One Man Gang or Akeem?

[The Brain]

In the spring of 1987 The One Man Gang debuted in the WWF after a successful run in the UWF. At 6’9 and 460 pounds with his tattooed head and mohawk the Gang looked like he would be a major force in the WWF and a threat to Hulk Hogan. OMG (I remember the first time I saw that abbreviation in a text I thought what does One Man Gang have to do with this conversation) only lasted for a little more than a year before he transformed into Akeem the African Dream in a bizzare segment where OMG claimed to have found his African roots.

All of a sudden the intimidating One Man Gang was a giant dancing Easter egg. Why? What was wrong with the One Man Gang character? I never understood the point of this change. It wasn’t until after OMG became Akeem that he started to feud with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. I didn’t see Akeem as the same threat. The ring style didn’t change with the character but I think One Man Gang would have made a much better opponent for those to than Akeem. I also think the OMG character would have been a better tag team partner for the Big Boss Man in the Twin Towers. Boss Man was a big mean serious guy. Akeem was a dancing fool. I felt Boss Man was clearly the leader of the team and if Akeem had still been OMG they would have been equals. Also OMG would have fit better with the Boss Man gimmick. A mean and corrupt prison guard forming an alliance with a street thug sounds better than forming an alliance with a fat white guy finding his African roots.

My first idea for this thread was to simply ask who you liked better, One Man Gang or Akeem. Then I thought everyone would just answer OMG. Maybe I’m wrong though so I’ll include that with a few other questions. Which character did you prefer? Why do you think OMG was transformed into Akeem? Did you feel Akeem was the weak link in the Twin Towers and would OMG have made the team better? Would Akeem have had a better and longer WWF career had he remained One Man Gang?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Eh, I wasn't particularly wild about either one of them. However, it was the 1980s and I thought the somewhat over the top character of Akeem stood out more.

OMG discovering his African roots and adopting a persona that was something of a black stereotype was goofy but it made more of an impression on me as a kid. I'd seen tons of big 400+ pound bruisers in wrestling both when I was a kid and as I've grown up. Akeem is a character that's very much in synch with what Brodus Clay is currently doing. Sometimes, it's refreshing to see a big guy like that cast in a role that's not quite so one dimensional.

I'd say the One Man Gang persona would probably be liked the most by a majority. I can't really argue with that but, as I said, the Akeem character was something different. Not necessarily great different, but, sometimes, different is better than the same old same old when it's something that's been done to death.

 

[GameOver]

Neither, they both sucked, he was a lousy worker with Zero draw power (atleast in his WWF form) but if i had to chose he got more exposure as Akeem being regularly in the Main Event for the first year of the change until WrestleMania 5 then they went cold on him again and he eventually faded into obscurity. However OMG did battle Savage and Hogan b4 he went Akeem, He battled Savage at WresleMania 4 in the tournament and he battled in Andre's Team at the Survivor Series the previous year against .... Hulk Hogan. so he was already in that upper midcard section but never would've amounted to anything either way he was just like Bundy, Studd and all the other Giants (except Andre) they were just there to make the smaller guys and Hogan look awesome/super human.

Just another fish in a pond made up of only a handfull of sharks and alot of guppies

 

[HBsam31]

I gotta be honest Brain, Akeem was the man lol. This big 400 plus white man coming to the ring in a dashiki and the big tall hat moving his arms all around like he did was just entertainment gold for me as an 11 or 12 year old. I just recently watched the segment when he found his African roots, and man that stuff would get them in some hot water these days. They were behind some building with a barrel fire and a bunch of guys dressed as savages as he did the transformation. His mannerism in the ring were ridiculous, but it all just worked for me at that age. OMG was probably better in every way, and yes he would have fit well with the Bossman, but Akeem is one character that I am glad I got to see just because it was so damn bizarre.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Akeem fit in far better with the WWF of the time, but I remember not being a fan of the change just because I still remembered the bad ass brawler that had been the UWF champ just a little while earlier.

Besides the more comical Akeem fitting into the WWF scene better, I'm pretty sure the change had to do with McMahon wanting to push George Gray as a character of his own creation, instead of the one that had been working the territories for years before. Can't really blame him, as that's what he did with virtually everyone else he signed back then, and it was definitely a memorable creation. Most people remember Akeem, but I don't know how many would have remembered the One Man Gang.

 

[lowandmighty]

I liked OMG, I don't know why they turned him into the African dream or whatever but I have an opinion.

They way I see it is that the Big Boss Mans whole gimmick was a little bit tongue in cheek at times anyway and the wwf wanted Akeem to be less serious and also wear similar colors to the Boss Man.

Akeem was definitely the weak link in the twin towers as he was less over at the time than Big Boss Man.

Despite liking the OMG character more (I mean how cool is one guy who's big enough to be his own gang) I think being Akeem was actually the highlight of his career somehow.

He had a title match as OMG against Hulk Hogan and quite frankly it sucked and it wasn't Hogans fault. OMG seemed to be slow and unresponsive and didn't have much character apart from his gimmick. So I think another reason they made him Akeem was to get him to be more animated.

People obviously liked him though and like me everyone wanted him to be less of a jobber and thought his look and size was wasted.

There was a squash match he had in wcw where he wrestled Hulk Hogan when Hogan had lost the title but was still a good guy apart from a rift gradually forming with sting.
The crowd no less than booed when Hogan came to the ring and then jeered when he won the match.

One Man Gang had one of the most dud careers of all when he could have been great and cool.

