Brian Damage
The ‘If Factor’ are a series of articles that takes a look at real scenarios in pro wrestling that at one point or another were suggested, planned, considered…but did not get the green light to continue. What would the landscape of professional wrestling look like if these ideas came to fruition?
The If: The idea to create a modern day wrestling Nazi
WWE writer Dan Madigan wrote and created various storylines and characters including the Kane stalking Lita angle, the feud between JBL and Eddie Guerrero and helped develop the gimmick of Mordecai. He also penned the script to WWE’s horror movie ‘See No Evil’ starring Glenn ‘Kane’ Jacobs. According to Madigan, at the time during the Ruthless Aggression era, Vince McMahon was still trying to push the envelope of creativity for the company. Something that began a few years earlier with the Attitude Era in the company.
In 2004, Madigan sat in a creative meeting with other writers and McMahon. In that meeting, Vince was looking for a good way to introduce wrestler Jon Heidenreich to WWE fans. Madigan knew Vince wanted larger than life characters that got fans talking. Madigan was a fan of classic zombie movies and came up with an idea so controversial, it rendered even McMahon speechless. Madigan’s idea was to introduce Heidenreich under the name of ‘Baron von Bava.’ He would be a Nazi stormtrooper who was cryogenically frozen up in the French Alps in 1945. Years later, it would be manager Paul Heyman who would be responsible for thawing out and bringing back to life this von Bava character.
To emphasize his idea, Madigan recreated a Nazi goosestep and did a Nazi salute in front of the entire creative team. Madigan said Vince’s face looked like his car was about to be destroyed by a speeding train. McMahon didn’t utter a word, he simply got up and took his briefcase and walked out of the room. The head of WWE creative Ed Koskey told Madigan that that was the first time he ever saw Vince speechless like that. A day later, Madigan said that someone from that meeting leaked his Nazi gimmick idea to the “dirt sheets” a day later and Madigan was subsequently fired.
Madigan recalled that he was already skating on thin ice with McMahon after he pitched the entire Hirohito gimmick that was actually greenlit by Vince. Madigan said that he should’ve used better judgement before presenting his idea, but did say that as a WWE writer, he was tasked to create outlandish and controversial gimmicks and storylines to get fans talking. Madigan felt that a Nazi character would be the ultimate heel for the company.
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Cecigi
Heyman is many things, but he’s not a miracle worker.
Nicholas M.
Besides the obvious reason that suggesting a character like that is a bad idea, Dan Madigan was also unaware that Paul Heyman’s mom survived the Holocaust. I can only imagine what his reaction was to this pitch.
Joey K
The fact the pitch is beyond awful that Vince canceled the meeting and went straight home. Someone did the impossible on making a workaholic Vince quit work for the rest of the day.
David Fullam
Basically all he did was recreate Captain Marvel’s old enemy Captain Nazi. Bava is of course an Italian name, not German. I take it he took it from the greatest Horror filmmaker of all time Mario Bava? Doubt Mario would have liked the so called honor. As sickening as Vince is, even he knew that was garbage.