Well That Didn’t Work: Billy Gunn’s ‘Rockabilly’ gimmick

Craig Wilson

Billy ‘Rockabilly’ Gunn with his reluctant manager The Honky Tonk Man (pic courtesy of shitloadsofwrestling.tumblr.com)

At the start of 1997 The Honky Tonk Man started a search for his protégé. The story goes that Glenn ‘Disco Inferno’ Gilbertti, who was at the time reluctant to resign with the WCW was going to be in the role. In the end, however, Gilbertti signed a new deal leaving the WWF little time to obtain a new protégé for Honky Tonk.

It was Billy Gunn who got the nod to fill the role. Gunn was at this point a midcarder devoid of any direction. Having been with the company since 1993, and achieving success as one half of ‘The Smokin’ Gunns’, an injury had put him off television for a while and the WWF appeared to having nothing for him and he was repackaged as Rockabilly.

Top 5… Face painted Superstars

Craig Wilson & Jamie Lithgow

The early 90s Sting (pic courtesy of http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com)

Every week we will attempt to provide a top five listing on various aspects from wrestling. Whether it’s top five Wrestlemania moments or the top five speakers in wrestling history we will chronicle them here. The first that will get our attention is the top five facepainted superstars.

The 90s were synonymous with the very best that professional wrestling had to offer. The Monday Night Wars exploded bringing a whole new audience to the sport. Something that was far more common during that time was facepainted superstars be it Sting in the NWA then WCW or The Ultimate Warrior, Demolition and The Legion of Doom in the WWF. Face painted superstars formed a prominent part in wrestling. In this first ‘Top Five’, Craig Wilson & Jamie Lithgow share their top five paint clad superstars.

Superstars of Yesteryear: Darren ‘Droz’ Drozdov

Craig Wilson

(pic courtesy of http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com)

In the third installment of ‘Superstars of Yesteryear’ post, we look at Darren Dozdov, better known to WWF fans by his ring names Puke or Droz.

After a short career in NFL, Darren Drozdov would become a professional wrestler. It was his antics in NFL that led to his signing. He gained notoriety for throwing up during a Monday Night Game of football which led to his nickname Puke. It was this off the wall behavious that led to his signing with the WWF and his hiring by Vince McMahon, where he woudl regurgetate into a bucket, was featured in the Beyond the Mat documentary. His brief wrestling career with the WWF ended cruelly after just one year after a botched powerbomb broke his neck, rendering him a quadriplegic.

The many faces of John Layfield

John Layfield has had a long and successful run with the WWE (pic courtesy of prowrestlingroundup.com)

Craig Wilson

John Layfield amassed a total of 24 title wins during his career with the company including WWE Champion, US Champion, European Champion, Intercontinental Champion, seventeen time Hardcore champion and three time tag champion with Farooq during his APA days. He is the twentieth Triple Crown Winner and twelfth Grand Slam champion. In this latest ‘Many Faces of’ post, we will look at his various gimmicks in the WWF/E since debuting in early 1996.

Raw Rewind: 26 May 1997

Craig Wilson

This #Rawrewind takes in the show from 26 May 1997 and is headlined by WWF Tag Team Champions The British Bulldog & Owen Hart facing the reluctant tag team of Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Elsewhere, Ahmed will put his King of the Ring spot on the line against Vader whilst Goldust and Jerry Lawler will lock up with the winner advancing to the next round of the KoTR tournament.

All the previous Raw Rewinds can be located here.

Champion Roll Call:

WWF Champion: The Undertaker
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Owen Hart
WWF Tag Team Champions: Owen Hart and the British Bulldog
WWF European Champion: The British Bulldog

Sunday Sermon: Who will be the next WWE Champion after John Cena

Craig Wilson & Jamie Lithgow

The Champ is here but who is the logical next man after Cena to hold the belt? (Pic courtesy of WWE.com)

It’s been over a month now since John Cena triumphed at Wrestlemania 29 to regain the WWE Championship. Since then he’s been feuding with Ryback, a feud that featured a hard hitting ‘Last Man Standing’ match at Extreme Rules. Whilst the jury is still very much out on whether or not Ryback is a genuine main eventer or not one thing is for sure, as far as Vince McMahon is concerned Cena is his kind of champion.

He fits the muscle bound mould that Vince likes while all the ‘Make a Wish’ stuff that Cena does is lapped up by the WWE, and subsequently rammed down our throats in PR gone wild. However, there’s little doubt there’s a void at the top of the card and with no other obvious contender for Cena’s strap, the fued with Ryback is set to continue all the way until Payback at least. It begs the question, who else is in with a shot of being the next WWE Champion.

What Wrestling Taught us This Week…

Jamie Lithgow

The artist formally known as Michael McGillicutty has been given some well deserved attention

• The STFU (or whatever Cena calls it) is a sleeper hold, apparently. Ryback almost lost consciousness while Cena had it applied. This is despite the fact that it has always been portrayed as a painful submission rather than a sleeper hold.
• Mark Henry can pull two trucks but Sheamus can’t pull one man. Questioning the Irishman’s ability to shift The World’s Strongest Man in their strap match would have been sound wrestling logic, had Mark Henry not displayed the feats of human strength a few nights previous by pulling a couple of trucks down a road!

Icons of Wrestling #5 – The Red Rooster

Jamie Lithgow

Height: 6’1”
Weight: 225 lbs
Hometown: Vero Beach, Florida
Years Active: 1988 – 1990
Fun Fact: At just 31 seconds The Red Rooster is owner of the seventh fastest Wrestlemania victory…. seriously, he is.

Extreme Rules: A resounding miss

Craig Wilson

The Shield complete with the gold(image courtesy of BleacherReport)

Through incredible levels of restraint I managed to avoid all social media today whilst ignoring the usual websites I frequent and purposely requesting certain people refuse to send spoilers from last night’s Extreme Rules card. The purpose? Well, owing to living in the UK and a lacklustre card meaning I wasn’t going to waste a day of annual leave to stay up till 4am to watch the show. Instead, I finally got round to watching the show on Monday evening and here are my thoughts on the event.