Full Career Retrospective and Greatest Moments for Hercules Hernandez
July 15, 2015
The wrestling boom of the 1980s brought with it a wealth of characters that are memorable to fans some 30 years later because the time was taken to ensure that everyone from the opening match to the main events had a persona that fans could latch onto.
A career-long midcard act whose physique was outstanding and whose strength defined him, Hercules Hernandez was one of those characters.
Arriving in the (at the time) World Wrestling Federation in 1985, Hernandez took on the gimmick of a Greek god, someone whose strength and powers were incomparable. He was a suitable undercard villain for the first two years of his stint with the company before moving up the ranks and becoming a fairly prominent midcard star.
A performer who demonstrated the ability to play both heel and babyface, he was a good hand for McMahon, which is part of the reason he lasted the seven years that he did.
Sadly, Hernandez passed away at his home in 2004 from heart disease.
Now, in celebration of the performer, relive some of his greatest matches and moments with this full career retrospective.
Pre-WWF
Before he ever debuted on Vince McMahon-owned television, Hernandez laid the groundwork for a career on the national scene with some memorable feuds and programs in the dying days of the territories.
One such feud involved Harley Race, the former National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight champion. Race, the respected veteran, had issues with manager Oliver Humperdink, and Hernandez just so happened to be the man standing between him and the loudmouth performer.
They would wrestle numerous times, often with Race winning the match and teasing vengeance on the manager. While it was another opportunity for the NWA great to come out victoriously, it also presented Race the opportunity to garner some mainstream attention, his opponent's stature in the industry certainly a help.
Feuds with Magnum TA, Brian Blair and Hector Guerrero only helped him garner momentum and attention.
Soon, there was enough buzz around the star that McMahon took a chance and signed him to a contract.
Arrival
Hernandez enjoyed his first taste of the glitz and glamour that came along with the national exposure that WWF offered when he battled Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania 2. One of the best matches on the show, the muscular star proved that he could keep up with one of the most respected workers in the industry, on the grandest stage known to the sport.
Over the course of the next year, Hernandez would enjoy a fairly substantial push as part of the Heenan Family.
After being built into a fairly impressive midcard heel, he was sacrificed to Hulk Hogan in November during an edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.
To that point, it was undeniably the biggest match of his career. While he would never quite make it back to that level of competition again, he would have the honor of performing in front of the biggest in-door audience of all time, in a match that culminated what was arguably his most memorable program.
The Billy Jack Haynes Feud
At WrestleMania III, Hercules squared off with Billy Jack Haynes in a rivalry that centered around the competitor's use of the Full Nelson submission hold.
In front of 93,173 fans in the Pontiac Silverdome in suburban Detroit, Hercules and Haynes competed in the night's second match, which ended in a count-out.
It was a power-based match that was neither particularly good or bad and ended with Haynes bloodied by his vile opponent.
Hercules would go on to win the definitive match between the two, a chain match that played up the gimmick that he carried to the ring every week.
Freedom
In 1988, Hercules was unsuccessful at stopping the surging newcomer known as The Ultimate Warrior, losing a high-profile WrestleMania IV match to the future Hall of Famer.
Later in the year, manager Bobby Heenan saw the opportunity to make a great deal of money by selling his disappointing charge to "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, who planned to make the big man his slave. After years of being treated as little more than muscle for Heenan, Hercules stood up for himself, refusing to be treated as property and essentially turning babyface.
Unfortunately, there was very little opportunity for the newly freed competitor to grow and move up the card as a fan favorite. With stars such as Hulk Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage and a plethora of other popular guys ahead of him, he fell into obscurity. For the better part of a year, he spent his time putting over newcomers while wondering what happened to the spot in the midcard that he had filled so spectacularly.
Power and Glory and Departure from the National Scene
Frustrated by his lack of success as a babyface, Hercules turned heel again in 1990, partnering with Paul Roma to form the Power and Glory team. While neither was a particularly interesting singles star, they had some wicked chemistry as partners, making them one of the more underrated and underappreciated acts of that era.
At first, it looked as though Vince McMahon recognized the potential that existed in the duo, pushing them with a high-profile victory over the Rockers at that year's SummerSlam and rewarding them with numerous tag team title opportunities in arenas across the country.
Unfortunately, the incoming Legion of Doom took attention away from the team and at WrestleMania VII, Hernandez and Roma were humiliated and defeated by Hawk and Animal in mere seconds.
When the team was unceremoniously dismantled, Hernandez would spend the rest of his WWE career in the role of glorified jobber, regularly dropping matches to the top babyfaces in the industry.
For a guy who was such a company man as Hernandez, who did what was asked of him and was a considerably prominent star in the company, to go out the way he did was disappointing.
He would kick around the industry for the next seven years, finding moderate success in Japan and in independent companies, where he was still a draw for fans wanting to get up close to a giant from the WWE's finest era.