Early on in its run, WCW had what seemed liked hundreds of generic masked men running around at any given time. Zan Panzer here was one of them (of course he is, I wouldn’t have started this entry out that way if he wasn’t, would I?). So what sets this masked jobber apart from the rest?
Well, except for a pink and black outfit that not even Bret Hart, or Kwee-Wee for that matter, would get away with?
For starters, under the mask was Brad Anderson, son of legendary wrestler Gene Anderson. As in part of the legendary Anderson wrestling family (despite the fact that outside of Gene and Brad, the rest of the family, including Arn and Ole were fake members).
Billed as being “from the continent of Europe,” ZP accomplished didley-squat during his stint, outside of putting over everyone he came into contact with, including Tom Zenk and the Rock ‘n Roll Express, often in tag matches.
Zan Panzer is probably most infamous for being on the receiving end of a Jim Cornette insult. When informed of the masked man’s name, Cornette responded with “Is he master of the pan flute?” (in reference to mythical Zamfir) and from there on, those of us who remember Zan can only refer to him as Zan Panzer, Master of the Pan Flute.
I don’t know what Brad’s up to these days, though. He had a stint in South Atlantic as The Viper (not to be confused with the 4,529 other wrestlers who have used that name). Kind of ironic, that the one legitimate offshoot of the Anderson clan went on to the least success.