Father James Mitchell looks back on his involvement in WCW’s “Blood Runs Cold” angle.
Upon his debut for WCW in 1997, Father James Mitchell (aka James Vandenberg) was paired with real-life friend Chris Kanyon. At this point, Kanyon had been repackaged into a masked wrestler named Mortis, which was a Latin word for “death.”
As Vandenberg began managing his new client, Mortis entered a feud with fellow WCW talent Glacier. This angle became known as “Blood Runs Cold.” Vanderberg and Mortis were later joined by Wrath, while Glacier received assistance from Ernest “The Cat” Miller.
WrestleZone spoke with Father James Mitchell about this particular storyline, which was loosely inspired by the Mortal Kombat video game. Mitchell didn’t have much knowledge of the gaming franchise beforehand. However, he confirmed the program was designed to reel in younger viewers who were more immersed in the gaming world.
“I had zero knowledge of video games,” Mitchell said. “I was made aware that there was a video game called Mortal Kombat. My understanding, because they were working on this for a year before I got involved with it. I was hearing all the secondary secondhand information from Kanyon, but that it was designed to evoke the Mortal Kombat kind of vibe and to catch the wave of the rapidly emerging video game culture. So yeah, it was pretty much definitely supposed to be a knockoff of Mortal Kombat. And the idea was to draw in, the eight to 14-year-old demographic, as opposed to the usual adult demographic, which I think was, 21-55, or something like that.”
Mitchell’s James Vandenberg Character
While the overall angle was influenced by the Mortal Kombat game, Father James Mitchell says his portrayal of James Vandenberg was not specifically based on a video game character.
“I was not based on a video game character. The deal was they didn’t have a mouthpiece. And none of them at the time were considered to be strong promos. So they’d been looking for a manager,” Mitchell said. “My understanding was that it had been pitched to Oliver Humperdinck at one point, and possibly Gary Hart. They weren’t interested in it, because it was so far out in left field. And one night, I was at Kanyon’s house, and Dallas Page called him up and said, ‘Hey, get that manager guy that you know over here in the morning, but go ahead, make me a tape.’ There was no story to ‘Blood Runs Cold.’ There was none. So looking at these crazy characters, I came up with a pitch that they were underground pit fighters from Malaysia and Taipei. What’s that movie, Bloodsport? Stuff like that.”
Mitchell says WCW tried to put their own spin on it, and things progressed from there. Page loved the idea, but wanted to change Mitchell’s delivery.
“He didn’t like my delivery, the gimmick I was doing at the time, which was Darryl Van Horn from Smoky Mountain Wrestling back in the day. So he basically painstakingly directed an audition tape for me to take to Eric Bischoff, which is what became the James Vandenberg character.”
Mitchell credits Page with coming up with some of the nuances of James Vandenberg. However, the gimmick didn’t last long, as it got pushed to the back when the nWo took off.
You’ve got to be a character
“Instead of being a fast-talking manager, he said, ‘You’ve got to be a character, bro. You got to be a character.’ So he came up with all of the hand wringing, speaking in a hiss, and very slow evil delivery and looking down my nose at the camera and all that.”
“He took it. I was sitting in his man cave later that afternoon. He walked over to Eric Bischoff’s house and came back and said ‘You got the job.’ But by that time, NWO had already taken off. And they were basically not going to give us any promo time really. I think maybe the whole time I was there, I did two promos. We were a backburner item at that point. Eric told me that gimmick was already. The day he signed me to the contract, he said, ‘The gimmick’s dead, and it’s not gonna go anywhere. So don’t buy a house or get married or anything like that.'”
Despite their lack of promo time, Father James Mitchell remains grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the WCW product in some capacity.
“It was a hell of a way to come in, but it was a great featured spot,” he explained. “It was a life-changing experience. I always refer to it as kind of like going back and looking at your old middle school yearbook or something when you had Coke bottle glasses and buck teeth or braces or something. It’s part of your journey that brought you to where you eventually are now.”
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Watch our full interview with Father James Mitchell below:
