10 Most Disastrous Wrestling Debuts Ever
6. The KISS Demon
Just as Glacier was supposed to be WCW’s videogame tie-in, The KISS Demon was the company’s attempt at leaching from the Gene Simmons-fronted band’s success. Eric Bischoff was desperate to crack mainstream markets at the time, and he threw literally hundreds of thousands of dollars at the band to let them run the KISS Demon character.
The band agreed, and the Demon debuted following a post-main event concert by the band on an episode of Nitro. To say the segment fell flat would be a gross understatement: The KISS Demon’s first appearance is literally the lowest-rated segment in WCW Nitro history. Bischoff’s attempt at grabbing mainstream attention failed at the very first hurdle, and The KISS Demon’s planned push was immediately abandoned.
Terry Funk handily defeated the Demon on his debut, and Sting crushed him in under a minute at the 2000 New Blood Rising PPV, widely considered one of the worst events in WCW history. Still under WCW contract when the company was bought-out by WWE in 2001, The Demon opted to head back to his previous career as a baseball coach rather than wrestle a tryout for the company.
Let’s be honest, it was probably for the best...