It’s hard to believe that something this bizarre could’ve been a thing in 1999, but it’s legit. Reddit user grabbinsumpillz uploaded these images with the following text:
“So, I got these from my uncle when I was a kid. Apparently he knew someone that worked around the wrestling industry and gave me these pieces of concept art for my birthday. I tried to look up some info about the series, but found nothing. I’m assuming it’s something that went unaired and they scrapped. Which kinda sucks, because the concepts look pretty badass!”
I had never heard of this project, but after digging around, I came across the briefest of mentions of a WCW cartoon through Variety. A Reddit comment even led me toward finding an archived Geocities page for “Goblin Myk”, a dated blog for former Amberwood Productions employee Michael D. Stevens. Stevens lists “WCW” as a project he worked on during his time spent at Amberwood from August 1998 to January 2000.
Unfortunately, the email address he listed on his page no longer works.
Since all my leads were dead, I asked the one person who might know more about this project — Easy E himself, Eric Bischoff:
https://twitter.com/EBischoff/status/733035685641232384
Well, crap.
Despite Eric having zero memory of a WCW cartoon that went nowhere, images of it still exist. Chances are that these pieces of concept art are just part of a failed pitch that never went anywhere, but questions still remain. Why does Eric Bischoff look like slightly-older ripoff of Mighty Max? Why does Bret Hart have an extra “T” in his first name?? Who thought Tex Mech was a good name to give to a villain!??
Unfortunately, we won’t have any answers until someone uncovers more regarding this project. I’ll have an update here if there ever is one, full photo gallery of the concept art can be found below:
38-year-old World Championship Wrestling fanatic/collector/hoarder. Safety officer by day, scanner of wrestling magazine by night.
He’s got posters on the wall, his favorite rock group’s KISS.
I would have watched the crap out of this, despite being in high school at the time. I would have bought the action figures, DVDs and everything. I just know I would have.
I was watching the Mortal Kombat cartoon at this time, I would’ve watched this garbage as well.
Does that ring mat read “uWo” or “oMn”?
Haha – didn’t catch that. I guess my brain read it as nWo.
What a dumb goof! The image isn’t even mirrored! The oMn, the One Man Nation? One Man Gang gained some weight, confirmed for this cartoon??
Does that ring mat read “uWo” or “oMn”?
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Honestly, the first thing that comes to mind seeing Eric in cartoon form is Randal from ‘Clerks’– even down to the typeface where the names and ‘the animated series’ are shown.
They both have extremely punchable character models, yes.