The Global Wrestling Federation, or GWF, was an exciting place in the early 90’s. This was the place where X-Pac, Jerry Lynn and Booker T really broke into the business. “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert dropped by, as did Cactus Jack, Adrian Street, and Demolition Ax. It was a young federation with a lot of talent and a lot of promise. Many people in the company would go on to bigger and better things. Like this guy.
The Handsome Stranger was one of the premiere babyfaces in the GWF. He would come to ring with his cute little mask and hand roses out to the females in the front rows. They screamed. They cooed. The men? They just groaned. It was like finding out you were just dragged to a Chippendales show under the pretext of it being a Monster Truck derby. While there have been overt “gay” gimmicks in the business, and while The Handsome Stranger was certainly not one of them, watching him walk to the aisle for a match made me more uncomfortable than the image of a 30-minute Lenny & Lodi skit.
He never really did much in GWF, outside of a feud with Scott “Scotty The Body” Anthony, better known today as Raven. He was simply there as the token teen hearthrob gimmick, what with his bow-tie and masquerade ball mask.
Anyway, WCW came calling, and the Handsome Stranger packed his bags for Turnerland, where he would take on an even more ambiguously gay gimmick as one half of the American Males.. In case you haven’t figured out who this mysterious masked man was, here’s one more hint:
