mention he was always in the shadow of Sunny. Unlike the rest of the names mentioned Skip lasted well into the summer of 1996 but I felt he fit in here anyway. I would have liked to have seen what he would have done if he entered the WWF as Chris Candido instead of Skip.

So I’ve listed a dozen guys that debuted in 1995 and barely made it to 1996. Of those mentioned (or any others I neglected to mention) who did you feel had potential to last longer and do you think so many quick departures is why so many look down on that year in wrestling?

 

[justtxyank]

Chris Candido obviously had a ton of potential. He was very good at selling a match. Facial expressions were top notch. No reason he couldn't have been a very successful midcard wrestler. However, the gimmick was terrible and the name hurts. Just dumb.

Louie Spicolli is incredibly underrated. The guy was great and got heat on himself like a champ. Vince's obsession with turning wrestlers into goofy characters hurt a lot of guys around this time.

Those two stand out the most to me on your list. A guy like Shane Douglas never had a chance in the WWF of 1995 because he was too vocal to survive in a company that was that toxic.

 

[OneTooManyPunts]

Outside of Shane Douglas, I'm not sure any of them would have ever really made it past the mid card.

1995 fell in to that time frame when Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were really the foundation of WWE, and with that it slowly helped lead to the downfall of gimmicky talent getting the kind of big pushes they may have prior.

Shane Douglas obviously had potential, but I'm not sure WWE ever really knew what to do with him. The Dean Douglas was good for cheap heat, but as a gimmick would have never really allowed much room for growth.

Hakushi was definitely a talented and unique talent, but his gimmick never truly felt like it belonged at the main event. He had some great matches with Bret Hart, but as you mentioned, his babyface turn really killed his momentum.

Rad Radford aka Louie Spicolli just didn't fit the main event image that WWE had at the time. The best thing that ever happened to Spiccoli was leaving WWE, as it allowed him to ditch the gimmicks and wrestling for ECW, which was able to do much more with an athlete of his size and skill set.

Of course Chris Candido stands out, but in that particular time frame, especially with the Bodydonna gimmick, Candido really felt mid card at best. The only thing that was really getting him over at the time was Sunny. It wasn't until Candido found himself in ECW that people really got to see how good he was and appreciate his talent. I don't think WWE would have ever given him a true push to the top given his size during that era.

There are countless others, but i honestly can't think of any one mid card talent from 1995 that I feel belonged higher on the card. It was unique year for WWE, as they pushed more new talent in to the mid card with some pretty polarizing gimmicks then they had done in quite some time. I think it's a great example of how ultimately a gimmick can make and break any talent.

 

[strongbad]

I don't mind 1995 either. It was the year where the WWF cemented the "new generation" and the year where HBK himself was finally being recognized as a main-eventer.

 

[Rhodes2TheFuture3313]

1995 was a great year for HBK, Diesel, Razor Ramon, and Bret Hart. Wasn't it also the debut of Goldust?? WWE totally missed the boat with "The Franchise". Shane Douglas could have dominated the mid-card and been a huge part introducing the Attitude Era a little bit earlier. Can you imagine feuds between HBK and Franchise? Razor and Franchise for IC Belt? Franchise and Stone Cold would have been amazing in 1996 or 1997. Franchise/Hitman would have been epic as well.

 

[akathelaw]

I started watching WWF regularly in 1995, thanks to having cable TV in my bedroom for the first time. Kama was one of my first favorites and his push reminds me of how Mark Henry has been handled in the main event recently.

Goldust's debut was a memorable moment. I enjoyed how over the top he was, trying to get heat. It was fun seeing the good ole boys in the crowd react to him. Fandango feels like an update of the Goldust gimmick but more appropriate for 2013.

Dean Douglas always reminded me of a less impressive Curt Hennig. I wanted to call him Mister Imperfect.

Personally, I really liked Skip and Sunny. They were pretty entertaining, and always in character. Sunny was perfection at the time. I didn't care for the addition of the 2nd man, Chip or Zip or something.

I think Isaac Yankem DDS debuted in 95. Definitely a creepy, scary gimmick but Kane is a huge improvement over Lawler's demented dentist.

