A Look at New WWF Superstars
Date of Article: May 27, 1998
Updated with Status of Wrestlers: February 6, 2001

VAL VENIS
Man when i saw him debut on RAW against 2 Cold Scorpio I was impressed, i gave that battle a 9/10 on my raw report(see volume 3 of my raw reports).His Money Shot off the top rope was amazing.I thought he was going to be a major sperstar in the wwf, but for some reason the Titan suits were not impressed with his match.Oh, well i hope he gets a big push.

Where is he today as of 02/6/2001:
Just about 3 years after his debut, Val is still in the WWF with the same name, but is a member of the Right to Censor faction with Steven Richards, Ivory, Bull Buchanan, and the Goodfather where he said he cleaned up his act as a porn star and wants to make the world right again by censoring the WWF. Since his debut he enjoyed a 2 month European Title Reign. Plus 2 Intercontanental Title reigns, One for 1 month when he defeated Ken Shamrock at the February 1999 St. Valentine's Day Massacre PPV, but he lost it a month later to the Road Dogg, then he won it from Rikishi in June 2000, and held onto it for a month and a half until Summerslam in August where he lost it to Chyna in a mixed tag team match.

THE EDGE
I saw 4 promos for this guy and he looks cool.A neat mystery gimmick.Hes probably gonna be fighting dark matches on RAW uuntil he makes his debut in June against X-Pac(most likely according to a newsletter of mine)

Where is he today as of 02/6/2001:
The Edge is now called just plain old Edge. Later in 1998 he joined forces with Gangrel and Christian to form the Brood, in January 1999 The Brood joined the Undertaker's new faction, The Ministry of Darkness, then rebelled against the Faction in April 1999, Edge & Christian then rebelled against Gangrel and left the Brood in July 1999 after a series of losses. Edge then enjoyed a 1 day Intercontanental Title reign by winning it from Jeff Jarrett, then lost it back to him after Gangrel interfered. He then stayed teaming with Christian and they had several great matches with the Hardy Boyz and Dudley Boyz, and finally won the tag team gold at Wrestlemania 16(2000) from the Dudleyz in a triple threat ladder match. They lost and regained the Tag Belts several times throughout 2000 from The Hardy Boyz and Right to Censor, and even the combo of Undertaker & The Rock. They just lost the tag straps at the 2001 Royal Rumble to the Dudleyz.

GOLGA
This guy is really John Tenta(earthquake,Shark)but this new gimmick looks cool where he wears a mask and is dressed in all gold and part of Jackyl's Oddities faction with Kuurgan and Giant Silva. According to his gimmick for pleasure he endures pain.He fought a good match with Thrasher on RAW. And his finisher looks like a powerslam.

Where is he today as of 02/6/2001:
Golga remained silent for most of the summer of '98, only seen on minor WWF telecasts like Shotgun Sat. Night, then the Oddities made a comeback with the Insane Clown Posse as there new managers in late '98, they went from fan faves to heels, then in a couple of months I.C.P. turned on them and joined up with the Headbangers. The Oddities feuded with them for a while, then kinda disappeared. Golga's last major WWF appearence was at the '99 Royal Rumble, where he was #3 in, and quickly eliminated by Steve Austin. Golga then faded out of the WWF, and was released from the WWF, with the rest of the Oddities in April 1999. John Tenta is now an Independent wrestler.

KAEINTAI
This new Japanese faction was previously known as Klub Kamikaze in the WWF. And were known as Kamikaze DX in Japan. The members are Sho Funaki, Mens Teioh, and Dick Togo. I saw them in their debut beat up Taka Michanoku after a match of his on RAW.Now they also starting to beat up Bradshaw.And I also saw the debut of their manager, i think his name is Yamagutchi San.Anyways this faction sure does bring some competition to the Light Heavyweight division in the WWF.

Where are they today as of 02/6/2001:
Later in the summer of '98, Taka Michinoku joined the group, and they had some success in '98, and made a few PPV appearences, in late '98 Taka dropped the Light HW belt to Christian, and after that, Kaeintai wasn't seen that much, except for wrestling on some Spanish WWF Show, Los Superastros, though Taka did make some occasional RAW appearences, only to job. In mid-99, all of Kaeintai, but Taka and Funaki were fired. Taka and Funaki still team up, and Funaki even won the Hardcore title at Wrestlemania 16 in a battle royal for a whole 2 minutes, later in 2000, they became lackies and drinking buddies with the Acolytes but that only lasted about a month, and now they have a gimmick where they do lip synch interviews, where Taka rambles on and on about being evil and death, and all Funaki says is just "Indeed."

DARREN "PUKE" DROSDOV
And finally PUKE.He was formerly known in the WWF as Duke "The Dumpster" Droese,but disappeared around May or June 1996.He was very impressive in his match against DOA. His finisher is a unique Pearl River Plung like Powerbomb pin.This superstar lookes like to have a bright future in the wwf.

Where is he today as of 02/6/2001:
The whole "Puke" name didn't work(but he still did the whole puking gimmick of it), and they went from calling him "Puke" to just Darren Drozdov, then just plain 'ol Droz. He teamed with the Legion of Doom for the rest of '98 and the first month of '99. Then disruptly left the group, then continued on his own for a couple of months, until he started teaming up with his piercing buddy, Prince Albert in mid-99, they had mediocre success, and then the both of 'em got a big push in Sept. '99, and Droz was feuding with D-Lo Brown, and finally got a match made with him for his European title in Sept. '99, unfortunately D-Lo landed a move wrong on him during that match, and paralyzed Droz from the waist down. Droz is still slowly recovering and hopes to make a return to the ring down the road, and is still part of the WWF, but as a columnist, where he writes his own "Droz' 2 Cents" column for WWF.Com.