The Patriot....he didn't last long did he?

[TheDieselTrain]

Catching up on my 1997 RAW........Now I don't remember much of him growing up outside of his lil feud with Bret but other than that and coming out to what would be Kurt Angles theme dont remember much about him. Hard to imagine he was specifically brought in just to do the USA vs Canada thing in the middle of the Monday night Wars. Another thing usually when you have someone who is masked they act like it could be anyone but they openly said his real name on commentary so why was he even under a mask?

[BrodietheSlayer]

Forget about The Patriot, Bro. What about Sable and those white cotton panties?


Seriously, though...I think The Patriot came in at the worst possible time to try and get over. He was an 80s superhero gimmick showing up at the time when the Anti Hero was becoming king. He was screwed from Day One.

[Hit Girl]

I liked him.

[Tiger Millionaire]

Wasn't it drug and injury problems that got him more than not being over?

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

He looks enormously out of place in '97 WWF. I wasn't watching at the time but seeing him with that roster is straight-up weird.

[Deleted]

torn triceps in fall 97

[Deleted]

He had some great matches with Bret.

I really liked him.

[4real]

It just seemed bizarre. The roster was stacked with possible WWF Title challengers (HBK, Taker, Austin, Vader, Mankind etc) and The Patriot gets a Title shot.

Yeah I get that he was the American hero going against the guy who hated America but it was still lame.

[Pgarodactyl]

You think THAT'S bad... remember how brief Mr. America's stint was?

[fw91]

Sept 4, 2019 15:00:25 GMT -5 Pgarodactyl said:

You think THAT'S bad... remember how brief Mr. America's stint was?

Can’t hate on Mr.America. That lie detector segment alone redeems it.

[Deleted]

They'd been working on getting him for a few years, so his whole run ended up being a case of bad timing because by the time he got there, the company was a whole different place for a character like him.

He was in WCW in 1993-95, which is where I learned of his existence. He was gone a month or 2 before Nitro began.

If you can believe it, he wrestled in the WWF a few times between 1991 and 1992, as himself (Del Wilkes) and "The Trooper" (going to assume a prototype of The Patriot?) Won a few, lost a few. I mean, if they couldn't make it work then, or weren't interested in pushing him more as a character then, I can only imagine why they tried to grab him in later years when the times were a-changin' away from a gimmick like that...

[slaughterama]

I might be wrong with my timeline here, but didn't he sell the gimmick while technically still under contract with WWF?

[Toilet Paper Roll]

Sept 4, 2019 15:43:00 GMT -5 @knapp said:

They'd been working on getting him for a few years, so his whole run ended up being a case of bad timing because by the time he got there, the company was a whole different place for a character like him.

He was in WCW in 1993-95, which is where I learned of his existence. He was gone a month or 2 before Nitro began.

If you can believe it, he wrestled in the WWF a few times between 1991 and 1992, as himself (Del Wilkes) and "The Trooper" (going to assume a prototype of The Patriot?) Won a few, lost a few. I mean, if they couldn't make it work then, or weren't interested in pushing him more as a character then, I can only imagine why they tried to grab him in later years when the times were a-changin' away from a gimmick like that...

No the Trooper was as the name implies a State Trooper who would write tickets when he beat his opponent. I think he was one half of the last AWA tag champions

[Hypnosis]

If The Patriot had debuted in WWE sometime within the last five years, we could have had a captions thread with him as 60's Captain America.

[koreycaskets]

I always thought he was calling Bret Hart, Bert Hart.

[Jiren]

I remember when he came to England for "One Night Only" and got booed out the building

[DiBiase is Good]

Sept 4, 2019 18:07:56 GMT -5 Jiren said:

I remember when he came to England for "One Night Only" and got booed out the building

The same night they booed the shit out of Bret and thus knackering the whole “Bret’s a face everywhere except the USA” angle.

[bob]

his gimmick was perfect for feuding with the Hart Foundation --- but it always struck me was odd that he wasn't around very long

[tms]

The most Vince McMahon character of the Attitude Era without question. I loved how cornball hokey his voice sounded, like the voice from the Captain America and the Avengers arcade game.

"I can't move!"

[Shark]

Sept 4, 2019 13:35:56 GMT -5 TheDieselTrain said:

Catching up on my 1997 RAW........Now I don't remember much of him growing up outside of his lil feud with Bret but other than that and coming out to what would be Kurt Angles theme dont remember much about him. Hard to imagine he was specifically brought in just to do the USA vs Canada thing in the middle of the Monday night Wars. Another thing usually when you have someone who is masked they act like it could be anyone but they openly said his real name on commentary so why was he even under a mask?

I think they played it up as a thing where he wore the mask and took on the gimmick to embody the American spirit. I remember them doing a interview segment with him on Livewire where he talked about it and about being a good role model for his kids.