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Beginning in 1994, the World Wrestling Federation started to promote a “New Generation” of talent to combat their rival organization, World Championship Wrestling, who was promoting older stars that had made a name for themselves in the WWF previously.
With a lack of stars, WWF focused on highlighting their overall youth that included Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, the 1-2-3 Kid, Razor Ramon, Diesel, among others. This younger generation was significially better in the ring than the older Hogan, Savage, Flair and various other 80’s stars that had landed in WCW in recent years.
By the time 1995 rolled around, the WWF was in dire need to establish fresh upper card talent. WWF World Champion Diesel seemingly didn’t have a lot of credible challengers on the heel side of the card, outside of Yokozuna and Owen Hart. Thus, the WWF had to take a risk and that risk is highly regarded as being a failure of epic proportions.
That risk involved a popular babyface tag team that had been around since mid-1993. I’m talking about Mabel and Mo, collectively known as Men on a Mission, and also had a manager named Oscar. For two years they chased and briefly held the WWF World Tag Team Championships. Their reign lasted only a few days in 1994 before losing them back to the Quebecers during a tour overseas.
By the end of 1994, Mo had been dealing with injuries and the popularity of the rap team appeared to dwindle while a tag team named the Smoking Gunns started to garner more and more cheers. So much so, that Mabel and Mo had turned heel on the Gunns on an episode of Wrestling Challenge on March 26th of 1995. The attack also saw Mabel leg drop his manager Oscar, writing him out of the WWF for good.
Mo would become more of a manager position for Mabel as the idea was to make Mabel into a heel monster as they worked their way into the King of the Ring.
The top candidates to win the King of the Ring were former WWF World Champions Yokozuna, the Undertaker and former WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels, without a doubt all very big names. To the shock of everyone, Michaels fought to a draw with Kama in the first round, while Yokozuna actually lost to Savio Vega via count out, continuing his fall down the card.
As for the Undertaker, Taker would lose in the first round to none other than the man I speak of, Mabel, with help from Kama, whom had been feuding with Taker for weeks leading into the event and would continue to do so after the event. Mabel pinning Taker gave him a big win, even if it weren’t to be a clean victory.
Mabel wouldn’t have to compete in the semi-finals due to the draw with HBK/Kama, thus he defeated Savio Vega in the finals and to prevent the underdog ‘Rocky’ story of Vega being a smaller competitor from realizing a dream.
Of course, the Philadelphia crowd crapped on the entire event and a few ECW chants could be heard. However, was Mabel winning the KOTR really that awful?
Sure, he wasn’t the greatest wrestler in the world, but everyone knew that. The company was looking to create new stars and they took a shot, this one in particular clearly based on the size of the talent. Nowadays, it seems as if the WWE doesn’t want to take a risk and make a new star. Was Mabel a star? I think so, just not as a heel.
Whether anyone remembers it or not, Mabel was actually pretty over as a baby face for the WWE. He also was able to deliver some impressive moves for a guy his size. Seeing Mabel hit a spinning heel kick was a sight to see, I must admit.
The build-up for Mabel to be a main event guy may have contributed some backlash for his win at KOTR. He didn’t have a slow build and was considered a main event guy within two months of a heel turn. He needed to beat credible names in the weeks after to be sold as such, and I don’t recall that happening.
Instead, we were supposed to believe in Mabel being a threat to WWF World Champion Diesel when they didn’t really have a huge storyline for SummerSlam. It kind of feels like Mabel wasn’t given the right opportunity to succeed at the new role. Even his feud with the Undertaker that followed in the fall fell flat, with the ‘highlight’ being Mabel crushing the Undertaker’s orbital bone.
When I look back at the Mabel heel run, I don’t consider it the worst thing ever. Hell, it’s not even the worst thing that year in professional wrestling. It was a misguided decision that didn’t execute Mabel at his fullest potential.
I think Mabel would have been far more successful had he played the part of a singles baby face as he was always capable of getting the crowd behind him. Mabel was also able to get sympathy despite his large physical nature.
The attempt to make Mabel a monster heel was a risk, which needs to happen and should be commended for attempting. Sometimes, risks don’t workout but this mistake didn’t hurt the WWF.
What were your memories of King Mabel? Did you like the attempted heel run or did you think it was a huge mistake? Thanks for reading.
I think Mabel put himself in the doghouse for hurting so many people and his push got cut short. With Vader coming in they felt they had to many big guys and the wwe no longer needed him and he was let go.
Mabel was pretty dangerous it seems at that period, as far as working safe with guys like Nash and Taker. Injuries did happen, but I think what also hurt Mabel was the abrupt push right into the main event. When he pinned Taker at KotR it was like, really? Then he won the whole thing and it was like, really? Then he got elevated into a World Title match at SSlam, and it was like, really really? Mabel should have been given a bit more time to work his way up to that position, beating more names so it didn’t seem so abrupt. That said, he had some impressive moves for a guy his size, but as a heel he was limited… and boring as hell. He was stuck feuding with two big guys who were also limited to an extent, Nash as a worker, and Taker as a character. In the end, I believe Nash even admits it in his 95 Timeline, Mabel was booted based on the Kliq. They really did a number on everyone else, rubbing out everyone from Bigelow and Mabel to Shane Douglas and Adam Bomb.
I liked and still miss King Mabel. I was happy that they gave him a push and should have been champion even for a short time. I liked the whole gimmick and wrestling just isn’t the same without him.