Rick Martel WWF '93 Return

[wrestlingrecap]

I'm curious to see what people thought of Rick Martel's return to the WWF in the fall of '93 and quickly being inserted as a IC Champion contender despite not being successful earlier in the year and much of '92.

At the time, did people buy into it?

[jason1980s]

Rick left and came back a few times (1988, 1990, 1991 and 1993) and even though the last two times saw him kind of losing on his way out he would come back fresh and looking better. His 6 or 7 years with WWF weren't full so it wasn't like he had two or three years of just straight losing like some guys who were getting older or who had been there 5+ years.

[Milkman Norm]

He was really only inserted into the match because an established heel was needed to lose to Razor Ramon for the title.I bought it because the Model was a guy who had been around for several years.

[BlackoutCreature]

While during that time Martel was never really pushed, he was also never really jobbed out either. I know he had those two PPV losses to Tatanka, but Tatanka was being built up as a potential main event threat, so it wasn't like he was losing to a nobody chump. Martel had also been shown in the past to be able to hold his own against guys like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Mr. Perfect. So yeah, he definitely had enough credibility to be seen as a legit IC Title contender and to put over Razor Ramon.

[Joe Neglia]

The gimmick had gotten a bit stale by '93, but Martel was one of those WWF heels that could be inserted into the higher mid-card at any point and it felt okay.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Martel was really the perfect guy for that spot for the reasons mentioned. He was never really jobbed out at all so he was credible enough to be in that position without looking out of place but at the same time was wasn't enough of a priority that they would feel bad about having him job to Razor. All the other heels in the battle royal were guys they wouldn't want jobbing (Bigelow, IRS, Diesel), tag wrestlers (Quebecers), joke wrestlers who you wouldn't buy in that spot (MVP, Booger), or really in the ring and wouldn't be able to have a good match (Giant Gonzalez). Going by his career trajectory afterwards the only other option they could've went with was Adam Bomb since they started him jobbing not long after and he was still treated a treat at point but I guess maybe they still had hopes for him at that point and didn't want him jobbing on TV either.

[Toilet Paper Roll]

I always hated Martel.

He had the face hot tag bouncing up and down smiling for the crowd thing down to a tee. It was so generic.

He also had the look of some guy who worked at a computer store. It might have been the sensible haircut he had.

[Mozenrath]

Martel was kind of like Val Venis in that, he won enough to not be a total joke, even if you realistically would not expect him to come out on top most of the time. Still, like Val, he always brought his working boots and made himself useful.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Oct 14, 2018 19:22:11 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Martel was kind of like Val Venis in that, he won enough to not be a total joke, even if you realistically would not expect him to come out on top most of the time. Still, like Val, he always brought his working boots and made himself useful.

Hell, they even shared a theme song.

[SmashTV]

I thought it was a bit random that he was inserted seemingly out of nowhere, but he was always good in the ring and would be seen as a credible opponent to defeat. By contrast, he could afford to lose the odd high profile match as he wasn't full time and could be used sparingly.

[CMWaters]

The more random appearance for Martel was the 95 Royal Rumble.

Then again, MOST of the people in that were random.

[Deleted]

Wait, Martel had left before that point? I don't recall much between the '93 Rumble and that IC title battle royal, but I didn't think he left - he was just on weekend shows I thought.

[cjh]

Oct 15, 2018 8:14:15 GMT -5 @knapp said:

Wait, Martel had left before that point? I don't recall much between the '93 Rumble and that IC title battle royal, but I didn't think he left - he was just on weekend shows I thought.

Martel left a few times.

- Quit in the spring of 1991, returned at the end of the year.
- Quit not long after the 1993 Royal Rumble, returned in September.
- Quit shortly after WrestleMania 10.  He made two appearances in 1995, the Royal Rumble and a house show in Montreal a few weeks later (appearing as a babyface, getting into an altercation with Shawn Michaels).

There were also plans to bring him back in 1997 in a tag team with Don Callis, but he instead chose to sign with WCW.

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2018 8:23:05 GMT -5 cjh said:

Oct 15, 2018 8:14:15 GMT -5 @knapp said:

Wait, Martel had left before that point? I don't recall much between the '93 Rumble and that IC title battle royal, but I didn't think he left - he was just on weekend shows I thought.

