The KISS Demon

Speaking of ridiculous figures, Meltzer writes KISS, the band, is receiving $500,000 to perform two songs on Nitro on August 23rd.

Plus, Gene Simmons will introduce a new wrestler, the Kiss Demon, who will be played by Dale Torborg as a kid who grew up idolizing Gene Simmons.

Meltzer says, "Remember that, because someday it'll be n- next to Oz, the Ding Dongs, those dancing bears with Matt Borne, and Glacier in WCW's Gimmick Hall of Fame.

They're also talking about a group of wrestlers as the Kiss Warriors, [laughs] who will be made up as the other members of the band.

This is, uh...

I mean, this is legendary, to be fair, for all the right and wrong reasons.

I mean, Kiss Demon outlives KISS' whole deal there.

Like, he just becomes the Demon at some point, 'cause like, "Oh, fucking, fuck KISS.

Trick Williams is your US champ again.

But Eric, when you tried this, sort of, uh, the Kiss Demon integration and all of that, man, people really took you to task for that or Master P.

And before you, Dusty tried it with a handful of country music acts and, and now WWE is-

It even goes, it, it even, it even goes back to Verne Gagne in the AWA.

It's, so yeah, it's a formula.

But you know what's interesting? When, and we can make light of it and, you know, s- acknowledge that other people have tried it in the past and, and obviously it didn't work.

Certainly didn't work for me when I brought in a Kiss, although I think the rug was pulled out from underneath us early when we weren't able to build up to a Kiss Demon, uh, New Year's Evil pay-per-view, uh, with a, a, a Kiss concert or performance in between matches.

How about that? Uh, live in Tempe, Arizona, uh, associated with the whatever bowl was going on down there at the time.

We're slowly grabbing hold of your virgin soul.

[static] On YouTube, there's a couple of interviews that Eric Bischoff has done regarding the decision-making behind the Kiss demon.

Look, there's nothing against Kiss.

I was a fan of Kiss growing up, even though I was into club music and disco and house and all that shit, but this was just bad timing.

And Dale Torborg, God bless him, he tried, but the Kiss demon was God awful.

But hey, it was, uh, a moment in time that everybody will remember.

And again, you know, I know Tony Schiavone loved it, and I know some wrestlers that absolutely were diehard big time Kiss fans that marked out as well.