Sunday, August 6, 2017

Shared Gimmicks

Sometimes in wrestling one person is given a persona or gimmick and for whatever reason they either can't or don't want to continue as the character so it is given to another wrestler.  Here is a few of those gimmicks.

Max Moon


Konnan as Max Moon
Konnan was the first wrestler to don the Max Moon costume however the character was initially called The Comet Kid for his first two in ring appearances on September 1st & 2nd 1992.  It was September 21, 1992 in Winnipeg, Manitoba that Max Moon made his first tv appearance defeating Jerry Fox at a WWE Superstars taping.  By that time though Paul Diamond was wearing the Max Moon outfit.

Paul Diamond as Max Moon
The character Max Moon only last for a few months and disappeared when Paul Diamond was released from the company in February 1993.  Moon appeared on the debut episode of Monday Night Raw losing to Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels.  His only PPV appearance was in the 1993 Royal Rumble Match.

Leatherface

The character was created by the former Corporal Kirchner in the W*ING promotion based on the lead character from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies.  He debuted in December 1992 and for the next several months competed in  many death matches mostly in tag team matches with Freddie Krueger, Jason the Terrible, and others.  In mid 1993 Kirchner was arrested and served time in jail for assaulting a fan.

Kirchner as Leatherface
While he was in jail Rick Patterson was given the Leatherface gimmick and continued Kirchner's ongoing storylines.  By December 1994 when Kirchner returned to wrestling, Patterson had jumped to the IWA taking the character with him.  Kirchner joined him there and the two wrestled three matches together both as Leatherface.  On December 13, 1994 The Leatherfaces lost to Hiroshi Ono & Shoji Nakamaki in a Double Hell Death Match.

After the match Kirchner broke off a piece of a bed of nails board placed it on Ono's throat leg dropping he and Patterson then double powerbombed Ono onto a bed of nails.  They then placed a barbed wire board ontop of Ono and then began jumping on the board onto him while he was lying on a bed of nails!  I remember watching this match years ago, it was and is insane!

Patterson as Leatherface
Rumor is, is that it was a shoot and the Leatherfaces weren't supposed to do what they did.  Other's say it was part of the match.  I can't imagine Ono going along with all of what happened.  After this incident Kirchner left the IWA while Patterson continued to wrestle as Leatherface there until January 1998 he then toured Canada and Mexico limiting the number of matches he wrestled until his Last Match August 8, 2013 against Akira in Kumamoto, Japan.

Kirchner turned up in FMW after leaving IWA wrestling as Super Leather until he left FMN in September of 1999.  Over the next decade he wrestled a dozen matches as Leatherface or Super Leather with his last match being December 12, 2009 defeated Joey Vengeance in Erie, Pennsylvania.

The Demon 

On the August 23, 1999 episode of Monday Nitro from Las Vegas the band KISS played their song God of Thunder and near the end Brian Adams, the former Crush, appeared from a raised sarcophagus wearing face paint the same as Gene Simmon's also using the same moniker of The Demon.  This segment was cut out of the episode on the WWE Network.

Brian Adams as The Demon
On the August 30th episode of Nitro Adams as the The Demon made an appearance confronting Vampiro saying "Hey Vamipro, not here, not now, (long pause) not this time," he then yelled and opened his cape as lasers and fire effects lit up behind him.  Yep, that's all he did.  This is also Adam's last appearance as The Demon.

Dale Torborg as The Demon
The gimmick was passed to Dale Torborg and his first appearance was at a WCW Saturday Night taping January 19, 2000 in Cape Girardeau, MO.  Torborg wrestled as the Demon regularly, mostly on the losing end until September.  He had two matches in February and March 2001 at house shows before WCW folded.

Sin Cara

During a press conference in Mexico City on February 24, 2011 the WWE announced signing CMLL superstar Luis Urive (Mistico) to a contract, a major coup for the WWE.  The very popular and innovated high flyer has been with CMLL since 2004 and singing with the WWE was a surprise for many.  He announced that his new name would be Sin Cara.

Urive as Sin Cara
He debuted March 25, 2011 at a house show in Champaign, Illinois defeating Primo Colon.  His television debut took place April 4th in Atlanta when he ran in saving Daniel Bryan from an post match attack by Sheamus,  On July 18th, the day after competing in the Money in the Bank Ladder match at the pay-per-view Urive was suspended for 30 days for failing the wellness policy.

Urive on the left and Arias on the right
However Sin Cara returned to television on August 12th, however Urive was not in the costume.  Jorge Arias (Hunico) was wearing the mask.  Eventually Urive returned to television and feuded with Arias as Sin Cara Azule vs. Sin Cara Negro.  The had a mask vs mask match at the October 16, 2011 Smackdown television taping in Mexico City that saw Urive's Azule defeated and unmasked Arias Negro.
Arias as Sin Cara
Urive continued as Sin Cara until late 2013 wrestling his last match as the character on October 19, 2013, he was released from the WWE March 26, 2014.  Arias returned as Sin Cara on December 2, 2013 and continues to wrestle as the character to this day.

There are a others that have done the same like Doink the Clown and The Black Scorpion, and other gimmicks that have been used over the years by different wrestlers at different times like Yellow Dog and the Conquistadors.  Perhaps someday I'll explore those other gimmicks on another post.

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2 comments:

  1. Wow that Max Moon costume is HORRIBLE! I don’t think I’ve actually seen a picture of it until now.

    Ya know, in the 80’s, I think the Kiss Demon could have gotten over. It was just so out of place in WCW in the late 90’s that was filled with No Limit Soliders and ICP.

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  2. Yeah the Max Moon outfit was pretty brutal. I was never a fan of the No Limits Soldiers.

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