Bruce Prichard Reveals Origins Of Bastion Booger

"Take a look at the size of this guy. What a grotesque individual," said Vince McMahon on commentary during the June 19, 1993 episode of "WWE Superstars." The Superstar in question was Bastion Booger, who was making his debut against Virgil. Prior to joining WWE, the man behind the Booger gimmick, Mike Shaw, was best known as Makhan Singh in Stampede Wrestling and Norman the Lunatic in WCW. Shaw was signed by WWE in 1993, and was initially known as Friar Ferguson.

A "Mad Monk who wrestled barefoot," Ferguson only made two appearances. "The Friar and the Mad Monk s*** didn't work," said longtime WWE official Bruce Prichard on the "Something to Wrestle With" podcast. "Mike Shaw came in and he was horribly out of shape. A shell of what he had been before. He used to be able to move as a big man and could work. He came in, just slow and just huge; just in terrible, absolutely horrible, horrible, horrible, shape. The Monk outfit hid all that and when that didn't work — we got some bad feedback from religious groups — what do we do with him?"

Prichard figured since Shaw was in horrendous shape, the company should "accentuate the positives" and put him in an outfit that "made him look even worse." When deciding on a name for the gimmick, Prichard claims he jokingly suggested Bastion Booger. "Think about the nastiest, grossest .... Bastion Booger, its disgusting, its gross and put him in that outfit and let it be gross," said Prichard. "Let him gross people out. And that was the idea behind it. And I think he did. I think he accomplished that." By August 1994, the Booger gimmick was no more as Shaw was released from the company. At the "Raw 15th Anniversary" on December 10, 2007, Shaw reprized his Booger gimmick for the opening segment with the McMahon family and Triple H. In September 2010, Shaw sadly passed away due to a heart attack at age 53.