Best & Worst Gimmicks
Posted by Douglas Nunnally
on 02/15/2006
Originally posted on October 31, 2004.
Scott Stover: Hello again wrestling fans and welcome to this week's edition of "The Wrestling Roundtable." I am your host and moderator, Scott Stover; and this week we are celebrating Halloween here in the United States and I thought, what way to talk about guys in costumes then to share our "best and worst gimmicks". Joining us this week are Douglas Nunnally, Matt Green, Phil Snyder and special guest Euan Conway.
Douglas Nunnally: I think I have to go ahead and say it. Like it or not, the Undertaker is one of the best gimmicks of all time. The aura, mystique, mind games, and pure power of it makes it all one of the best, if not the best.
Euan Conway: I will go with sharing my favorite gimmick at the moment which is none other than JBL's gimmick. It just fits in so much with the real life person and WWE has done a great job of using his gimmick to push him to main event.
Scott Stover: What makes his gimmick different from Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Man Gimmick? At times it almost is the same thing.
Euan Conway: I don't think it is any different really, just a more updated version. Both of them are just as excellent in my view.
Matt Green: Well, my pick for greatest gimmick is Raven. The first thing that draws me too it is the fact that you have to think about the character and what is actually said in his promos. Especially his ECW promos and this in my opinion makes his gimmick the greatest where as you get the normal black and white promos that are 'I'm going to kick your ass.' It had become generic by the time Raven came along and it totally revolutionized gimmicks within the business and, in my opinion, it has inspired a whole new generation with in the business like Vampiro, CM Punk, The Messiah, etc.
Phil Snyder: Well, personally I don't really think any gimmick was the "best" because different gimmicks work great at different times and different stories, but a few that stand out in my mind come from ECW. First, Taz who was just a New Yorker that loved to kick ass, but was so good at being a bad ass, before anyone else could steal it. He had probably a better catch phrase than The Rock and Austin both. Another would be RVD's "Whole F'N Show" gimmick. He really was perfect for the role in ECW. The WWE kind of gave him the gimmick, but then made him look just like everyone else, something ECW never did. He really was the "Whole F'n Show" and he made us believe it in and out of the ring.
Matt Green: I agree the Taz gimmick is great. The whole "Beat Me If You Can" attitude rang so true with his persona. I think that was ECW's greatest attribute though having not so great workers with awesome, awesome gimmicks.
Euan Conway: I agree with that, but unfortunately most of their decent gimmicks were destroyed by WWE.
Matt Green: As for RVD's gimmick, I liked the cockiness of it when he was actually a heel, but once Heyman turned him faced (or more accurately the fans turned him face from the raucous pops) it was just "Why the cocky attitude ?" It's exactly the same that Orton is going through now. His character is still heel through and through, but he's meant to be a face. It's weird.
Phil Snyder: One gimmick that really revolutionized wrestling was, of course, Hulkamania. I mean, he's one of the only wrestlers that non wrestling fans can name, even today. In his time, he really was larger than life. Even his "Hollywood" gimmick basically put WCW on the map, along with the NWO; but without that heel turn, I don't know if the WCW would have ever been as successful as they were for that short time.
Scott Stover: Phil, do you feel that the Hulkamania and/or Hollywood gimmick was one of the best?
Phil Snyder: I think Hulkamania was one of the best simply because not only did it last for many, many years, but he was basically a superhero to the young kids of his day. I mean, little kids would literally be afraid for his health when people like Earthquake and Zeus dominated him and in the case of Earthquake, injured him.
Scott Stover: Now we move onto "worst gimmick."
Euan Conway: The worst gimmicks in wrestling these days are women's gimmicks. I am not trying to offend women that try their best in the ring, but none of them have decent gimmicks. Not even Victoria's "Psycho Bitch" gimmick was any good. I think that is why we never see any decent women's matches these days, because they have no decent gimmicks to build feuds with.
Douglas Nunnally: I think that is very generalizing. A lot of women DON'T have gimmicks, but people like Trish and Victoria did or do. Victoria's psycho bitch was every bit as good as people said, and Trish's cocky bitch gimmick now is amazing. Other than that, WWE doesn't care enough to push them to gimmicks.
Scott Stover: Euan, do you feel women's wrestler gimmicks (if they had them) were better in the past then they are today?
Euan Conway: Yes, absolutely. They were a lot better in the past and particularly in the 80s, I think. Hell, even Sable and Jacky had decent gimmicks during their feud.
Matt Green: Right, in regards to women's gimmicks: Euan, you seriously rate Sable and Jacky two divas who had the most basic gimmicks ever ahead of Trish and Victoria who have/had gimmicks that are miles ahead in their complexity, not only that at least most people don't feel like shooting Trish or Victoria when they get behind the mike, as compared too Sable of Jacky who should not have a live mike in a 1 mile radius of their mouths.
Phil Snyder: I don't really think there is a huge difference between women's gimmicks in the past and now. To tell you the truth, they are more in depth now and are built up more. Trish Stratus's gimmick is amazing and she plays it so well, but back in the 80s I don't see really anyone that stands out. I think they tried way to hard in the 80's to make the women like the men. Take Sensational Sherri, she just tried being the top heel and the "queen" of the federation, but no one bought that. She was like 95 pounds. Rockin' Robin and Velvet McEntyre were all basically bland characters along with many others. Fabulous Moolah never even really had a gimmick that I saw. Lelani Kai and Judy Martin were also the same way, even with the whole "Glamour Girls" team. All the women in the 80's were pretty much all just wrestlers and nothing but. Granted I've seen more women's matches today then back then, but I can still decipher between black & white and full color, if you know what I mean.
Douglas Nunnally: To me, the worst gimmicks are the ones that are nonexistent. Just think about it. What is Christian's gimmick? What is Edge's? Shelton
Benjamin? Charlie Haas? Hell, without Regal being a heel, I don't even see his gimmick. I think the art of the gimmick is long gone. Too many nowadays
DON'T have them.
Scott Stover: That is a valid point; gimmicks are not what they used to be by any stretch of the imagination.
Phil Snyder: I agree that they aren't what they used to be, but maybe that's a good thing. We don't have the Waylon Mercy's of the world around now, nor the Doinks, Sultans, T.L. Hoppers, Duke "the Dumpster" Droeses, Goons, etc. Sometimes the best gimmicks are the ones that aren't there too.
Douglas Nunnally: You always need some kind of gimmick, to be honest. The best ones are normally the ones that are the person with the volume turned way up, to be cliché. Austin, Rock, Taker, Jericho, HBK, et cetera. These other stars nowadays are doing nothing, and I hate it.
Matt Green: I think it's the state the business is in today. No competition breeds no creativity. WWE will just ride out the wave they are on until they have competition then they will get in a total mess because there is no story to anything they do.
Phil Snyder: That's pretty much what I was going to say too. Wrestlers can get away with not having the best or any gimmick nowadays because there's really no reason for the writers to try to come up with something. If you look back at the early nineties, just about every wrestler had a gimmick. If you look at the roster now, you won't find the same similarity.
Scott Stover: This has been a great discussion into wrestling gimmicks. No doubt, everybody has their own personal opinion just like the boys on the roundtable do here. We'll see you all next week, right here on "The Wrestling Roundtable". Say good night guys!
Phil Snyder: Good night, guys.
Scott Stover: Oh, help me lord....
Douglas Nunnally: Night.
Matt Green: Good night wrestling fans...where ever you are.
Euan Conway: Good night and thanks for having me!
Scott Stover: And this is Scott Stover saying good night, Allez Cuisine!
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