10 Things You Forgot About Tank Abbott's WCW Career

A legend of 1990s mixed martial arts back when the Ultimate Fighting Championship was in its infancy, David “Tank” Abbott was a staple of UFC in these early years, having competed in five tournaments and even challenging for the Heavyweight Title on one occasion. In 1999, Tank Abbot moved on to another venture for a brief period: the world of professional wrestling.

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From 1999 to 2000, Tank Abbott competed in World Championship Wrestling for a run that was less high-profile than Ken Shamrock’s WWE run, but had its moments. Fans have likely forgotten a lot about this short stint in pro wrestling, so let’s take a look at Tank Abbott’s WCW career.

10 Brought In To Feud With Goldberg

While Tank Abbott’s WCW run certainly didn’t pan out as anybody expected (see below), the intentions of bringing the legitimate fighter into WCW showed a lot of promise. The intention was to have Abbott show up to feud with Goldberg and give the homegrown star a credible rival after Goldberg had largely dominated the rest of WCW’s roster.

A full-blown feud never really developed for some reason, but a Goldberg vs. Tank Abbott match finally happened on the 6/5/2000 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, with Goldberg putting away Abbot in a little more than two minutes.

9 Vince Russo Wanted Abbott As World Champion

By the time Tank Abbot debuted in WCW in late 1999, the company had a new creative force in former-WWE writer Vince Russo. The year ended with Bret Hart sustaining a career-ending injury at Starrcade ‘99, forcing the World Title to be vacated shortly ahead of Souled Out in January.

With little time to get plans in place before the pay-per-view, Russo’s big idea was to hold a Battle Royale for the belt, with Tank Abbott surprisingly eliminating Sid Vicious to emerge from the fray the new WCW World Champion.

8 Caused Vince Russo To Lose His WCW Job

Vince Russo was only a few months into his run with WCW when he was suddenly relieved of his creative duties, and Tank Abbott was to blame. The above-mentioned idea of Abbott being crowned new World Champion not only seemed ridiculous in retrospect, but was also deemed as such at the time.

RELATED: 10 Ways Vince Russo Failed WCW

Reportedly, some figures backstage at WCW were so perturbed by Russo’s pitch for Tank Abbott that they sent the idea up the ladder to top bosses in the company, resulting in Vince Russo being sent home.

7 The Phantom Right

During his time in mixed martial arts, Tank Abbott was known for getting some strong knockout victories over his opponents, and that was incorporated into his pro wrestling persona. As a result, Abbott’s finisher was a single knockout punch named the Phantom Right, which he used to put away many opponents during his WCW run.

A precursor to maneuvers like the Big Show’s WMD (a.k.a. KO Punch), the Phantom Right was named after the oft-debated “phantom punch” that put away Sonny Liston in his second bout with Muhammad Ali in 1965.

6 Scored Some Surprising Wins

While Tank Abbott’s WCW career didn’t result in a World Title run or a big feud with Goldberg, he was able to wreck various lower-tier talent with his Phantom Right, including his first victory, over Jerry Flynn at Souled Out 2000. That said, Abbott managed to score some surprising wins over some pretty impressive names in addition to guys like The Barbarian.

In May 2000, on an episode of Nitro, Abbott managed to put away Diamond Dallas Page, while a couple of months later he randomly got a victory over Japanese legend The Great Muta.

5 “Shoot” Incident With Rick Steiner

A May 1999 episode of WCW Thunder brought fans a unique incident wherein Rick Steiner and Tank Abbott got into a real fight during a ringside interview with Mean Gene Okerlund. In the years since, there’s been some debate over whether the incident was real, with Rick Steiner confirming it as a shoot.

Meanwhile, Tank Abbott in an interview contradicted that claim to some extent, saying that he was trying to stay out of trouble, so he declined to lay out Steiner.

4 Had Shots At The World Title

Despite Vince Russo’s plans not coming to fruition, Tank Abbott actually did enjoy a couple of opportunities to challenge for the WCW World Championship. The first came in late February 2000, with Abbott challenging the aforementioned Sid Vicious for the belt, losing in about four minutes. While that sounds respectable, his other shot at the belt was far less respectable.

RELATED: The 10 Worst Wrestlers To Get A WCW Title Shot

A couple of months later, Tank Abbott challenged the infamous David Arquette for the championship on an early May 2000 Nitro, losing in a little more than two minutes after some interference from Diamond Dallas Page.

3 Pulled A Knife On Big Al

Going into SuperBrawl 10, Tank Abbott got into a feud with one of his own entourage, a man known only as Big Al who disliked that Abbott ditched the UFC for wrestling. Their pay-per-view match was a Leather Jacket on a Pole match, with Abbott’s UFC jacket on the line. After winning the bout, Tank Abbott did something unexpected — he pulled out a knife and threatened to kill Big Al with it.

It’s unclear if this was a scripted moment or not, but commentator Tony Schiavone appeared to cover for it by saying that Abbott was trying to shave Big Al’s beard, despite Al being hairless.

2 Affiliated With 3-Count

Tank Abbott’s best period in WCW — and the one most worth remembering — is strictly comedic. The promotion had a boy band themed faction called 3 Count featuring Shannon Moore, Shane Helms, and Evan Karagias, with Tank Abbott being thrown in the mix as an overly enthusiastic 3 Count superfan.

At first, he functioned as a bodyguard and a backup dancer to the group, but soon he demanded to become a singer in the group. When 3 Count declined, things escalated to a feud, which ended abruptly with Tank Abbott’s release from the company.

1 Only Featured In One WCW Game

Most fans of WCW video games would love to forget WCW Backstage Assault. Released in December 2000, the game was unique in that the action only took place in backstage arena settings, but fans consider it one of the worst WCW games of all time.

Still, any licensed wrestling game makes for a great snapshot of what a promotion looks like at the time of its release, and the game features much of the absurd Vince Russo era of WCW, with Tank Abbott making his only pro wrestling video game appearance alongside Crowbar, David Flair, The Harris Twins, and Vince Russo himself as a playable character.