Gimmicks that were absolutely pure genius

[Deleted]

Goldust is a great choice. It was unlike anything we've seen up to that point; and, even today, Dustin does new and interesting things with the character.

Al Snow & the Head, especially in the way he explained how he was inspired by Mick Foley when he found a mannequin head in the trash: "I was saying to myself, 'I've been talking to myself and nobody's been getting it. I'll take this to the ring and talk to it like it's a human being'. And, it just took off from there."
We've seen "crazy" guys before. We've seen "psychos", and "nut-cases", but Al Snow took that to a whole new plateau, and it's probably the one thing everyone remembers about him. It was comical, it was serious, it was entertaining!

Want to take it a different way? The ending of the KOTR 1998 match between Al Snow & Head versus "Too Much" was so unique ("That match was uglier than a bowling shoe!"), I'm still tickled to this day how it ended. The concern was that Head couldn't be pinned, so special guest referee Jerry Lawler dug up a bottle of Head & Shoulders shampoo and tossed it to "his good friend" (never admitted that was his son) "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher, who affixed it to the Head and pinned it.
"The Head! It had Shoulders!"

[poi zen rana]

Dec 31, 2010 22:31:52 GMT -5 Joe Neglia said:

how and why. what makes these "genius"?

Sorry, let me elaborate. 

On The Brian Kendrick it gets tricky. I loved the gimmick, the overall arrogance of it, but to me, it was all sold on the mannerisms and subtleties. That makes it tricky because it is hard to label whether that was Kendrick being good at it, or part of the gimmick. 

His current gimmick is easier to categorize. I love the spiritual guide character. A faux mystical guru handing out sayings that are treated as deep pearls of wisdom. The gimmick is really entertaining and adding it to the character of however you describe EY's gimmick just clicks. 

The Lance Steel (no E on Steel I now realize) gimmick was such a genius idea. A time traveler! Two versions of the time traveler from different periods! Gimmicks like these are why I love CHIKARA. If wrestling is going to be require a suspension of disbelief, why not have fun with it. Go the distance. Maybe I am just a sci fi time travel nerd but I thought this was a great idea for a character. 

Bobby Dempsey as the abused big guy was an interesting gimmick. I had not really seen a whole group of people constantly picking on and taking advantage of a big guy. It was fresh because the underdog was a big strong guy who could probably hold his own against his tormentors but was afraid and took abuse. Then he would be a monster in the ring. 

I just remember being young and really excited when Mike Awesome showed up in WCW. When he began his Career Killer gimmick my jaw dropped. The crazy Awesome bombs and attacks were perfect compliments to the character they built him up as. Just this monstrous new threat on the scene who wasn't just winning matches but putting people on the shelf. Wrestlers weren't just afraid of losing to him they would fear being sidelined. This one can get fuzzy too when attempting to label what was the gimmick and what was Awesome being awesome. 

The Milk Enthusiast period of Kurt Angle's gimmick really sold me on Kurt, as much as I liked him before. You had this totally cheesy delusional wrestler who saw himself as a role model. The way his character seemed so oblivious to how arrogant and egotistical he was made it. He really didn't understand why people didn't treat him like a hero. He encouraged good virtues and actually did good things, in an egotistical way. I really loved when he was promoting milk and calling Austin's beer drinking a bad example. 

[ICBM]

Raven. The psychology behind him given the audience he had, should have made him the babyface against Dreamer. The genius to have the common link but still get heat/hatred is amazing to me