Shortly after the August 30 episode had begun, which was taking place in Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, NY, a recap of the last episode was shown, and of course it included the explosive Kiss performance
It even included some alternative shots not shown during the live performance
That got me even more excited to see Brian Adams now, and what will happen next, if it even was possible to be more excited
While I eagerly awaited this next episode, I didn't really expect Kiss' character to show up so soon. Somehow assumed it'll take a while for him to resurface and that it'll be done in a big way. To my surprise, Brian Adams appeared in the very next episode freshly on the aftermath off Kiss' grand performance. I was not disappointed.
The Kiss appearance did not just come and go. Right off the bat, the commentators Tony Shiavone and Bobby Heenan recalled and praised Kiss' performance and announced multiple times throughout the episode that Kiss' new wrestler will appear tonight
Tony Shiavone: It was an exciting night, last week on this program, you saw the top of the segment, that Kiss debut their brand new wrestler in WCW, his name is The Demon, and we are gonna have an appearance from what I understand, he is here tonight! The Demon will be with us live tonight here on WCW Monday Nitro
Bobby Heanan: Well that was tremendous seeing Kiss but this man Demon I can't wait to see him in the ring, to see what he does
Little later yet another montage from Kiss' last week appearance was shown, from even more alternative angles,
and more hype on the Kiss character
Tony Shiavone: Ladies and gentleman what a night it was a week ago. Kiss singing on Monday Nitro and debuting their new wrestler The Demon. It happened last week. The Demon! In the likeness of Gene Simmons of Kiss and he is here tonight!
What an appearance. Very rarely do stars in our sport get a debut like The Demon got last week. Kiss coming out singing their song God of Thunder. It's always been Gene Simmons' own song and now God of Thunder will bring in The Demon wherever he comes all around the world, all the venues, all the television tapings, a massive man, and we'll be seeing him tonight here as well
Bobby Heenan: But that was something the other night in Vegas wasn't it, when Kiss came onstage
Tony Shiavone: That was quite a moment, that was quite a Nitro moment I would think and I'm saying it obviously being a Kiss fan myself, certainly was, even if you're not a Kiss fan, maybe not a fan of rock'n'roll, you had to appreciate the debut The Demon made. We're expecting great things from that man.
Bobby Heenan: What an entrance
When a new-to-WCW wrestler named Vampiro, who represented rap duo ICP, interrupted a fight between Evan Karagias and Mike Enos, the live version of Got of Thunder started playing, the version from last week's performance. Vampiro looks on with curiosity
The whole place goes dark
Tony Shiavone (lead commentator): "What we have here. Oh, I know what we have, that's God Of Thunder! That's Kiss and God of Thunder! And here comes the demon!!!"
The character’s sarcophagus mystically appears at the stage entrance, accompanied by mist, lasers and moody pink/blue light, rising upwards, and opens up
When the flares are burning out, Adams, in his deep voice, challenges an intimidated and spooked Vampiro.
"Hey Vampiro! Not here...not yet..not..this time! Aaargh!".
Vampiro at the time was a relatively new character in WCW who was also representing a musical act, Insane Clown Posse. The two rock rappers were actually also fighting alongside Vampiro at the time. For me it was a great time in WCW with lots of celebrities. According to Eric Bischoff, he chose ICP as Adams’ villains because of the real life feud between the bands - ICP badmouthed Kiss, claiming Kiss got their then-latest Psycho Circus theme idea from them, and even included their grieviance about it in the lyrics to one of their songs
After the challenge, Adams vanished. It was the coolest cameo I could imagine. Mystical, augmented with giant props, concussion bombs, lasers, mist, strobes, moody lighting and more. Every trick and special effect was utilized.
Shiavone played up the character saying "The Demon makes an abrupt and mysterious appearance here on WCW Monday Nitro. What a gigantic man, and a threat to Vampiro. Now is not the time but he gave a little foreshadowing there that the time is very very soon". His co-host, Bobby Heenan, answers, "Big big man he's gotta be well over 300 pounds. Tremendous shape. What would you say, 6'7, 6'8?"
Now it seems to me as if they pretend that they don't know it's Brian Adams which is contradicting what the show itself and the story said - the show made it as clear as possible it's Brian Adams (Chapter 4). At the time I didn't pick up on them pretending they don't know, nowadays I know it was a common practice when a wrestler was given a new identity everyone played make believe pretending they were literally 'new' people like their characters. But in here it was a different situation because we were shown the backstory for Brian Adams' change of characters, and the same commentators were watching it too commenting on it! It was even that more confusing since I still thought he is called Brian Adams. Since at that point I did not yet know anything about Kiss, I thought they just describe Adams as A demon of Kiss, not THE Demon as a new character name.
From Kissonline
Anyway, I couldn't wait to see the character again and hoped he will be used sporadically to keep the mystique but I didn’t know that it will be a month before Brian Adams appears again.
Pro photo from that appearance was published years later in Pro Wrestling Illustrated Magazine.
It was part of a collage showing the many incarnations of Brian Adams
Next: Chapter 7: Brian Adams Fights Without The Makeup - October 4, 1999