Just looking at that image above…I can do no more than shake my head. Seriously, you are going to throw masks on those two and no one is going to figure out that’s Ron Simmons and Butch Reed? Like I get when you put a mask on a recognizable wrestler to play it for laughs for a few weeks (Mr. America, Juan Cena), but in this instance it went on for MONTHS on end!
On the plus side, we got oodles of fantastic beatings for the likes of jobbers such as the two men they’re spotlighted against today. God bless Mike Thor, but rolling into the ring and calling yourself ROCK HARD RICK when you are looking across the ring from Simmons and Reed? You’re just asking for it.
Make no mistake about it, this isn’t a technical masterpiece – it’s just two guys pummeling their opponents into tiny pieces. And Woman (that would be the late, great Nancy Sullivan) at ringside looking on and just being a smokeshow of legendary proportions only added to the act. Just stunning.
But these guys weren’t getting paid by the hour and they knew it. A brutal spine buster (gee, who could THAT be) is followed by Simmons slingshotting Thor to the corner where Reed flies off with a shoulder block seemingly aimed at the guy’s head. The three count was academic.
It’s funny, when Doom first debuted they were overshadowed to a great degree by other teams in the company at the time like the Steiners, the Road Warriors, and the Skyscrapers. Eventually they’d lose the masks as the NWA was transitioning to becoming WCW, and the pair would not only win tag team gold, but become the longest reigning tag champs in WCW history. Not bad for a couple guys who fans weren’t supposed to know!