[1990-11-21-NWA-Clash of the Champions XIII] Interview: Michael Wallstreet & Alexandra York

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Mike Rotunda debuts his new gimmick - Michael Wallstreet. He is managed by the debuting Terri Runnels, billed as Alexandra York. The idea that a word processor provides guidance to wrestlers on working a match is tremendous. It shows how little anyone really understood computers at this point in time.

[Strummer]

I always thought this was a pretty good gimmick and an interesting stable during a pretty bad time for WCW. Pretty cutting edge as computers were just entering the main stream. Remember with the turn to the 90s we were entering a "high tech" era. Terri had just turned 24 the month prior. She was green and obviously they didn't want her to talk much. Interesting she would get the mostly non speaking gimmick when she first entered the WWF

[PeteF3]

Billy Beane is a mere scout at this point, and Wallstreet and York have already incorporated his Moneyball techniques into the world of pro wrestling. I can certainly get behind a sabermetrician gimmick.

 

The York Foundation was always one of my favorite guilty pleasure gimmicks. I'm heartened to read that they were a mid-card highlight throughout some dismal times in 1991 and look forward to seeing the hard evidence.

[soup23]

I honestly do think a reworked gimmick like the York foundation could work today, kind of a more tech savvy Damian sandow.

[Kevin Ridge]

York Foundation a head of time bringing sabermetrics to wrestling. They found the formula to winning.

[BackToBionic]

I've been waiting years for them to rework this gimmick. Nowadays the wrestler could stall a match while he consults his app to draw heat. Then 20 years from now our children can laugh about how ridiculous and outdated that is.

[ajtroma]

WWF was actually quite smart in not letting her talk for nearly two years. That voice is seriously grating.

[PhilTLL]

The next weekend on WCW, there's an amusing vignette that looks inside the Wallstreet offices, a/k/a some CNN monitor room. Wallstreet barks out charismaless commands to charismaless lackeys and he and York laugh triumphantly over the latest computer algorithms. They play Wallstreet's new, Dallas-inspired theme.

 

One of the lackeys gets off this oblique Promotion Wars zinger:

 

"Mr. Wallstreet, a Mr. Finkel from New York called asking for donations to a children's charity. What should I tell him?"

[garretta]

The computer part of the gimmick is a nice touch, but so far Michael Wallstreet is a half-assed Million Dollar Man imitation with a pretty white female assistant instead of a big African-American male bodyguard. And Rotundo just doesn't exude evil in this role the way Teddy does. Granted, this was just a one-minute interview, but I'm not impressed yer. Cheesy as the gimmick was, I think I prefer what I remember of IRS, who was more of a sleazy, slimy bureaucrat than a cold, ruthless tycoon.

 

So this is how Terri Runnels broke in. Was she married to Dustin yet?

[dawho5]

Good idea. Wondering how long it takes WCW to completely ruin it.