Let’s take another dive into fantasy booking land with another Wrestling Salvage Yard. This time, we’re looking at Ron Reis, better known as Reese in WCW.
That Other Giant In WCW…No, Not Kevin Nash
At over 7’0, Reese was a monster of a wrestler who really stood out. Upon his WCW debut as the Yeti at Halloween Havoc 1995, it was noticed that he was noticeably taller than The Giant, who was being billed as 7’4 at the time. Apparently, he was only an inch taller than The Giant and was wearing lifts in his boots. Now, if the guy is already 7’1 and has to do this awkward ass bear hug with The Giant, why does he need lifts?
Whatever. After that, Reese got another bad gimmick as the Super Giant Ninja. Now, this wouldn’t have been a bad gimmick for a tall wrestler who was agile as well. Reese wasn’t particularly agile. The Giant was billed as being 500lbs to Reese’s 370lbs and was more agile in action. In reality, Reese could’ve been more agile but most of his WCW work doesn’t show that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FHOCbuKIbs
After the Super Giant Ninja, he wrestled as Ron Studd for a bit, taking the name from his teacher Big John Studd. By 1998, he was Reese in The Flock faction. Notice that in each gimmick in WCW, he didn’t really have any character development. He was just the other giant in a company that two main event giants at this point.
Honestly, he was a horrible addition to The Flock but WCW had him and needed to find something for him to do. The guy was out of WCW by the summer of 1998.
Reese: The Toughest Salvage To Date?
On one hand, I want to stand by this being the toughest salvage but the guy was over 7’0. Find something for him. The only thing he didn’t have over Kevin Nash and Big Show was charisma. He was a black hole of charisma and really shouldn’t have been near a live mic. It wasn’t that he couldn’t talk on the mic, it was that he was receiving his mail in the lower card because that’s where he lived in WCW.
Actually, there was another thing as well: Reese just wasn’t that interesting to watch. Part of this is his in-ring ability which I felt was fine for a giant or a basic big man. The other part was that he never actually had a character to develop his in-ring approach around.
What do we do with Reese, then? He could’ve just remained Ron Studd and reached the midcard at best or WCW could’ve put a mask on him. WCW ran the Black Blood gimmick with Billy Jack Haynes in 1991. Stayed tuned for the upcoming salvage of the Black Scorpion because you’ll hear this again: Black Blood had dope gear for the early 1990s. It was basic as hell being black and red but it was menacing.
If there were no other ideas and putting him in a mask was the only option, he didn’t need to be a mummy or a ninja. The guy could’ve just been the second coming of Black Blood…and probably tagged with the Black Scorpion.
Let us know how you’d book Reese if you were on WCW’s creative team and saw him.
SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get The Overtimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
