Colling’s Corner
Eleventh Edition
Written By: Bob Colling
If you were a wrestling fan during the early 1990’s, most notably between the 1993-1994 years, there is one catchphrase that you remember fondly. The catchphrase I am referring to is one that helped a tag team in the WWF get over.
WHOOP THEIR IT IS!
Men on a Mission consisted of Mable, Mo and Oscar. Mable, later known as Viscera and Big Daddy V, was the most popular of the three and would get the biggest singles push out of the three (Oscar was just a manager). Mo never really amounted to anything as he would mostly be the guy to get his ass kicked before making the hot tag to Mable. Oscar was just the guy to hype up the crowd with creative raps and hype up his guys. They made their debut on the July 10th, 1993 edition of WWF Superstars.
Over the next six months Men on a Mission became the most popular tag team in the WWF. They became so popular that during entrances for other African American wrestlers fans would chant “Whoop there it is.” It happened quite often in WCW during entrances or matches for Ron Simmons and 2 Cold Scorpio. Of course, the announcers would act as if the chant was original and not associated with Men on Mission in WWF. It was very obvious that M.O.M. had become a highly successful tag team for the WWF.
Despite their popularity, Men on a Mission were not considered threats to the tag team championships. If it weren’t for the Steiner Brothers departure from the WWF in early 1994, Men on a Mission might have never gotten a tag title shot on pay per view. They got their one and only tag title shot on pay per view at Wrestle Mania X. They competed against the WWF World Tag Team Champions the Quebecers, Jacques and Pierre. Men on a Mission won the match but failed to win the titles as they won the bout by count-out.
Men on a Mission won the WWF World Tag Team Championships on March 29th, 1994 at a house show. Mable pinned Pierre after accidentally falling onto him. That is the rumor as to why the championships changed hands.
Mo would suffer an injury shortly after and Mabel would go on to have mild singles success which saw him win the King of the Ring in 1995 and come up short (thank god) in a WWF World Championship match against Diesel at SummerSlam.
You may be asking why I would do a column on Men on a Mission. In my opinion, they were a tag team that were extremely over and never got the title run they should have gotten. When the Steiner’s left in early 1994, Men on a Mission were the top tag team in the company. You could even make the argument that while the Steiner’s were in the WWF, Men on a Mission were the more popular tag team.
Perhaps Mo’s injury prevented the team from achieving tag team success. I can’t imagine that the Headshrinkers were lined up to win the titles after only a couple weeks of being babyfaces. In my opinion, if Mo wouldn’t have been injured they would have won the titles at SummerSlam 1994. Instead, we got a lackluster King Mabel singles push.
In closing, despite the team having their catchphrase chanted at rival WCW shows, Men on a Mission weren’t treated as hot commodities in the WWF. They will always be a favorite team of mine, and a team that I wish would’ve gotten a chance to hold the then prestigious WWF World Tag Team Championships.
Have an idea for a column? What would you like to see my opinion on? Well, shoot me an e-mail at bobcolling@gmail.com and I’ll try to do all requests.
Thanks for reading.
