It has become en vogue in recent years to claim that WCW “copies” the WWF. How many times have we seen WWF angles rehashed in WCW? The most ironic thing about all this is that not only has the WWF copied WCW many times before, but they actually copied a failure of a gimmick.
Actually, they didn’t just duplicate it – they TRIPLICATED it.
In the early 1990’s, WCW had a rapping wrestler by the name of PN News. And he really sucked. He was a big fat guy who couldn’t work a lick, and his only draw was that he would sing on the way to the ring. Vince McMahon apparently decided that if one big fat rapper was good, THREE would be even better. And thus, he begat Mabel, Oscar, and Mo – Men on a Mission.
Men on a Mission (MOM for short, get it?) entered the WWF amidst much fanfare, with videos and vignettes showing them to be from the bad streets of … ummm …. I dunno where, but it certainly didn’t look very dangerous. Mabel and Mo were two largely immobile and untalented workers who made a name for themselves in the old USWA as The Harlem Knights. Vince saw dollar signs, and brought them into the WWF as a singing and dancing tag team, and Oscar would be their rappin’ fool of a manager.
Their rapping was lame. Here is an example of that. Here is another. And their dancing was just plain bad. They showed about as much rhythm and soul as Vince McMahon singing “Stand Back” on the Piledriver album (ah, another horrific item that we will cover in the near future).
Men on a Mission actually had a longer run than most fans would have liked; they were even able to snare the WWF tag straps. Eventually, though, the team lost steam. They turned heel, squashing Oscar in the process. Thankfully Oscar hasn’t been heard from since. Mo just kinda faded away.
Mabel, though, is another story. His obvious lack of talent was rewarded with a King of the Ring tournament victory and a WWF title match with then champ Diesel at SummerSlam in two of the worst WWF PPVs ever.
You’d think after all this, Vince would never have the guy under contract again. And you’d be wrong, as he is STILL stinking up arenas as the evil blimp known as Viscera.