How damned cool is that outfit? This is one of my favorite gimmicks ever in the business of professional wrestling, and oddly, given the massive amount of guys who’ve used it, it never once showed up in the WWF or Crockett’s leg of the NWA. Film gee…er, buffs may recognize the get-up as that of Lord Humongous, the villain of one of the MAD MAX flicks (I forget now which, but definitely not the one with the midget and Tina Turner). So naturally, about 20 different guys decided to pay homage to that fine character by blatantly stealing his name and costume.
Regardless, it was a bad-ass gimmick.
The gimmick originally started with a guy named Mike Stark originating the role in the Memphis area in the mid-80’s. Soon after, Jeff Van Camp took the gimmick for himself in the Alabama region, and later, Mid-South, where he did a great angle with Jake Roberts and Nord The Barbarian (aka The Bezerker). A couple of years later, a guy named Sid Eudy showed up in Memphis with the outfit, even turning babyface and teaming with a still-green Shane Douglas. Sid is, of course, today’s Sid Vicious.
(Van Camp and Stark)
Since Sid’s stint under the mask, there’ve been at least four more men who have taken up the name: Randy Lewis, Barry “Bull” Buchanan, Emory Hale (a recent Jobber of the Month as The Machine) and Gary Nations.
(Nations and Hale)
Humongous never made it national, and it’s too bad, as the gimmick really wasn’t that bad. Not that bad? Screw that, it was friggin’ awesome! In fact, it’s pretty similar to Kane’s (y’know, before they screwed up THAT character by unmasking him). Hell, Kane actually wore a variation of it as Doomsday. Humongous was a huge, muscular engine of destruction that never spoke, and could shake off a DDT like it was nothing (well, this was back when a DDT was THE finishing maneuver).
If you ever have a chance to watch the feud he had with Jake Roberts, watch it. Classic stuff. Even had a stint where Roberts started wearing a hockey mask too, to combat his rival. One of the greatest moments in Mid-South occurred when Roberts DDT’ed Hugo (as he is endearingly referred to in wrestling circles), and (remember, this is five years BEFORE the Undertaker), sat right up, with only a crack in the mask showing damage.
Sometime in 1985 or ’86, there was a Lord Humongous who showed up in Texas All-Star Wrestling, teaming with a guy named Mad Maxx and managed by future WWF manager, the Doctor of Style himself, Slick. The great thing about this cup of coffee is that in the one televised match this duo had, they ended up almost getting their asses handed to them by the jobbers they were scheduled to beat. Seems Tom Jones and Omar Atlas decided to stop selling for these “monsters” halfway through the match, and booker Buck Robely had to come out to stop the match. Whoever it was behind the mask during this point in time remains a bit of a mystery, but as you can see, it’s not one of the “regulars.”
(Sid and the Texas All-Star wannabe)
Oh, and if you’re a wrestling action figure fan, you can add Lord Humongous to your collection by simply getting on eBay and buying the Humongous toy from the MAD MAX figure line:
HUMONGOUS thanks to Pete Lederberg and Karl Stern for getting me some of these pics for this entry