What Coulda Been… Wrestlemania XV

2. Double J & ‘The Rocket’ Owen Hart def D’Lo & TJ Thunder

This… This is gonna be a rough one. This was Owen’s last Wrestlemania as we’d lose him only two months after this PPV. On top of that somber note, most of these guys just played variations of themselves/the same gimmick their whole career, so the match wouldn’t look terribly different… except for one key thing: D’lo.

Jeff Jarrett has always been Jeff Jarrett. You could say his country music gimmick or his misogynistic persona were separate gimmicks. However, it’s like Jericho where the change is subtle enough to still be within character while giving us a whole new facet of the gimmick. For the sake of this match though we see Double J coming to the ring in his country singer persona flanked by his bodyguards, Southern Justice (the repackaged Godwins). His partner and co-champion is half of the dynamic tag team High Energy: Owen Hart. If you don’t remember High Energy, it was Owen and Koko B. Ware in checkerboard patterns and more neon than an early 90’s aerobics video.

Tonight the arrogant musician and the neon blur defend their titles against TJ Thunder and the Gangstas’ head of security D’Lo. Think about that for a second. The Gangstas had New Jack in it, so anything they needed security from must have been truly terrifying. Since D’Lo was in charge of that duty, it’s safe to say the Smokey Mountain Wrestling incarnation of his character was a bit more hardcore than the WWE version. So while Double J may be flanked by some large rednecks, D’Lo will have New Jack and Mustafa Saed with baseball bats in his corner. That may be enough to change the outcome here. New Jack often forgets he’s in a wrestling match and ends up attempting murder in the ring.

Oh, then there’s Test’s old gimmick TJ Thunder. Honestly, Test had three gimmicks during his two years on the indies and I can’t find a thing on any of them. Looks like all his personas were equally forgettable.

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