Steve Blackman was born nude on Sept. 28th, 1963 and then promptly put on comfy long black pants and picked up a kendo stick. Probably. He packed a decent amount of work in a short period of time for WWE (1997-2002), where he holds the record for most accumulated time holding the Hardcore Championship (172 days over 6 different reigns). The Silent Assassin won nearly 60 percent of his matches, according to Internet Wrestling Database.
It may not be enough of a legacy for that random opening slot that the WWE hands out in the Hall of Fame every year (The Koko B. Ware Tribute Position), but it’s enough to grab a birthday post from With Spandex. Let’s get Lethal.
The Beginning
Blackman debuted on Raw via guard-rail jump, which is usually a questionable angle for an unknown entity. It makes sense for Scott Hall or Eddie Guerrero switching promotions, but maybe not so much for Steve. As he was being escorted off the show by police officers, Jim Ross said he was spending the night in “the Hershey Hotel, so to speak,” which sounds like something gross and inappropriate Jerry Lawler would say, not good ole’ JR. Not the most iconic debut in history, to say the least.
His first pay-per-view match was at Survivor Series 1997 where he was a member of Team USA along with Goldust, Marc Mero (bookmarc Mero, we’ll be back), and Vader, who accompanied him down the aisle. That pair didn’t get along off-camera, as Blackman later told a story in a shoot video about wanting to beat Vader’s ass irl. The only thing that stopped him was that his contract said if he ever got into a fight that “they could send me home with only half of my guaranteed pay”.
Team USA came out to Kurt Angle’s music before any of us knew who Kurt Angle was, and Blackman was eliminated first via countout, easily the lamest way to go out in a Survivor Series.
Props to Steve for keeping his cool as a fan got a middle finger waaaaay too close to The Silent Assassin’s face on his way to the back. This is extra impressive, considering Steve has said stuff like “my attorneys are having fits” with regards to him getting in trouble while “working in bars and knocking people out.”
Nonetheless, Blackman keeping his cool here would not be the most memorable thing to happen in Montreal that night. There was also a controversial title match or something. But this article is about Steve Blackman!
Notable PPV appearances
Another lackluster Survivor Series outing followed in 1998, where Blackman lost a singles contest to Gangrel in a non-bracketed match, when a tournament for the vacant heavyweight title was the entire premise of the PPV. His team won at the Series in 1999, though Blackman was eliminated by the British Bulldog. Blackman’s streak of bad luck in November came to an end when he, Crash Holly, and Molly Holly won a 6-person mixed tag against Test, Albert, and Trish Stratus at Survivor Series 2000. And now you know all about Steve Blackman’s Survivor Series record!
He appeared in two WrestleManias as a tag team, losing both times. In the year 2000 (at WrestleMania 2000, if you’re nasty) his partner was Al Snow, his opponents Test and Albert. That was Blackman’s most “famous” WrestleMania appearance, solely because he and Snow beat up an anthropomorphic piece of cheese. The Attitude Era, everyone!
Prior to that he lost a tag team battle royal (alongside partner Flash Funk) at WrestleMania 14. Blackman and Funk! We really missed out on that team setting the world on fire.
But of course, you know Steve Blackman’s most notable PPV appearance already, which came when he provided the offense for one of Shane McMahon’s most Shane McMahon moments at SummerSlam 2000:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbFC52xfCqg
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The Brand
Most forget that The Lethal Weapon was blessed with not only an undefeated streak angle, but nobody in their right mind forgets he used to have glow-in-the-dark nunchucks. He was also a notable drummer in certain situations:
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Steve’s entrance theme didn’t say much about his character, but his Titantron video was tough as nails. It’s pretty repetitive, but the least we can do while celebrating the man’s birthday is watch him smash cinder blocks and show off his weapon collection over a funky club instrumental that could probably pass for a Cure knockoff song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFqSXQR47DA
His entrance rituals, however, were a lot easier on the eyes. Especially if you were a kid or just liked fast-moving objects and extremely serious facial expressions. Steve would walk out with nunchucks and demonstrate his skills at whipping and spinning them around real fast while the lights faded down. Steve Blackman’s entrance > Naomi’s, don’t you even dare @ me.
The description for the below video on WWE’s YouTube page says “Steve Blackman’s simple, yet catchy entrance music always struck fear in every opponent” which, while I love Steve, isn’t saying much about his opponents.
His Legacy
He saved X-Pac’s life, according to X-Pac. He whooped Marc Mero’s ass in that Brawl for All tournament, then whooped it again on a controversial Nancy Grace segment following the Chris Benoit tragedy.
He once defended the Hardcore Title while Al Snow read him a poem. He set a power lifting record for curling. He could go weird (milking cows and doing comedy acts at retirement homes) or brutal (he fought Ken Shamrock in multiple dangerous stipulation matches).
And in the most Steve Blackman turn of events possible, he is now working as a bounty hunter. (Or a bail bondsman if you want to get technical. But still.) In 2012 he began shopping a reality show where Steve Blackman bounty hunts people. Somehow, no one has bought this surefire hit yet, but luckily we can watch the sizzle reel.
Whatever your memories of Steve Blackman are, there’s no denying he could do it all.
And he did it all wearing comfortable black pajama pants.
