WCW’s Natural Born Thrillers part two - what went wrong?
Thursday, November 1st, 2007Welcome back, pro wrestling fans! Today, our latest edition to the WrestlersRamblings.com family — Celtic Cross — completes his take on a group of wrestlers formerly known as the Natural Born Thrillers in the waning days of World Championship Wrestling. Why did only some of these seven seemingly sure-fire would-be superstars go on to even have mildly successful careers, let alone never coming close to anything at the main event level? Bad booking? Or was it all just hype? In this final instalment, Celtic Cross takes us through each individual and examines these very questions and more, plus, where they went after WCW and where they are today. Thanks for visiting the internet fastest-growing pro wrestling site! - Mr. Mal
If you missed Celtic Cross’ part one on the Natural Born Thrillers, CLICK HERE first!!
By Celtic Cross
Wrestlers Ramblings.com pro wrestling news
First, I want to start this second half answering an obvious question – why did I write this article? To jog people’s memories. To get people asking why seven wrestlers, some of whom had the potential to be the breakout stars of their generation, amounted to so little in professional wrestling. Only one of them is currently on WWE TV and three of them are out of the business altogether. Today when WWE are having such problems getting new talent, with their roster and main event scene wafer thin maybe some WWE employees wish they would have developed the talents of some workers like the Thrillers, young raw talent with bags of potential, I know I do.
Reno: Reno was probably the least talented of the entire Thrillers, after they disbanded, Reno was taken off TV. When WCW was purchased by WWF Reno was sent along with other members of the WCbW roster to developmental federation Heartland Wrestling Association before being let go. He wrestled briefly for World Wrestling All-Stars in 2002 before retiring from wrestling for good.
Johnny “The Bull” Stamboli: After the Thrillers broke up; Stamboli went back to teaming with Big Vito as the Mamalukes until WCW was bought out. Like most of the Thrillers he was sent to the HWA where he became a two-time HWA Heavyweight Champion. He was called up to the WWE and began appearing regularly on Heat, and occasionally Monday Night Raw, during this time he captured the WWE Hardcore title three times. Stamboli moved over to the Smackdown brand as part of the Nunzio led F.B.I along with former Thriller stablemate Chuck Palumbo. The group did not fare well as a heel group, but when they turned face they quickly grew in popularity, just when the group was starting too get hot, WWE disbanded it and sent Chuck Palumbo to Raw. Stamboli was released later that year and went to All Japan Pro Wrestling and teamed once again with Palumbo, this time as the Voodoo Murderers, they were for a time the top heel team in AJPW. The next stop for Palumbo and Stamboli was the new Italian promotion Nu-Wrestling Evolution, where they reformed the F.B.I making them the top faces in the promotion. Stamboli has worked in CMLL in Mexico and is currently working in Impact Zone Wrestling in the USA. Stamboli has received two WWE tryouts as of late (under his new character, the mysterious Redrum - Mr. Mal) more recently against Val Venis before the September 22nd edition of Raw. It now however looks unlikely he will be signed as his name was mentioned in the steroids scandal that wrestling faced following the death of Chris Benoit.
Chuck Palumbo: Out of the entire members of the Thriller’s, Chuck has had without doubt the most success in the WWE. Palumbo along with O’Haire were the WCW Tag Team Champions when WCW closed, so they dropped the belts to Undertaker and Kane on the June 28, 2001 edition of Smackdown. Afterwards Chuck was sent to OVW, he reappeared on WWE TV again in October when he was thrown out of the Alliance for requesting more T.V time, he then joined the WWF. Chuck began teaming with Billy Gunn in dark matches and house shows, the team started off as a generic babyface tag team, but the team later came to have strong homosexual overtones. On the February 21st 2002 edition of Smackdown Billy and Chuck defeated Spike Dudley and Tazz to become the new WWE World Tag Team Champions. They lost the tag titles to Rico and Rikishi at Judgement Day, but later won them back with their “stylist” Rico’s help. They soon lost the tag titles to Edge and Hulk Hogan. The team became embroiled in controversy when Chuck supposedly proposed to Billy to be his “partner for life” on an episode of Smackdown. The wedding turned out to be a “publicity stunt” and both men said they were straight. The minister turned out to be Eric Bischoff, their stylist Rico turned on them and jumped to Raw to manage three minute warning who beat Billy and Chuck at Unforgiven 2002. In October Billy was injured and Chuck was relegated to Velocity. In February 2003 Palumbo resurfaced on Smackdown as part of the F.B.I with former Thrillers stablemate Johnny the Bull and Nunzio. After the group disbanded Chuck was sent to Raw and debuted a greaser gimmick similar to the one Deuce and Domino are doing at the minute, Chuck competed mostly on Heat and got a few wins before being released in November 2004. He then went on to work for All Japan Pro Wrestling where he re-teamed with Stamboli. The pair went on to work for Nu-Wrestling Evolution in Italy and the World Wrestling Council before Palumbo was signed by WWE again in late 2005. Palumbo began wrestling dark matches in 2006. Palumbo continued to work dark matches before returning on screen on May 25, 2007 debuting a new biker gimmick. Palumbo is currently working on the Smackdown brand with Michelle McCool as his valet. Palumbo is the only Thriller left in the WWE.
