Post by sungod2020 on Dec 21, 2022 9:30:21 GMT -5
As we all know, gimmicks are a huge part in wrestling. It can give the character that's playing it showing some sort of personality or get them noticed when they wouldn't have otherwise. In even rarer cases, launch them into superstardom where they eventually shed it(e.g. John Cena's rapper gimmick).
However, they can also be the kiss of death to the performer(such as The Renegade being an obvious rip off on The Ultimate Warrior). So in essence, they can make or break the character/performer in question.
What are gimmicks that have 0 chance of getting over, no matter how you book the wrestler in question? Here are my picks...
Meat:Despite Sean Stasiak being son of a former WWWF champion(Stan "The Man" Stasiak), he didn't reach the same success his father did. Not that he was the greatest to begin with(in terms of wrestling ability, charisma, etc etc), his gimmick as a man servant to PMS(consisting of Terri Runnells, Jacqueline Moore, and Ryan Shamrock) didn't help matters.
Being emasculated is far from threatening as a heel and is too pathetic to get cheered. I get this was the Attitude Era, and Vince Russo wanted to give everyone a gimmick and something to do, and maybe he meant well, but it's obvious he didn't have long-term plans for the roster(Vince Russo and long-term don't even belong in the same sentence), and this is an example of that.
Gobbledy Gooker: The inspiration to this very website, for weeks the WWF brought an egg down to arenas all over the country and hyped up that it was going to hatch at the Survivor Series. Many speculated it was a debuting or returning star, but it turned out to be an anthropomorphic dancing turkey. The crowd was far from pleased and voiced it's disproval right away.
To be honest though, it seemed like a reality check to the fans. What else could hatch from an egg that isn't some type of bird...on Thanksgiving no less. To me, it was both a horrible and brilliant idea at the same time.
I think it was meant to be a take off on The San Diego chicken and was suppose to be the yearly mascot of the Survivor Series, it just backfired in every way imaginable.
Impersonator Gimmicks: I'm not talking about The Renegade as I mentioned in the second paragraph, since they were playing it straight, I mean those who play the original performers dopplegangers. It might be good for a quick chuckle, but said performer wants to get truly over with the fans, they need to shed the character soon as it would get old quickly.
For example, Fake Diesel and Razor Ramon were brought into the WWF by recently turned heel-leaning tweener Jim Ross. The week prior, he was hinting that the recently departed characters would make a return to the company. He however didn't say it was going to be Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. For months, he was hyping them as a newer, younger, and fitter version of The Outsiders.
However, no one bought JR's hype job. I think they were meant to be heels though, and MAYBE they could've gotten over as such if they played it straight to piss off the fans, but eventually, they would need to drop their characters if they were to be taken seriously. I even did a thread on how the two could've been booked better.
Another example would be Charlie Haas impersonating different characters every week. To me, it comes off as admitting he can't get over on his own, so he's living vicariously through those he's imitating. If he would've snapped in one of his matches, as in, get a chair and keep hitting his opponent with it before starting a worked shoot promo about how the audience never liked him for him, and then go on a mean streak up to and including winning a midcard belt, then I can see that working, but WWE(especially in the 2000s onward) aren't that clever when it comes to this type of booking.
What are other characters you can think of that have a snowball's chance in hell getting over regardless of who plays it?
However, they can also be the kiss of death to the performer(such as The Renegade being an obvious rip off on The Ultimate Warrior). So in essence, they can make or break the character/performer in question.
What are gimmicks that have 0 chance of getting over, no matter how you book the wrestler in question? Here are my picks...
Meat:Despite Sean Stasiak being son of a former WWWF champion(Stan "The Man" Stasiak), he didn't reach the same success his father did. Not that he was the greatest to begin with(in terms of wrestling ability, charisma, etc etc), his gimmick as a man servant to PMS(consisting of Terri Runnells, Jacqueline Moore, and Ryan Shamrock) didn't help matters.
Being emasculated is far from threatening as a heel and is too pathetic to get cheered. I get this was the Attitude Era, and Vince Russo wanted to give everyone a gimmick and something to do, and maybe he meant well, but it's obvious he didn't have long-term plans for the roster(Vince Russo and long-term don't even belong in the same sentence), and this is an example of that.
Gobbledy Gooker: The inspiration to this very website, for weeks the WWF brought an egg down to arenas all over the country and hyped up that it was going to hatch at the Survivor Series. Many speculated it was a debuting or returning star, but it turned out to be an anthropomorphic dancing turkey. The crowd was far from pleased and voiced it's disproval right away.
To be honest though, it seemed like a reality check to the fans. What else could hatch from an egg that isn't some type of bird...on Thanksgiving no less. To me, it was both a horrible and brilliant idea at the same time.
I think it was meant to be a take off on The San Diego chicken and was suppose to be the yearly mascot of the Survivor Series, it just backfired in every way imaginable.
Impersonator Gimmicks: I'm not talking about The Renegade as I mentioned in the second paragraph, since they were playing it straight, I mean those who play the original performers dopplegangers. It might be good for a quick chuckle, but said performer wants to get truly over with the fans, they need to shed the character soon as it would get old quickly.
For example, Fake Diesel and Razor Ramon were brought into the WWF by recently turned heel-leaning tweener Jim Ross. The week prior, he was hinting that the recently departed characters would make a return to the company. He however didn't say it was going to be Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. For months, he was hyping them as a newer, younger, and fitter version of The Outsiders.
However, no one bought JR's hype job. I think they were meant to be heels though, and MAYBE they could've gotten over as such if they played it straight to piss off the fans, but eventually, they would need to drop their characters if they were to be taken seriously. I even did a thread on how the two could've been booked better.
Another example would be Charlie Haas impersonating different characters every week. To me, it comes off as admitting he can't get over on his own, so he's living vicariously through those he's imitating. If he would've snapped in one of his matches, as in, get a chair and keep hitting his opponent with it before starting a worked shoot promo about how the audience never liked him for him, and then go on a mean streak up to and including winning a midcard belt, then I can see that working, but WWE(especially in the 2000s onward) aren't that clever when it comes to this type of booking.
What are other characters you can think of that have a snowball's chance in hell getting over regardless of who plays it?