Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
It rightly doesn’t live in the memories of many wrestling fans that when Sunny stopped managing Skip and Zip the Bodydonnas, she was replaced by Cloudy, portrayed by independent wrestling Jimmy Shoulders. Today we ask Whatever Happened to Cloudy.
The year is 1996 and the World Wrestling Federation isn’t exactly a hot commodity anymore. It was a down time for the company, as Vince McMahon was still relying on cartoonish gimmicks and outlandish storylines for its overall product. A perfect example of this was the tag team of the Bodydonnas. An extremely talented team consisting of Chris Candido (Skip) and Tom Prichard (Zip)…but one that was saddled with a ridiculous personal trainer type gimmick.
Probably the only saving grace to the gimmick…was their manager/valet named Sunny aka Tammy Sytch. As Sunny was growing in popularity….the WWF decided to have her break away from the Bodydonnas and manage other teams like the Smoking Gunns and the Godwinns. Skip and Zip were left without any guidance and without a manager.
So in an attempt to garner more attention to a Sunny-less tag team…the Bodydonnas asked fans to write in and audition to become their new manager. This of course in reality was nothing more than a ruse….because the WWF had their plans set in stone for quite some time.
The WWF hired an independent wrestler nicknamed ‘Handsome’ Jimmy Shoulders…a wrestler who happened to be a long time friend of Chris Candido. It seemed…at least on the surface…that the move was an attempt to ease the blow of Candido no longer being able to work with his longtime girlfriend in Sytch. Regardless, the move was made…Sunny was out and Shoulders was being brought in.
To make sure Jimmy Shoulders and the Bodydonnas got over….he wasn’t used as a bad ass bodyguard or enforcer of the group. He wasn’t even used as a buzzed cut..bleach blonde third member of the group named Rip or Trip. No, he was named “Cloudy” sometimes spelled “Kloudi” and wasn’t even used as a man….at least I don’t think so.
That’s right, instead of implementing any of the above ideas…Vince McMahon thought it would be cool…if not funny to have Cloudy dress as a woman…but was no secret was a man in drag. Did he or any of the brain trusts in the WWF at the time really think that a man dressed in a sports bra, skirt and blonde wig was going to get “over” with fans?!?
Think about that for a second…while fans were being force fed Cloudy as a babyface….the same fans were suppose to hate the ever beautiful, vivacious Sunny as a heel. Ah yes, WWF logic as it pertains to the mid 1990’s. Needless, to say, the gimmick was a huge FAIL and it wasn’t long before Cloudy disappeared and the Bodydonnas were no more.
So, whatever happened to Cloudy?!? After getting released by the WWF, Shoulders had a brief stay in ECW. Various injuries and personal demons ended his wrestling career not too much longer after. Jimmy Shoulders found God and became a chaplain and motivational speaker. He also owns and operates a successful construction company in his hometown in New Jersey.