 

[byrnside]

1995? Sign me up. It was around this time I became fully invested in pro. wrestling, which I feel speaks a lot about my loyalties to the sport, especially to WWE. I have to agree with Kama "The Supreme Fighting Machine." I've always joked I would steal his entrance music if I ever became a wrestler. [YOUTUBE]fpdGe7BI1yA[/YOUTUBE]

But back to the topic at hand, you guys have covered a lot of great choices. Hakushi definitely was underrated. If you go back and watch his matches with 1-2-3 Kid and Bret Hart, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised with the quality. Dean Douglas' talents were arguably underutilized, and the same goes for Chris Candidio aka Skip. These two could've easily gotten decent pushes as their "characters" from ECW, even if they had to be toned down. I think Waylon Mercy's had serious potential to the point that they're pretty much revitalizing it in the form of NXT's Bray Wyatt today.

My choice is going to be for Isaac Yankem, DDS. After losing a "Kiss My Foot" match to Bret Hart, Jerry Lawler brought in Yankem as his lunatic, personal dentist who he brought in to eradicate the WWF of "The Hitman." I liked this idea because Yankem was a big guy who was quite agile and actually had a pretty good match against Hart at Summerslam '95 that he lost by DQ because he hung Bret in the ropes if I'm not mistaken. Yankem was going to prove to be an imposing force in the WWF. Of course many of you may or may not know the gimmick didn't continue, and Yankem eventually went on to become Kane.

Another name I am going to throw out there, even if it doesn't quite fit the guidelines is Bam Bam Bigelow. I'm going to argue his case simply because, up until this point, he had only had one run as a face with the WWE and that was briefly in the 80s where a knee injury sidelined his run. Right after Wrestlemania XI, I think Bam Bam was in line for a pretty big run as a face. He even teamed with Diesel in the main event of an In Your House PPV. Supposedly backstage problems led to him leaving the company towards the end of '95, and of course he went on to a successful career in ECW.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Bigelow said in interviews he simply "got out before the Kliq started on him" so I don't think there was a specific incident that made him leave, rather he just didn't think staying was worth the hassle that was bound to come his way.

Waylon Mercy's gimmick lives on in Bray Wyatt, who is already doing it far better than Spivey did. By then Spivey was pretty washed up physically so the matches never lived up to the gimmick's coolness.

Hakushi was grossly mis-used - he could have been Vince's Great Muta had he gone over Bret in that first feud. Tajiri later kinda took that role but Hakushi was an excellent talent and had Vince not burned him with the ridiculous face/Barry Horrowitz stuff then in 97 when the Lightheavy title came back Hakushi would have found his niche and perhaps been a HOF'er. Vince just seems intent on portraying asian workers as goofballs... the guy must love Breakfast At Tiffany's...

Of the others, the one I was most disappointed in was Man Mountain Rock. Maxx Payne was a great character in WCW and despite his size, the guy was a legit athlete and even starred in some movies in the early 80's. He had "it" but Vince made him a cartoon with that ridiculous WWF guitar. Irony of course within a year Jeff Jarrett was hitting people with a guitar, the exact same gimmick Payne should have used... I equate MMR to Mick Foley/Mankind... Foley was given a fair crack and made the gimmick work - MMR couldn't do that when all he was allowed to do was play the damn guitar... Classic case of "shoulda used the WCW gimmick".

 

[rokuma]

I'm going to throw a wildcard out there: Henry O. Godwinn. I was re-watching Royal Rumble 1996 and Henry really caught my eye. He was a big guy, fairly quick, pretty solid in the ring. I can't help, but think that he would've made it with a different gimmick. He actually lasted into 1997/1998, but his peak was certainly 1995/1996. Late 1995, he had the Hog Pen match with Hunter Hearst Helmsley and went on to have a tag team title run or two with Phineas. The Godwinns always seemed to be fairly over with the crowd. I'm surprised they didn't stick around a little longer, but the Attitude Era flushed them out.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Godwinn was always more known as a tag wrestler and was better in that team, a lot like Hawk was in LOD. He could have been a main eventer with the talent but it just always worked better with that particular partner. Shanghai and Slazenger in WCW or the Godwinns, both were good concepts for the time. If he had made it up the card, then Glenn Jacobs wouldn't have - there wasn't room for them both.

