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One of the interesting quirks of looking back at professional wrestling history is the fact that the business has never existed in a vacuum. In different ways and to varying degrees of success, wrestling promoters have always been influenced by or consciously sought out to replicate what’s going on in current events or pop culture.
Related: 10 Wrestlers We Can't Believe Had A Gimmick Based On Pop CultureThis dynamic dates back to the legendary Von Erich family patriarch Fritz’s heel character being a literal Nazi for much of his career, and also includes examples like WWE’s Robert Stone playing Robbie E. in Impact Wrestling—teamed with Cookie and later Rob Terry for a Jersey Shore-informed faction, not so subtly titled The Shore. Looking back to the 1990s, WWE made a particularly clumsy attempt at tapping into the zeitgeist when it introduced Abe Knuckleball Schwartz.
Abe Knuckleball Schwartz Was WWE’s Attempt To Capitalize On The MLB Baseball Strike
The year 1994 infamously saw Major League Baseball cease to hold games for a period that stretched all the way into 1995. As Sports Illustrated recounted, the strike lasted 232 days. Ownership and the players’ union butted heads over financial matters and a revenue-sharing plan, and it took quite some time to reach an agreement to resume play.
While a labor strike in any major spot is noteworthy, it’s important to contextualize that, in 1994, baseball was still more squarely positioned as America’s pastime. So, even for people who did not follow the sport, the MLB lockout was a major news story all but impossible for the average Joe not to have an eye on at the time. WWE sought to capitalize on the situation by adding their own comment to the conversation—the introduction of Abe Knuckleball Schwartz.
The Abe Knuckleball Schwartz Gimmick Became A Forgotten One For A Legendary Enhancement Worker
From an account on Something To Wrestling with Bruce Prichard the original idea for a baseball-playing wrestler came straight from the man who would ultimately portray the gimmick—legendary enhancement worker Steve Lombardi. Lombardi was most famous wrestling as The Brooklyn Brawler and would also have noteworthy points playing Kamala’s handler Kim Chee as well as a version of Doink the Clown. In this case, though, the often under-appreciated journeyman wrestler Lombardi was the driving creative force. As Prichard recalled it, his premise was as simple as painting his face to look like a baseball and going out to wrestle.
The character actually got its start in 1993 under the moniker MVP (no relation to the eventual Montel Vontavious Porter) but didn’t get much traction. WWE opted to bring it back in 1994 though, when Major League Baseball went on strike. There actually was a shred of logic to the gimmick at this point—that a professional athlete not having the opportunity to play his sport might try his hand in another athletic endeavor, and particularly one in which he could take out some frustrations via physical violence.
While Prichard is one of WWE's executives notorious for defending even bad creative ideas on his podcast, this was a case in which he didn’t make much of an attempt. He openly called it “the second worst gimmick of all time.”
WWE’s Checkered Record When It Comes To Topical Gimmicks And Stunts Since Abe Knuckleball Schwartz
Abe Knuckleball Schwartz was not, by virtually any measure, a success. In terms of kayfabe accomplishments, Steve Lombardi remained mostly an enhancement worker and certainly didn’t broach winning any titles under the gimmick. Indeed, the character did little enough of historical note, and casual fans by and large forgot about him.
The failures of WWE’s baseball gimmick didn’t stop them from trying to be topical on other occasions, though. Some were harmless or even fun, like pointedly weighing in on the 2009 NBA Playoff Series between The Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets. A scheduling snafu saw WWE bumped from its Raw booking in favor of a game in Denver, and when the Staples Center in LA offered a substitute venue, WWE made no bones about booking five babyfaces wearing Lakers jerseys to thrash five heels donning Nuggets jerseys on TV.
Related: 10 Major Sports Teams That Pro Wrestlers InsultedOther instances of WWE attempting to tap into the zeitgeist were less smooth like booking a match between a Donald Trump impersonator and Rosie O’Donnell impersonator at the height of their celebrity feud in 2007. Regardless of political interests or where one sided on the public beef between the two pop culture figures, there’s little question WWE’s take on it was in poor taste and made for dreadful television.
In the end, WWE, like other wrestling promotions, can’t be blamed for trying to generate buzz by using real life current events to inform their product. In baseball parlance, though, it’s fair to say Abe Knuckleball Schwartz was “a swing and a miss,” in a silly, mercifully forgettable gimmick that fortunately faded from view after the MLB strike was over.
