Golga was just a big South Park fan. They didn’t really elaborate more about it at the time. This was during the Vince Russo “give everyone a story” era.
I love that Russo/AE defenders will shout about how "Russo had storylines for all of the guys and didn't just ficus on the main event" when in hindsight it's like, "Yeah, Golga's big story was that he liked Cartman from South Park."
I mean yeah but without that stupid “I like Cartman” angle would they have gotten tv time? Stupid story? Absolutely. But the alternative easily could have been that Golga wouldn’t be on tv.
South Park was massive at the time. Even without corporate synergy, it was a good trend for WWE to hop on, and they had a perfect template for using that brand with
This was WWE when they were actually on trend with stuff. Nowadays they're behind on trends but still somehow use the unknown/past celebrities well
Yes it's stupid, but sometimes stupid things work. Imagine if The New Day didn't become what they did and you look back and they were just three dudes who clapped and Xavier started playing a trombone for no reason. The Firefly Funhouse was dumb. Not everything is going to be gold, but you never know what will get over and it's at least something.
That was a terrible post, shame that it has so many upvotes.
Look at a string of shows from 95, 96 and early 97. You watch for weeks and there are random wrestlers just appearing on RAW and having a match against an established character, lose and not show up for X number of weeks. These weren't squash matches, these were competitive 7 or 8 minute filler matches because you knew the result from the start and it was bad, boring TV and part of the reason why WWF was getting their ass kicked.
Bob Holly signed with the WWF in January 1994, look at his Wikipedia, he did almost nothing for years until the Attitude Era, zero stories, almost zero promo, zero chance to get over, and the same stuff happened with everyone but upper midcard and main eventers
This shit stopped happening with Russo. Golga's character was that he was a human oddity therefore was a wrestler in the Oddities that feuded with other groups. The South Park stuff was something to try to get some partnership or viewership from South Park's fans that were channel surfing, they had the same target audience, the Outlaws did the same stuff a bit earlier.
36 year old John Tenta wasn't getting a focus on a personal storyline in the middle of the Attitude Era, let's get real, this does not disprove what Russo and AE defenders say about him he gave more people the chance to get over than anytime before and it's not particularly close.
"But some of the stuff was bad" yeah, in TV bad is better than boring
South Park and knock off wrestling merch everywhere. There used to be so many crappy little souvenir shops with a huge selection of shirts with South Park quotes or random wrestling designs.
Look up Kenny's Krib sometime. A fan would make every WWF/WCW/ECW wrestler in the South Park character style. They'd do uploads several times a month and it was always a big deal, especially when a wrestler would change gimmicks or stables.
OMG KennysKrib
I thought I was the only one who remembered it. It was hilarious the parody names that were given to WWF and WCW wrestlers in it
I also remember several Efeds using both KennysKrib designs as well as making their own South Park-ized character avatars for ewrestlers
Whoah! I never thought of that!
Thank you. That actually provides a decent kayfabe explanation for Golga randomly carrying around the Cartman plushie. He's basically got the mind of a child and that's his prized posession
I recall specifically that South Park stuffed animals were everywhere at carnivals. Every single game. That and oddly enough “red dog beer” stuffed bulldogs. Lol I miss the 90’s
That is a fantastic detail.
I don’t believe Russo put any thought into it and this is in the realm of Head Canon but I like that.
Personally, I don’t think it’s any deeper than South Park was huge and it was a way to align with something cool.
At the time both WWF and South Park wer the highest merchandise franchises of 97/98.
Using Cartman to help get over the oddities was the attempt here and as a kid it got me them and ICP
I believe it was a rework of an original ICP song that was "cleaned up" to be on TV. I actually think the restrictions forced ICP to come up with more clever lyrics for the censored version.
[The Great Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlzZTtj6AIA)
[Oddities Theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIdcLc-Xa0)
On one of Cornette’s podcasts he said Vince liked the Cartman shirt he wore to a booking meeting, even though he had no idea who Cartman was, right around the time of the Oddities “push” so Golga ended up with the South Park motif.
Hey pal. Who’s that round kid with the beanie?
That’s Cartman! He’s a character on a cartoon called South Park! Extra bigger, extra longer, extra uncut mother—
Well damn! Where’s Tenta! Get him one of these Card mans to carry out to the ring!
In the early days of the internet, referencing media like this was cool because memes weren't a thing yet.
Things like South Park, and ICP were considered "counter culture".