 

[Judah's Lion]

Hakushi comes to mind immediately. as you said, Brain, his look was really great and i loved his moveset. it was something that i had not seen at the time and would not see again until i started watching the cruiserweight division in WCW. i think Hakushi, if used better, could have been the face of the WWE light heavyweight division and had some incredible feuds. his match with Bret Hart, as stated more than once in this thread, was awesome and i think just the tip of the iceberg of what Hakushi was capable of. i think a missed opportunity.

i also agree with Shane Douglas and wrote what i thought about him in a different thread not long ago. "Shane Douglas' first WWF run" or something to that effect. i think had Douglas never left the WWF in 91 but stuck around, he could have been a major player, especially during 95-96. potential feuds with Razor, HBK, Bret and Owen Hart, Perfect, maybe even Goldust, Austin, Triple H, etc. i don't feel Shane Douglas is so much a "missed opportunity" as i do a "what if" type scenario.

there are 2 more guys that seem to fit the thread that have always been kinda guilty pleasures of mine and 2 that i don't admit to loving too openly too often.

Adam Bomb. this guy could fall into the missed opportunity category or could just be seen as one of many terrible ideas that WWF did during this time. but i really liked Adam Bomb. the name made him very limited long-term, but names and gimmicks are subject to change. he had a great build and a strength-based moveset. it wouldn't have surprised me, had Adam Bomb made it beyond 95-96, to see him enter the Attitude Era with a storyline about not wanting to be a cartoon character anymore but a serious threat to either the IC or maybe even World Title.

Duke "the Dumpster" Droese. my guiltiest pleasure. and i readily and freely admit to how corny of a gimmick it was. i just loved this guy. out of all the work-force type gimmicks that came out of the WWF, Duke the Dumpster is by far my all-time favorite. i was so happy when he beat Triple H, albeit via dq, to enter the Royal Rumble at number 30. as a youngster, i truly thought anything was possible and that Duke had a legit shot at winning the thing. i always thought that a storyline calling Duke "Mr. 500" could have been enjoyable. on the PWI list of "Top 500 Wrestlers of the Year", Duke did in fact make it as number 500 one year. i thought it could have been used to possibly challenge wrestlers within the WWF that were higher up on the list to try and "improve his rankings" kind of thing.

anyway, great thread Brain. i may have been too young to realize that the WWF was not what it once was or could have been in 95, but i was still pretty young and really enjoyed 95.

 

[SaveUsCMPunk]

Well I wouldn't call Mantaur a forgettable gimmick. I can see why people would call it a bad gimmick though. I missed out on half of '95 or so, but I remember him coming down to the ring wearing a bull's head for awhile. Plus, his theme song was certainly unique. I seem to remember Mantaur being featured on WWE's "Are You Serious?" After seeing him job to Bob "Spark Plug" Holly (a huge jobber at the time), I'd say his career was dead.

Dean Douglas could've lasted longer, but apparently he had issues with the clique. I liked the whole teacher gimmick and I liked it when Matt Striker brought it back a decade later. Dean Douglas taught me the word "vivify" at a pretty young age.

Mabel could've lasted longer. Seemed like he left shorty after Royal Rumble '96. (Another wrestler that had problems with the clique or some other reason?) He came back only a couple of years later for one night only to wrestle Ken Shamrock. The following year ('99) he was back full time. Had he stayed around, he probably could've been IC champion. I could see him feuding with Ahmed Johnson or Sid. Heck, he could've been one of Shawn Michaels' challengers for the WWF title. Maybe he could've been part of Camp Cornette.

Unlike some people, I don't think WWF in 1995 was that bad. Maybe it's because I had only been watching for four years at that point and liked all of the colorful gimmicks. Had I been an adult at that point who had been watching for 10 years or better, I might've felt differently. I still prefer 1995 WWF over some of the WWE years of this century. 2009 comes to mind.

 

[Kliq69]

Finally some love for Ol' Mark Canterbury. One of the most underrated big men to ever lace up the boots. He was deceptively fast, was very fluid in the ring, and could really take some bumps. More importantly, he was pretty solid on the microphone, cutting very concise promos whenever he was asked to. Not sure why they decided to go from him being a single's star to a tag guy again, but it happened very quickly. He beat HHH at the December 95 IYH ppv in the Hog Pen match and was tagging with Knight by Mania. They missed out though, as with the lack of main event talent in 96, HOG could have been a fill in guy or even a credible threat seeing as Davey Boy got two title shots during that time. His style would have fit well with the main event scene as well and there was more than enough room on the roster for him despite Kane's arrival in '97.

