Every Tuesday, we take a look at an outlandish character from wrestling’s days gone by. Sometimes laughable, sometimes revolting, but always preposterous, they’re part of what makes pro rasslin’ so great. Ranging from slightly peculiar to downright ludicrous, these are the wrestlers that time has rightly forgotten.
Is it possible for absolutely horrible gimmicks to be encrypted into one’s genetic code? Mantaur is the real life cousin of PN News, so awful characters may just run in the family. Frankly, though, he makes his rapping relative’s persona look Hall of Fame worthy. Mantaur wore a bull head to the ring. A bull head. He charged, mauled, and mooed at his opposition. His ring gear included furry boots. We’re talking the very bottom of the heap as far as gimmicks go here. Mantaur’s one and only pay-per-view match came at the 1995 Royal Rumble, where he was mercifully eliminated by Lex Lugar after a 10-minute-too-long stay in the ring. The biggest victory he ever earned was over Aldo Montoya to qualify for the ’95 King of the Ring, a tournament from which he was eliminated by “Spark Plug” Bob Holly. There was nothing redeeming about Mantaur’s run. After his flopped WWF tenure, the man behind Mantaur traveled to ECW where he became Bruiser Mastino. The character change was useless though – his former bovine identity followed him wherever he went. “Mantaur” chants rained down upon him until he finally retired in 2005. Today, he works as a repo man in his hometown of Omaha, but I have to imagine he’s still jeered with the occasional moo from a wrestling fan with a good memory.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGDwwExon6M]
