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.
It’s really not fair to categorize Curry Man as a Ghastly Gimmick. In reality, he was quite the opposite. Despite oozing coolness, his novelty has condemned him to this column, primarily because I want to write about him and have no other logical outlet with which to do so. At any rate, back in the late 90s, before anybody in the states was too familiar with the work of Christopher Daniels, the Fallen Angel was a staple of Michinoku Pro in Japan. There, he was Curry Man, one of the most ridiculous and outlandish characters in wrestling history. Armed with one of the industry’s best catchphrases (“I’m hot…I’m spicy…I taste great!”) and his patented Curry Dance, Curry Man had no problem winning over fans. And sure, he may have worn a plastic bowl of curry (with a side of rice) on his head, possessed razor-sharp fabric teeth, and worn the only wrestling mask I’ve ever seen with earrings, but Curry Man could really go when he stepped into the ring. Putting opponents away with the Spicy Drop (an inverted Death Valley Driver) and a number of the moves you’d recognize as Christopher Daniels signatures today, the yellow spandex clad Curry Man was a force to be reckoned with before coming stateside in 2000. Since gaining notoriety in the U.S., Daniels has revived the Curry Man gimmick from time to time in TNA, most notably as part of the 2008 World X Cup. The most commonly accepted origin of the character is that it was a creation of Jinsei Shinzaki, otherwise known as Hakushi, and was based on the little known Japanese cartoon character Curry Cook. If that is indeed the case, I think we all owe Mr. Shinzaki a rousing “thank you.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmU1qXBfV4E]
