Every 'Next Big Thing' In Wrestling History: Where Are They Now?

20. Tom Magee

Bret Hart Vs. Tom Magee, thought lost forever until it was exhumed in 2019, revealed who the next Ace of the World Wrestling Federation was. 

Vince McMahon thought it was Magee, the guy with the hairspray metal poodle barnet and Greek God physique who couldn’t work a lick. It was in fact - eventually - Bret Hart. 

Hart was uniquely superb in the match. He knew that Magee could do literally less than nothing and treated him like a proximity mine. He charged at Magee like a rocket, ran away from him in cowardice, and expressed his sheer fury that he “couldn’t” get near him. Hart had to do everything in the spaces between moves; if he made contact with Magee, and he had to do that on occasion, the match would blow up. To Hart’s eternal credit, it only blew up once or twice. 

After Magee was exposed as a dud, he did some shots for All Japan Pro Wrestling, in which he essentially wrestled like a small child copying the first karate film they’d ever watched. The WWF gave him some more dates in 1989, but Magee simply was not cut out for it. 

Magee presently works as gym trainer, as far as anybody seems to be able to tell, but did resurface to talk about the match in 2019. Seemed like a very sweet man.