10 Wrestlers You Didn't Realise Wrestled For WWE In 1997
A throwback look at some curious obscurities.
To call 1997 a transitional year for the World Wrestling Federation would be an understatement. The likes of Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Mick Foley, Kane, and The New Age Outlaws would begin their ascent into the upper tier of the promotion. That same tier thinned out a bit with the departures of Bret Hart, Psycho Sid, Davey Boy Smith, and the death of Brian Pillman. In many ways, the end of 1997 for the WWF looked drastically different than how the year had started.
Through the wacky and wild events of the year, the roster seemed to constantly be in flux, and would even feature brief appearances from some unlikely faces for the time. Some would go on to become bigger stars much later in their careers, while others were names of the past, and looked a bit anachronistic in the new-look Titan Sports.
Some of the wrestlers worked one-off matches as enhancement talent, and their place on the list may draw a piqued "hmm". Others were seemingly working to parlay their brief stays into longer tenures, but in their cases, it wasn't meant to be.
If you thought 1997 was an odd-enough year for the WWF, try to reconcile these wrestlers having been involved in the equation.
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10. Chris Candido
"No Gimmicks Needed" had flown the WWF coop in the fall of 1996, unceremoniously quitting the company after a number of incidents involving The Kliq. It didn't seem like he would ever return, having rediscovered his niche in ECW, where he could just be a wrestler, and not a gaudy-looking BodyDonna. That's why it was weird to see him resurface on Raw one night in June 1997.
At the time, Raw was a haven for brief matches featuring non-WWF talent, and Candido popped up for a match with USWA's Brian Christopher (the future Grand Masta Sexay). Candido was just nine days removed from an ECW Championship match against the revered Terry Funk, and worked a short match with Christopher before Rob Van Dam caused a disqualification.