10 Forgotten WWE gimmicks from the 90s

For every Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin, there are countless professional wrestlers who never manage to make it to the big leagues like the WWE. Some are lucky enough to get brief runs in the major leagues.

In the early and mid-90s, we saw a number of strange gimmicks in WWE which never got over, leading the men behind the gimmicks to only have short runs in the company. We take a look at some of these forgotten gimmicks from the 90s, including one Superstar who main-evented the first-ever episode of WWE RAW in a match against The Undertaker.

#10 Bastion Booger

We start off our list with Bastion Booger. Booger was portrayed by journeyman wrestler Mike Shaw who had already had a couple of unsuccessful gimmicks before he debuted as Bastion Booger.

Before this, Shaw briefly wrestled as the “mad monk” Friar Ferguson but that gimmick had to be nixed because of the Catholic Church of New York.

WWE repackaged Mike Shaw as Bastion Booger as this gimmick was destined to fail from the moment it debuted. Booger’s whole character was that he was a glutton and he just couldn’t control his appetite.

There have been stories that Shaw was given the Bastion Booger gimmick as a punishment because he couldn’t control his weight. He was a jobber for most of his brief WWE run and his biggest win was over Owen Hart on All American Wrestling.

#9 Duke “The Dumpster” Droese

One of the things I remember from the New Generation Era of WWE is that a lot of the undercard wrestlers were based on jobs. Amongst these was Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, your friendly neighborhood trash collector.

Droese was actually decent in the ring, especially for the the time, but the gimmick just didn’t connect with fans. He wrestled in the Fed between 1994 and 1996, after making his debut on an episode of WWE RAW in May ‘94 against Barry Horowitz.

Speaking about the origins of his gimmick in an interview with WrestleZone, Droese said the following:

Vince McMahon was still holding on to a lot of the same ideals in the 1980s and into the 1990s, trying to do the same things. Whether it worked or not, I knew that’s what he was looking for, and I knew he was always looking for someone to get over with the people, especially the working-class man. A ‘blue-collar’ gimmick was perfect and that’s why I came up with it in Florida when I was working the independent scene. I wrestled as ‘The Garbage Man’ Rocco Gibraltar.

#8 Leif Cassidy

Replacing one member of a popular tag-team almost never works out and it was the same story with The New Rockers. After WWE legend Shawn Michaels started his singles run, Marty Jannetty went on to form The New Rockers in February 1996 along with a young Al Snow who was wrestling at the time as Leif Cassidy.

The duo never got a proper push during their short run in the WWE and the team dissolved in December when Marty Jannetty left. Cassidy continued to wrestle as a singles star after Jannetty left WWE. His last appearance came at One Night Only 1997 in a loss against Tiger Ali Singh.

#7 Phantasio

Magician gimmicks have never found much success in pro wrestling and it was the same story for Phantasio. Phantasio made his debut in a 1995 episode of Wrestling Challenge where he magically pulled out his opponents boxers before rolling him up for the win. He then “magically” removed referee Earl Hebner’s boxers.

Needless to say, the gimmick was not well received and this ended up being his only televised appearance. Phantasio also wrestled in a house show shortly after this, beating Rad Raford.

Interesting fact: Harry Del Rios, the man who wrestled as Phantasio, also wrestled on the first ever broadcast of NWA TNA in 2002.

#6 Who

The late Jim Neidhart is a pro wrestling legend. A 2-time tag-team champion alongside Bret Hart and WWE Hall of Famer, Neidhart carved out his own legacy in pro wrestling. However, one part of his career that is often forgotten, is his brief run as Who in 1996.

He made his debut as Who on an episode of Superstars in 1996, with the gimmick seemingly only be there so Jerry Lawler could cackle and crack Who jokes (Who won the match?) on commentary. To pretty much no ones surprise, the gimmick did not get any traction, and Who made his last televised appearance two months later.

#5 Tekno Team 2000

We move on to our only tag-team on this list - Tekno Team 2000, who were deemed the tag-team of the future when they made their WWE debut in 1994. Their match gear was silver, clearly what people would be wearing in the distant year that was the new millennium.

Troy and Travis’ WWE run didn’t last long. Neither men were especially gifted in the ring and the gimmick was dead on arrival. Their push fizzled soon after their debut and they were gone by July 1995. They briefly returned in 1996 and this run, if possible, was even less successful.

#4 TL Hopper

Back in the New Generation Era, when gimmicks based on jobs were all the rage in the WWE, we saw the debut of the wrestling plumber TL Hopper.

Making his Fed debut in 1996, Hopper run only lasted a few months. Hopper came down to the ring with a plunger and celebrated his victories by sticking it in his opponent's face. Hopper’s most memorable match during his run in WWE saw him beat Duke “The Dumpster” Droese in a Home Improvement match.

#3 The Goon

In 1996, Bill Irwin made his WWE debut as The Goon, a former ice hockey played who had been “banned from the NHL and all the leagues in between". We got vignettes of the man beating up his coach as well as his opponents to hype his debut.

Making his debut on an episode of Superstars, his WWE run only lasted a few months. He lost the majority of his televised matches which included getting squashed by The Undertaker in 55 seconds.

Irwin was released by WWE in 1997 although he did return for a couple of one-off appearances in 2001 and 2007.

#2 Mantaur

Another gimmick that was destined to fail was Mantaur. Half-man half-bull, Mantaur came down to the ring with a headpiece that made him look like the mythical minotaur. His skills inside the ring weren’t really up to the mark though, and coupled with the outlandish gimmick, Mantaur didn’t last very long.

WWE tried to push him by pairing him up with legendary manager Jim Cornette at this point but that didn’t help either. Mantaur’s last WWE appearance came as a lumberjack at In Your House 2 in 1995.

#1 Damien Demento

We finish off our list with one of the men who main-evented the first ever episode of Monday Night RAW - Damien Demento. Demento faced The Undertaker to close enough the first episode of RAW. Unlike the legendary "Deadman", Demento's short WWE career has largely been forgotten.

Debuting in 1992, Demento's only PPV appearance in WWE came days after his match against The Undertaker at the 1993 Royal Rumble match. He wrestled in the Fed until October 1993 before being released.

Edited by Akhilesh Tirumala