Kevin Sullivan has wrestled beside and against some of the best superstars in many companies and territories, most notably WCW. He won championships pretty much everywhere he has been. He has also worked behind the curtain as a booker, and is recognized as having a great mind for the business.
However, as we get farther and farther from his prime as a performer, wrestling fans may not be as familiar with Kevin Sullivan. People might only know about him as a booker for WCW, or as part of a member of the infamous Dungeon Of Doom stable, but there are a lot of other things about his career that you may not know about.
10 Managed Oz
Kevin Nash once played the wrestling version of The Wizard of Oz. He was named Oz, and he was styled like an old wizard. He had a green cloak and trunks, and he wore an old sorcerer's mask. Kevin Nash was supposed to be The Wizard of Oz, but he confusingly had a manager who was also an ancient wizard. The manager was called the great wizard, and that was Kevin Sullivan. In a Q & A, someone asked Kevin Sullivan if Oz could have been like Kane if it were taken more seriously. Kevin Sullivan said the gimmick was horrible, and It didn't have a prayer.
9 Practising Punches With A Can
Kevin Sullivan didn't think he had a very good working punch. So to practice his punches, he got a tin can and hung it in the air, and he hit it. He would change the level of the can to practice different kinds of punches. The point of the exercise was to be able to hit the tin can with your first without moving the tin very much. This was so that he could hit wrestlers on the chin and make it look good without injuring them.
8 Just Like The Sheik
Kevin talked about how the business still needs to be protected a little in an interview with MLW. Even in today's world, where kayfabe and fans are aware of what's going on behind the scenes, the business still needs to be protected. Kayfabe isn't totally dead, and Kevin uses his own cognitive dissonance as a child as an example.
Sullivan says that as a kid, he thought everything was fake except for the Sheik. He compares that to today, where people know even more, and this phenomenon still exists. He says part of the reason Brock Lesnar is on top is that everyone believes he's the baddest person on earth.
7 TNA Run
Kevin Sullivan has wrestled in tons of territories and WCW and ECW, but he also made a stop in TNA. He refereed the first-ever Clockwork House of Fun Match. The match was a Raven original, and it was a hardcore, pole and tables match hybrid.
The poles were on all four corners of the ring and held up hardcore weapons all around the ring. The way to win the match was to beat your opponent and then take them up to Ravens Perch (a small scaffold in the crowd area) and throw your opponent off it through the tables. Kevin Sullivan was the ref for Raven and Sandman. He said he was there to be a promoter of violence, and he handed each competitor weapons to inflict damage in certain spots in the match.
6 WCW Success
In WCW, Kevin Sullivan was brought in to defend his kayfabe dyslexic brother David Sullivan from the Nasty Boys. However, the Nasty Boys injured David. So then Kevin Sullivan recruited Cactus Jack to get revenge on the Nasty Boys, and they beat them for the WCW Tag Team Championships. Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan held the belts for fifty-six days and dropped them to Pretty Wonderful, Paul Roma, and Paul Orndorff. Also, after the tag team dissolved, Kevin Sullivan beat Cactus Jack in a loser leaves WCW match.
5 Feuded With Bray Wyatt's Family
Bray Wyatt took the wrestling world by storm with the Cult leader gimmick and became larger than life. However, before Bray Wyatt, Kevin Sullivan was Prince of Darkness cult leader feuding with Bray's father, Mike Rotunda, Uncles Barry and Kendall Windham, and his Grandfather Blackjack Mulligan.
To paraphrase Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, it feels odd that Bray should be destined for that cult leader gimmick when its originator gave his family so many scars. Bray Wyatt definitely put his own unique spin on the cult leader and took the character to another level, but there are some clear influences from Kevin Sullivan. The seemingly rambling promos that actually have deep meaning and even cocky laughter are shared by both Bray Wyatt and Kevin Sullivan.
4 ECW Success
Kevin Sullivan was a member of the ECW roster from 1993 to 1994. Kevin Sullivan was actually still in WCW while working with ECW. Kevin Sullivan was able to warn Paul Heyman in advance about WCW poaching talent. While he was in ECW, he teamed with Tazmaniac (Tazz) and won the ECW tag team championships from Shane Douglas and Tom Dreamer.
Taz and Kevin Sullivan beat Bad Company's Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond. Taz and Sullivan never actually lost their ECW Tag team championships. They were vacated. This was done because Kevin Sullivan wouldn't let Taz eat the pin in their tag title loss because Kevin would rather take it himself. However, they were protected in a loss to show respect for Kevin.
3 Amateur Background
Kevin Sullivan had a pretty crazy start to his wrestling journey. According to his interview on the Brutal Truth, he was an amateur wrestler, but he was never trained as a sports entertainer, and he didn't go to any wrestling school. He had always been a wrestling fan, but he didn't think he would do it. However, he worked out with a guy who wanted to be a wrestler but couldn't due to his family's aristocratic standing.
That guy asked Kevin if he wanted to wrestle with him at some smaller clubs, and Kevin just got into it. He says by the time he was going to have his first official match, he still hadn't been taught. He was supposed to get some pointers at half speed before the match, but it didn't end up happening, so he was led through that match in front of an audience without really knowing what he was doing. However, he did well and went on to do great things.
2 Luna Vachon Origins
Luna Vachon WWE Hall farmer has an iconic look. She had big blonde hair, and her hair shaved on one side, and a crazy vein style make-up on the side of her face and head. Where did the look start, though? Luna Vachon first debuted this look in an angle with Kevin Sullivan. She was playing a reporter named Trudy Herd presenting an award for wrestler of the month to Kendall Windham when Sullivan attacked Kendall's father, Blackjack Mulligan, and a scuffle broke out. During the Scuffle, Kevin smacked Trudy. After that incident, she joined Sullivan's cult, and as a price for entry, she had to sacrifice her vanity, and thus the shaved look was born.
1 Satan Worshipper?
It's perplexing that Kevin Sullivan ended up in a cartoonish Dungeon of Doom stable in WCW chasing Hulk Hogan. Because in the 80s, he was doing a cutting-edge cult leader gimmick for Championship Wrestling From Florida. He portrayed a cult leader with Satanic themes during the 80s during the Satanic Panic in America. Kevin Sullivan was so good at the gimmick it came back to bite him in real life. Jim Ross says Kevin wasn't brought into WWE creative because he had heat from people thinking he was a Satan Worshipper.
Kevin says he never actually said anything about the devil, but he heavily implied it in promos. He also said this was a tactic to toe the line and let people create their own boogie man because what people will imagine is always worse than what you can present. He also says he is not a devil worshiper and is actually a catholic, but people still think he is a devil worshipper to this day because of his Iconic Prince of Darkness gimmick.