Barney William Irwin was given one of the most inexplicably bizarre gimmicks in WWF history, and this was still during the period of careers-as-wrestlers era of cartoony wrestling. He was given the nickname The Goon, that of a hockey player who had been kicked out of every league he had ever played in. His attire was complete with hockey jersey, hockey stick, and boots that looked like ice stakes. If there was ever a point in which a non-wrestling fan wouldve really criticized the WWF for making over-the-top characters, it would be this one. Why on earth would a hockey player decide to be a wrestler? Unsurprisingly, his character didnt last long. He arrived in the summer of 1996, as Stone Cold Steve Austins character was beginning his meteoric rise, and the WWF was beginning to take a different turn in company direction. Had The Goon arrived in WWF maybe three years earlier, he mightve lasted more than a few months. At least he got to be in WrestleMania X7s Gimmick Battle Royale, though.