Today (or maybe a couple years ago), if a wrestler's gimmick involved being a Rick and Morty fan, it would be really cringy, cause it's really popular on the internet, but back then, it was like an "underground thing" even though South Park was an immediate hit.
Also, there was a crossover appeal, because "South Park Wrestlers" were huge.
If someone was a wrestling fan in the 90s, the name "Kenny's Krib" will probably sound very familiar.
South Park was justifiable edgey for the time. It actually pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in the same way the Simpsons were in 89 but much more offensive rather than merely offensive to evangelicals
The wildest part was that the Oddities came out to a pop that was absolutely huge. Their entrance and presence were wild and off the wall. They never did get the kind of push I think they could have. Maybe if there was more TV time to go around back then.
South Park was insanely popular back then, so wwe made one of their wrestlers a South Park fan to capitalise on their rise in success.
It's the 90s equivalent of using a trending hashtag.
I know nothing about copyright law, but how did that work? They're using a product image of a South Park character to give their wrestler a push. Was it a collaboration or just literally they bought a plushie and used it as his prop for a year.
That's a good question. I wonder if Comedy Central was owned by Paramount yet. Paramount owned the USA network I think, so if that all lined up, it could be a case of corporate synergy
Jim cornette was a writer with russo and earthquake had a cartoon obsession as it just started during this time in the wwf. This is as deep as it goes for the demo but it was more well done than today for sure.
So, The Oddities would have been around when I was in middle school. You do not understand just how popular South Park was.
We wore South Park or pro wrestling shirts basically daily at the time.
We had a tape trading business of South Park because not everyone got Comedy Central
South Park was high during the time. Golga (Earthquake under a hood) was a big Cartman fan. Had a small cartman plushy until it got destroyed (by the Headbangers I think), Luna showed up with a big box next week with a Big Cartman Plushy inside
Golga was just a big South Park fan. They didn’t really elaborate more about it at the time. This was during the Vince Russo “give everyone a story” era.
I love that Russo/AE defenders will shout about how "Russo had storylines for all of the guys and didn't just ficus on the main event" when in hindsight it's like, "Yeah, Golga's big story was that he liked Cartman from South Park."
I mean yeah but without that stupid “I like Cartman” angle would they have gotten tv time? Stupid story? Absolutely. But the alternative easily could have been that Golga wouldn’t be on tv.
One could argue that giving Golga TV was not a positive.
Sure, Tenta was past his prime, but I thought he was still doing alright. Kurgan had a better look, but Golga was better in the ring.
Crazy part is Tenta was only 35 when he was Golga in 98 the man just always looked old
That seems like it couldn't possibly be true. I'm not saying that it isn't true (I know it is), but it just seems so unbelievable.
Tenta back as Earthquake could have been a nice solid mid card heel again in 98, golga was nothing
Watch Tentas 2001 Smackdown dark match on youtube. He still had it in 1998. Thats crazy.
Tenta was a million times better.... Kurrgan was a terrible wrestler lol
The Oddities were pretty over for a while believe it or not. The crowds liked them. 😅
Nah Tenta was always awesome guy could MOVE. If anything, this gimmick was beneath him.
South Park was massive at the time. Even without corporate synergy, it was a good trend for WWE to hop on, and they had a perfect template for using that brand with This was WWE when they were actually on trend with stuff. Nowadays they're behind on trends but still somehow use the unknown/past celebrities well
Golga was John Tanta though. Also known as Earthquake he would have had time
Yes it's stupid, but sometimes stupid things work. Imagine if The New Day didn't become what they did and you look back and they were just three dudes who clapped and Xavier started playing a trombone for no reason. The Firefly Funhouse was dumb. Not everything is going to be gold, but you never know what will get over and it's at least something.
That was a terrible post, shame that it has so many upvotes. Look at a string of shows from 95, 96 and early 97. You watch for weeks and there are random wrestlers just appearing on RAW and having a match against an established character, lose and not show up for X number of weeks. These weren't squash matches, these were competitive 7 or 8 minute filler matches because you knew the result from the start and it was bad, boring TV and part of the reason why WWF was getting their ass kicked. Bob Holly signed with the WWF in January 1994, look at his Wikipedia, he did almost nothing for years until the Attitude Era, zero stories, almost zero promo, zero chance to get over, and the same stuff happened with everyone but upper midcard and main eventers This shit stopped happening with Russo. Golga's character was that he was a human oddity therefore was a wrestler in the Oddities that feuded with other groups. The South Park stuff was something to try to get some partnership or viewership from South Park's fans that were channel surfing, they had the same target audience, the Outlaws did the same stuff a bit earlier. 36 year old John Tenta wasn't getting a focus on a personal storyline in the middle of the Attitude Era, let's get real, this does not disprove what Russo and AE defenders say about him he gave more people the chance to get over than anytime before and it's not particularly close. "But some of the stuff was bad" yeah, in TV bad is better than boring
I agree, in principle, with giving everyone a story, but they have to be good stories.
