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.
Like fellow victims of unfortunate gimmicks Kizarny and Kwang, Mordecai’s arrival in the WWE was preceded by a string of promos hyping his debut. Unfortunately, much like the two aforementioned names, the vignettes promoting Mordecai ran for a longer period of time than his character lasted once he finally got into the ring. Mordecai’s gimmick was that of a religious zealot, bent on eradicating the world of sin. Dressed in all white to symbolize his purity, Mordecai’s aim was to purge the world of the unrighteous by any means necessary. Naturally, this meant that the WWE Universe would boo him relentlessly. The payoff to weeks of vignettes occurred at Judgement Day 2004 when the character debuted with a win over Scotty 2 Hotty. The rest of the gimmick’s lifespan consisted of attacking Billy Kidman & Akio on an episode of Smackdown, defeating Hardcore Holly at the Great American Bash, and losing to Rey Mysterio in his last WWE appearance. After that, the character was dropped all together. There had been rumors of feuding the newcomer against The Undertaker heading into SummerSlam, although they never materialized. Despite the ridiculousness of the gimmick, it’s not implausible that Mordecai and Taker could have engaged in a decent rivalry given their similarities, so it’s unfortunate that it never transpired. Years later, the man behind the Mordecai character, Kevin Fertig, returned to the WWE’s ECW brand as the vampire Kevin Thorn, although that’s a story for another installment of Ghastly Gimmicks entirely.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-y7bjrlX98]
