Welcome back to Rotten Ink. As you can see, we find ourselves back at the Rotten Ink Arena as it’s time to start our celebration of WWE WrestleMania that is a major sporting event that takes place every April and is like the NFL Super Bowl and MLB World Series for wrestling fans. The Arena is decorated like a kids magic show and every fan has been given a popper as today’s “R.I.W Wrestling Legend” was the master of the squared circle mystical magic arts (kind of like the Burger King mascot The Magical Burger King from the 70’s) who could shoot streamers from his hands and steal your underwear from under your tights and who vanished with a puff of smoke from the WWF after only a few matches and this curiosity was named Phantasio! So let’s head to the snack bar and grab some punch and popcorn and find our seats as this update event is going to be a fast and fun one.

Phantasio started his pro wrestling career on September 13, 1993 working for United States Wrestling Association  under the names Spellbinder and Harry Del Rios (his real name) and would work the company until 1995. He would have matches with such names as The Rock And Roll Phantom, Moondog Spike, Doomsday, Wolfie D, Skull Von Crush and Jeff Gaylord, to name a few. During this time he climbed up the card pretty fast and would find himself even in a few main events. This caused him to get a tryout in the WWF for a very short run (more on that later). Spellbinder would quickly return to the USWA and would find himself working the upper middle card with a few main events and would even win the USWA World Title twice. During this time as well Spellbinder would work a few other indie promotions and would be somewhat of a draw for each of the companies. He would also work under other names like Elijah, Streak, Super Spell and Shock, to name a few. He would also win titles in such companies as NWA Main Event, Power Pro Wrestling, Xcitement Wrestling Federation and Memphis Wrestling. He would retire from wrestling in 2012, and while never a huge superstar, he made his mark in Tennessee wrestling. He also would work with such names as Axel Rotten, Giant Silva, Paul Diamond, Reckless Youth, PG-13, Ducth Mantel and Jerry Lawler. But now let’s talk about his off and on employment with the WWF over the years.

In 1995 Phantasio would make his way to the WWF and would be a magician wrestler who wore mime makeup and would do tricks to entertain his fans as well as distract his opponents. His first match would be against Mike Hollow in a dark match and then would have his first and only televised match against Tony DeVito and would shock and entertain the young fans in the crowd. He would then work another dark match, this time against Rad Radford, before he would find himself let go and having to go back to work for the USWA. But in 1997 they would give Phantasio another chance; this time going by Spellbinder he would work against Aldo Montoya during a Shotgun Saturday Night taping. The match would not be aired. Late in 1997 he would work three days at house shows being defeated by Mark Henry at all three events, and with that his WWF career would come to an end, and he would not work for the promotion again. But to be fair in 2001 at a cross promotion event and while working for PPW, he would be on the same card as some WWF Superstars. Phantasio’s final match would be the last of his in ring career as he would beat Simon Dean at the PWS 5 Year Anniversary Show. And just like that with a poof of smoke, Phantasio was gone from WWF and would never make a big impact like he was hoping for.

Phantasio is one of those wrestlers that I can remember seeing his debut match on TV and was like, this guy is strange and his gimmick of magic made me wonder what heels he would be going up against in the future…and just like many others during this time, he just kind of vanished and was never mentioned again. While he was a name in the Memphis, TN area with his Spellbinder character before and after his WWF run, he is pretty much known for his one match for the world’s biggest wrestling company. Most of the time when Phantasio is brought up it’s on peoples worst WWF Gimmicks Countdowns or is mocked by online wrestling critics and bloggers, but I am not going to do that as I feel that he did have a memorable gimmick that was different for the time and if WWF would have stood behind him, they could have had a solid lower mid-card baby face they could have feuded with many heel wrestlers working at the time. I mean his magic was basic in the ring and would amount to poppers, confetti and even a little fire breathing and his in ring work was solid but not main event level. If Phantasio would have stayed in the WWF, I would have liked to have seen him work matches against the likes of Adam Bomb, Jeff Jarrett, Jean-Pierre Lafitte, Tatanka and Owen Hart. And then I would have liked for him to turn heal and have a Black Magic gimmick and feud with The Undertaker. But it was clear that the powers that be in the WWF just were not a fan of his as only one TV match and only two dark matches show that they had no faith in him. There have been many rumors over the years about why Phantasio did not have a full run in the WWF with some saying his appearances was only done as a favor to Jerry Lawler whose son Brian Christopher was friends with Phantasio. Others claim that during his first TV match his fire trick went wrong and set some of the backstage area ablaze. Another big rumor was going around that The Undertaker was upset over him as he thought it was to close to his own, and lastly it was said that they just did not like his in ring work…are any of these rumors true, who knows. But I for one think Phantasio, Spellbinder or whatever name you know him by was not a terrible worker and the magic gimmick was a cool one that set him apart from others.

