The Boogeyman is actually Marty Wright. Hardcore WWE followers remember Wright as the man kicked off $1,000,000 Tough Enough for lying about his age. Claiming to be thirty, Wright was actually forty, five years past the cutoff date for eligibility.
This didn’t stop Wright from signing to a WWE developmental deal late in 2004. WWE is insufferably weird as a company.
In WWE storylines, The Boogeyman was part of UPN Network Executive Palmer Canon’s “new talent initiative,” a refugee from another UPN show. I won’t mention the storyline past this point, as I value my brain.
The Boogeyman appeared on both Raw and SmackDown! to sing nursery rhymes and confuse the shit out of people. Here he is bothering John Cena:
Our favourite forty-something clock-smasher torments JBL:
The Boogeyman couldn’t wrestle at all, aside from the token pumphandle slam and/or chokebomb. That’s not why he was in WWE. No, The Boogeyman was pure spectacle and face paint. I don’t know even now what he was supposed to be. The Boogeyman ate worms, smashed a clock on his head and danced funkily before entering the ring.
On the flip side, WWE’s gimmicks in 2005-06 included Kerwin White, the Smackdown Juniors (my God, the Smackdown Juniors), Simon Dean, The Dicks, Shelton Benjamin’s mama, The Spirit Squad, crossdressing Big Vito and Pirate Paul Burchill. The Boogeyman fit right in.
The Boogeyman’s greatest feuds, if I can use the term “greatest” to describe The Boogeyman, were with JBL and Booker T. Said feuds happened early in The Boogeyman’s run, during the winter and spring of 2006. Marty Wright suffered a torn biceps during the Booker T/Boogeyman feud, and his character’s momentum would never recover.
To be fair, Marty Wright was injury-prone. His WWE debut was delayed after he hyperextended both knees during a house show match against Doug Basham. It’s never a good sign when a wrestler is injured before (s)he debuts.
Then again, Randy Orton, Batista and Edge are frequently injured. Their places in the WWE hierarchy are assured. They also don’t play dancing, worm-eating, quasi-supernatural entities, which takes care of the longevity issue.
The Boogeyman was released by WWE twice, once in 2006 and again in 2009. I’m surprised The Boogeyman had enough staying power to last until 2009, although The Boogeyman was shunted to WWE’s version of ECW in 2007.
The Boogeyman had a good run. He bit an oversized mole off Jillian Hall’s face. A feud with Finlay and Little Bastard brought the world Little Boogeyman. Say what you will about The Boogeyman, but at least he’s memorable – not the good kind of memorable, but far less embarrassing than this:
