10 WWE New Generation Stars You Don't Remember

There was a lot to love about WWE’s New Generation Era, which lasted from 1993 until 1997, namely the excellent matches routinely put on by the likes of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.

There were also a lot of terrible gimmicks to suffer through, though, such as The Goon, Mantaur, and Thurman ‘Sparky’ Plugg. At least they were memorable, though, which can’t be said for these 10 talents. 

These are 10 WWE New Generation Stars You Don’t Remember. 

10. PG-13

Before Slam Master J and John Cena, two other white rappers had a spot in WWE. The team of JC Ice and Wolfie D formed PG-13 in WWE, having been a hit for USWA in the early 1990s.

Thanks to USWA acting as something of a feeder farm for WWE, PG-13 got a shot in October of 1995, winning a squash match on one episode of Raw before losing to WWE Tag Team Champions The Smoking Gunns a couple of weeks later. 

In both matches, Wolfie D and JC Ice looked like total and utter goofs, but they were brought back a year later to rap The Nation of Domination to the ring from Survivor Series 1996 until their releases in the Summer of 1997.  

PG-13 then returned to USWA and wrestled for ECW until October 1997 before popping up for a brief spell in WCW in late 1999. 

9. Shinobi

It took Al Snow a long time to make it to WWE, having been considered one of the ‘best kept secrets’ on the independent scene for a while prior to signing with Vince McMahon’s organisation in August of 1995. 

Unfortunately for Snow, it took him several gimmicks and an excursion back to ECW before he found the gimmick that really got him over. 

Avatar, the masked man who removed his mask before he wrestled, certainly wasn’t it, nor was being one half of the New Rockers. What some fans may not remember is that Snow had yet another failed gimmick during the New Generation Era. 

Shinobi, a ‘ninja assassin’, had been a character Snow had used on the indies several years earlier and he made two televised WWE appearances in February of 1996. In his first appearance, Shinobi lost to Shawn Michaels on Superstars. In his second, he was jobbed out to Ahmed Johnson on Raw. 

He put the black suit on one more time when he wrestled Tajiri on Raw over eight years later as The Masked Ninja, after which Snow was unmasked.

8. Alex Porteau

New Orleans native Alex Porteau wrestled for the likes of World Class Championship Wrestling, World Wrestling Council, and Global Wrestling while also popping up as a jobber for WCW and touring Japan in the 1980s and 1990s. With WWE’s roster looking particularly thin by the Spring of 1996, Jim Cornette suggested bringing in a group of experienced journeymen to flesh things out, one of whom was Porteau. 

Nicknamed ‘The Pug’, Porteau portrayed a singlet-wearing, no-nonsense amateur wrestler who came out to the Steiner Brothers’ old entrance music. It was a bit more Eric Angle than Kurt Angle, though, and The Pug was primarily used as an enhancement talent, losing to the likes of Who, Mankind, Goldust, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley. 

Porteau wasn’t around for long and he was gone from WWE by early 1997. He worked a few more enhancement matches in WCW before a tour in Japan with FMW. Porteau then finished up with wrestling as his main profession in the early 2000s.

7. Freddie Joe Floyd

Well-travelled veteran Tracy Smothers was one of the most beloved wrestlers in the business, gaining plenty of friends, fans and admirers during a decades-long journeyman career that saw him wrestle here, there and everywhere. 

Between stints in WCW and ECW, Smothers had a run in WWE as Freddie Joe Floyd (the name being a rib on Jack and Gerald Brisco, whose real names were Freddie Joe and Floyd). 

Floyd debuted on the June 29, 1996 episode of Superstars, scoring a victory over Justin Bradshaw. It was a good start, but a rare win for the man billed from Bowlegs, Oklahoma, who was primarily used as an enhancement talent from then until he left WWE around a year later. Though he was mostly a jobber, Smothers did get to lock horns with some big stars during his run, including Steve Austin, Vader, Mankind and Triple H. 

Smothers was a colourful and entertaining character in other promotions and territories, but as the nondescript Freddie Joe Floyd, he was barely given the chance (or the time) to make an impression on the WWE audience. 

6. Rad Radford

Diehard WWE fan Louie Spicolli began working for the promotion when he was fresh out of wrestling school in 1988, albeit as a jobber and not an actual WWE star. 

Spicolli would have to go elsewhere, namely Mexico’s AAA (where he wrestled as ‘Madonna’s Boyfriend’) to show what he could really do in the ring. 

He was signed by WWE proper in 1995 and repackaged as Rad Radford, a grunge rocker who declared his love for Courtney Love. With his flannel vest, backwards baseball cap and a name like Rad Radford, Spicolli may have been pretty good in the ring, but none of it really mattered because the presentation was so lame. 

The most memorable thing about his WWE spell was the storyline where Spicolli, for some reason, wanted to join The Bodydonnas, inevitably getting kicked out of the group because his physique wasn’t up to par. 

Radford wrestled often enough on WWE television, but most of the time he was putting over bigger stars like Diesel and Ahmed Johnson, and Spicolli was let go after an overdose-induced seizure put him in the hospital in early 1996.  

