Mike Rotunda had worked in the WWF in the 1980s as part of a babyface tag team called the US Express, with his brother-in-law and future Four Horsemen founder, Barry Windham but his greatest fame as a professional wrestler happened while under one of the most boring gimmicks ever created by anyone, anywhere. In 1991, returning to the WWF after a spell with NWA-affiliated JCP, later WCW, Rotunda was repackaged as I.R.S Irwin. R. Schyster, an Inland Revenue Service tax man gimmick (itself a reworking of the even worse Wall Street stockbroker heel character hed used for the last year in WCW). While it was certainly an improvement over his terrible Gordon Gekko imitation (no one gives a stuff about stockbrokers, but tax collectors have been loathed since Biblical times), the character had no legs whatsoever. Only Rotundas sound abilities in the ring and complete commitment to what little heelwork he could get out of the role made him one of the most reliable bad guys in the WWF between 1991 and 1995 that, and his partnership with The Million Dollar Man in tag team Money, Inc and stable The Million Dollar Corporation. Where DiBiase would later unintentionally drag Steve Austin down, he helped elevate Rotunda by association. I.R.S. became one of the most famous WWF heels never to win a title, with crowd-pleasing feuds with Bret Hart, Razor Ramon, the Steiners and the Legion Of Doom, and most famously with the Undertaker.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
