Great-ing Gimmicks of the Past: Rico and Charlie Haas – WWE, 2004
History
Rico had jumped to Raw after betraying Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon by allowing Raw GM Eric Bischoff and Three Minute Warning to disrupt the Billy and Chuck commitment ceremony. When he re-debuted after turning his back on Three Minute Warning, he had changed into an Exotic Adrian Street lookalike, and had even trained with Street himself to learn the nuances of the gimmick. With Jackie Gayda at his side as Miss Jackie (in the role of Street’s Miss Linda), he debuted by taking on Spike Dudley.
And the crowd went mild.
After an unsuccessful ten months, Rico and Jackie were moved to Smackdown during the 2004 Draft Lottery. And there’s where we pick up.
On the April 15th Smackdown, Rico was set to match up against Charlie Haas. Before the match, Jamie Noble had cornered Haas backstage to warn him about the futility of trying to wrestle Rico.
Noble was right. Rico quickly got into Haas’s head by checking him out, and Haas was off his A-game for the rest of the match. In the end, Rico kissed Haas, which caused Haas to bail out of the ring. While Rico won by countout, Haas threw up.
The next week, Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty were defending the tag titles against Haas and a mystery opponent. Sure enough, it was Rico. The match ended when Scotty had Haas ready for the worm, so Rico kissed him. That stunned Scotty and gave Haas the opportunity to roll him up for the three count. Just like that we had new tag team champs.
A week later, Rico had a plan. He and Jackie stole Haas’s trunks and hid them, so he had to borrow a pair of Rico’s. Haas almost refused to come out wearing them, but they did have to defend the titles against Doug and Danny Basham.
It didn’t take long for things to degenerate. Miss Jackie came out to do Rico’s entrance (with a kiss) with Haas (who was wearing rainbow colored tights with tassels), only for Rico to switch places with her once Haas’s eyes were closed. Needless to say, Haas opened his eyes just in time and that put an end to the entrance.
In the end, Rico put Doug down with a kick, then kissed Danny while grabbing his rear end. That let Haas land a German suplex for the win.
Rico and Charlie defended the belts against Billy Kidman and Paul London on the next week’s Velocity. Kidman quickly freaked out at the prospect of wrestling Rico, which brought Haas in. Rico soon tagged Haas on the rear to get back in and wound up getting beat down and pitched. Miss Jackie helped distract Kidman and London as Rico brought Haas back in, and we went to the finisher sequence – Rico kissed London and Haas hit the German suplex.
That brought us to Judgment Day, which saw Rico and Haas defending their titles against Billy Gunn and Hardcore Holly. In the end, the champs retained as a Rico superkick sent Holly into a Haas roll-up.
Haas and Rico took on the FBI on the following episode of Smackdown. Again, the match ended when Jackie tripped Nunzio, then Rico kissed him, then Haas hit a German suplex.
A week later, we saw Rico and Charlie Haas checking out Jackie’s bikini for the upcoming Summer Breakout Bikini Contest. Rico then showed off his speedo, while Haas told him that the color was all wrong.
On the June 5th Velocity, Rico and Haas had Kyo Dai – Akio (Jimmy Wang Yang) and Sakoda. Things looked good for Kyo Dai until Haas hit a German suplex out of nowhere for the win.
The 17th’s edition of Smackdown saw Rico and Haas defending against the Dudley Boys. The match ended when Bubba Ray pinned Rico while D-Von held down Rico’s legs. Just like that, we had new champions.
And that was the end of that. During the Dudley Boys match, Rico had torn his hamstring, an injury that would put him on the shelf for two months.
Analysis
Despite all of Rico’s efforts, the gimmick just never caught fire with the fans (despite the fact that he had been a huge topic of conversation after the Billy & Chuck commitment ceremony incident). He poured himself into the role, even going to train with Adrian Street to get the nuances of the gimmick down.
It could be argued that one downfall was the addition of Charlie Haas. After all, while Haas is a fine wrestler, he can often come across as dry on screen. It could be argued that Haas just didn’t portray the part of the uncomfortable partner well enough.
Still, all in all, the true downfall was the fact that this took place in the tag team division. Gone are the days of the red-hot Dudleys vs. Hardys vs. Edge & Christian battles over the titles. For years now, the WWE has paid little to no attention to the tag ranks, and that didn’t change at all this time. While the angle could have only benefited from some backstage skits, they got very few.
The final nail in the coffin was Rico’s injury. Even if they had lost the belts, there were still several ways the WWE could have taken the angle – Rico and Jackie could have kicked Haas out, Haas could have stolen Jackie, or Haas could have become more extravagant than Rico, for starters. Rico’s injury meant that everything had to stop immediately, and that was the reason for this angle’s premature conclusion.
Where are they now?
Rico Constantino returned to Smackdown that September and was released in November. Following this, he headed to All-Japan, even winning their tag team titles with Bull Buchanan, but was dissatisfied with the tour. In 2005, he announced his retirement from pro wrestling. Today Rico has returned to his old career of law enforcement.
Jackie Gayda became engaged to Charlie Haas in September of 2004 and eventually became his manager. As 2004 came to a close, Jackie found herself feuding with Dawn Marie over Haas, only for both to be humiliated when he rejected them both at that year’s Armageddon. In July of 2005, she was released from the WWE. That November, she signed with TNA, where she was placed into a feud with Jeff Jarrett and Gail Kim. At the 2006 Sacrifice PPV she was fired by Gail Kim due to the fact that she was pregnant (the baby, named Kayla Jacqueline, was born in December). She remains under TNA contract today.
After rejecting Dawn Marie and Jackie Gayda, Charlie Haas formed a tag team on Smackdown with Bob Holly. In July of 2005, he was released from the WWE at the same time as Jackie. He then competed on the independent scene until 2006, when the WWE re-signed him. As of December of 2006, Haas and Shelton Benjamin reformed the World’s Greatest Tag Team on the Raw side of the roster split.
Next Week
WCW’s young blood take a stand against their mentor.