Spicolli would continue to struggle with addiction until his tragic passing from an overdose in February 1998. He was just 27 years old.

5. Abe 'Knuckleball' Schwartz

WWE tried to capitalise on popular culture during the New Generation era with the introduction of Abe ‘Knuckleball’ Schwartz, a character based on the impending MLB shutdown of 1994. Schwartz was portrayed by longtime jobber Steve Lombardi (AKA The Brooklyn Brawler) who had done a similar gimmick called MVP (Most Violent Player) a year earlier. 

Schwartz, who had a baseball painted on his face and came out to a version of ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game’, was a heel who blamed fans for the strike. He only wrestled two televised matches, winning them both over jobbers in August 1994, during which he performed some baseball mannerisms like kicking imaginary dirt at the referee, before the character was axed and Abe was sent packing. 

Altogether, the character was featured far more on house shows from August to November. Considering the gimmick was tied to the strike, it was only ever going to be a short-term deal.

Abe ‘Knuckleball’ Schwartz did make a post-New Generation cameo during a segment featuring Triple H and Vince McMahon on the 15th anniversary edition of Raw, however.

4. Salvatore Sincere

After several years of matches being few and far between, Tom Brandi grew in prominence in the early 1990s wrestling for WCW and ECW as Johnny Gunn, as well as touring Japan and working for other independent leagues. 

Having gained so much experience around the world, Brandi was brought to WWE in 1996 as one of the various jobbers-with-gimmicks that were brought in around that time. Renamed ‘Salvatore Sincere’, Brandi played a stereotypical Italian character who insincerely claimed to love everyone. 

Nothing about Salvatore Sincere made much sense, least of all the pink-and-white garb he wore. Outside of some matches with a young Rocky Maivia, the highlight for Sal was a feud with Marc Mero over Sable, which resulted in him reverting to his real name in an effort to become a proper star. 

This gimmick failed too and Brandi was out of WWE by April 1998. Brandi continues to wrestle to this day, though, often portraying The Patriot, something he has done since the early 2000s without Del Wilkes’ approval. 

3. Kwang

After wrestling for years in Puerto Rico and Japan as TNT, Savio Vega was hired by WWE in late 1993 and given the gimmick of Kwang, a ninja. 

Kwang made his official televised debut to zero fanfare in the 1994 Royal Rumble match. Unfortunately, Kwang was a last-minute substitution for the injured Ludvig Borga and, after entering the match at number four, he lasted just six minutes before being chucked over the top rope by Diesel. 

WWE had Kwang (who didn’t actually do anything that would make you think he was a ninja) go over in some early squash matches on TV, but evidently soon lost interest in the character and fed him to big guns like Bret Hart, Razor Ramon and The Undertaker. 

Vega ditched the Kwang gimmick in mid-1995 and began wrestling under his real name while aligning himself with his ‘childhood friend’ Razor Ramon, which was certainly an improvement. 

2. The Executioner

On his day, there were fewer better big men in pro wrestling than Terry Gordy. A legend in Texas due to his World Class exploits as a member of the Fabulous Freebirds, Gordy spent much of his career overseas wrestling for All Japan and occasionally worked for WCW. 

A physical dynamo, his career just about came to an end after Gordy overdosed on a plane ride from Japan to America in August 1993, with the subsequent coma leaving him with permanent brain damage. Gordy had to relearn how to walk, talk, and wrestle.

He never was able to perform to the same high standard he had set but, astonishingly, WWE opted to bring him in during the New Generation Era, mostly as a favour to Michael Hayes. Gordy didn’t debut under his real name, though, and he was brought in as The Executioner, making his debut at the In Your House: Buried Alive pay-per-view by helping Mankind and Paul Bearer put The Undertaker six feet under.

The Deadman got his revenge in an Armageddon Rules Match in one of only four televised Executioner matches before Gordy left WWE in January 1997. Gordy continued to wrestle on the independents until his passing of a heart attack in 2001. 

1. Man Mountain Rock

Darryl Peterson was an All-American amateur wrestler who decided to pursue a career as a pro, training in the notoriously difficult New Japan dojo during the late 1980s and doing a couple of jobber matches for WWE before gaining notice in WCW as guitar-playing rocker Maxx Payne. 

The high point of Peterson's WCW run was his tag team with Cactus Jack, which resulted in a series of hard-hitting matches with The Nasty Boys. Patterson soon fell out of favour and left WCW, resurfacing in WWE in February of 1995 as Man Mountain Rock. 

Locking horns with other wrestlers you may not remember such as Charlie Hunter, Bob Cooke and The Black Phantom, the most remarkable thing about Rock was the WWE-logo-shaped guitar he played in the mini concerts that preceded his forgettable matches. 

Peterson didn’t get much of a reaction in the arena, but he was a heat magnet backstage and was fired in October of 1995. Peterson remained on the indies until retiring in 2004.

His WCW name later prompted Peterson to sue Rockstar Games, Remedy and more in 2003 over their Max Payne series, accusing them of stealing his in-ring name. The lawsuit was settled out of court.