Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
“Everyone come see the greatest show, Invite everybody that you know…” – Insane Clown Posse
Today on the blog, we look at the faction known as ‘The Oddities’ in the World Wrestling Federation in the late 1990’s. How did they come together? Whose idea was it? What was the original idea for the group? Ladies and gentlemen, let’s all gather around and read about the freak show that came to town…
Before we can talk about the Oddities, we must first talk about the faction that the group was spun off from. The South African Truth Commission and later simply known as just the Truth Commission were a group that dressed in military fatigues and marched to the ring. The Truth Commission, once led by The Commandant, would later be taken over by a wrestler named ‘The Jackyl’ aka Don Callis. The faction would slowly disband, due to the changing times and fans not buying into the gimmick.
The Jackyl and Kurrgan the Interrogator splintered off together with Jackyl acting as Kurrgan’s manager. According to Don Callis, the idea was to turn the Jackyl character into a “David Koresh” type cult leader. Callis even wanted to film vignettes in Waco, Texas…the sight of where the real Koresh’s cult lived and died. Vince McMahon turned the idea down, feeling that the gimmick was too dark…even for the WWF. Vince Russo had an idea to rename Callis…’The Messiah’ and have him act like the second coming of Jesus Christ.
He would be dressed all in white and start preaching from a pulpit to WWF fans while descending from the arena’s rafters. That gimmick was axed by Vince McMahon as well. Vince Russo then approached Callis with an idea to have him manage a bunch of carnival type freaks. Russo called the idea the Parade of Human Oddities. Creative then asked Callis who else did he want in this faction and was given three choices to choose from. The choices were Al Snow, John Tenta or Steven Regal.
Callis wanted a wrestling technician to complement his giant Kurrgan, so he initially chose Al Snow. He felt Snow was perfect considering his success in ECW with the Head gimmick. Callis was turned down, so he then chose Regal and was turned down again and then told he would be getting Tenta. John Tenta who was formally known as the Earthquake in the WWF, lost a considerable amount of weight and could no longer be used under that gimmick. McMahon thought Tenta would be perfect for the Oddities as he could wear a mask to hide his true identity. John Tenta would be renamed Golga.
The 7 foot behemoth known as Giant Silva was also added to the group…just based on his size. Silva was new to wrestling and was extremely green inside the ring. Luna Vachon also joined the Parade of Human Oddities. The Oddities led by their ringmaster the Jackyl were angry at the world for looking at them as freaks. Of course, they played as heels..until Wrestlemania 14.
After Wrestlemania 14 ended, their was a party to celebrate the event. Kurrgan’s wife wanted to dance and Don Callis begged him not to do it. Callis feared if Vince McMahon saw him dance, it would put ideas into his head. Despite the warning, Kurrgan danced with his wife and Callis said he immediately looked at Vince McMahon. He said he could see the glimmer in his eyes enjoying seeing the big man dance. Callis knew it was the beginning of the end for him. Sure enough, about a month later the the Oddities turned babyfaces with the help of the extremely popular Sable.
The beautiful Sable accepted them as not freaks, but fun loving human beings and danced with them. Hence, the Jackyl was kicked out of the faction and the group became “good.” To help get the Oddities more over as faces and hipper with a now ‘Attitude Era’ fan base….the Insane Clown Posse were added to the faction. ICP certainly helped the group get over…but the Juggalos were more interested in seeing ICP than the Oddities themselves.
Luna Vachon and the ICP eventually turned heel on the Oddities and in their place was none other than George ‘the Animal’ Steele. He was dubbed as ‘The Original Oddity’ and served as their manager. The partnership was brief and by February of 1999, the Oddities were released from the WWF.