When the the media talks of “white trash” sports, two always seem to come to mind: wrestling and Nascar. With this knowledge in mind, Vince McMahon went out to create the next great hybrid sports superstar, Thurman “Sparky” Plugg.
This gimmick was the pits (pun fully intended and for that, I apologize). Plugg was introduced to WWF fans via a series of vignettes showing his racing escapades. He would come out to a tires squealing, motor-revving southern rock beat, wearing a jacket sporting the WWF logo and a checkered flag, to a mostly bored audience.
It wasn’t that he was a bad worker; he was actually one of the better workers of the early 90’s WWF, and once shared a brief run with the 1-2-3 Kid (now X-Pac) as WWF tag champs. And he had one of the best dropkicks you will ever see.
After a short time, Vince allowed him to use his real name, and he was rechristened Bob “Spark Plugg” Holly. The audience didn’t seem to care. Once again, Vince had created a character that appealed to almost no one. After all, why would anyone care about a race car driver?
Fortunately, Plugg was written off in the late 90’s.
Unfortunately, he was told to dye his hair blond and change his name to “Bodacious Bob.”