10 WWE New Generation Era Superstars You Totally Don't Remember

5. Abe ‘Knuckleball’ Schwartz

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WWE.com

Little known fact time: Abe 'Knuckleball' Schwartz was actually a 1994 retread of Steve Lombardi’s old MVP baseball gimmick. He'd used that in 1993, but it vanished before anybody watching WWF TV really knew what was what. In '94, Lombardi played ball again due to the ongoing Major League Baseball strike.

That was topical, so the WWF's bigwigs decided to give Abe a shot.

The MLB players strike lasted until April 1995, but Schwartz wasn't going to get that long out of this reframed gimmick. In fact, Vince McMahon got bored of Abe after only a few weeks. It was back to playing The Brooklyn Brawler for stalwart Steve. The face paints and moaning at wrestling fans stopped.

Lombardi did assume the role again as a one-off in 2007, but that was done so Triple H could make a joke about the Brawler being too busy to show up. Anyone unfamiliar with obscure mid-90s characters would've had zero clue what was going on there.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.