We are now at the point of this review where we will be taking a look at the DVD set and review some of the matches on the discs, like always between 4 to 8, with sadly this one being a little shorter as we are only going to cover is one WWF Match. I want to thank HyperDevil for having this set in stock that features many great matches of him as Spellbinder and also want to thank Phantasio for his hard work in the world of wrestling. I also want to remind you that I will only be breaking down randomly select matches from this set and will be breaking down the match and will be rating the matches on a 5 Star rating system. I also only choose from single matches, as I want to break down his matches that showcase his style. Here is what the stars mean ½ means a really terrible match, * means a bad match, ** means a below average match, **1/2 means a good average entertaining match, *** means a good match, **** means a great match, ***** means an epic match. So if you are ready, let’s step into the ring with Phantasio.

Best Of Phantasio

Match 1: Phantasio vs. Tony DeVito

Phantasio starts the match off with a shoulder tackle, knocking Tony to the mat and then after dodge a clothesline is able to shoot streamers at Tony that flusters him. Phantasio then hits some arm drag takedowns three in a row and then poses for the crowd as Tony rolls out of the ring and throws a fit out of frustration. Once back in the ring Tony and Phantasio trade off working over each others arms before Tony is able to land a few punches that backs Phantasio into the corner. But after working the ropes Phantasio hits a big shoulder block that levels Tony and has brought the momentum back on to the magic man’s side who then hits a pair of scoop slams before going for an atomic drop and then removing Tony’s boxer shorts from his tights with his magic and then roles him up for the three count and the win. After the bell rings, Phantasio then pulls a prank on the referee and removes his boxers as well. This was the debut and final match for Phantasio in the WWF, and let’s just say it was a little rough and had no sizzle to the action in the ring. The pacing of the match is slow for such a quick match as many of the moments are set of for spots to showcase the magic of Phantasio who mostly throughout the match did very basic moves likes slams and arm drags, but I will say his shoulder block looked really good and impactful. The ending of the match was super silly with the boxers removal and got a pop for some of the live crowd while the second time he did it to the referee was meet with mostly silence. Phantasio while coming out got somewhat of a reaction from the younger fans was meet with wonder by the older ones who seemed to be slightly amused by his magic tricks, but he was doomed when they gave him no music to come out to and he had no finisher to truly pop the fans as he wins by a rollup. Over all, this was a slightly below average TV match and a strange debut for a character that vanished just as quick as he appeared.

Grade: **

Sadly I think that this match is what truly doomed Phantasio in the WWF as he was not able to showcase his in ring work and the magic tricks. While a cool concept, it just came off odd to many in the crowd and this caused him to have a very mixed response from the fans in attendance. During the match poor Gorilla Mansoon tried his best to put Phantasio over, at one point even calling him comic book character Spider-Man! While the DVD set has many of his matches as Spellbinder on it, I just wanted this update to focus on his mirco run in the WWF as he was one of those wrestlers I remember debuting and always wonder what happened and where he went. I do think he was a good worker and worked better matches before and after his time in WWF. It’s a shame he never got to show his skills while there. So as you can see, this update event is over but WWE WrestleMania month continues as our next update will showcase another WWF Superstar who only lasted a small amount of time with the company supposedly because extreme bullying and I am of course talking about Outback Jack! So let’s make our way to the exit and as we do, as always read a comic or three, watch a wrestling match or two and as always support your local wrestlers. See you next update back here at the Rotten Ink Arena for a down under good time.