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On their last legs ...


IANdrewDiceClay

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This is a thread dedicated to people who you knew were on the way out. Either a gimmick change or just straight out the door. Loads of occasions over the years, without the aid of the internet or magazines, you could just tell they were getting the boot or leaving. Here's a few I noticed.

 

Demolition Ax:

Ax.jpg

Perhaps the most famous one, is Demolition Ax. Just look at him. He usually had the finest of slicked back hair, but on his go home PPV, he turned up looking like Granville off Open All Hours. Not long after this, he sued the WWF and sold his replica WWF Tag Title belt. So maybe he needed the money and couldn't afford the gel, but the most famous story is that it was his last night, so he subliminally wanted people to know he had past caring. The poster boy for this thread in that sense.

 

Demolition Smash:

smash-1.jpg

I remember my brother buying me US Rampage 91 on video when I was 7. You could see even back then that the Demolition gimmick wasn't long for this world. He stopped painting the white bits around his chin and cheeks for a start. Second off, he's well out of shape. Just look at those titties for one thing. This picture above is taken as he is being introduced. So no mask, forearm guards or studded chaps and jacket either. He just couldn't be arsed. You can excuse the lack of paint and leaving the accessories at home, but not taping his wrists was just laziness.

 

Giant Gonzalez:

DiceGonsalez.jpg

Once the feud with Undertaker was over, there wasn't really much else on the cards for Gonzalez. The last time I saw him, it completely broke what little illusion there was left of him. Seeing him dressed as Deuce N Domino just looked bad. Even as a young child you could see they weren't in the booking meeting until 3 in the morning throwing Giant Gonzalez ideas around. I dont even know if he got the proposed feud with Adam Bomb going before he left.

 

Raven:

Raven.jpg

Wasn't so much his fault, because I suppose he'd tried to freshen his look up, but you just thought he was fucked when he was wearing tights and had short hair. He looked like a shit version of everyone else. He was gone soon after, and began wearing the skirt again.

 

Jake Roberts:

Jake-1.jpg

This is his second run. I remember thinking at the time it had to be the last time we saw him. They let him stop wearing his snake skin jacket. He looked like he did on Beyond the Mat at the 1997 Royal Rumble. He looked like a bloke in there to make up the numbers before they told him where to go. He looked like he smelled as well.

 

Akeem:

akeem.jpg

Akeem started growing his hair like Giant Haystacks. That was enough to set the alarms bells off. He was gone right after his series of matches with the Boss Man. The little things are startling. A few more inches on Akeem's hair and suddenly you think he's out the door. And he was.

 

Dynamite Kid:

Dynamite-1.jpg

The Bulldogs were leaving, and were finishing up their dates, but what nobody expected was Dynamite to have a tashe for the night. He didn't have it at SummerSlam. Just another odd little occurrence. I'd put this up there with the Demolition Ax one. It was like "why's he got a tashe?" He looked like he owned a market stall when he had the tashe.

 

Hacksaw Duggan:

Hacksaw.jpg

I remember this well. Hacksaw in a singlet was a shock to the system. King of the Ring 93. He'd worn it before (even had a Hasbro out in the blue vest), but getting a good kicking off Bam Bam Bigelow was a sad thing to see. Hacksaw always needed everything from a tights pull to Oswald shooting him from the book depository to lose a match. Bam Bam just fucked him and advanced to the next round. See you later Hacksaw. Cameos in Thunder in Paradise it is then.

 

Big Boss Man:

bigbossman.jpg

Ignore the bad quality blurred picture and note the right hand. Boss Man wore a fucking bandage on his hand. Completely upsetting the balance of his outfit and the consistency of how his merchandise looked. Didn't help that he became another victim of Bam Bam Bigelow's dream crushing tour and got jobbed the fuck out. I've said this a load of times on here, but they might as well have put "Boss Man's a Cunt" under his name, because he was treated like a bitch in this match. I hate watching it as weird as that sounds. Even though wrestling is fake and Boss Man was happy to put Bigelow over and leave for more money, its still horrible to watch as a fan.

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I thought of Demolition at Wreslemania as i opened this thread with them being jobbed out in double quick time and having the decapitation elbow no-sold for extra insult. Even as a kayfabed kid you knew something wasnt quite right.

 

Vader and Yoko are another two. From main event monsters to the indignity of the horrid Pettengill / Doc Hendrix "free for all" pre In Your House shows in the space of a couple of years.Plus they had both ballooned in weight you sensed they were heading for the exit door.

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bambam_display_image.jpg

 

Bam Bam in 1995. They turned him babyface, changed his music, gave him a flouncy jacket and pyro and he started cartwheeling about on his entrance. He just didn't seem as scary anymore to me as the guy who I'd seen terrorise Tatanka and Doink, and the aforementioned beatdowns of Bossman and Hacksaw. But he was still knocking about at the top end of the cards through the first half of the year and tagging with Diesel. By the end of the summer though, you'd hardly see him. Then he popped up at Survivor Series and Goldust beat him pretty easily. Even back then I couldn't see him bouncing back.

 

19960428_vader.jpg

 

In a similar vein to the Bigelow vs Bossman/Duggan examples, Razor getting treated like Barry Horowitz by Vader at IYH 7 was a bit of a surprise to me at the time. Vader was in his big push still so him winning didn't shock me but I still thought Razor would go on to hold the big belt someday. Little did I know he was off to WCW soon. I wondered at the time why he wasn't on Wrestlemania, and then Vader slapping him around and beating him without much hassle seemed to signify the end for the Bad Guy to me.

 

Feb26Pic2.jpg

 

Bart Gunn getting wasted by Butterbean. He looked like a killer coming off Brawl for All. KOing guys like Dr Death and Bradshaw who'd been built up as proper hard cases for ages. Then he had that angle on Raw with heel JR going mental at him and Dr Death suplexing the shit out of him which looked like it could lead to something. Seem to remember a good hardcore match with Bob Holly around this time aswell. But then a 400lb slab of fat/novelty act boxer sparked him on the biggest show of the year. He wasn't coming back from that. Has Bart ever appeared on WWE TV since this?

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I'm intrigued about the Giant Gonzalez picture there. What was happening when that image was taken? Thanks!

 

Smash picture was taken before his match with Ricky Steamboat on US Rampage 1991, wasn't it? Excellent bout.

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Fucking brilliant idea for a thread, unfortunately I have absolutely nothing to contribute as Ian basically just climbed into my brain and articulated all my identical thoughts in one post with superb pictures. Ax with no gel and the Bossman's taped wrist particularly stuck with me.

 

Razor's mismatched (a bit) boots and tights combo in the Vader match was a dead giveaway too.

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great stuff again Ian, keep em coming...

 

i love the Ax one, as a kid i could never quite figure out why they brought in Crush and pushed Ax off to the side. I loved Crush but it always confused me.

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