Boo: Kiss of Death

Pucker up...

By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

I grew up in the 1970's and 80's.  When I was about seven or eight years old, my younger brother had an obsession with the rock band KISS.  He had the makeup, and would "play" the guitar to the old LP's on our family turntable.  When he was old enough, he even attended one of their concerts.  This was around the time they started performing sans makeup.  KISS was cool back then.

Fast forward to the late 1990's, and WCW's attempt to case in on the craze.  There was a lot of buzz around the reunion tour and release of a video game.  So the powers that be, as they so often did tried to tie in pop culture with their product.  (Remember they did this with RoboCop, Chuckie, and even David Arquette as WCW champion)  Anyway, the Kiss Demon was born.  He looked just like Gene Simmons, only more buff.

According to the websites I've read about the gimmick, the late Brian Adams (formerly Crush) was set to play the KISS Demon.  He didn't like the idea, and a newcomer named Dale Torborg picked up the pieces.  Apparently this idea was Kiss approved and there was some kind of deal made that the Demon would be in the main event of a WCW pay per view.  His opponent was to be Vampiro, but when Eric Bischoff lost power in the company, the idea was scrapped.

The Demon!

The idea was to also include a group of KISS themed wrestlers, called the Warriors of KISS.  Honestly, I'm glad that idea never saw the light of day.  The Demon pretty much became a jobber, and I don't remember a whole lot of him after that initial hoopla.  He jobbed to the Wall and I think feuded briefly with Vampiro after teaming up with him and the Insane Clown Posse.  For some reason, WWE didn't sign him when they bought WCW in 2001.

WWE has a great slideshow on their website with some classic pics of this gimmick gone bad.  This is one idea that surely got the kiss of death.