Even as an upper-midcarder who could go from IC to WWF title contender any given month, he would have been effective and really could have excelled if given the chance as he had all the tools. For the life of me, I cannot understand why in the last year or so of WCW he wasn't given a chance to headline as he'd have been a much better choice over Animal.

His perfect gimmick would have been as a genteel southern man who believed in old school traditions but wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty when the moment called for it. Holding the ropes open for the ladies, taking exception to "dirty pool", speaking softly and carrying a big stick... Would have been a perfect fit for him. Think Nicholas Cage's character in Con Air minus the special forces training and prison time. Perfectly content to mind his own business, but if pushed would just flat out destroy you. (You should have put the bunny back in the box) Unfortunately, Vince has always had a low opinion of southerners, so he felt he needed to portray him as a arkansas hog farmer instead of simply a southern gentleman.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

In Canterbury's case I think it just came down to him or Jacobs for a singles push and the man we now call Kane was developing faster into a better worker. Not a knock on the guy, cos Kane is still a main eventer 18 years down the line but considering the other guys being pushed at the time, Mabel, Kama included there just wasn't room for H.O.G. to remain singles, especially as he was part of a known and effective tag team that still had success.

Not everyone should be a singles star, even if they could have been one.

 

[Kliq69]

In Canterbury's case I think it just came down to him or Jacobs for a singles push and the man we now call Kane was developing faster into a better worker. Not a knock on the guy, cos Kane is still a main eventer 18 years down the line but considering the other guys being pushed at the time, Mabel, Kama included there just wasn't room for H.O.G. to remain singles, especially as he was part of a known and effective tag team that still had success.

Not everyone should be a singles star, even if they could have been one.

Wrong on your timeline... Kama and Mabel were done by the time Hank beat HHH in the Hog Pen Match. This was December 95. Jacobs wasn't seen until December 96-ish as fake Diesel (not exactly a huge push). You could argue Warrior coming back and Vader coming in could have stalled his push, but it's not like either of those two were going into midcard spots. Hank could have been pushed over Mero or Vega in the midcard spot. Jake Roberts was in one of the spots Hank was suited for. It was completely unnecessary to have him go from ending HHH's win streak at DEC 95 IYH to tagging with Phineas on the WM12 pre-show. Hall and Nash were known to be gone after this (Hall was gone before Mania, Nash was gone the next ppv) so they were down at least 1 big man.

There was a definite lack of credible main event talent in 96, so it's not like having a good big man wouldn't have helped. Sid was brought back in halfway through the year and won the title later in the year so that alone should show you how desperate they were for a credible big man. (Why Vader was never allowed to be Vader I'll never know) Yoko only wrestled part of the year, Taker was busy with Foley, so really it was all average size or smaller guys filling up the card.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Not really wrong on the timeline, HOG ended his singles run pretty much with the Hog Pen match, only a couple of months after Mabel and Issac Yankem (Jacobs) had stopped their runs. Vader came in at Rumble 96 and only after then did Hall and Nash hand their notice and Kama left.

WWE had just tried the experiment with Mabel, taking a tag star and making him singles and it didn't work so it was easier and more effective to bring in Dennis Knight and use HOG with him as the team had promise - as was evidenced in their tag title runs.

Mark Canterbury got to the right level overall, he got tag title reigns and made a tone of money... Jacobs was a better all rounder and had more of an imposing physique for the main event. He was a more believable threat and was able to change his character without casual fans noticing. He went from Yankem to Fake Diesel to Kane in less than 2 years and only the burgeoning smarks would have twigged them as the same guy. Canterbury always came across as HOG, even when he went to WCW and started wearing suits. Vader needed no introductions so of course he was easier to push.

 

[HBsam31]

I remember Rad Radford just based on his epic encounter with HBK lol. As a 15 year old I remember being scared HBK was actually going to lose that match. Not sure what I was thinking there. I didn't mind 1995 either. I was still young, and I just enjoyed wrestling because it was wrestling. Hakushi is another I remember fondly, and he even had a tag match in ECW vs RVD and Sabu. The only problem I had with 95 was the fact that Diesel had the title most of the time. I didn't really get into him until he went to WCW and always thought he was a boring champion. I remember the tag division at that time was made up of a lot of midcard teams that didn't hang around very long. Good thread again Brain. I love thinking back to these times in wrestling.