Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Back in the 80’s and 90’s, it was very common to see some no name wrestler go up against a proven star of a promotion. Whether that be from the WWF, NWA/WCW, AWA or elsewhere, these nomads of professional wrestling were there to make the stars look great. They were known as enhancement talent, preliminary wrestlers or as many fans have come to know them…”jobbers.” While fans were clamoring to see big time match ups, these “squash matches” served a very important purpose. While perhaps not appreciated at the time, they were just as important as the stars themselves.
The thing is, while we didn’t pay much attention to these so called jobbers during that era, when we look back at old shows now…you will find countless stars of the future. Jobbers who would later on become the stars themselves. It was not uncommon for young wrestlers to be used as enhancement talent to start out their careers. In the case of WWF/WWE, Vince McMahon would even use former stars of the territory days and former stars of his own promotion to job to bigger stars of that era. In the 1980’s, you could see former tag team champion Tony Garea and former WWF champion Pedro Morales losing a lot more than actually winning. This piece isn’t about the faded stars turned jobbers, this piece is about young and up coming wrestlers who were not well known at the time, doing the J-O-B for the superstars of the era.
In 1992, a young Rob Van Dam appeared on WWF’s Wrestling Challenge program as a jobber named ‘Matt Burn.’ As RVD explained it, he was just starting to gain some traction on the independent scene as Rob Van Dam and didn’t want anyone to recognize him on TV doing jobs. So he changed his name to Matt Burn and wore a shirt inside out with plain blue tights. He received 150 bucks that night in Tampa, Florida.
Of course, it would take a few more years on the indie circuit and a brief run in WCW as ‘Robbie V’, before Van Dam became one of the hottest stars in pro wrestling for ECW. The “Whole F’N Show’ won various titles during his career including the ECW television and heavyweight titles and WWE and TNA world titles.
