10 Wrestling Moments That Couldn't Live Up To The Hype
6. Mordecai (WWE, 2004)
You cannot just slap goth/supernatural sh*t on a character and create a new Undertaker, but WWE seem content to continue steering creative cul-de-sacs giving it a go.
For much of 'The Deadman's decades of destruction, there's been somebody else potentially poised to poach his spot as some sort of all-powerful and knowing force, able to summon magic and mystery as well as "soup bones" or "the best pure strikes" or whatever they're calling his punches this year.
2004's Sports Entertainment spook generator spat out Mordecai, a vision of its creator Kevin Fertig (later ECW's Kevin Thorne) that Vince McMahon apparently loved. Fetrtig once relayed the meeting, noting that “I told Vince my idea of a religious zealot who was enraged by sin. I laid out my idea of long coats and a cross, almost Pope-ish, and vignettes with a confessional where I punch through the confessional booth and choke out the sinner. Vince’s eyes blew up and he looked at me and said, ‘Holy sh*t.’ Laurinaitis grabbed me when I walked out and said, ‘Son, you’re about to make a million dollars.’”
Narrator: He did not make a million dollars. And McMahon was half right.
Strangely, much of whatever flowed through their collective imaginations was made real. The look and vibe was captured, but it felt hokey when brought off the page. It didn't dissuade photoshop fantasy bookers from making the graphics, just the company from making the match.