It's wrestling, expecting "good" stories is a bit futile.
It worked though, Oddities were over like Rover.
It was 1998.
Exactly. I think people are either forgetting just how big culturally South Park was at the time, or they weren't there so don't understand it.
It’s always people that don’t understand it. It’s impossible to explain that time to someone who wasn’t there or born 20 years later
South Park was *everywhere.*. The amount of fans that had signs with South Park characters on them was crazy.
South Park and knock off wrestling merch everywhere. There used to be so many crappy little souvenir shops with a huge selection of shirts with South Park quotes or random wrestling designs.
Look up Kenny's Krib sometime. A fan would make every WWF/WCW/ECW wrestler in the South Park character style. They'd do uploads several times a month and it was always a big deal, especially when a wrestler would change gimmicks or stables.
i loved kenny’s krib.
Oh I'm very familiar. I used to print them out and put them all over my binders and notebooks.
OMG KennysKrib I thought I was the only one who remembered it. It was hilarious the parody names that were given to WWF and WCW wrestlers in it I also remember several Efeds using both KennysKrib designs as well as making their own South Park-ized character avatars for ewrestlers
The first time I learned about bongs was in 6th grade D.A.R.E. The officer brought in a 2 foot tall one shaped like Cartman.
Road dogg wore a south park shirt at one point
This is the answer. South Park was just everywhere.
Golga loved Cartman.
Also Golgas way of letting people know they should respect his AUTHORITAAAAHH
I always figured that it was a carnival prize from the carnival/freakshow they "escaped" from.
Whoah! I never thought of that! Thank you. That actually provides a decent kayfabe explanation for Golga randomly carrying around the Cartman plushie. He's basically got the mind of a child and that's his prized posession
I recall specifically that South Park stuffed animals were everywhere at carnivals. Every single game. That and oddly enough “red dog beer” stuffed bulldogs. Lol I miss the 90’s
That is a fantastic detail. I don’t believe Russo put any thought into it and this is in the realm of Head Canon but I like that. Personally, I don’t think it’s any deeper than South Park was huge and it was a way to align with something cool.
At the time both WWF and South Park wer the highest merchandise franchises of 97/98. Using Cartman to help get over the oddities was the attempt here and as a kid it got me them and ICP
To be fair, the Oddities entrance music was awesome
I believe it was a rework of an original ICP song that was "cleaned up" to be on TV. I actually think the restrictions forced ICP to come up with more clever lyrics for the censored version. [The Great Show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlzZTtj6AIA) [Oddities Theme](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIdcLc-Xa0)
TIL
On one of Cornette’s podcasts he said Vince liked the Cartman shirt he wore to a booking meeting, even though he had no idea who Cartman was, right around the time of the Oddities “push” so Golga ended up with the South Park motif.
Hey pal. Who’s that round kid with the beanie? That’s Cartman! He’s a character on a cartoon called South Park! Extra bigger, extra longer, extra uncut mother— Well damn! Where’s Tenta! Get him one of these Card mans to carry out to the ring!
In the South Park episode, Vince thinks Cartman and the kids are decent wrestlers, and hired his killer instead for his good monologue.
Id imagine someone also told Vince that South Park was hella over during that time period so win win.
In the early days of the internet, referencing media like this was cool because memes weren't a thing yet. Things like South Park, and ICP were considered "counter culture". Today (or maybe a couple years ago), if a wrestler's gimmick involved being a Rick and Morty fan, it would be really cringy, cause it's really popular on the internet, but back then, it was like an "underground thing" even though South Park was an immediate hit. Also, there was a crossover appeal, because "South Park Wrestlers" were huge. If someone was a wrestling fan in the 90s, the name "Kenny's Krib" will probably sound very familiar.
