Ernest Miller was good friends with Eric Bischoff, and taught his son karate. That's how he landed a cush job in WCW despite having no in-ring experience. But why the hell did Vince McMahon sign him? It's not like he was picked up like many of the other former WCW wrestlers to join The Invasion angle. That would have made some sense at least. They needed an army of somewhat recognizable wrestlers due join the ranks in the war. Miller, though, missed out on that completely. In October of 2002 he was brought in as an announcer for the company's Saturday Night show Velocity. He was fine, but forgettable. Somehow it was good enough for him to get back in the ring and debut as a wrestler at the Royal Rumble on January 25, 2004. It didn't go well. He was out of the company in February 10, 2004, just over two weeks later. The thing is, Miller had charisma, and was a decent talker, but he couldn't wrestle. He seemed to have no idea how to compose a story in a match, and just relied largely on karate kicks and chops for his offense. All McMahon had to do was record Nitro or Thunder over the prior couple years to find that out. Perhaps it was The Cat's extended amount of time facing guys like Glacier and Wrath in WCW that hadn't sufficiently prepared him for life in the WWE
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
