The Dynamic Dudes

The Dynamic Dudes

Shane Douglas is probably best known to wrestling fans as The Franchise of ECW. Although he has had forgettable runs in both the WWF and WCW, it is ECW where Douglas really seems most at home. Of course, that might be due to the fact that in the WWF he was an evil professor, while in WCW he was originally one half of a tag team known as the Dynamic Dudes.

The Dudes were supposed to be a major babyface tag team, comprised of Douglas and Johnny Ace. They came to the ring with brightly colored “cool” beach outfits, and would often carry skateboards with them. Of course, they never actually RODE them (now that would have been dorky), nor used them in any way like beating opponents over the head (now that would have been cool). They were just out there to look cool and act cool and be cool. The problem is, they were about as cool as a Vanilla Ice comeback album. Douglas looked like a total dork, and Ace wasn’t much better.

After a short stint, WCW management came up with a good idea. They had Jim Cornette “advise” the Dudes while also managing The Midnight Express (who were faces at the time). This set up for a Dudes-Midnights match, at which point Jim Cornette turned on the Dudes, thus making the Midnights heels as well.

Except that the crowd actually CHEERED the move, and the Midnights were STILL faces.

The Dudes disbanded shortly afterwards. Douglas floundered around before heading to ECW and later the WWF (and later ECW again and then back to WCW). Ace headed to Japan, and is now a major player in the Japanese wrestling scene.

Discuss This Crap!