About a week later at the same dining room table, Vince informed me Gene kept calling his office but Vince was avoiding the calls because he didn’t know what to tell him. If you have studied Gene over the years, you KNOW how persistent he can be when it comes to business. Gene was also sending all kinds of KISS merch to Titan Towers, I know because it all wounded up as FIRST-CLASS SWAG for me! I told Vince just to tell him the truth, which he eventually did.
So, how could I have not been entertained a few weeks following, when I heard that KISS was going to be appearing on WCW Nitro. I could only imagine at the time that the crafty Eric Bischoff was picking up a fumble that he thought Vince clearly dropped. As the story goes, when KISS played shortly thereafter on Nitro, in what was, let’s just say, not one of their best performances, Vince’s instincts about bringing them on RAW appeared to be dead on. However, if that one performance wasn’t enough to prove Vince’s inclination, the way “The Demon” character was later portrayed on Nitro, was indeed all the proof anyone would need.
Fast forward some time later.
The good that came out of this story was that I actually got the opportunity to meet Gene Simmons and KISS backstage at Phillips Arena in Atlanta, after I went to WCW. In an effort to try and revive “The Demon” character, I cut some vignettes with Gene that were honestly more for my personal enjoyment than anything.
However, even better then that, I got to meet and work with Dale Torborg, the man behind the make-up of the “WCW Demon”. The short comings of the character, and the potential storyline of him joining forces with “The Cat Man”, “The Star Child” and “The Spaceman”, had NOTHING to do with Dale’s effort whatsoever. Dale played the character as if he was GENE HIMSELF, being that he was a bigger KISS fanatic then me!
To this day Dale stays close to the band, and even took me backstage to meet Paul Stanley when he played his solo tour at the Hard Rock Café in Orlando. I, in turn, have stayed close to Dale, because he is one of the finest human beings you will ever find in the wrestling business!