Martel left a few times.

- Quit in the spring of 1991, returned at the end of the year.
- Quit not long after the 1993 Royal Rumble, returned in September.
- Quit shortly after WrestleMania 10.  He made two appearances in 1995, the Royal Rumble and a house show in Montreal a few weeks later (appearing as a babyface, getting into an altercation with Shawn Michaels).

There were also plans to bring him back in 1997 in a tag team with Don Callis, but he instead chose to sign with WCW.

I knew about the '94 departure, which was the big one, but had no idea that he quit in '91 and '93. Wow.

But then, I was never thinking of wrestler contracts or the dirtsheet sorta stuff back then (or even other wrestling companies outside the WWF). When you noticed someone disappeared, it was the last you saw of them or they just showed up a while later.

[cjh]

Oct 15, 2018 9:13:33 GMT -5 @knapp said:

Oct 15, 2018 8:23:05 GMT -5 cjh said:

Martel left a few times.

- Quit in the spring of 1991, returned at the end of the year.
- Quit not long after the 1993 Royal Rumble, returned in September.
- Quit shortly after WrestleMania 10.  He made two appearances in 1995, the Royal Rumble and a house show in Montreal a few weeks later (appearing as a babyface, getting into an altercation with Shawn Michaels).

There were also plans to bring him back in 1997 in a tag team with Don Callis, but he instead chose to sign with WCW.

I knew about the '94 departure, which was the big one, but had no idea that he quit in '91 and '93. Wow.

But then, I was never thinking of wrestler contracts or the dirtsheet sorta stuff back then (or even other wrestling companies outside the WWF). When you noticed someone disappeared, it was the last you saw of them or they just showed up a while later.

I looked into it a little more, and I'm a bit confused about what happened in 1993.  He was gone from TV from early-March to the end of September, yet he did work some house shows in between.  Unless they called him to substitute for someone, I'm not sure what the deal was.

[edgestar]

Oct 14, 2018 18:04:05 GMT -5 Toilet Paper Roll said:

I always hated Martel.

He had the face hot tag bouncing up and down smiling for the crowd thing down to a tee. It was so generic.

He also had the look of some guy who worked at a computer store. It might have been the sensible haircut he had.

Damn that sensible haircut-having, jerk!

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2018 9:24:14 GMT -5 cjh said:

Oct 15, 2018 9:13:33 GMT -5 @knapp said:

I knew about the '94 departure, which was the big one, but had no idea that he quit in '91 and '93. Wow.

But then, I was never thinking of wrestler contracts or the dirtsheet sorta stuff back then (or even other wrestling companies outside the WWF). When you noticed someone disappeared, it was the last you saw of them or they just showed up a while later.

I looked into it a little more, and I'm a bit confused about what happened in 1993.  He was gone from TV from early-March to the end of September, yet he did work some house shows in between.  Unless they called him to substitute for someone, I'm not sure what the deal was.

I was going to suggest that maybe he just took the spring and summer off, but something of note I noticed during his absence -- Tito Santana left for good in August.

So maybe Martel did leave. I could see the same "he's gotten stale" argument that supposedly was made of Tito toward the end being the reason. Martel probably agreed to work some random shows not too far from home (PA, OH, NY and even Manitoba, which was the farthest away he appeared to travel), since it didn't seem he'd gone working for anyone else.

But then when Tito left - amidst a flurry of other long-term guys who disappeared that spring and summer - Vince felt he needed one of those old "reliable hands" to come back and work with the newer guys, and Martel agreed.

Then a year later, he leaves again.....only that one lasts. (I wanna say they brought him back for the '95 Rumble solely for the historical value of his being the guy who'd been in most Rumbles to date, since he barely lasted 2 or 3 minutes.)

[GuyOfOwnage]

He was a credible, established heel, one that was able to keep his heat no matter how much he lost. Pretty much the perfect opponent for Razor here.

[fw91]

he was also in the 95 rumble. Wasn't that also a return?

[johnnyk9]

Martel has said in a shoot interview when he returned in both 1992 and 1993 his heart wasn't in it anymore to get the Model over he only came back because he tried his hands in real estate at the time and wasn't making money at it