The infamous Toxic Turtles match actually took place at a WWF Wrestling Challenge TV taping on March 9, 1993, in Augusta, Georgia, slightly later than sometimes remembered. The origin of the gimmick was purely spontaneous. Regular WWF enhancement wrestlers Duane Gill (who would later gain fame as Gillberg) and Barry Hardy apparently owned knockoff Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costumes they used for independent wrestling shows. The story goes that Vince McMahon spotted them backstage, with one account mentioning Gill was even break-dancing in the suit. McMahon impulsively decided to book them in a match right then and there, reportedly giving them only minutes to prepare. (Note: You can watch our Instagram Reel on the Toxic Turtles below).
Officially dubbed “Tommy Turtle” and “Terry Turtle,” the Toxic Turtles were billed from the fictional “Tarrytown, Texas,” making them an unmistakably blatant ripoff of the extremely popular TMNT franchise. Bruce Prichard later confirmed it was always intended as a one-off dark match (a non-televised match for the live crowd) just for fun, acknowledging the obvious trademark issues meant it could never be a serious, ongoing gimmick. Adding to the strangeness, they reportedly entered the ring to the theme music of another bizarre WWF character, Max Moon.
In their sole appearance, the Turtles faced fellow enhancement talents Ron Preston and Tommy Stevenson. The match itself included awkward wrestling, some double-team maneuvers, and the now-legendary moment where Barry Hardy flipped onto his shell and, like a real turtle, couldn’t get up without his partner’s assistance. Despite the chaotic nature of the match, the Toxic Turtles actually secured a victory, humorously noted by one source as possibly the most dominant win of Duane Gill’s early career.
However, the live audience was far from entertained. Reports suggest the crowd reacted with initial silence before quickly turning against the gimmick. The Toxic Turtles vanished after this single appearance for several reasons: the likely copyright problems, the poor crowd reaction, the fact Gill and Hardy weren’t under full-time WWF contracts, and the reality that the Ninja Turtles craze itself was beginning to wane by 1993.
The match remained unseen by the wider wrestling audience for decades, never airing on WWF television. It only gained notoriety when WWE unearthed and released it as part of the “WWE Unreleased: 1986-1995” collection in 2017. Since then, it has become a cult classic example of wrestling absurdity, frequently mentioned among the WWF’s weirdest and most ill-conceived gimmick ideas. It’s also worth noting they weren’t the absolute first turtle-themed wrestlers; the USWA territory had previously featured a character named “Cowabunga,” played by referee Brian Hildebrand.
