Shane Thorne, formerly known as Slapjack, has been wrestling occasional dark matches since Retribution disbanded. Previous fan-filmed videos had shown him wearing plain white gear and playing a generic babyface, however before Friday night’s episode of SmackDown, he would debut a new character which fans have been likening to the 80s character Crocodile Dundee. A brief video of his introduction ahead of his victory over Austin Theory has been shared on social media, and you can watch it below.
Initially, many fans on social media would call out WWE for giving an Australian wrestler a stereotypical gimmick and declared another carrier ruined. Thorne, though, has since taken to Twitter and confirmed that it was his idea. He’d also mention being inspired by Nikki Cross, who has had renewed career success after pitching a superhero character to creative.
Thorne has been with WWE since 2016, following a successful tryout the prior year. He originally teamed with his long-time tag partner Nick Miller in NXT and worked with teams including The Authors Of Pain, American Alpha, The Street Profits, and The Revival. He became a singles competitor at the end of 2018 and challenged Ricochet and Velveteen Dream for the NXT North American Championship on house shows. Then after going through several tag partners, including Daniel Vidot, Bronson Reed, Brendan Vink, and Dorian Mak, he was called up to the main roster as part of Retribution.
