Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
2 Cold Scorpio had established himself as a successful wrestler both domestically and internationally. Having wrestled in places like Japan, Mexico and Europe….as well as WCW and ECW….Scorpio was a recognizable name in wrestling. In 1996, 2 Cold Scorpio joined the World Wrestling Federation and was given a completely new identity. An identity that floundered in the United States largest wrestling/sports entertainment company.
As mentioned earlier, Scorpio had found a great deal of success overseas having trained in the infamous New Japan Dojo. He won titles in both WCW (tag team championship with Marcus Bagwell) and ECW where he was a four time TV champion and also held the tag team titles with the Sandman. Despite all the success in ECW…2 Cold Scorpio was a victim of the company’s lack of finances. Often times, 2 Cold had to wait to be paid for his work in ECW…even though he was a regular on television.
Without financial stability in ECW, Scorpio was looking for other options. His good friend Leon ‘Big Van Vader’ White had joined the World Wrestling Federation and convinced Scorpio to come follow him. Vince McMahon was definitely interested in bring Scorpio in. At the time, ECW’s Paul Heyman had a working agreement with Vince McMahon. The WWF would often send ECW talent to borrow or use to help develop for Vince. It wasn’t unusual for Vince to snag an ECW talent…with permission from Heyman.
In the case of 2 Cold Scorpio, Paul Heyman wasn’t exactly enthused with losing him to any other organization. It wasn’t just because Scorpio was a talented wrestler…it also had to do with money. According to Heyman, he had a business relationship with Tommy Boy Records. Every time Scorpio went out to wrestle…Heyman would use Tommy Boy music. Heyman said that ECW would receive $1,000 each time their music was played for Scorpio’s entrance. The money would then go into production costs for television, paying wrestlers, etc.
Heyman approached McMahon with this concern, so McMahon agreed to pay the $1,000 fee each week just to get his hands on Scorpio. Of course, this was the WWF and Vince wasn’t going to have 2 Cold Scorpio continue to use the same gimmick. According to Scorpio…McMahon was a fan of singer Rick James and wanted to create a character based on him. The name McMahon chose was ‘Flash Funk’ and everything about the character was created by McMahon.
That also included his two backup dancers called the Fly Girls or later as The Funkettes…Tracy and Nadine. Scorpio had suggested bringing them into the company as his dancers. Scorpio knew Tracy and Nadine from his days working in WCW. They appeared in a music video/vignette with Scorpio back in the early 1990’s. When McMahon sat Scorpio down to present this new gimmick, he told hScorpio that the gimmick might take a year or two to get over with fans. That irritated Scorpio who felt that he could get anything over with fans as long as he could be himself in the ring. He was determined to get the Flash Funk character over in a matter of a couple of months.
Flash Funk made his WWF debut in November of 1996 at the Survivor Series. According to Scorpio, despite the flashy outfits, dancers, music and name…he remained the same character he always portrayed and wrestled as all over the world prior to joining the WWF. While Flash Funk was racking up victories and introducing WWF fans to his high flying style…all seemed like Flash Funk was getting over earlier than Vince McMahon predicted. That is until Wrestlemania 13 in March of 1997.
Reportedly, Flash Funk’s drug use was becoming an issue….but also Funk’s wife had allegedly accused him of sleeping with the Funkettes. That led to some arguments that got back to WWF management….as chronicled here. Before long, the Flash Funk experiment was coming to an end. The Funkettes Tracy and Nadine were let go from the company. The on screen excuse is that they feared Chyna. Soon Flash Funk was jobbing to other talents within the company. As his stock was plummeting, the Flash Funk name was dropped and he was once again known as ‘Scorpio’.
After a series of losses, Scorpio would form a faction with Al Snow and others known as ‘The Job Squad.’ It was a faction basically consisting of lovable losers in the company. Scorpio was offered an opportunity to try and redeem himself by competing in the WWF Brawl for All. Funk was a last minute replacement for Ken Shamrock and actually made it to the quarterfinals before getting beat by The Godfather.
In 1999, Scorpio was released by the company after asking management for some time off. He would eventually return to the company now known as WWE in 2006. The Flash Funk gimmick was brought out of storage…but the relationship was very brief and was once again released in 2007.