Mark Jindrak: After WCW folded, Jindrak first entered WWE as part of the Alliance, and he did not last long and was sent to HWA in August for training. He spent the next two years in HWA and OVW while making the occasional appearance on WWE Heat. Jindrak was called up to the main roster in June 2003 and formed a team with Garrison Cade (later Lance Cade of Cade and Murdoch) on the Raw brand. They had small feuds with the likes of The Dudleys and Lá Resistance, but the team broke up Jindrak was drafted to Smackdown during the 2004 post Wrestlemania draft. Jindrak started on Velocity doing a rip-off of Lex Luger’s old Narcissist gimmick, even using his old music. Jindrak called himself the ”The Reflection of Perfection.” He briefly had Teddy Long as a manager before Long went on to become the General Manager of Smackdown. In September 2004 Jindrak aligned himself with Kurt Angle and Luther Reigns, and he helped Angle in his feud with Big Show, he became teaming with Reigns but the cracks started to appear and the team broke up, they had a short feud which Jindrak won, but he was again demoted to Velocity appearing on Smackdown sporadically as a jobber. In the June 2005 draft Jindrak was traded to Raw, but never made his debut as he was released five days later. After leaving the WWE Jindrak went on tour with NJPW, he had a short lived online reality TV show which was cancelled without reason. The pair later teamed up under different names in Japanese promotion Hustle. These days, Jindrak is working for Mexican promotion CMLL working an Italian gimmick as Marco Corleone.
Shawn Stasiak: Stasiak returned to WWE as part of the WCW/ECW Alliance, he won at the Invasion PPV, teaming with Hugh Morrus and Chris Kanyon to defeat Big Show, Billy Gunn and Albert. Stasiak also spent time trying to impress Alliance leader Steve Austin by taking out top WWF stars, but his efforts were in vain. He was briefly managed by Stacy Keibler again in mid 2001, but after the Alliance was defeated he took some time off for surgery and when he returned in early 2002 he was sent to the HWA. He was called back up the Raw brand in March 2002, he formed a short tag team with Mr. Perfect, but they mainly worked house shows. He returned to Raw in April as “Planet Stasiak” a gimmick where he more or less just acted insane. Stasiak began a losing streak, he only appeared on Raw a few more times, trading the WWE Hardcore title under 24/7 rules before being released In September 2002. After his release Stasiak trained to be a chiropractor and rarely makes wrestling appearances today.
Sean O’Haire: O’Haire was arguably the most talented of the entire Thrillers. With a superstar look and good movement for a big man, it was thought that O’Haire would do well in the WWE. Upon entering the WWE they dropped the WCW Tag team championships to the B.O.D and did little else before Sean was sent to OVW in September 2001. He spent a year in OVW working on improving before vignettes started to air in early 2003 hyping O’Haire in a new gimmick playing a Devil’s advocate character. O’Haire encouraged people to do things like not going to church and he ended every video with the line “Hey, I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already know.” He encouraged WWE superstars to perform indecent acts and famously got Spanky to streak through the arena. O’Haire was paired with Rowdy Roddy Piper when he returned to WWE after Wrestlemania 19. O’Haire dropped his new devil’s advocate gimmick but progressed well as Piper’s henchman picking up victories over the likes of Mr. America (Hulk Hogan) and Eddie Guerrero. After falling out with WWE Piper was released and O’Haire seemed to lose all his momentum. He spent the rest of his time in WWE on Velocity, he had a motorbike accident in late 2003 and was released in early 2004. It is notable that he was never pinned on WWE television during his stint with the company. O’Haire worked in New Japan Pro Wrestling for a short time before moving on to MMA where he has had limited success.
Mike Sanders: Now onto my personal favourite, Mike Sanders. Sanders had tons of charisma and a good look, he always reminded me of a young Shawn Michaels or Chris Jericho he was green in WCW but his mic work was already excellent, how he never made it in wrestling I’ll never know. Sanders was sent straight to HWA after WWE bought WCW. He teamed with current WWE World Tag Team Champion Lance Cade winning the HWA Tag Team titles from Steve Bradley and Val Venis. He was released by WWE in July 2002 allegedly over an incident in a dressing room where he didn’t shake an injured HHH’s hand. After leaving WWE Sanders went on a tour of Europe with World Wrestling All-Stars as their commissioner. Sanders debuted in TNA in January 2003 as a member of the S.E.X group led by Vince Russo. He teamed with Glenn Gilberti (Disco Inferno) and did not have great success before being released in August 2003. Since then he was has worked independents including Vince Russo’s short lived Ring of Glory. Sanders is currently out of wrestling and working as a stand-up comedian in Florida.
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