Without question, one of the coolest acts of the Attitude Era was Gangrel. Straight out of an Anne Rice novel, David Heath would emerge on our screens, ascending through a literal ring of fire.
Beginning his career a decade before, Heath trained in Florida under Boris Malenko before forming the masked tag team of The Blackhearts with Tom Nash in Canada’s Stampede Wrestling. The two would eventually be joined by a manager, Heath’s future wife, and Nash’s then wife, Luna Vachon. With Luna in their corner, The Blackhearts would capture the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance tag team titles and the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship titles.
The team would split sometime between ’93 and ’94. Along with the dissolution of The Blackhearts was the end of Nash and Vachon’s marriage. But as a wise man once said, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning end.” And Luna and Heath would tie the knot on Halloween in 1994. Clips from the ceremony even made it onto WWF television.
Heath would repackage himself, ditching the mask and taking on a gimmick inspired by the classic 1987 vampire flick The Lost Boys. And anyone who hasn’t seen it needs to stop what they are doing and go now and watch it. Don’t just watch it, though. Track down a physical copy and buy it. People really need to support physical media. Besides, it’s a movie worth owning. — Anyway, now using the name The Vampire Warrior, Heath would work various promotions, including a stint in Memphis’s USWA, where he’d hold the USWA Heavyweight Championship. In addition to his time with the USWA, The Vampire Warrior would appear for various NWA affiliates, Japan’s International Wrestling Association, and that little Philadelphia-based promotion we all affectionately refer to as E. C. F’N. W. He’d even make a fair amount of pre-Gangrel WWF appearances, more often than not working as the masked Black Phantom.
As the Black Phantom, Heath would make it on WWF TV several times throughout ’94 and ’95, earning himself quite the impressive losing streak, doing the job for such industry icons as 123-Kid, Duke “The Dumpster” Droese, and Adam Bomb. Then, in ’96, Heath would again adorn the persona of Blackheart Destruction, re-teaming with Tom Nash as The Blackhearts for a run in Japan that would span into the summer of 1997. From there, the Vampire Warrior would spend some time in Puerto Rico and Japan with the World Wrestling Council and All Japan Pro Wrestling, respectively.
It’s been said that Bruce “Brother Love” Prichard and Vince “Pro Wrestling’s Anti-Christ, Bro” Russo, were the driving forces behind The Vampire Warrior getting a coveted WWF contract. He’d be given a new name (and yeah, that’s fine. Vampire Warrior isn’t what you’d call a badass name. It sounds more like the kind of lazy name you’d find in a Spawn comic.) debuting on an episode of Sunday Night Heat, David Heath would be rechristened Gangrel. An odd choice, seeing that the name was already and still is Trademarked by a tabletop roleplaying game called Vampire: The Masquerade, where the name is used for a Vampire Clan. This meant WWF would have to pay a license fee to use the name, and for some reason, they felt that was better than coming up with literally any other name they didn’t have to pay for. You really have to wonder who went to bat so heavily for Gangrel. — Like someone felt this name was so important that it was worth paying off a board game company that few people have ever heard of.—As if the gimmick’s entire success was based on the name Gangrel alone. Which is ridiculous. Everyone knows Gangel’s success was solely the result of his entrance.
A dark red light floods the arena. An ominous track pumps through the speakers. A ring of fire burns on the stage. It is from that blazing circle that Gangrel would rise. Emerging from Hell itself, clutching a goblet of blood in his hands and wearing a puffy shirt that no doubt inspired a Seinfeld episode. It was nightmare fuel. Not only was the atmosphere created by the entrance eerie, but Heath himself was downright frightening in the role—thanks partly to a set of legit fangs (he’d had his teeth filed down.) The whole thing was topped with Gangrel standing on the ring apron, sipping from his goblet, and spitting blood into the air. (It’s where Triple H stole the whole spitting water thing from.)
Gangrel would feature prominently on WWF television in ’98, entering into a feud with Edge that would also feature Edge’s former Kayfabe brother, Christian. This feud would ultimately lead to the birth of one of the most wickedly awesome stables ever. The Brood.
The Brood would go through two incarnations before its demise in 1999. The first and really only true Brood consisted of Gangrel, Edge, and Christian. A second version of the group saw Edge and Christian replaced with Matt and Jeff Hardy, but it didn’t have the same magic and was a short-lived alliance. Although the three would reunite ever so briefly in 2022 when Matt and Jeff saved Gangrel from a Young Bucks beating at an AEW show.
Heath wrapped up his run with WWF in 2000, officially being released from his contract in 2001. He’d make sporadic one-off appearances for the company over the years, even re-signing a development deal in ’06 with the plan to debut him on the new WWECW brand. Reports from the time had said WWE was looking to bring Gangrel back to partner with Kevin Thorn, a vampire character they had plans for. This never materialized, the reason being, according to some reports, was that WWE Higher-ups were not happy with Heath’s weight. Despite the return not coming to pass, the Vampire Warrior has continued sucking (Like sucking blood cause he’s a vampire, so it’s a good thing…) all over the world, wrestling for countless independent promotions.
He also directed pornography. So, yeah, there’s that.