It seems that no matter what they may do, wrestlers are always considered inferior to other “real” athletes. Despite how many arenas Steve Austin might sell out, he will never be in the same league as Michael Jordan. No matter how much merchandise The Rock sells, no one considers him equal to Peyton Manning.
So it should come as little shock that over the years, wrestling promotions have taken to mocking these legitimate sports stars by creating bogus versions in the wrestling ring. We had Sparky Plugg – Race Car Driver. We had Abe “Knuckleball” Schwarz – Baseball Player. We had The Goon – hockey player. Heck, even Mark Jindrak’s original gimmick was that of a basketball player!
The latest inductee into this bogus sports hall of shame is a man that some of you know as Demolition Smash…a man others might recognize as Krusher Kruschev…but one that all of us have grown to love in our heart of hearts as the Repo Man.
Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to induct the one, the only, the man, the myth, the legend…Barry Darsow, the world’s most famous evil golfer, “Hole in One”.
Yes, believe it or not, Darsow made a handful of appearances on WCW Saturday Night with a golf gimmick.
Before each of his matches, “Hole in One” would challenge his opponent to a putting contest. He would roll out a little putting green, and let his opponent attempt to putt his way to victory.
Of course, all this did was set up his opponent for an easy cheap shot with one of Darsow’s clubs!
Which was usually the way “Hole in One” won his matches – a putter in the throat, a 3 wood to the back of the head.
Cheating was, for Darsow, par for the course.
*Ahem*
As a rather pathetic side note, Darsow was originally to be known as “Stewart Pain”, an obvious rib on golf pro Payne Stewart. In fact, Darsow dressed almost exactly like Payne, right down to the knickers and tam o’shanter cap.
Separated at birth? You be the judge.
Sadly, Payne Stewart died in a plane crash in October of 1999.
Happily, the name Stewart Pain was never used.
As for Darsow, his golfing gimmick lasted just a few matches before even the nitwits at WCW saw it was going nowhere. He continued to flounder about in the mid card under other (slightly less awful) gimmicks, before resurfacing at Wrestlemania X-7 as Repo Man.