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News Archive August 2011

Click To Enlarge Where Are They Now? The KISS Demon
From: WWE.com
by Ryan Murphy
Posted: August 4, 2011

It should have worked - a blood spewing, fire breathing giant of a professional wrestler inspired and endorsed by the hugely popular rock band KISS. Yet, The Demon is remembered as a misfire, a major slip-up that finally sealed Eric Bischoff's fate with World Championship Wrestling and a testament to the over-the-top spending that eventually killed the company. (PHOTOS)

So how did it all go wrong?

"It blows my mind," Dale Torborg told WWE.com during a phone conversation in early July. "They didn't capitalize on how much influence KISS has. They tried to bury [The Demon] to make Eric look bad. That's the bottom line."

The man who spent three years under the distinctive white and black makeup of the KISS competitor, Torborg last set foot in a WCW ring a decade ago, yet he's still passionate about the persona and still irritated by the way things turned out. A lifelong KISS fan, he put everything he had into The Demon, but the locker room politicking that plagued WCW saw to it that Torborg wallowed in the mid-card for years.

"It could've been a lot bigger," former WCW official Charles Robinson said. "It seemed like it started to get a little momentum and they just stopped with it."

Dark, brooding and intense, Torborg truly embodied The Demon, but to say it was a role he was born to play would be misleading. In truth, the Florida native was born to play baseball. The son of former Yankees coach Jeff Torborg, Dale grew up on the same crushed red brick infield where greats like Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle became legends. He pursued a career in the sport himself and did well in the minors, but a fastball to the face took away his depth perception and brought a painful end to his big league dreams.

He drifted in the minors after that until a chance meeting with two WWE legends changed the course of his life. While on a flight to Los Angeles, Torborg was seated next to WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan. A friend of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, The Hulkster talked baseball with Torborg during the trip and introduced him to another baseball-player-turned-wrestler when the plane landed - "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

"That's the first time I ever met anybody associated with the business," Torborg revealed. "They were the first ones that said to me, 'Have you ever thought about wrestling?' That really sparked it for me."

Inspired by The Mega Powers, the big man immediately set about pursuing a ring career and began training with former WWE Superstars Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and The Warlord in a sun-blanched ring behind Neidhart's home in Land O'Lakes, Fla.

"It was brutal," Torborg remembered. "The Anvil beat the crap out of me, but I took my lumps."

He began competing soon after under a persona that was inspired by a baseball-themed street gang from the gritty 1979 film "The Warriors." Dubbed MVP - short for Most Violent Player - Torborg wore a shredded uniform, painted his face blood red and plied his craft in various independent promotions before grabbing the attention of World Championship Wrestling in 1998. That year, he made his television debut on WCW Thunder, but his arrival was inauspicious at best.

"When it aired, they didn't use the MVP name," Torborg said. "They put my real name on the screen and they actually spelled it wrong." (WATCH)

WCW's embarrassing miscue was a sign of things to come. After two weeks as MVP, Torborg was approached by WCW executives with an opportunity - the company had recently struck a marketing deal with the rock band KISS. Hugely popular since the late 1970s, the group had amassed legions of fans with their heavy metal anthems, comic book-inspired costumes and theatrical stage shows. They were a perfect fit for the wild world of sports-entertainment and Torborg would be the man to personify the band in the ring as The Demon.

"I was really pumped," he admitted. "It was a dream of mine to represent KISS, which I feel is the greatest band in the world."

A diehard fan of the group since his youth, the grappler had even written a paper on his admiration for Gene Simmons while in college. He knew the words to all their songs, could mimic Simmons' stage presence perfectly. Plus, he was 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds. Simply put, he was The Demon.

"There were three of us that got test makeup done," Torborg revealed. "Eric Bischoff went to L.A. with the test shots and they told me Gene pointed me out and said, 'This guy looks the most like me.'"

With a great deal of money and hype behind it, The Demon debuted on a live edition of WCW Monday Nitro from Las Vegas that concluded with a performance by KISS. As the band rocked through a pounding rendition of the heavy metal classic "God of Thunder," an ornate sarcophagus rose up from the center of the stage and slowly opened, revealing an imposing figure in full KISS regalia. It was The Demon, but it was not Dale Torborg. Instead, it was Brian Adams - a competitor best known to WWE fans as Crush. The veteran had been moved into the spot at the last minute and Torborg had barely been notified.

