Hi Scott,
A question that I don't think has been asked before: what do you think is the best use of a "plant" in the audience?
The one that stands out most for me is the time when Dino Bravo was feuding with Ultimate Warrior. Bravo and Jimmy Hart came to the ring and bragged about Bravo being stronger than Warrior. To prove his point, he says he can do pushups with anybody in the audience on his back, and asks for volunteers. Without any additional prodding, everyone in the audience points to this huge shy guy sitting in the eighth row. They confidently bring "John" to the ring, and Bravo bounces the big guy up and down with pushups. Now Warrior has to come down to duplicate the feat or else appear as a wuss. But when he tries, "John" jumps down on his back, and everyone proceeds to beat down the Warrior. As a result, "John" got over even more than Bravo, and The (Canadian) Earthquake would go on to the main event of Summerslam less than a year later.
Did any other use of an audience plant ever work out so well?
I can hardly even think of any other than Tenta, so I’m thinking no.
Don’t know if this counts but when Raven fought Goldberg after Spring Stampede 98 and the “fans” threw him back over the guardrail when he tried to run. I thought that was a pretty neat touch.
Rob Conway also debuted as a plant in the audience. IIRC they said he was a soldier cheering on the Dudley Boyz but he ended up costing them a match against La Resistance.
That Raven-Goldberg match … that was done so well that part of me is STILL convinced that they were planning to have Raven keep the belt by countout, but the fans said ‘no’ and tossed him back — even though it’s pretty obvious that if that were true they’d re-do the Flock swarming and have Raven escape down the ramp instead, rather than pin him in the ring.
Santino Marella – got himself and Bobby Lashley over pretty well.
One of my favorites as a kid was “woman” as a plant in the old WCW Saturday night studios. She became Rick Steiner’s girlfriend and then betrayed him as it was all a big plan by Kevin Sullivan. Good stuff for a 10 year old horny kid. I thought she was damn fine.
I remember marking out seeing Paul London as a “fan” that Ric Flair accidentally punched when he was swinging wildly during a brawl in the crowd. I’m fairly certain this was during his feud with The Undertaker. But it wound up being 50% more hilarious after the fact when they had London press charges and have Flair arrested. I don’t know why, but that always stuck with me.
Anyone know where I could find a video of John Tenta’s debut? Youtube and DailyMotion are turning up nothing…
Earthquake debut here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px0pacHE7OQ
Two things jumped out at me watching that clip:
1. I miss the hell out of Jesse as a heel commentator.
2. Warrior wouldn’t even sell a heel beatdown as more than a minor inconvenience? What an ass.
Another nice touch of this angle that I liked is that Tenta is not sitting RIGHT IN THE FRONT row.
That was absolutely brilliant how they pulled that off.
Great acting from Tenta. Came across as a shy, gentle giant from the audience. Totally convincing.
I could have sworn at that Kurt Angle debuted as a plant during one of those Tiger Ali Singh “anti-American” segments circa 1998 or so.
Also, I believe Steve Blackman debuted as a plant on RAW sometime around the same time period.
That was Kurt’s first appearance on Sunday Night Heat in March of ‘99, but then he just did house shows and dark matches until Survivor Series of that year, and his first appearance was never mentioned.
I am fairly certain that Hillbilly Jim debuted as a plant.
Beat me to it. For a few weeks, Hillbilly Jim was in the front row of each week of TV- the announcers did point out the genial hillbilly in the front row which made it pretty obvious there was something up with him.
When Bobby Heenan, John Studd and Ken Patera attempted to cut Hulk Hogan’s hair (as they had done a few weeks previous to Andre the Giant), Hillbilly Jim stormed the ring and became a part of the WWF.
For me it starts and ends with Cheryl Roberts.
I remember as a 12-year-old boy thinking she was hot and fully understanding why Rude would hit on her. I don’t remember her at all now so I’ve no idea if actually was hot or not.
She was 80’s hot. Anyone who grew up in that timeframe knows exactly what I mean.
But I feel the same way. I remember thinking that it was weird such a skeevy looking guy like Jake could get such a hot wife. Probably one of the reasons I decided I wanted to be a wrestler when I grew up.
“I remember thinking that it was weird such a skeevy looking guy like Jake could get such a hot wife.”
Why do you think they called him “The Snake”?
I believe Francine was also a plant in ECW as some chick that had a crush on Stevie Richards.
Serena is well on her way to making this list.
What ever happened to Brett Dibiase?
He’s in FCW teaming with Joe Hennig as The Fortunate Sons, ands they’re the FCW tag champs.