• OLD SCHOOL VIDEO HISTORY (January 11, 1992) – WCW Power Hour
On this day in 1992, Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling aired an episode of their weekly TV show ‘WCW Power Hour’.
This episode featured pre-taped matches, interviews & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WCW SuperBrawl II’ PPV.
The card can be found below:
– Cactus Jack vs. Z-Man
– Rick Rude vs. Scrub
– Ricky Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes vs. Pad Rose & The Medic
– The Dangerous Alliance vs. P.N. News, Big Josh & Arachnaman
WATCH: AJ Lee Teases Fans With Her Hot Buns:
• Kane Explains Why The Isaac Yankem Gimmick Was A Success
During a recent appearance on the Steve Austin Show podcast, Old School WWF Legend Kane talked about the Isaac Yankem gimmick, how Vince McMahon pitched it, playing Fake Diesel & more.
Below are the highlights:
On how Vince McMahon pitched him the Isaac Yankem gimmick:
“One guy I owe a lot to is of course Jim Ross. Jim Ross was on hiatus to WWE, but he was working as Jim Cornette’s announcer. Within a month or two, and of course Jim Ross likes big guys, so immediately he got me a tryout with WWE so I was super excited.
I had to have my tryout match with Reno Riggins, and of course Reno was a great worker, and within literally a couple of days Jim Cornette talks to me and says that they are going to sign me and that they want me. I was really excited and thought this is exactly what I wanted to do. I received a phone call to meet with Vince McMahon and at the time JJ Dillon was the Head of Talent Relations.
They take me to the office in Stamford, Connecticut. I am sitting in the room with JJ and Vince McMahon walks in. You hear all this stuff about Vince McMahon and how he is an evil genius and how he is going to get in your mind and figure out what you are thinking. We are sitting there and having small talk and everything is going well and Vince asked me if I had ever been afraid to go to the Dentist? I am thinking that this is one of those things where I am going through a personality test, so I said no sir.
He said that he has always had this idea of a wrestling Dentist, ‘Isaac Yankem, I.Yankem.’ He starts doing the Vince laugh and I am looking at him like I am trying to break into the big leagues and I am blank faced and trying not to react, then he looks at me and says that he thinks that I would be great for it and then he walks out.
I am sitting there at first like I am on top of the world to now the world feeling like it is falling down on me. Wrestling Dentist? How am I going to pull this off? I spoke with Jim Cornette and told him that I don’t know about this whole Dentist thing. He says to me, ‘Oh, it will be fine. That is just his first thought. They will eventually come up with something cool.’
Two months later I speak with Cornette and he is working in creative with WWE. He tells me that the good news is that you are going to be coming up really soon, but the bad news is you are coming up as the dentist. I was thinking, oh man, but what was I going to do? If I wanted to advance my career basically I had to take a shot. It just got worse.
I had to put paint on my teeth to make it look like my teeth were in decay. Everyone else had this cool music but I had this drill and I was thinking, golly. I just wasn’t ready to do it. I am sitting and watching The Undertaker and now I am in the ring with him and business was a little different back then.
Undertaker was one of the few guys who took me under their wings, but a lot of the other guys it was just about them. It wasn’t the best experience, let me put it that way. Now they made an action figure about it. I will never get away from it.”
On why the Isaac Yankem gimmick was a success:
“The thing about the Isaac Yankem character was that despite never considering it a success it was a success and it got my foot in the door. It showed Vince McMahon that I had a work ethic and I wanted to do this but the character just wasn’t for me or felt comfortable doing.
I had the opportunity of working with guys like Bret Hart, who legitimately is one of the best of all-time,” he said. “My first match was at SummerSlam and it was against Bret Hart. We were the semi-main event. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. Bret has always been good to me.
Luckily, I had much more success with the Kane character and I think looking back now, I wish I was doing Kane when Bret Hart was still in WWF. I think we could have had some killer matches, but yeah, he was always great to me and working with him was a tremendous experience.”
On working as Fake Diesel:
“I think Gerald Brisco told me while we were in South Africa or Kuwait, I can’t remember which one, but he told me that Vince McMahon wanted to talk to me when I got home. I came home from overseas and Vince explains to me what they want to do and that I am going to be the fake Diesel.
The concept of the storyline was excellent. What had happened was that JR was going to turn heel and that he was going to reveal that he was the creative mastermind of WWE’s success and it was going to be me and the fake Razor Ramon. The problem is that JR is not likened to a heel character because people really like him so that didn’t work very well.
When we are looking at storylines, yes, the concept is great but it just doesn’t work in reality because a lot of what we do is based on the audience to accept that and they didn’t really accept this whole thing. No matter what, it was the fake Diesel and the fake Razor Ramon. At least I wasn’t a dentist anymore.”