 

[Headman]

I'm a huge Akeem mark. The Twin Towers were an awesome tag team. Even his action figures were awesome. Even as a kid I found his transformation from a burly biker type to the African dream hilarious.

 

[thebarber]

One Man Gang hands down was a much better gimmick. Vince changed him to Akeem solely to revamp his character. OMG was much more over in other companiesd and wasnt a Vinnnie Mac creation. Akeem was, and flopped. Sure he had a good run, but name one significant victory he had????

 

[Mustang Sally]

Has to be One Man Gang. Like the OP, I never understood the reason for the change. After all, why was OMG brought into WWE in the first place if they didn't like the character he was portraying?

Sure, he was going to be fat and immobile no matter what he did, but as OMG, he had that tough, menacing biker look; the kind of guy who would surprise you and rough you up, after you thought he couldn't move fast enough to do damage. All the paraphernalia he wore served to distract you from his obesity.

As Akeem, that ridiculous body suit only accented his fatness. He no longer seemed as badass, and when he started dancing......fuggedaboutit.

I wondered why he would submit to changing his character from tough to absurd. I can only imagine how they sold him on the idea in Creative meetings. But, in those days, if you wanted to keep working for WWE, you did what Vince McMahon told you to do.

Ugh.

 

[LODemolition]

One Man Gang had a pretty cool look, I thought. The mohawk, biker vest, tattoos, sunglasses, etc.

The Akeem gimmick was something you couldn't take seriously whatsoever. Ridiculous attire and dance moves. Who looked at this guy and believed he was African?

It's OMG by a mile. Never understood why they repackaged him.

 

[Monroe]

To be honest, I enjoyed both of them, maybe Akeem more because of Slick. =P

But either way I always enjoyed the One Man Gang. So I guess.. in the end.. I gotta go with the Gang.

 

[8thwotwATG]

Well Brain, for sure my personal preference was Mr. Grey as One Man Gang. I, like yourself never really got behind the repackage as Akeem, but that being said, perhaps he wouldn't have earned as good of a living in a WWF ring had he stayed OMG..who knows? The WWF/E was LOADED with cartoon type characters at that time, and I'm sure that Mr. Grey was earning a substantial amount of money at that time using the Akeem gimmick. All i can tell you is that I was certainley not a big fan of it...just my 2 cents.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

This was a classic case of Vinny Mac not using a character that was over elsewhere as they had been but for his own ends- OMG was the champ in the UWF ahead of guys like DiBiase, Duggan, Sting, Williams but he ended up the "red headed stepchild" of those who moved to the WWF.

I think a lot of OMG's percieved failure had to do with how Hogan had been booked, once he had beaten the Giant, there was no real danger to him from a guy like Gang, however dangerous he was Hogan had reached that point where no one would have bought him losing. So OMG was brought in and fed to Hogan quickly, as part of that first Survivor Series and they then had another big man who they had to find something to do with. He was part of the World Title tourney but clearly there to put Savage over rather than be a major threat. Even now I am surprised he was booked into the semis over Bam Bam Bigelow, even as a face Bigelow would have been a far better opponent for Savage. But that whole tourney makes me angry so better move on...

Akeem was at the time ridiculous but looking back a pretty interesting case. He was pushed far more as part of the Towers and he and Bossman had excellent chemistry as a team and with Slick. That they never got the tag titles was an oversight as they did work well with those who did have them but again, they fell foul of prior booking in the end, they were Hulk and Randy's opponents AFTER the MegaBucks, if Andre and DiBiase couldn't make it work, with crooked Jesse as ref then how could the Towers?

Ultimately they were the ones in the ring when the Mega Powers imploded so they did their job but it was clear that Bossman was the one going places after a face turn and Akeem was going to be gone. Had they gone the other way with Bossman being heel, I think not only would BBM have been a World Champ, but Akeem could have gotten over a lot more almost in the way Foley did 7 years later, bringing back OMG on occasion.

Hogan clearly never forgot the work Grey did for him, he made sure he got a good run in WCW and even the US title just as he did for Haku, perhaps he felt a little bad for the guy that he had played such a big part in his success without getting anything back from Vince bar a Kaftan and chefs hat? Who knows but if I had to pick one I have better memories of Akeem than the OMG... if nothing else it was worth it for that bizarre "transformation" segment during which Slick had clearly been partaking in the peyote...

 

[The Boss]

If OMG had just started coming to the ring to Jive Soul Bro and had a little jive in his step while letting Slick do most of the dancing he could have gotten all of the effect of the Akeem character without looking ridiculous. Plus the Twin Towers would have made much more sense (the street thug teaming with the bad cop) as a team.

 

[MINISTRYrising]

I was always such a big fan of the One Man Gang, so when his character changed and he became Akeem the african dream i instantly hated the character. One Man Gang looked like a complete animal and could have easily held his own in the main event scene and had some great feuds with the likes of Hogan, savage and Warrior over the next couple of years, But insteed WWE decided to turn him into Akeem and the rest is History. So to answer your Question I would choose OMG over Akeem anyday.

 

[AnthonyM4]

Definitely liked One Man Gang better. OMG I think is an underrated gimmick. Akeem was just goofy. I think there are two reasons he was transformed to Akeem 1) WWE was a cartoonish product back then and Akeem was a cartoonish gimmick and 2) WWE can trademark Akeem. Man I never thought of One Man Gang and Big Bossman as the twin towers. That would have been great and funny. A cop and a gang member as a tag team As for your last question, it's hard to say. Depends what opportunities they would give for the OMG character to get over. Since that wasn't a wwe creation, maybe they would have jobbed him out.