I remember reading about “Macho Warrior” Ric Hogan in the 1997 edition of the PWI 500. He was there at the 423 spot under his initial wrestler name Tower Of Doom. The essential of his PWI description was the following:
423 TOWER OF DOOM (6’4″, 400, 4, NL)
Former USWA champion was known as “Macho Warrior” Ric Hogan, but since leaving USWA earlier this year has reverted back to being known as Tower of Doom…. I was thinking: Why abandon the coolest, greatest name on earth to return to a crappy 80s wrestling name like Tower of Doom??? But I haven’t seen the man yet!
I was amazed by his name and gimmick as being a blend of four of the most popular wrestlers ever. However, I thought that his stats 6’4″, 400 pounds were unusual for a man with such a perfect gimmick. The guy was USWA champion so he must be worthful. I don’t need to tell you that until recently I haven’t seen who this amazing superhuman wrestling hero was…
I’ve seen the “Macho Warrior” Ric Hogan a few days ago reading a superbly entertaining and descriptive article: Awful Professional Wrestling Characters: “Macho Warrior” Ric Hogan
“Macho Warrior” Ric Hogan his name, his purpose, his reason for being. Picture,
if you will, an island where a redneck Dr. Moreau fuses together his favorite
professional wrestlers to create new, undefeatable, unaccountably popular
spandex-clad warriors. The formula, on paper, looks perfect:
Arguably, you’ve got the four biggest moneymakers in the history of wrestling on
the operating table (well, probably not Warrior, but his reputation was as such
at the time), four dudes who headlined Wrestlemania after Wrestlemania, who have
won the hearts and minds of millions of fans, casual (Hogan/Warrior) and die
hard (Savage/Flair) alike. [1]
=
However the science experiment wents terribly wrong.
Instead of creating a muscular, tan, charismatic wrestling champion our
redneck Doctor Moreau created a creepy, ugly, 400-pound obese paedophile
dressed as Ronald McDonald????
Only his name was cool the rest was
pure crap! “Macho Warrior” Ric Hogan was a red and yellow clad dumb
looking Dude Love before Mick Foley’s Dude Love ever exist!
Big Daddy Doom aka Tower of Doom aka
former USWA Champion “Macho
Warrior” Ric Hogan
Real name: Michael Imburgia
Birthday: 1972
Birthplace: Monroe, Ohio, USA
Height: 6’6″ (198 cm)
Weight: 418 lbs (190 kg)
Alter egos: Big Daddy Doom
a.k.a. Tower Of Doom
Macho Warrior Ric Hogan
Beginning of in-ring career: 1990
Wrestling Style: Brawler [3]
FORMER USWA CHAMPION
INDICTED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES (June 12, 2002)
Michael Imburgia, who has wrestled in Puerto Rico and numerous U.S. indies
as Tower of Doom and was the USWA champion for a short time in 1996 as “Macho
Warrior” Ric Hogan, was indicted on ten charges of pandering sexually
oriented material involving a minor on June 10, 2002. [4]
Judging by his look, ugliness, and stupidity I wasn’t surprised to learn that “Macho Warrior” Ric Hogan was a paedophile. But I was astonished when I discovered that he was USWA CHAMPION!??!
$1,200 a week?
“The Macho Warrior” was supposedly making $1,200 a week for main eventing – yes again, he was the USWA champion – in the dying mid-south United States Wrestling Association.
$1200 is not a mistake. Three shows Saturday and another 4
throughout the week. Plus an odd spot show at the casino or a school. $1200 was
payoffs for first three weeks or so. At this time he was main event with Brian
Christopher on most shows. Main event=more pay. As you slide down the card from
main to semi main to mid carder to curtain jerker, your pay went way down. At
the time an unknown guy doing an opening match still got 50 or 60 bucks. [2]
When you put a 400-pound Ronald McDonald vs. your own undersized son (Brian Christopher/Lawler) in the main event of your wrestling federation you aren’t relevant anymore. Jerry “The King” Lawler once made a shitload of money in the 80s as the USWA headliner. But in 1995, his company was drowning. By November 1997, the USWA went out of business.
And Jerry Jarrett, the longtime USWA owner, was reputed to”pay like shit”. So I don’t think that the assclown “Macho Warrior” Ric Hogan was making that much money to wrestle in empty arena. His weekly pay was probably closer to $1.20 than $1,200. LOL 🙂
Final word
Next time a mad scientist will try to create the perfect wrestling champion I just wish that his experiment will not fail miserably as this one!
References
2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-YUMpTSBLw
3- http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=5733
4- https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.pro-wrestling.wwf/g5p3ii_EjBc
