In the New Generation era of WWE — lasting from roughly 1993 to 1997 — there was a focus on introducing loads of new wrestlers and gimmicks, with varying results. While there were obvious successes like the rise of Shawn Michaels to the top of the company, there are also loads of less-well-remembered acts, like the tag team Men On a Mission. Composed of Mabel, Mo, and their manager Oscar, Men on a Mission were a hip-hop themed duo looking to make a positive influence on the community.
Fans likely don’t know much about Men on a Mission, so let’s take a look at the team's career and what fans should know, including the group’s Survivor Series foray and Mabel’s singles push.
10 Started In The South As The Harlem Knights
Trained by Gene Anderson — best known for being part of the tag team Minnesota Wrecking Crew — Bobby Horne (Mo) and Nelson Frazier (Mabel) started off in Southern United States promotions like Pro Wrestling Federation and the United States Wrestling Association.
In this era, they were not Men on a Mission, but rather The Harlem Knights, kayfabe brothers Bobby Knight and Nelson Knight, and feuded with babyfaces like Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Lawler as well as capturing the PWF Tag Team Championship. Due to their impressive size, Jerry Lawler recommended the Knights to WWE.
9 Joined WWE As Babyfaces
WWE were similarly impressed by The Harlem Knights, and the two debuted in the summer of 1993, albeit in a completely different presentation from what fans in the South had seen.
Instead of monster heels, the Knights were now Mabel and Mo, Men on a Mission, and were presented as positive role models. It was here that they gained Oscar as their manager, who’d perform live raps as Men on a Mission made their way to the ring.
8 Survivor Series Match
It was at the 1993 Survivor Series pay-per-view that Men on a Mission had one of their biggest matches, albeit one where they were not the focus of the angle. Instead, the storyline was all about the feud between Doink and Bam Bam Bigelow, with Doink claiming that his Survivor Series team to take on Bigelow’s team would be Doink, Doink, Doink, and Doink.
The gag ended up being that Doink didn’t take part in the match, but rather had The Bushwhackers and Men on a Mission compete, all of whom were wearing Doink makeup and billed as Doink. The result was a silly comedy match, and was poorly received by fans.
7 Won The WWE World Tag Team Championship
In 1994, Men on a Mission entered a feud with The Quebecers, Jacques (previously known as The Mountie) and Pierre (later known as the Frankenstein-like PCO), who held the Tag Team Championship. In March, during WWE’s European house show tour, Men on a Mission manage to dethrone The Quebecers for the belts, only to lose them back to the French Canadians two days later.
While it’s certainly an achievement for Men on a Mission, there’s also a rumor that the title change was an accident, and that Mabel had accidentally knocked out Pierre, who didn’t kick out of the pin like he was supposed to.
6 Turned Heel in 1995
As 1994 gave way to 1995, Men on a Mission continued their Tag Team title pursuits, unsuccessfully entering a tournament for the vacant belt and later challenging The Smoking Gunns — Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn — for the title.
After failing to capture the belts from the Gunns on an episode of Action Zone, Mabel and Mo attacked their opponents in the post-match. The following week, Men on a Mission attempted to apologize to the Gunns only to attack them mid-handshake, fully solidifying their heel turn.
5 Lost Oscar After Their Heel Turn
Following their heel turn, Men on a Mission dropped their positive rapper shtick and started to resemble the monster heels they were in their pre-WWE year. However, in the process, Oscar, their aforementioned rapping manager, disappeared from the group.
Reportedly, Oscar was supposed to stick around, but objected to the heel turn as he was passionate about the positivity aspect of the Men on a Mission gimmick. As a result, Oscar not only departed WWE, but also dropped out of the wrestling business entirely.
4 Becoming King Mabel and Sir Mo
Following their heel turn, Mabel received a push as a singles star, and ended up winning the largely reviled 1995 King of the Ring tournament, defeating Savio Vega in the finals and becoming King Mabel in the process. With Sir Mo as his backup, King Mabel scored a shot at Diesel’s WWE Championship at SummerSlam 1995, but was unsuccessful in his effort.
It was during this period that Mabel infamously injured two major opponents while doing standard moves, injuring Diesel’s back at SummerSlam while doing a seated Senton and breaking The Undertaker’s face in a later match while doing a leg drop.
3 Backstage Tension
While Mabel and Mo came up together as tag team partners, there ended up being some serious tension between the two partners as their WWE run went on.
According to Mabel, his aforementioned singles push didn’t sit right with Mo, who grew jealous that his partner was getting big opportunities and more money in the process while Mo’s whole job at the time was to come out with Mabel and hang out at ringside. Eventually, the tension became too much and soon enough Mabel began coming out to the ring by himself.
2 Returned To Their Old Promotions After WWE
After King Mabel made his final televised appearance by competing in the 1996 Royal Rumble, both he and Sir Mo departed the company, after which they returned to appearing in USWA and PWF, where their careers began.
In USWA, they tagged together for a period, and eventually broke up, wrestling a few singles matches against one another while Mabel clashed with Jerry Lawler and captured the USWA Heavyweight Championship. While they didn’t capture any titles together in USWA, in PWF they would recapture the Tag Team Championship they had initially won years earlier.
1 After Men On A Mission
Men on a Mission wrestled their final match in 1996, after which Mabel and Mo went their separate ways. In USWA, Mo was repackaged as Sir Mohammad, a member of the original Nation of Domination before the gimmick made its way to WWE. Mabel proved more successful, wrestling in Puerto Rico and Japan as well as making a one-off WWE appearance for a match in 1998.
The following year, he officially returned to WWE, repackaged as Viscera, and would later enjoy a third run with the company in the mid-2000s where he’d eventually adopt the name Big Daddy V.