What Happened To Mordecai?

[Low_Ki]

Remember him?

I wrote an article a couple of weeks back regarding Dustin Rhodes and breifly mentioned this guy.

Some of you will remember him as Kevin Thorne of WWECW fame. Before that however, in 2004, a group of vignettes aired and everyone who watched them instantly thought that this was another guy to feed to the Undertaker.

By all means, search Mordecai, the guy had a preety believable gimmick. I liked it. t may have been similar to the Undertaker but his gimmick was to rid the world of sin. He reminded me of the guy from the Da Vinci Code movie. Very eery stuff. On May 16, 2004 he debuted at Judgement Day and squashed Scotty 2 Hotty.

Alas, in July, only a month and a half after debuting, the gimmick was dropped and he was taken off TV entirely.

For those of you that remember, what could have become of Mordecai?

Could he have got over with the fans?

Was he too similar to the Undertaker or was that supposed to be the point?

Your thoughts and opinions please?

 

[HBsam31]

What could have become of Mordecai?

I thought he could have easily been built up to the point where he could have faced The Undertaker. His character was a bit outlandish, but I always thought that was to be the point. With the gimmick he had I thought he was tailor made to face of eventually against Taker. Beyond that I am not to sure, but they could have gotten some mileage out of that IMO.

Could he have got over with the fans?

That might have been the problem. I am not sure if the fans would have accepted a character so simliar to Taker. I never minded Thorn, and I thought he had some potential. Ultimately though I am not so sure he would have gotten over.

Was he too similar to the Undertaker or was that supposed to be the point?

From the time he debuted I thought the point of his character was to be similar to the Undertaker. Kind of what HBK did leading to his first Mania match with Taker only with Mordecai playing the heel. I never understood why they pulled the plug on the character so fast because like I said it seemed like they had a natural feud in the making between him and Taker. I think the character had potential, but I question the staying power of the character past a feud with Taker.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

There's your answer to why the character was dropped.

Stupid move, right there.

I don't know, I always thought the guy stood out in a good way. He was different and I liked that.

For a long time, though, I thought he's Bobby Roode's long lost brother or something.

 

[BigLuther]

I always really liked his work in WWECW as Kevin Thorn. I thought him and Ariel were an interesting and different pair that I was hoping to see get brought up to one of the real shows at some point. But if I remember right, they didn't like his look. Which made NO sense to me since the look was one of the coolest parts of his character. I think he had a tryout with TNA recently, but I don't believe that anything ever came of it.

 

[DX Mols]

I remember Mordecai was only around for a minute or two and then he came back as Kevin Thorn with smoking hot Shelly Martinez by his side in the ECW revival.

I always figured the Kevin Thorn character had a chance, but alas he too faltered after that whole ECW Originals vs the New Breed or whatever they were called with D'Angelo Dinero and whoever else. I've already forgotten that stable.

But the nice thing if you Google "Shelly Martinez Nude" there are plenty of good pics out there to see of the former Ariel in less then clothes.

 

[akathelaw]

I met Kevin Thorn at an indy show once. No joke, he absolutely smelt of BO.

Haha, I'm not surprised.

"Mordecai" was a flawed character. Forst off, he looked dumb with the white hair. Maybe a thinner guy like Stevie Richards would have looked bad ass with white wizard hair, but Mordecai looked a little silly, like a kid you'd see hanging out in front of Hot Topic. The name Mordecai doesn't roll off the tongue either. I don't think it was intended long term, unless it took off like crazy on its own.

The Kevin Thorn gimmick was stronger, because it didn't depend on Undertaker's aura to give it fuel. He had cool mystique, and to think it may have been the first vampire the Twilight lovers were introduced to. I would like to see him return to WWE, playing the authenticity as a vampire as a mystery. Is he or isn't he really a vampire? That would be cool, and could lead to some cool feuds. Santino could play "vampire hunter" for a few weeks and then get DEMOLISHED in a match against Thorne, boom instant midcard threat.

 

[xavyer]

I don't remember him much in the ring, i remember some of his promos, and i also remember that during an interview he and Hardcore Holly were " fighting " in the locker room area, that is how i remember him mostly.....

