Posted on by bdamage1
Lowlife Louie Ramos and Brian Damage
This week’s top five is the opposite of the best top five face painted wrestlers ever. Next installment, we will look at the worst. This doesn’t necessarily mean the wrestler was bad…but the gimmick that they were in with face paint was.
Louie
5) Demolition Crush…While Demolition barely missed making the good top 5…I cant spare Crush here. While he was able to overcome this gimmick and go on to greater successes down the road. This gimmick did him no favors. Thrust into the Demolition fold while Ax recovered from injury, Crush was used a replacement then a good old fashioned 3rd wheel. This was a jump the shark type moment as the gimmick was running its course and had become a bit stale after being dominated by the Road Warriors. Crush never seemed to fit in.
4) Kiss Demon..What a terrible lack of originality, plus lazy booking. The Kiss Demon was a lame gimmick directly tied in to the ultra successful rock band. A gimmick that would only appeal to fans of the band and carried out by an (at the time) very inexperienced wrestler (Dale Torborg) . This gimmick would fizzle out almost immediately after the storyline it was specifically created for was over .
3) The Zodiac. Before I even start I will mention I was a huge fan of Brutus Beefcake in the late 80s early 90s and feel he deserved a run as intercontinental champion. That being said, Ed Leslie ,in the late 90s was just a caricature of different stupidities that the WCW office saddled him with. This Zodiac gimmick was by far the worst of his career ( and remember this man was the booty man ,Dizzy Hogan and was kidnapped by the Ultimate Warrior) and the way his painted , he might have well been named the super Zebra man or wrong color tiger guy..
2) The Renegade . Where do we start here. Blatant rip off, impostor being signed off as the real deal until he hits the ring. Not the best wrestler on the planet pushed over established stars to continue a failing story line. That was the sad story of the Renegade. And I do hate to speak I’ll of someone that is no longer with us. But facts are facts.
1) Heidenreich ..The Road Warriors are as iconic as can be. Arguably ( not to me, no argument to me ) the greatest tag team ever. Hawk and Animal secured their rightful place in history. And although both members would press their luck trying other incarnations with other partners, it never ever worked.This attempt to recreate their legacy was by far the worst. Heidenreich, while a great specimen and athlete (winning a super bowl with the Redskins) was not cut out for this character. He was never great in the ring, and his face paint looked more like a terminator and not a Road Warrior.
Brian
5. Mojo Rawley – Yes…Mojo Rawley once wore face paint for a very brief period of time. What was he supposed to be or become…well…we never quite got an answer. Then again, maybe we did and I wasn’t paying close attention. Either way, the face paint gimmick didn’t work out at all and was ultimately dropped.
4. Abe ‘Knuckleball’ Schwartz – One of the many gimmicks Steve Lombardi portrayed during his WWF tenure. This particular character was based on the baseball strike that was going on at the time. His face was painted like a baseball. It was plain and simple…awful.
3. The MVP Dale Torborg – As bad as the Kiss Demon was for WCW, Dale Torborg was put in an equally bad face painted gimmick. This was of a baseball type player gone rogue…I have no idea really. It was as bad as it looked.
2. Stardust – This gimmick was nothing but a bad ripoff of his brother Dustin’s ‘Goldust’ character. The thing was this was WWE’s idea not some rival promotion trying to capitalize of the Goldust gimmick. As much as Cody Rhodes tried to make Stardust into a winning gimmick…it simply did not work for various reasons and honestly, was a waste of Cody’s talent.
1. Sting Wolfpac– As good as Sting was throughout the years in his various face painted personas. In my opinion, his worst was that of the black and red paint of the nWo Wolfpac. To me, it never fit who Sting was and had become in WCW. He was a loner, a rogue character who was all of a sudden throwing up the too sweet hand gestures and working in a faction albeit a babyface one.