In the early 90s the WWE was losing popularity. One of the big reasons behind this was the ridiculous characters they had. Some of which have already been covered in other “Strange Pro Wrestler” articles. In the late 90s they turned their business around with the much praised “Attitude Era”. People don’t seem to criticize the outlandish characters from that era as much as the previous. One of which was the vampire Gangrel.
David Heath’s vampire gimmick was developed in the independent scene in the early 90s. He was married to Luna Vachon at the time and the two developed the vampire gimmick. In 1998 he was hired by the WWE and was given the name Gangrel, which was taken from the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade. He came up from entrance ramp being raised up through a ring of fire, wore a white puffy shirt straight out of the Seinfeld episode, had vampire fangs, carried a goblet of “blood” to the ring, and took a big drink of the goblet and spit it into the air with blood dripping down his chin.
Shortly after his debut he formed a faction called “The Brood”. The Brood debuted a young wrestler named Christian. After a short feud with Edge, Edge joined The Brood. One of Gangrel’s signature was born. The group would give opponents “Blood Baths”. The light of the arena would go dark and when they came back up the victim would be covered in fake blood. The group joined up with the Undertaker’s Ministry of Darkness for a short time. After their run with the Ministry Gangrel and The Brood began a feud with The Hardy Boyz. During the feud Gangrel turned on Edge and Christian and formed The New Brood with the Hardys. After splitting from the Hardys Gangrel had a run as a mid card singles wrestler and was out of the WWE in 2001 after being released due to weight issues. He would make another couple very short appearances with WWE but nothing came of them.
Gangrel will always be remember as a launching pad for Edge and Christian. He also worked with the Hardy Boyz meaning Gangrel worked with two of the most influential tag teams in the history of wrestling. Not a bad item to have on the resume. It’s too bad he couldn’t keep his weight in check he may have been able to have a better run.
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