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Still undecided if Mordecai worked or not. Looking at all the bland guys who get called up to the roster these days I think WWE could do with a gimmick like that.

The most effective way of making Mordecia a star would've been for him to take out somebody/anybody and have them bleed all over his attire. Would've been visually arresting and made Mordecai look like a total bad-ass in one fell swoop.

 

[RicSpade]

The character had a good base idea, but some of the things that put it all together made the character flawed. For example his character was a good idea I like the white knight priest idea, however look at the entrance his staff in the stone thing was severely flawed, and made the gimmick corny, imagine if he the entrance like HBK used against Undertaker would've worked better, or even just the mist...

The mannerisms of the cynical priest didn't really work either because he comes out in smoke and fire, prays to their god but then has this evil intention look on his face so it contradicted the gimmick.

The look was off the all white hair to the white knight is what really made the gimmick go down too because again it brought cheese to the gimmick but the main problem is once a gimmick loses it fails....

 

[DethMetal]

I always though that Mordecai could've worked out swimmingly. I personally liked the character, and the timing of it was good, seeing as how it was right when the Undertaker returned with his deadman gimmick. I do believe that the bigger picture was that he was supposed to be the anti-Undertaker. However, I guess some things just don't work out. I also thought that the Kevin Thorn gimmick with Shelly Martinez as Ariel was pretty good. I'm not sure why the man who portrayed both of those gimmicks had such sour luck. I always thought that he could've been a world champion, easily.

However, as to if he could get over or not, I still kind of doubt that. The Undertaker got over, but he came out in an age where gimmicks were all the rage. When Mordecai debuted, not so much.

 

[Radical]

Both Mordecai and his previous gimmick Kevin Thorn with Ariel were GREAT gimmicks.

The Kevin Thorn got a bit of mileage because he got grouped with The New Breed but after that angle ended they gave him no place to go. Shame.

The guy is big enough and skilled enough to put on a good match.

The Mordecai gimmick had a lot of ways it could go and yet WWE stopped it short once again.

This just reminds me also of the Deuce & Domino (with Cherry) gimmick for a tag team I thought was awesome. They got the tag team titles at least but were let go and gave up on far too early.

 

[Loveless]

Still undecided if Mordecai worked or not.

It was 8 years ago, he was barely around for more than a month and we still get topics and people remembering him. It had plenty of potential to be interesting and it caught the imagination of the people watching.
I really liked Kevin Thorn, the guy actually had a character (something that is sorely lacking in todays WWE) and he was vicious and believable in-ring (something else that's lacking).

 

[Saeros]

The Mordecai gimmick was halted because apparently (from what i remember reading at the time) The crowd wasnt "connecting" with his gimmick...

That always puzzled me tbh. I mean he was there for 4-6 weeks after 6-8 weeks of build up through promos. It needed a much bigger chance than that. He was in about 3 matches against Scotty 2 hottie, Hardcore Holly and Rey Mysterio.

Sticking him against 2 people no one gave 2 craps about really didnt help. The Scottie match was fine, that was an introduction to what he could do and then on the next smackdown, completely destroying Akio and Kidman (videos still on youtube)
But then throwing him into a feud with Hardcore Holly...with the only build up being one backstage segment with them fighting then having a rather bad match on the next ppv did no one any favours.

Booking at the time was a total joke. They just had no idea how to use the character to its potential. Yes at the time Kevin Fertig was still green when he was brought up, but so were 80% of the people brought up around that time. Cena, Danny Basham, Tomko, Mark Jindrak, Garrison Cade, Maven, Sylvan Granier, Snitsky and all of those lasted longer than Mordecai, so i refuse to believe it was anything to do with his ring work.

He had a really great look, was well built, awesome sense of character, but just not given a chance. Really poor booking. Could of been so much better.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

It was 8 years ago, he was barely around for more than a month and we still get topics and people remembering him. It had plenty of potential to be interesting and it caught the imagination of the people watching.

People in attendance were still apathetic towards him. So yeah, just because us internet geeks remember him it doesn't mean he cxaught the imagination of of the people watching. The IWC have a habit of remembering wrestlers and gimmicks that lasted around two months.