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Ron Reis AKA The Yeti



Ron Reis
Born: November 18, 1969 in San Jose, California
Other Ring Names: Big Bomb Jones, Big Ron Studd, Evil, Reese, Super Giant Ninja, SWAT, Vanilla Gorilla, T-Rex, and The Yeti.

Standing at 7’1 and weighting over 350 lbs., Ron Reis had the size to be a star in the wrestling business. What Reis didn’t have was a strong gimmick, over the course of his career, Reis had upwards of nine gimmicks over the course of his career and might be remembered the most for his The Yeti gimmick. 

Ron Reis was trained by wrestling star, Big John Studd and made in professional in-ring debut in March 1994 with Killer Kowalski’s International Wrestling Federation. In 1995, Reis wrestled with the National Wrestling Conference in Las Vegas, before joining World Championship Wrestling by the fall. 

Reis as The Yeti
With WCW, Reis would debut as The Yeti on October 23, 1995, as a member of the Dungeon of Doom. Every wrestling fans and maybe even non-wrestling fans knows what happens next, during the Halloween Havoc PPV, The Yeti entombed in a block of ice, the ice broke to reveal a mummy-like figure and Tony Schiavone shouting, “It’s The Yeti”. The Yeti would interfere with the match between The Giant and Hulk Hogan by attacking Hogan with The Giant and giving Hogan a double bearhug. During the attacking on Hogan, Schiavone would remark, “The Yeti is taller than The Giant!”. Clips, memes, and GIFs have been created from this one segment. 

New look for The Yeti
After The Yeti’s debut, The Yeti was given a wardrobe change. Instead, looking like a mummy-like creature, The Yeti would now resemble a masked ninja. Reis would make several appearances with the new look before being renamed as Super Giant Ninja. Reis would only make one appearance under this name before changing gimmicks. In 1996, Reis became Big Ron Studd and was used as an enhancement talent. By the end of 1996, Reis would wrap up with WCW and wrestle a few times on the indies in 1997. 
  
Reis with Raven and members of The Flock
By 1998, Reis was back in the WCW fold, this time as Reese, a member of Raven’s Flock.  As a member of The Flock, Reese was the group’s “enforcer”, but could not stop Goldberg from defeating the leader of The Flock, Raven for the WCW United States Heavyweight Title. He would also suffer a loss to Juventud Guerrera and would be done with the stable and WCW by June 1998 after Saturn pinned him on Monday Nitro. 

Reis against Meng
In 2000, Reis would tour Japan and work a few indie shows before joining Dusty Rhodes’ Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling. While in TCW, Ron Reis would reprise his Big Ron Studd gimmick and form a tag team with Glacier. The team would win gold in 2002 and would vacate the titles a few months later.  Once Reis was done with TCW, he would make spot appearances from 2005 to 2019 with such promotions as the NWA and Ring of Glory.

Ron Reis had the size to be a monster heel, but it never happened for him, if only he had a gimmick what could have worked and suited him better, maybe then we would be talking about Ron Reis in a different light.
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