John Nord – The Berzerker

By Scott Keith on 21 March 2019

Early on in the Observer recaps there was all this talk about Nord the Barbarian and how over he was in the mid to late 80s in a few different promotions. It seemed he was a legit draw. He was even doing car commercials. And I kept thinking, isn't this the same guy who was the fucking Berzerker in WWF? I think Berzerker epitomized the really bad gimmicks and bad wrestlers of that period of WWF.

So, what happened? Did he get signed too late to be effective? Would the gimmick have worked better in the Hogan lead 80s? Was John Nord no longer the worker he was in the 80s? Was this a case of Vince not understanding what worked with the character on the indy scene and changing it so much it became a silly cartoon version of the original gimmick? Or was this another case of a gimmick that worked well in smaller venues but just didn't translate onto the big stage of the WWF?

I must have missed where Nord the Barbarian was a draw anywhere. He wasn't. He was an underneath guy doing a Bruiser Brody cover band gimmick.