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| Kurrgan is interviewed by Paul Leduc in Montreal, Dec. 29, 1999. — Photo by Greg Oliver |
He’s not Kurrgan anymore, but the fans still expect Robert Maillet to do his little dance, with his arms waaaay up in the air.
Turns out that the WWF retained the rights to the Kurrgan name when Maillet’s contract was not renewed, and The Oddities gimmick dropped.
“I loved the WWF. I really did,” explained Maillet backstage at the International Wrestling 2000 show on December 29, 1999 in Montreal. “It’s basically don’t call them, they’ll call you.”
He said that the WWF “didn’t have time for me, nothing creative” and that his departure was “a business thing. We left on good terms.” He added that he is trying to get into WCW.
So these days, one would find Maillet wrestling as Goliath, a name first given to him in Mexico. He just got back from a tour of Germany that included fellow Canadian, the WWF-bound Joe E. Legend.
On the Jacques Rougeau Jr.-promoted International Wrestling 2000 show, he teamed with former Oddities partner John Tenta, aka Golga. They faced Les Prisonniers, but things didn’t work out and they had hoped. Seems that both Goliath and Tenta thought that they should be the one to do their finisher and score the pin. Their bickering ended up costing them the match, and will likely lead to a match between the two at Rougeau’s next show.
In January, Maillet will be going out west to the Can-Am Wrestling promotion, on their ‘Battle Of The Giants’ tour. He’ll be facing former Edmonton Eskimo Jeff Thomas in the western promotion. A tour of Lebanon is a possibility after that.
“I’m very lucky to have this job where you can travel all over the world. When I have the time, I love to visit the sights. Like in Germany, it was great. I got time to go visit some of it, not all of it,” he said.
He recently returned to Mexico, where he got some exposure early in his career. Maillet main evented at one point against Giant Silva. But he’s not big on Mexico. “I really didn’t like the place [though] the people were nice.”
“The language barrier was tough enough, but Mexico City, it got to me. For me, it was too much of everything — pollution, traffic, homeless people. Chaotic basically. I didn’t feel comfortable there.”
Maillet was there when Owen Hart died in May. “I wish I would have been in Canada when Owen died. … I wish that I would have been home. I would have had the chance to go to the funeral too. It was difficult for me to go. I did send a telegram from over there. … it was tough to be there by myself.”
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