http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dw8xJ4LWUY Waylon Mercy had some nice, peaceful debut promos. You know what I mean? If you just listen to the content of Mercy's video, it sounds like he could be debuting in the present day. They were far ahead of their time. But they first aired back in 1995 when the company was filled with clowns and repo men. They felt ground-breaking, as we discovered there was going to be a new kind of wrestler, one that we had never even imagined in the squared circle. Based off of Robert DeNiro's character in Cape Fear, Mercy was a Hawaiian shirt wearing Southern gentleman who had a sinister, dark side to him. In the vignettes, you could tell that there was some madness hiding just below the surface, just waiting to break out. This was going to be good. After weeks of these videos, he finally debuted. The act had so much potential, but it was all for naught. After only three months, Mercy had suffered one too many injuries throughout his career and could no longer compete. The gimmick was fantastic, but WWE never got to take full advantage of it...until nearly two decades later. On the current roster, you can see that Bray Wyatt's character is heavily inspired by Mercy, right down to the white pants and Hawaiian shirt.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com