Whatever Happened to WWE’s Eugene?

Brian Damage

He was one of the most gifted technical wrestlers to ever grace a wrestling ring. He dominated everything he did in WWE developmental. His gimmick on the main roster was a mentally challenged man who couldn’t speak to women, couldn’t lace his own boots, but once the bell rmrang, he could out wrestle anyone. Today we ask, ‘Whatever Happened to‘ Eugene?

Nick Dinsmore was trained as a professional wrestler by former wrestler ‘The Nightmare’ Danny Davis in 1996. He briefly wrestled on the independents and the Memphis based USWA in its final years. Davis brought Dinsmore to his promotion based in Kentucky called Ohio Valley Wrestling. OVW became a WWE developmental territory in 1997 and Dinsmore became one of that promotion’s biggest stars.

Nick Dinsmore would form a tag team with Rob Conway and be known as the ‘Lords of the Ring.’ The team would win the OVW Southern tag team titles eleven times and the OVW heavyweight title ten times. Dinsmore would also compete in other smaller WWE developmental territories winning titles along the way.

For a short amount of time in 1998/1999, Dinsmore worked as enhancement talent on WCW television. He would job to several WCW stars like Wrath, Horace Hogan and Ernest ‘The Cat’ Miller. After finding no success with getting signed by WCW, Nick Dinsmore returned to OVW. Despite being one of the most talented wrestlers in developmental, Dinsmore would remain in OVW for a few more years.

Feeling frustrated and depressed, Dinsmore turned to former wrestler and OVW trainer ‘The Hustler’ Rip Rogers. Nick couldn’t understand why he had all this talent and several other wrestler were getting called up to WWE’s main roster before him. The two began brainstorming ideas and it was Rogers who came up with the mentally challenged wrestler gimmick. Rip Rogers apparently based it on his own son who was autistic himself.

Dinsmore would keep that idea in his back pocket, just in case he needed it. By 2004, Dinsmore had had enough and was contemplating quitting OVW and heading to Japan to wrestle. Word of his quitting spread and reached John Laurinaitis who set up a meeting between Dinsmore and Vince McMahon. Nick Dinsmore recalls that meeting that involved himself, Laurinaitis, Vince and Stephanie McMahon.

Vince asked Dinsmore to come up with potential ideas for a gimmick and Dinsmore immediately went to the gimmick idea given to him by Rip Rogers. McMahon apparently loved the idea and thus…the character of ‘Eugene’ was born. Eugene made his debut on Monday Night Raw on April 5th, 2004 and was introduced as Eric Bischoff’s nephew. Eugene’s biggest success in the WWE was winning the tag team titles with William Regal.

Nick ‘Eugene’ Dinsmore would fail two separate drug tests and would be fired by the WWE. Dinsmore went on to wrestle on the independent circuit and return to OVW. Dinsmore would briefly return to WWE under the Eugene gimmick, but was released again in 2009. Dinsmore would again wrestle on the independents and focus more on training future wrestlers. The WWE hired Dinsmore to become a trainer at their new WWE Performance center in Orlando, Florida in 2013. He would be let go a little over a year later in 2014.

So we ask: Whatever Happened to Nick ‘Eugene’ Dinsmore? Dinsmore still takes independent bookings for matches and to appear at conventions. He married his wife Stephanie Fischer (A former weather girl and beauty pageant winner) in 2015.

Dinsmore and his wife opened up their own independent promotion and training center called Midwest All Pro Wrestling. The couple resides in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

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You can read all previous ‘Whatever Happened to?’ pieces here.

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