What was so bad about Billy Gunn?

[Diamond Dallas Dom]

Something I never understood as a wrestling fan was why did Billy Gunn did so much flack? I thought he had personality (more than what people gave him credit for), some decent mic skills (better than the majority of the "E" today I think), he had the look, and always managed to entertain me in the ring.

And I definitely know I'm in the minority here but I loved "The One" Billy Gunn gimmick. I think if the WWE stuck with him a little more and gave him something to work with he would have been an excellent main-event heel (I'd put him on par with JBL). IMO, he's one guy that didn't really get a fair shake (and I'd say a big factor of that was Triple H).

[EJS]

"The One" was a gimmick?

I just don't think he could ever wash away the stigma of being "Mr. Ass".

[Marksus]

IMO his selling was too over the top with his version of the Flair flop (Ass Plunge?) etc.

Also i doubt a lot of the male demographic could get past the slight 'gayness' of his Ass Man character.

[BorneAgain]

There was nothing bad about Billy Gunn.

Unfortunately, there was nothing good either.

[Jackson "The Cool" Carter]

Monty Sopp

[FunkerCM]

What was bad about him was that he blew every single push he got - and he was given more chances than anyone with the exception of JBL.

[Judas Heyman]

I liked The Smoking Gunns...Mr. Ass was good for the attitude era time sake...after the attitude era was over Billy became a midcarder and was released. In TNA Billy Gunn sucked!

[Jiren]

I found him to be a good Tag Team wrestler

Nothing More

[losthead]

He was really good in the ring to me. His moves always had that "pop" to them. Especially the Fameasser which looked like it legit drove guys heads into the mat. And his suplex was awesome. On top of that he had a ton of personality.

Billy Gunn was awesome and until I came to the internet I never heard anyone talk shit on him. Same thing with X-Pac and Road Dogg.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

He never did anything overly bad, but he was never particularly great either.

[Modern Day Maharaja]

I loved The One Billy Gunn but Mr Ass gimmick totally ruined any seriousness he had.

[randomranter]

the problem with Billy gunn wasn't that there was anything particularly *bad* about him, but for every redeeming quality he had, there were several people who were better at it. What could Billy Gunn offer that HBK, HHH, Rock, Austin, Bret, Foley, or Undertaker couldn't offer? Heck, even the mid-card was stacked with people who had as much or more to offer than Billy Gunn did.

[Allie Kitsune]

Mainly just that he was a tag team specialist who fell apart when asked to carry a singles match on his own. He wasn't horrible, he just didn't look right outside of a tag team setting.

[EvenBaldobombHasAJob]

being called Billy Bitchcakes pretty much torpedoed any chance he had of being a main eventer.

[Trent Valentine]

Aug 1, 2010 3:13:46 GMT -5 EJS said:

"The One" was a gimmick?

I just don't think he could ever wash away the stigma of being "Mr. Ass".

Or nearly marrying a dude.

[cabbageboy]

Eh, if anything the Billy/Chuck angle got him back on the map after a couple of years of doing nothing. Where did he even go during the Invasion? Injury?

Anyway, this has been covered in the past. Billy Gunn was a solid tag wrestler but not someone that was terribly good as a singles guy. He's the sort of guy you push when you don't have anyone else, like the WWF's roster of 1998-99. Once they had better talent on the roster, why bother with Billy Gunn?

[Perpetual Nirvana]

Aug 1, 2010 3:35:52 GMT -5 BorneAgain said:

There was nothing bad about Billy Gunn.

Unfortunately, there was nothing good either.

This. He was just unremarkable in every way.

[mystikz]

just because I haven't seen it posted yet...........


Rockabilly !

[thesunbeast]

He had, and still has, all of the tools.

I think he has only one weakness, and I'll get to that in a little bit. But anything he lacked was all due to him either blowing opportunities or not getting them. He had plenty of opportunities, but some were under questionable gimmicks.

He's extremely athletic, and great at talking. He's the reason why HBK and HHH to this day could say "If you're not down with that, we've got two words for ya!" and get a huge pop.

Here's his weakness: IMO, he seemed a little to preoccupied with doing what he thought was cool and not what would actually work with the fans. I don't know how much of that is his doing or not, but most of his singles persona's all seemed to center around his seemingly ambiguously gay flamboyancy. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but when you emphasize your ass, you have a gay gimmick with Chuck Palumbo, and you dress in lingerie as your ring attire, it raises the question of how much of that was he doing because he thought it was going to get him over vs how much of that was he doing because he just wanted to do it?

Here's a character that I personally think would have gotten Billy Gunn massively over. As far as facial features goes, has anyone ever noticed how similar Billy Gunn looks to an old Superstar Billy Graham?

That's right. I'm not saying he should have ripped the guy off or anything, but I think he would have been the logical next step in preserving the "superstar" role in wrestling after Scott Steiner. He could keep all that flamboyancy, and he could have kept the blond hair and the tan. He already acted really conceited with the bubblegum chewing, and so he could have kept that too. He could have kept the famasser (or fame kisser) as his special move and the name would have still fit. He would have been a cross of Superstar Billy Graham, but looked more like Super Macho Man from punchout, and he would have had the Sean "the star" Staziak gimmick with the signing the autograph pics. Yeah, I think that Superstar Billy Gunn would have worked greatly. I think I remember someone saying "here is WWE superstar Billy Gunn" and I was like "yeah, that's it", and then I started paying attention to how much he looked like a young SBG, and acted the role just like it.

"I'll make you famous" would have been Billy Gunn's line long before it would have been Undertaker's.

[MasonK565]

I always liked Billy Gunn. And I always will. I felt he should have had a longer IC title reign. Though he probably would have screwed that up too.