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The Gimmick Table: The Origin Of Tekno Team 2000

Posted: Apr 16th 2025 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.Wordpress.com

A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality, whatever the case may be…some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not so favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.

Today we browse the gimmick of Tekno Team 2000

In 1995, second generation wrestler Erik Watts received a WWF try out match with the company after a recommendation from Jim Ross. Watts originally tried out and was signed to become a singles wrestler. While working out at WWF’s headquarters for management to develop a gimmick, he brought along his good friend and former college football teammate Chad Fortune. Watts brought along Fortune in hopes that he could get signed by the company as well. The two worked together as a tag team and did a number of maneuvers that impressed management. Fortune was signed to a WWF deal as well and plans changed where they decided to make Watts and Fortune as a tag team.

Vince McMahon looked at both Watts and Fortune and felt that their size and ability to do some high flying moves would revolutionize the tag team division for years to come. They were looked upon as a team to lead the division into the year 2000 and were given the team name of Tekno Team 2000. Techno at the time was a very popular music genre with the youth, so ‘Tekno’ was added to their team name. Erik Watts said that Vince liked his tag teams to have matching names like Skip and Zip (The Bodydonnas) and Billy and Bart (The Smoking Gunns)…so Vince gave Watts and Fortune the names Troy and Travis. Watts and Fortune hated the names and actually flipped a coin to see who got the name Troy and who got Travis. Erik Watts ended up with Troy and Travis was bestowed to Chad Fortune.

Watts said Vince flew the team back and forth from their homes to New York City to be fitted for their wrestling outfits that were created by a “top fashion designer.” Watts recalled being made fun of by Jerry Lawler, who thought the outfits made them look like the old stove Jiffy Popcorn. In addition to the futuristic outfits, they were asked to wear eye makeup, which the team hated as well. After making their WWF debut at a Madison Square Garden house show, Travis (Chad Fortune) screwed up a few basic moves which had management sour a bit on Fortune. They were given a strong initial push, where they were undefeated, but were sent down to the USWA to gain more experience.

When they returned, they were told that they were going to win the WWF tag team titles from the Smoking Gunns. Gorilla Monsoon was one individual that was very vocal against that decision and eventually the idea was dropped. Chad Fortune would get released, but kept Erik Watts to get repackaged with another gimmick. Watts decided he did not want to return to the USWA for a few months and asked for his release instead.