July 18, 2000 saw a change in Vampiro's camp. The rappers Insane Clown Posse returned to WCW and Vampiro goes back to representing them, adopting their clown makeup design. He did represent them in the late 90's but only wore Alice Cooper-like subtle splotches around his eyes.
The Demon also dyed his hair darker and has one strip of blonde instead of three
So where does The Demon fit into all this? Honestly, I'm not sure what he was doing there. The ICP and Vampiro go way back (well, not way back, but back), and The Demon doesn't fit there at all. He kind of comes in with them but as a fifth wheel, an element that doesn't fit. He follows them in the background.
Tony Shiavone: The Demon, the new protege under the spell of Vampiro (...) The Demon is doing the bidding of ICP
The reason why they're all out is because Vampiro is fighting Great Muta - another wrestler who uses makeup on his face, but not a very interesting one if you ask me. Muta defeats Vampiro and Vampiro takes it out on The Demon for not interfering. So The Demon is a non-fitting fifth wheel here, who gets a beating as the only one in the group if something goes wrong without his fault. With Russo the writer back, we're back to degrading and demeaning the character. It'll be the worst time for the character. And he gets a beating from everyone! So now he's also a pushover.
Tony Shiavone:"He's been beaten like a dog and treated like one ever since he's been in his power"
This is where WCW lost me as a viewer. Seeing this I thought this is just too much, too disrespectful and too degrading to the character and this was where I drew the line. This was the end of watching WCW for me at the time. The writer clearly had an issue with Demon's character
The Demon was barely even a shadow anymore. On the following Nitro, on July 24, 2000, he's also around the ring along with ICP making sure Vampiro gets his revenge while fighting The Great Muta. Here's The Demon trailing many feet behind the trio, barely visible. Awful
Anyway, Vampiro has his rematch with The Great Muta, and a wrestler named The Cat, who I always thought was extremely dreadful, is a referee. Suddenly it is revealed that The Great Muta had joined Vampiro and will now be another one of his goons. The Demon steps onstage and it looks like he's gonna help The Cat, but instead he performs the Love Gun move on him to prove his loyalty.
