Steve Blackman is one of the most random ass pick ups I've ever seen in WWE. Dude was a Stampede mid carder who hadn't worked in nearly a decade when they brought him in.
And he had been a jobber in WWF back in '88...
He contracted malaria and took years to recover from it, then re-trained himself to wrestle again. The story probably interested Vince and made him give Blackman a shot, I'm guessing.