I often catch a lot of flack for being a pro wrestling fan, but i’m ok with that. People constantly hit me with the same barrage of wrestling being fake and pre determined. OF COURSE IT IS!!!!!!! You know what else is fake and predetermined?.... Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and many other popular forms of entertainment yet nobody questions those. I could rant about this forever, but let's get back on track here. Pro wrestling can be enjoyed for many different reasons. Some watch for the action, the violence and the story lines. Others love it because of the larger than life characters. However there is another reason to love this great “sport” and that's for comedy purposes. The most unintentional form of comedy to me are wrestling jobbers. For those of you who don’t know what a jobber is, it's basically wrestlers brought in to lose to bigger name wrestlers and make them look good. Jobbers aren’t really used in the current wrestling landscape, but they were a staple up until the late 90’s. They tend to either look like super boring non athletes, or are saddled with horrible gimmicks.They usually have a boring or strange name to match the look as well. This to me is pure comedy, and a very key part of making wrestling entertaining. While there are too many jobbers to count, here are my favorite five jobbers that appeared in the WWE (WWF), in no particular order.
The Goon
In the early to mid 90’s, the WWF was all about crazy outlandish cartoon characters, and The Good fit the bill 100 percent. He was billed as a hockey player who was "kicked out of every league he ever participated in." He even had ice skate shaped boots and a sweet hockey music entrance theme. Needless to say he was awful and was primarily a jobber. The gimmick didn’t last long though and he was gone within a few months. It wasn’t until years later I found out The Goon was actually “Wild” Bill Irwin, half of the the tag team The Long Riders, who I was familiar with from 1980’s AWA shows.
Barry Horowitz
Just look at this guy! Who wouldn’t love to watch and laugh at a guy with a curly mullet, who literally give himself a pat on the back as his gimmick. I first remember seeing “Bad” Barry in the WWF, but he would later become just as famous of a jobber in WCW. Every now and then Horowitz would somehow sneak out a win on an even lower level jobber. This was usually seen on Saturday or Sunday morning programming. That alone should tell you how bad the WWF was in the mid 90’s. Regardless, I will never forget Mr. Horowitz and watching him pat himself on the back.
Terry Gibbs
Of all the jobbers I’ve seen in my life, Terry Gibbs is the one I remember most, as he seemed to be one of the most used jobbers on tv. Not to mention he had a boring name, boring ring gear, and looked like someone's dad just trying to earn a paycheck. Although I’m sure he earned at least a few victories, I don’t recall him ever winning a match on tv. The poor guy also had to take on the Ultimate Warrior in the warriors debut match for the WWF. Talk about a tough job. Regardless, Gibbs seemed to stick around on TV for several years. I can only think that's because people either enjoyed laughing at him, or he truly was someone's dad trying to relive his glory days.
Brooklyn Brawler
The Brawler is probably one of the most well known jobbers in the history or professional wrestling. He always looked like he was literally brought in off the streets, and thrown in the ring. His attire and presentation made him seem like a guy that would always start fights in a sleazy bar of some sort. Now i DO remember the brawler picking up a few wins here and there. He was used in the 2000’s on WWE tv to take on big names. He even beat Triple H in a match! The gimmick was great as he competed for the WWF sporadically up until 2013. Brawler would also go onto perform under other jobber gimmicks such as Abe “Knuckleball” Schwartz, Kim Chee and fake Doink the Clown.
Barry Hardy
Barry Hardy isn’t as well known as some of the other jobbers, but I distinctly remember him because of his look. One can’t deny the awesomeness of the black and white skunk looking mullet Hardy rocked. Add to that a sweet fu manchu and the sweet neon and black striped singlets and you have a winning combination for a 90’s jobber. I can’t say i remember many standout matches from Hardy, and I know he had some success on the independent circuit. He will forever stand out to me though as looking like the cliche late 80’s/mid to early 90’s pro wrestler.