| No Limit Soldiers | |
|---|---|
| Stable | |
| Members | Master P BA Chase Konnan Rey Mysterio Jr. Swoll 4x4 |
| Debut | June 13, 1999 |
| Disbanded | September 1999 |
TheNo Limit Soldiers were astable inWorld Championship Wrestling that was formed after rapperMaster P signed with the company. The Soldiers notably feuded withThe West Texas Rednecks from June to July 1999.
The relationship between WCW and Master P was supposed to be a symbiotic one, with WCW gaining exposure with fans ofhip hop music, and Master P getting his cousinRandy Thornton (Swoll) a break in the wrestling business in the United States, as his only prior in-ring experience was a brief stint inNew Japan back in 1991.
Although the No Limit Soldiers, named such after Master P'sNo Limit Records, were packaged as aface stable, complete with a rallying cry of "Hoody Hoo",[1] they failed to connect with the mostlySouthern WCW audience. Master P was first introduced during a press conference onWCW Monday Nitro on June 14, 1999. In his only other televised appearance, onNitro the following week, he and the Soldiers (includingBrad Armstrong, renamed "BA") bulliedheel wrestlerCurt Hennig by rejecting a present he gave to Master P's brotherSilkk The Shocker—a custom-madecowboy hat—with Silkk stomping on it and Master P then assaulting Hennig with a birthday cake.[1] This created confusion among fans as Hennig was a heel who was being bullied by a group of people promoted by WCW as faces.[2][citation needed] He was reportedly paid$200,000 per appearance byEric Bischoff for his short participation in WCW.[3]
As part of the storyline, Hennig put together his own four-man country-themed stable ofThe West Texas Rednecks, along withBarry andKendall Windham, andBobby Duncum Jr. However, the Soldiers outnumbered Hennig's group by nearly two to one, and they were putover the Rednecks in a four-man tag match atBash at the Beachpay-per-view on July 11 whenRey Mysterio Jr. pinned Hennig. The country-rapangle abruptly ended thereafter as the Rednecks were moved into a new feud withThe Revolution, save for a July 22 match onWCW Thunder in which Hennig pinned Soldiers newcomerChase.
Another setback for the Soldiers was that the group consisted of either unestablished rookies such as Chase and Swoll, who werebooked to defeat experiencedworkers such asFit Finlay andLenny Lane; and repackaged veterans like Armstrong who would often take the brunt of opponents' offense in tag team matches before Swoll would enter to score the pin. None truly connected with audiences, despite the group's inclusion of fan favorites Mysterio andKonnan.
Following the breakup of the Soldiers, Konnan and Mysterio moved on to form theFilthy Animals, while the other members appeared sporadically onWCW Saturday Night. Swoll and4x4 were one-time (kayfabe) bodyguards forDennis Rodman in his feud withRandy Savage, and they, along with BA, briefly feuded withJimmy Hart'sFirst Family[4] before they were both released by WCW in September, while Armstrong returned to working under his regular ring name.[5] 4x4 temporarily returned as part ofHarlem Heat 2000 under the name Kash, then was gone from the company for good when the team disbanded in May 2000.