It was the early 90's, and the spawn of Hell had
arrived. No matter where we turned, we could not escape the horrible
fate that was...The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They had movies. They
had a cartoon series. An action figure line. Comics. CD's. A live tour.
Condoms.
OK, well, maybe not that, but you get the point. The Turles merchandise was Everwhere!!! So naturally, there was a wrestler based on the characters. The WWF had an Elvis knock-off. WCW was trying out a Spider-Man rip-off. And USWA...well, they had Cowabunga.
And like most wrestling ninjas before him (Kato, Kwang, Super Ninja), he was neither Asian nor a martial artist. To make matters even worse, he wasn't even a real turtle. Nope, inside that high-priced realistic get-up was Chris Champion, who is quickly becoming a regular stay at our site. Champion, as Cowabunga (or Kowabunga), emerged in the USWA area. Like 90% of Tennessee-based gimmicks, it was beyond goofy. Naturally, I'm pretty sure Jerry Lawler had some input into it. At some point while using the gimmick, Champion got into major trouble for some sort of sexual involvement with a teenager. Somehow, I don't think Master Splinter would have approved.
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A second Cowabunga, more commonly referred to as The Ninja Turtle, showed up later on in Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling. This time, it wasn't Champion behind the halloween costume, but rather the late Brian Hildebrand, probably better known as Mark Curtis, referee. *Credit for some of the above photos goes to RFis1 |