Pro-Wrestling Johnny B Badd Article Page

Last updated 16 September 1999

Mero Took 'Badd' Beyond the Ring

EDITOR'S NOTE: For the past five years Marc Mero has been one of WCW's most popular performers. As the colorful Johnny B. Badd, his ring character was initially outlandish and brash, but gradually toned down to more reflect his strong convictions outside the squared circle. Mero's relationship with WCW ended abruptly on March 11, and several days later he signed with the World Wrestling Federation, unveiling a new name and a new gimmick. The events leading to Mero's departure from WCW are examined in the first of a series.

Marc Mero would be the first to admit that the opportunity to work for WCW changed his life. A former hockey standout and five-time New York state boxing champion, he was a novice in the sport of wrestling when he got his career break in 1991.

"I only had been up there three or four times and Dusty Rhodes said to me one day, 'Kid, did anyone ever tell you you look like Little Richard?' I said, 'Little Richard? Who's Little Richard?'" Mero recently told Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter.

Rhodes, a booker for the Atlanta-based company, insisted that the gimmick would work. And the rest is history. "That was how Johnny B. Badd was born, and that has changed my whole life," said Mero.

"Wrestling gave me the platform to be Johnny B. Badd, and Johnny B. Badd opened a lot of doors to do other things like travel and talk at schools and churches and talk about my faith in Christ. I've seen more people change their lives and I've gotten more letters from parents about their kids getting off drugs because of the positive influence I've had in their lives. This is the most important thing to me. Johnny B. Badd is going to come and go, but to help change these kids' lives or the Lord using me to help change their lives, that's all the thanks I ever need."

The relationship between Mero, who shortened his name from Merowitz when he began boxing, and WCW seemed to bloom, with Mero steadily improving in his Johnny B. Badd character and WCW reaping the benefits of a popular performer whose public relations work for the company augmented his in-ring role. But that relationship came to an end last month over a series of disagreements between Mero and WCW senior vice president Eric Bischoff.

At the center of the dispute was an apparent difference in opinion over the character of Johnny B. Badd, and an angle that involved The Diamond Doll (Kimberly Falkenberg) - the real-life wife of Diamond Dallas Page (Page Falkenberg) - as his valet. Mero said that while he wasn't comfortable with the characterization of The Doll as his "lady," his decision to leave wasn't entirely based on that particular problem. Bischoff claims that Mero had become increasingly difficult to work with.

"I didn't make it out to be any type of religious thing," Bischoff told The Post and Courier. "The issue I brought to Johnny was, if every time we come up with something we have to wonder whether it sits well with you personally and what your wife and your daughter think about it, then how are we going to move forward? It's kind of an impractical situation when we have to constantly analyze somebody's personal feelings about match-ups. He expressed a discomfort with it."

Bischoff says he has come under heavy criticism for his handling of the situation.

"People want to jump all over this thing and paint Eric Bischoff as Satan because that's kind of in vogue right now, but Johnny came to me and expressed his concern. And what did we do? We changed it. If you look at the television, it's quite obvious. We didn't have a problem with it. I was concerned he was taking his professional on-camera life way too seriously."

"I was really against the gimmick," Mero told The Torch. "I thought it was kind of hokey, her (Diamond Doll) coming out dancing. I just wasn't very comfortable with it. I went to Dallas first because he is my friend. I told him I felt very uncomfortable doing this with his wife. I'm a married man and I have a family. Seeing the effect on my 8-year-old daughter was tough. Kids at school would ask her about it, and they don't understand. My daughter, the first time she saw me on television, thought I was actually leaving my wife. It was very traumatic.

"So I went to Kevin Sullivan after Dallas gave his OK to do it. I asked Kevin, 'You guys told me at first this was just an angle and you would take her away from me. Can we somehow separate Kimberly and me?' He said, 'No problem Johnny.' Well, the first thing he did was call Eric and say, 'Well, Jesus doesn't want Johnny to do this.' They made it out to be a big religious thing. It had nothing to do with anything. My own convictions are what I believe. Now what Kimberly does on her own and on her time off from wrestling, I don't agree with it, but it's her business.

"So Eric called me up and said to me, 'Well, every time we put you in an angle now, now we gotta wonder what Jesus thinks. Does Jesus want you to do this or does Jesus want you to do that?' He was being really ridiculous. I said it had nothing to do with it. I can only imagine what Jesus thinks about professional wrestling, when you get right down to it. That was our first problem. Me and Kevin and Eric finally straightened that out."

"He had a problem with Kimberly as his valet because he doesn't know how to answer his daughter," Bischoff said. "I understand that. We made the change. But what happens if we need him to take on a different character? Where is the line? How do we know what we can do with the talent when we don't know how the talent's personal life is going to be affected by it? That's the issue that I brought up. And we resolved the issue. That was not an issue between Johnny and I. He's bringing it up because he wants to make it appear he was justified in making the decision he made. But the reality is that we overcame that problem and we had moved on in an entirely different direction."

If you have any comments, I can be reached via email at Hack-Man@twc-online.com