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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A Rooster in a Wrestling Ring

New feature time:  the 12 Days of Christmas, wrestling style.

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a rooster in a wrestling ring.

This was one of wrestling's lamest gimmicks, perhaps of all time.  Terry Taylor, a fine wrestler in his own right, ventured to New York back in the late 1980's.  He had been relatively successful in the MidSouth (and UWF) region, World Class, and NWA.  In 1988, when he arrived in the WWF he underwent a gimmick change.

He was first a face, but quickly turned heel and hired Bobby "the Brain" Heenan as his manager.  I thought he made a pretty good heel.  Of course Taylor was not big in stature in the pumped up land of the giants.  In fact, I remember Heenan putting him down as he introduced him to fans and started calling him the Red Rooster because he was supposed to be some sort of novice.  Back then, the WWF didn't really acknowledge wrestler's past lives.

So the initial Red Rooster gimmick was okay.  I didn't mind it so much.  But Taylor never really climbed up the food chain.  He did a lot of jobbing.  I don't really remember him standing out at all when Heenan was managing him.

The insults kept coming from the Brain, and eventually the Rooster would fly the coop that was the Heenan family.  He turned face and that's when the gimmick got even more ridiculous.  Taylor spiked his hair and colored it red.  He did the cock-a-doodle-do when he strutted to the ring.  It was so incredibly lame.

He feuded with Heenan, beating him in an actual match at Wrestlemania 5.  The Rooster also feuded with jobber Steve Lombardi who became "the Brooklyn Brawler".  That war went no where fast and Taylor was gone from the WWF relatively quick.  In all, I think he might have spent about two years there.

Taylor would eventually return in 1992 as "Terrific" Terry Taylor.  This time he was a cocky heel, but never really materialized into anything.  He bounce between organizations and became a backstage interviewer at one point for the E.  Then a road agent.  Now he works for TNA.

Now depending on how creative I can get, my plan is to do one of these 12 Days of Christmas features every day up until Christmas.  We're 12 days out.   Hopefully you'll enjoy them.  If not, other regular blogs will be posted too.

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