Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Barry Darsow Goes Nuts – WCW, 1999
History
Barry Darsow. The real name may not be familiar, but I’m sure that you have come across some of the other characters he portrayed inside the wrestling ring. He’s best known as either of his WWF characters – either Smash of Demolition, or the Repo Man.
However, Darsow also had many other characters he played, particularly in WCW and Jim Crockett Promotions. Prepare to meet some of them.
By September of 1999, Barry Darsow had become a fixture on the WCW B-shows Worldwide and Saturday Night (also, more often than not, losing the matches).
On September 18th’s Worldwide, we saw a change in Mr. Darsow. His most recent character had been Hole-in-one Darsow, a wrestling golfer. Yes, it’s as bad as it sounds. Actually worse – the character’s original name was Stewart Pain, which WCW scrapped following the tragic death of Payne Stewart.
Anyway, the cameras are rolling as Darsow is set to take on Al Greene, however, Darsow didn’t come out when his music played. Finally Darsow came out. However, this wasn’t Hole-in-one. This was Krusher Kruschev, who Darsow had portrayed in the mid 1980’s while working alongside Ivan and Nikita Koloff.
Krusher quickly took control of the match as the announcers tried to figure out what to call him. Kruschev easily won the match with a Russian Backbreaker.
Later Darsow put in another appearance on WCW Saturday Night where he took on Villano V. Now he was once more Mr. Hole-in-one. Darsow won again, courtesy of his trusty six-iron.
Darsow had the next week off, but he was back in action on October 2 on Saturday Night. This time, El Dandy was taking on the Blacktop Bully. The Bully was the character Darsow had after he left the WWF for WCW in 1994. He feuded with Dustin Runnels until they were both fired after the 1995 Uncensored when they both bladed against the orders of management.
El Dandy tried to keep away, but the Bully quickly got control of the match and put him away with the Barely Legal.
The Bully was back on the October 23rd Saturday Night for a match with Luther Biggs (who was being coached by Coach Buzz Stern). At the end, Darsow locked on the Barely Legal, only to be clocked by Stern’s clipboard. Biggs fell on top of him for the pin.
Bonus points go to Larry Zbyszko for making the match seem worthless. He was on commentary with Scott Hudson and decided he was leaving to get back to the studio on time. Hudson asked if he was leaving him alone, and Larry Z. points out that it’s just Darsow and Biggs, so he thinks he can handle it. Bravo, WCW and Larry Z. When even your announcers don’t care about a match, why should anyone else?
(Of course it could be argued that WCW announcers never seemed to care about any matches unless they were the night’s main event, but that’s another tangent all together.)
And that was the end of the gimmick. The next time Darsow wrestled, he was back to normal old Barry Darsow. Short, yet sweet.
Analysis
This was obviously a booker’s chance to have a little fun while setting up the Worldwide and Saturday Night matches. Darsow had done a lot of characters, so why not use some of the ones owned by WCW?
Also, it was something unusual. With the wrestling world growing more serious (yes, even Hole-in-one was supposed to be serious), a comic gimmick can really stand out.
It was fun getting to see the old characters again (although I’m sure the crowd’s response was nothing compared to what it would have been if Demolition had walked through the curtain). How often do you see evil Soviets in the ring anymore?
This was also surprising because you could argue that the gimmick did have a definite ending, instead of simply dying away like so many we’ve talked about. You could believe that the clipboard shot simply shook Darsow’s mind back into place and everything returned to normal.
Where are they now?
Barry Darsow would be gone from WCW by the end of 1999. He would next appear in Ted DiBiase’s WXO, where he feuded with Mike Enos until the company collapsed almost immediately thereafter. Darsow would return to the WWF at Wrestlemania XVII, where he entered the Gimmick Battle Royal as Repo Man. I found conflicting reports on what Darsow is actually up to today. Darsow either works for a printing company in Minnesota or is a code inspector in Maryland. Darsow does still reportedly compete on independent wrestling shows. If you can clear up Darsow’s whereabouts (or have a request for an upcoming column) go ahead and send me an email.
Next Week
In honor of Jim Ross’s return to Raw, we take a look at what is most likely his least favorite WCW gimmick ever.
