In August 2022, Kevin Nash claimed on his podcast (via YouTube) that he was still in the Army when he started playing professional basketball in Germany — he was, in his words, "getting paid under the table," but was nonetheless making good use of his athletic skills. However, it wasn't long before a serious knee injury ended his basketball career, and with pro sports out of the question, he returned home to Detroit and worked in the assembly line (via Grantland).
Sometime later, Nash was working as a bouncer at a strip club in Atlanta — home of WWE's biggest North American rival at the time, World Championship Wrestling. Seeing another career opportunity for a large, athletic man like himself, Nash began training at the Georgia Academy of Wrestling. After impressing his trainer, Jody Hamilton, Nash was signed by WCW, debuting on TV in September 1990 as one-half of the Master Blasters tag team. He was then repackaged as a solo star under the gimmick of Oz, a wizard-like individual with a neon-green cape and a pet monkey accompanying him and manager Kevin Sullivan to the ring. Yeah, we know. Wrestling can be weird.
Given how he was named after the location where the Wizard of Oz hails from (as opposed to actually being billed as a wizard), Nash's Oz character is a mainstay of worst WCW gimmicks lists. Next, he was repackaged as the smooth-talking Vinnie Vegas, and WWE's Shawn Michaels loved it so much that he helped Nash make the jump to Vince McMahon's promotion. Thankfully, "Big Daddy Cool" Diesel was the perfect gimmick, one that allowed Nash to break out as a wrestler years after his basketball career came to an unceremonious end.
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