No, it’s not a new hockey gimmick, and as far as I know, he’s never teamed with The Goon. It’s Jason The Terrible, and unless you’ve been living under a rock since 1981, you’ll recognize him as being patterned on that legendary movie character Princess Leia.
And surprisingly, this one DIDN’T originate in Memphis (the bookers there must’ve been trying to kick the chronic that week). Nope, this inhuman, impervious-to-pain monster heel first showed up in Canada’s Stampede Wrestling, of all places. The home of the technically proficient Harts, Benoit and Dynamite Kid made room for a gimmick based on a zombiefied serial killer. To top it off, they had him team with Zodiak, who himself was based on the real-life Zodiac Killer. Zodiak was played by Barry Orton, not Ed Leslie, which is kind of a shame. After all, the only thing I can think of more frightening than an ax wielding madman would be yet another Ed Leslie comeback.
Later on, he became a face and made friends with guys like Owen Hart, who posed with him in one of the most bizarre promotional pics I’ve ever seen:
The Jason The Terrible gimmick, much like the similar Lord Humongous gimmick, has been used by several men over time. First coming into prominence in the Canada/Stampede area, Jason was Karl Moffat, and later, Roberto Rodriguez (NOTE: Bill “Hugh Morrus” DeMott is often listed as one of the men under the Jason mask. Turns out that is false. Yeah, I know, I helped keep that one going for a while, but at least I can admit I was wrong). The Moffat version is historically important, as he was Chris Benoit’s first opponent (in a tag team match). The Rodriguez version, by most accounts, is the one that went on to some amount of fame in Japan, in the W*ing Federation. After that, a proliferation of guys showed up in various U.S. independent promotions using the gimmick.
And with the release of the new Freddy vs. Jason, it seems as though it is just a matter of time before the hockey wearing maniac comes back once again to terrorize the ring.