Chapter 8: The New Demon Appears: Dale Torborg - January 19th, 2000

The 90s were gone. 2000s began and the world was changing rapidly. Internet was already widespread and so much larger and more popular. Trends and music started to change. 2000 was already a whole different world than 1999. And also, WCW by that time didn't even resemble the WCW I had so much fun following just few months prior. Its as if it was a completely different wrestling company. The look was also revamped in March, simplified, and the colors matched WWF (red ropes) and the "flash" was gone. It was now a very bland show with completely uninteresting characters and stories. Almost everyone I knew was gone as well from the "old" WCW. There was nothing about it that I found appealing. The look, the theme, the wrestlers, the storylines , which, like in WWF and now WWE are, were nothing more than just two muscled guys in speedos being mad at each other. 

So why did I bother to watch it anymore? I really didn't. I mean, I just had it on in the background, since there was nothing on worth having the tv on to, hoping that maybe at least Hogan will come back. Still hoping for a turnaround of some kind. Sometimes I'd look at the screen and just shake my head as to "What happened? How far it had fallen from just what it was last year". I didn't know at the time that it was all a result of management change.

The payout for me for sticking around would actually happen in late January, but I wouldn't see it till about at least a month later. My cable network dropped the TNT channel and I could no longer watch WCW live. I did find it on a German channel DSF that showed the show about a month behind. 

Anyway, unbeknownst to me yet, on January 19th, 2000 The Demon returned to WCW, and it wasn't the same person behind the makeup anymore. The character wasn't in the same league anymore either. The new Demon, the replacement for the original introduced by Kiss themselves in a hugely hyped event, appeared for the first time on a WCW show called Saturday Night, which was a small additional show which showed usually D listers and debuts of first timers and trainees. So, oh how the mighty had fallen. Well I haven't seen him at this show, I never watched Saturday Night show, and I first saw the new Demon on the Nitro episode a week later, so I'll describe my initial reaction in the post about this Demon's first Nitro show (on Januray 31st)

As I've read years later, The whole storyline and Kiss Demon character was dropped almost instantly when Eric Bischoff lost power, just two weeks after the character's debut. So his deals and ideas were dropped as well. Contracts were signed however, and the Kiss Demon character had to appear. The suits who were against the idea and now in power wanted to mock the character and degraded it to D listers, to rub it in Bischoff's face. But what about the man behind the makeup? Who was he? Well, this time it was a newcomer Dale Torborg who only had five matches behind him as Dale Torborg (and a short lived character MVP, an evil baseball guy). 

Dale Torborg: "JJ Dillon (WCW Commissioner) called me and said 'Brian's out, do you want it' and I said 'absolutely, I'm in' (Major Wrestling Figure Podcast)

"I was really pumped. It was a dream of mine to represent Kiss, which I feel is the greatest band in the world" (ultimateclassicrock.com)

He was also a part of a WCW pit crew team

To give him credit though, while not of the same star quality or size as the original Adams, he actually championed to be the character from the beginning since he really was a true hardcore Kiss fan all his life

Here are photos of Dale when he was a kid and a teenager. A lifelong diehard Kiss fan

He also fought for the character and tried to make the best with what he had and what he could do. But I didn't know that yet. Adams also reportedly said that he doesn't really know that much about Kiss and is the wrong person for the character, while Dale is a hardcore Kiss fan since childhood. And again, not just a casual or "big" fan, he was and is in the Kiss Army, and as deep into Kiss all his life as it gets for us Kiss Army recruits

So either way, here the character was back, but leaner, played by a newcomer wrestler (his identity would be revealed much later), and on a small show. That's a complete contrast to the character's origins. Not that Torborg was a small guy, he was 6,6 and weight 260 pounds! But he wasn't as big as his predecessor

Kissonline.com reported on the character’s comeback, future plans and that Dale Torborg is taking over the character

Kissonline.com also posted a photo from the early makeup test for Dale Torborg, with a quick costume mockup

So on Saturday Night episode on January 19th, The Demon, as he was now officially billed as, appeared in full gear (albeit without the sarcophagus) to the sound of the live version of God Of Thunder which was performed on Nitro, to fight with a cannon fodder (at the time in WCW) Bobby Eaton. 

Even though this show was taped first, it aired later than Demon’s actual second appearance, so the commentators say that his first fight was with Terry Funk and talk about it (commenting for this show was recorded later obviously)

Tony Shiavone: The Demon made what I think, is a very very impressive debut. You might say that how can you say that, he lost to Terry Funk. I think you can make great strides in any sport even by losing. I mean, think about it. The Demon has not wrestled a very long time he's a young man. (...) He was not intimidated by Terry Funk he went toe to toe with him on Wednesday night and I think even in the loss, we were very impressed with The Demon

Scott Hudson: No question about it, he is an athlete, first and foremost but he's also a demon, look at that face (...) it's one thing to have the entrance, but can you back it up on the ring?

Shiavone: That's a good point, you can intimidate, you can have the great entrance, Goldberg has the best, he intimidates, but when the bell rings Goldberg can get it done, but the question is can you follow up a great entrance with what it takes in the ring 

For all the shortcomings, The Demon did present himself well and showed strength and defeated Eaton with relative ease. His finishing move is called here The Kiss of Death but that will be changed very soon

Again, I haven't seen this TV debut originally, but I think it's fine. He looks mean, he looks determined, he conquers.

The character's "budget cuts" are evident in his much simplified costume. There were some big changes in it, and one of the most noticeable one was the belt. The original belt had the Dragon Boot design, with scales and a dragon boot face on the front, while Torborg's Demon has a much simplified studded leather belt look, similar to the 74-76 costumes. The gauntlets also are gone, replaced with black wraparounds. The shin guards and the knee pads have been replaced with simplified versions if used, but were mostly gone altogether

Two fights later, the entire top of the suit, the harness and all the Gladiator type of pads and arm sleeve, will also be gone forever, and so The Demon will just fight bare chested with the simple belt and pants.

Also, since it is a different person, the makeup is noticeably different. It's obviously the same design but aesthetic differences are clear, as Dale Torborg was actually applying his own makeup while the original Demon had it applied by Andreas Freitas from AFX Studios. Dale's makeup went through some changes in his career as well, but was always noticeably thicker and larger than his predecessors. He would go on to play with the design further by elongating bottom points later in his career

Makeup and costume weren’t the only differences. Dale had a  very different approach to the character. While Adams used his large presence and was more of a bulldozer, leaner Torborg was very panther-like and theatrical. He would crouch, make sudden moves, grimace, act like a ghoul or a vampire in a silent film.

The Demon actually fought another match that day according to some sources, with another cannon fodder D lister,  Rick Cornell, who looks a little like Tong Po from the Kickboxer movie. 

Again, The Demon looks menacing here. What a great design this character is

His opponent, while looking strong, gets defeated pretty easily with The Demon's move The Kiss of Death

I guess The Demon wanted to try out the other version of his suit - he clearly had the leather pants in the first fight, but in this one he wears a spandex version of it. In the future he will alternate between the two. He also fought without the top part of his costume in this fight

Here is a the first promotional shoot of Dale Torborg's The Demon. You can also tell how low key this was. Photos from this session were used a year later in Wrestling World magazine

Next: Chapter 9: The Demon vs Terry Funk - January 25th, 2000