While they’re not as common these days as they used to be, the pre-Monday Night War era of WWE was full of squash matches where stars would make short work of lesser opponents in order to establish a character and get them in front of eyes in a low-stakes bout. Deemed “jobbers,” these opponents worked to make the stars look good — usually.
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While many of these jobbers were no-names, quite a few recurring chumps managed to earn a little name recognition with fans — so much that fans still talk about them today. Let’s take a look at 10 of these frequent losers from the 1990s, some of whom actually ended up becoming well-known stars themselves.
10 The Brooklyn Brawler
First debuting for WWE in 1983 and working a number of gimmicks over the years, journeyman wrestler Steve Lombardi attained legend status with his gimmick of The Brooklyn Brawler, a belligerent New Yorker in torn clothes who seemed to be covered in soot, presumably because of the brawling. First appearing as the Brawler in 1989, Lombardi appeared consistently on WWE television up until the late ‘90s, taking losses to pretty much everyone imaginable. Because Lombardi worked for WWE for over 30 years and made appearances on television as recently as the 2010s, WWE pretty much made sure that fans never quite forgot about The Brooklyn Brawler.
9 The Goon
For WWE, the years 1993 to 1997 were dubbed the New Generation Era, a period where the promotion attempted to build new stars but ended up delivering a seemingly endless parade of gimmick characters, many of whom seemingly had jobs outside of wrestling. One such occupational wrestler was The Goon, a pro wrestling hockey player portrayed by another journeyman in Bill Irwin. While the idea of a hockey player deciding his original sport wasn’t violent enough for him was a great idea, The Goon failed to gain any traction as a competitor, losing pretty much all of his matches for the nine months he existed.
8 Iron Mike Sharpe
A second generation performer — his father and uncle helped put Japanese wrestling on the map as foreign heels — Iron Mike Sharpe first debuted in WWE in 1983. Decidedly a jobber, Sharpe was one who had a defining feature — a black brace over his right arm that was purported to be illegally loaded to give him an advantage in matches. It didn’t often work.
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While he first made an impression on fans in the 1980s, Iron Mike Sharpe also wrestled for WWE up until the mid ‘90s, taking losses at house shows and televised events alike.
7 Duke Droese
For many fans, the nadir of New Generation era occupational gimmicks is that of Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, the wrestler who was also a garbage man. Before he signed to WWE in 1994, Droese’s big claim to fame was being #500 on the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 list in 1993, and his big claim to fame in WWE was feuding with Triple H. Droese’s continued notoriety stems from the perception that the waste management gimmick was WWE scraping the bottom of the barrel — or the trash can, as it were.
6 Duane Gill
Before 1998, Duane Gill spent the decade as one of WWE’s many go-to jobbers, no more distinct than many of the others that came and went on the promotion’s various TV shows. However, in 1998, as the Attitude Era was heating up, Gill ended up becoming a cult favorite on WWE television as Gillberg, a parody of WCW’s top babyface phenomenon, Goldberg. As Gillberg, Duane Gill’s presentation was all about being a low-rent imitation of Goldberg’s shtick, complete with sparklers instead of the WCW star’s pyrotechnics.
5 Aldo Montoya
Nicknamed “The Portuguese Man O’ War” despite having no resemblance to the jellyfish-like creature, Aldo Montoya wore a bright yellow-mask that looked like it was supposed to evoke a superhero vibe but just looked homemade. To make matters more confusing, Aldo Montoya was originally conceived as a soccer player until management found out that the wrestler behind the gimmick had no knowledge of or interest in soccer. While Montoya debuted with a win over The Brooklyn Brawler, his trajectory took him straight to jobber status. It’s only after leaving WWE that he made a name for himself in ECW under a different moniker: Justin Credible.
4 Barry Horowitz
There are a few career jobbers who are basically legends among wrestling fans due to their frequency and longevity, and one of the major ones is Barry Horowitz. Originally starting his career in 1979, Horowitz made his WWE debut in 1981, losing to Angelo Mosca.In the 1990s, however, Horowitz was a fixture of WWE television, eating pins up until 1997.
RELATED: Barry Horowitz: The Most Lovable Jobber In WWE History, Explained
Throughout the 1990s, Barry Horowitz wrestled everywhere — not just WWE, but also WCW, the 1980s NWA territories, and even 1990s All Japan Pro-Wrestling Horowitz still makes appearances today, including a recent match for Impact Wrestling in February of 2023.
3 The Hardy Boyz
In the late 1990s, The Hardy Boyz began to rise up the cards in WWE, eventually becoming one of the most beloved and innovative tag teams of the Attitude Era. Before that, however, Matt and Jeff Hardy were total jobbers. Debuting in the promotion while still teenagers, it was not uncommon to see one or both of the brothers jobbing to wrestlers like Razor Ramon and Hakushi on early episodes of Monday Night Raw. The two even tagged together as jobbers, working as a tag team called The Jynx Brothers.
2 TL Hopper
As established, some fans say that Duke Droese is the nadir of New Generation occupational gimmicks, but that’s likely because they’re not aware of TL Hopper, the pro wrestling plumber. Before WWE, however, TL Hopper worked as the Smoky Mountain Wrestling mainstay Dirty White Boy, certainly a more dignified role than as a guy with a plunger. Hilariously, TL Hopper served as the opponent to Duke Droese in the latter’s last televised match on an episode of Superstars in what in retrospect feels like a great torch-passing moment in occupational jobbers.
1 Virgil
First introduced to WWE fans as “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase’s servant in the late 1980s, Virgil became a hit with fans once he broke away from his boss in 1991, turning babyface in the process and even winning DiBiase’s vanity title, the Million Dollar Championship. After that storyline however, WWE seemed to have little use for Virgil aside from being a job guy. Aside from a forgettable run in WCW, Virgil remains in wrestling fan consciousness thanks to his ubiquity at conventions and pretty much any other gathering where he can set up an autograph table.
