The Demon being considered for a big push?

By Blake Norton

Despite the fire, pyro, explosions, kick-ass music and elaborate ring outfit, The Demon has successfully become without a shadow of a doubt the biggest jobber in WCW. Since debuting with a loss to Terry Funk on Thunder last month, Dale Torberg’s gone on a quest to lose to everybody in the company, including The Wall, Kidman and Booker. That may perhaps come to an end, according to Bill Banks of WCW;

“Truthfully, myself along with other members of the WCW Creative Crew have been surprised with the reaction the Demon has been getting. He's starting to get VERY popular with the fans. There's even talk of continuing Dale Torberg in the character.”

The “Demon” character was originally brought in by Eric Bischoff, who made a deal with rock group Kiss shortly before he was removed from WCW. That deal would make Brian Adams (after his initial appearance, Dale Torberg) the “Kiss Demon.” When he was removed from office, there were even plans to have a New Year’s Eve pay-per-view which would largely revolve around the Kiss Demon’s character.

After Bischoff left, however, new management in the form of Bill Busch made a serious crack down on the company’s budget. The Demon character was put on the sidelines for months, only to show up to fulfill contractual commitments. While WCW officials were happy with Torberg, they considered the character dead weight, and as such never did anything important with him or involved him in major angles. Many fans considered it a strange move, considering the fact that similar gimmicks such as The Undertaker and Vampiro had, in fact, been popular, and the connection with Kiss helped give the Demon potential to be a star. Nevertheless, WCW considered him an afterthought, and despite the elaborate entrances and costumes the contract called for The Demon to be presented in.

If Banks is right, WCW might finally decide to take advantage of the potential success the Demon character could bring. It’s unknown how much money is wrapped up in the persona, but it’s presumable that if necessary Torberg could continue playing a similar character after the Kiss deal ends.