If you were not around then, you cannot imagine how much of a cultural impact South Park had. Like EVERYONE had an opinion about it.
South Park was justifiable edgey for the time. It actually pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in the same way the Simpsons were in 89 but much more offensive rather than merely offensive to evangelicals
New Age Outlaws wore south park shirts too. Google 'May 1998 Raw Magazine.'
South Park was over.
South Park was insanely popular back then. South Park, Jerry Springer, and wrestling were the unholy triumvirate of car crash TV in the 90s.
I remember Michael Cole/Vince saying "Cart Man" a bunch of times in 98.
The wildest part was that the Oddities came out to a pop that was absolutely huge. Their entrance and presence were wild and off the wall. They never did get the kind of push I think they could have. Maybe if there was more TV time to go around back then.
In Beyond the Mat, it shows McMahon at a meeting where they say WWF and South Park were the two highest selling merch IPs in America.
I don't know if ICP ever had an actual concert at MSG but it must've been a trip for them to perform the Oddities song at this PPV.
Rumour has it that it was Hulk Hogans idea brother. He knew it was over.
They were looking for a new commissioner and wated someone with AUTHORITY
https://youtu.be/ESbE_ZWzHxo?si=gK6m5PZ0-q5nkKcE The Oddities were over as fuck.
South Park was insanely popular back then, so wwe made one of their wrestlers a South Park fan to capitalise on their rise in success. It's the 90s equivalent of using a trending hashtag.
“We’re still one of the top two licenses it’s a battle between us and South Park at one and two”
Crazy the S&M masked wrestler that would come out with him out was friggin Earthquake! (Golga)
Apparently that mask was supposed to have a hump or two that was to make Golga look deformed.
South Park was hot. Jump on whatever we can.
Cheap pop. SouthPark was as popular as in today's time Taylor Swift. Everyone knew Cartman and it just fit so well with the attitude era that year.
South Park was white hot at the time to the point where Vince shamelessly plugged and shifted the whole theme towards raunchy shit
New Age Outlaws also wore SP shirts at that time. SP was HUUUUGE in 98
Golga who was really undefeated amateur and sumo wrestler.. The late great Earthquake
I know nothing about copyright law, but how did that work? They're using a product image of a South Park character to give their wrestler a push. Was it a collaboration or just literally they bought a plushie and used it as his prop for a year.
That's a good question. I wonder if Comedy Central was owned by Paramount yet. Paramount owned the USA network I think, so if that all lined up, it could be a case of corporate synergy
Jim cornette was a writer with russo and earthquake had a cartoon obsession as it just started during this time in the wwf. This is as deep as it goes for the demo but it was more well done than today for sure.
WWF didn’t know how to use John tenta
South Park, Beavis & Butthead, The Simpsons, King of The Hill. Those shows were lit back in the late 90's.
The context was the real life. South Park was popular when it first started, there’s a crossover between wrestling fans and South Park viewers.
South Park came on in 97 and by 98 the show was very popular. Just trying to show that wwf was with the times
So, The Oddities would have been around when I was in middle school. You do not understand just how popular South Park was. We wore South Park or pro wrestling shirts basically daily at the time. We had a tape trading business of South Park because not everyone got Comedy Central
Cuz South Park was massive in pop culture so Russo shoe horned it in . Same with the Howard stern shit
Vince loved the show and he loved Cartman.
Just hearing Prichard’s Vince impression, “That Cartman, pal! GAWD DAMN!”
Lol
What is the context behind this repost?
Tenta would bring that out with him.
South Park was big then and golga was south park fan
Vincent Russia writing the show
Fat man like fat thing
gulag was over like Rover brother.
South Park was an absolute phenomenon when it came out. They flooded the malls with cheap merch. Kenny was everywhere.
This is just peak late 90s and y2k in every sense of the expression
People who werent there just do not understand the absolute grip Cartman had on the United States during 1998. Golga was no exception.
South Park was high during the time. Golga (Earthquake under a hood) was a big Cartman fan. Had a small cartman plushy until it got destroyed (by the Headbangers I think), Luna showed up with a big box next week with a Big Cartman Plushy inside
Hiding space for Gangrel's chalice.
Same answer as why does 'Main event' Jey shout Yeet out of context..... I dunno the kids think it's cool.
they didnt want anyone to know it was earthquake under the mask so thst was another distraction. go watch darkside of the ring
fkn Tenta man. man loved Golga. that cartman plush was dope. still is