"It was heartbreaking," he admitted.

Still, as much as Torborg was upset, WCW executives were even more distraught. The KISS performance and the ensuing Demon debut ended up being one of the lowest rated segments in the history of Nitro. At a time when the company was locked in a struggle for television viewers with WWE, bad numbers were devastating and someone had to take the blame. Quickly, fingers were pointed at the man who brokered the deal - WCW President Eric Bischoff - and his KISS Demon concept was immediately tagged as dead on arrival.

It was at this point that Torborg was told he'd be taking over the persona.

Although he was excited for the opportunity, Torborg knew he was stepping into The Demon's platform boots at a disadvantage. The persona was unjustly labeled a bust before ever competing in a match, but executives were contractually obligated to feature the KISS creation on television and in pay-per-view events. So he suffered. Terry Funk smashed him in his debut. Vampiro locked him in a coffin and set it on fire. The legendary Sting once beat him in less than a minute. Still, Torborg was happy every time he got in the ring.

"I still enjoyed it," he admitted. "The whole trip with The Demon was just a crazy ride."

That's not to say he wasn't frustrated. The former baseball player knew the persona had a huge built-in fan base and endless potential - in fact, the original plan was to build an entire stable of competitors based on each member of KISS - but the corporate opinion was that the group had already cashed in on the deal and WCW wasn't interested in sending them more checks. According to Torborg, the money KISS made has been overblown, but Gene Simmons was characteristically braggadocios about it in his 2002 autobiography, KISS and Make-Up.

"It was a win-win situation for us, because KISS retained all licensing and merchandising rights," the frontman wrote. "WCW did all the work and we reaped all the rewards."

Regardless of what kind of coin was gambled in The Demon deal, there were enough power struggles and half-baked ideas going on at the time to put the company in financial ruin by 2001. With the industry undergoing major changes that year with WWE's acquisition of WCW and the fall of Extreme Championship Wrestlling, Torborg opted to leave sports-entertainment, albeit temporarily, to pursue an opportunity with Major League Baseball.

"My dad had gotten a Montreal Expos managing job," Torborg revealed. "He said, 'I would really like you to come up and work with one of our catchers in order to get him bigger and stronger.'"

The competitor accepted the offer, but continued performing at independent shows as The KISS Demon during the offseason. Soon, though, Torborg's gifts as a coach became apparent to other ball clubs and he was on his way to Florida to work in training for the Marlins. After a World Series season with the team, he joined the Chicago White Sox as a strength and conditioning coordinator.

"I'm loving every minute of it," Torborg said. "They're an unbelievable organization."

In his current position, the career athlete spends much of his time working with the different Minor League teams in the White Sox farm system while also assisting the Major League squad. A respected member of the club, Torborg is constantly asked for advice about diet and exercise, but questions about his involvement in sports-entertainment are just as common.

"A bunch of the guys are big WWE fans," Torborg revealed. "Our catcher, A.J. Pierzynski, wears a Miz shirt under his uniform and Adam Dunn is a huge "Stone Cold" fan. We actually said that when we win the World Series this year, we want him to go to WWE and use his version of the Stone Cold Stunner, which is the 'Stone Cold Dunner.'"

Off the field, Torborg has been married to his former WCW valet, Asya, since 2000. The couple welcomed their first child in 2005.

"She is the coolest kid," Torborg said of his five-year-old daughter. "She knows how to lockup, suplex, clothesline. She'll dropkick me with both feet to the face. She knows all that stuff, so watch out."

Whether or not his offspring will enter the squared circle is uncertain, but Torborg himself still enjoys stepping through the ropes. Active on the independent scene, he occasionally competes as The KISS Demon and regularly appears at conventions and charity events.

"It's funny, over 10 years have passed since WCW and I'm actually getting more requests for appearances and wrestling as The Demon than I ever have before," Torborg said. "It's almost like people are ready. They want to see it again."

Refreshingly positive, Torborg is by no means bitter about the hardships he endured during his time in WCW. In fact, he is grateful that he had the opportunity to compete on a major stage and represent KISS in front of millions of fans.

"I had a chance to bail on The Demon character and I wouldn't," Torborg revealed. "I took a major beating making that decision, because a lot of the diehard fans didn't like that Gene Simmons would market into their beloved sport. I've been destroyed and I don't really care to be honest with you. No matter what anyone says, I'm super proud that I was The Demon."

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