The Wrestling Gimmick - A Dying Art....

The one thing that is putting me off wrestling is the lack of gimmicks and good ones at that.

There have been some amazing turn around in some superstars careers down to gimmick changes and some pretty awful ones too. For example

Ringmaster to Stone Cold Steve Austin

HHH going from Blue Blood to The Game

Rocky Mavia to The Rock

Hulk Hogan to Hollywood Hogan

APA Bradshaw to JBL

Randy Orton - Legend Killer

Isaac Yankem to Kane

Edge becoming Rated R Superstar

The Rocket Owen Hart to the King of Harts

Dare I say it even Sid Justice to Pyscho Sid

Some poor ones

Undertaker becoming American Badass

Johnny Nitro - John Morrison

Papa Shango to Kama to Godfather to Goodfather

Mr Ass to the One Billy Gunn

Rapper John Cena to John Cena the bellend

There are just so many

I think the wrestling gimmick is what is letting down the WWE and even TNA. I think the WWE's refusal to re-define the gimmick for some superstars as it can make difference and even enhance merchandise that they crave. Superstars such as Sheamus, Kofi, Ted Dibiase are going nowhere and need some form of gimmick to help them develop as wrestlers and move up the mid card. I think the WWE and TNA need to work their gimmicks because so many talented wrestlers fall of the radar completely because they have rubbish gimmicks. It is becoming a dying art and I think it is killing wrestling slowly.

What i think strange is nobody has mental names anymore either
there all just semi normal names

Bring back the early 90s when every Wrestler had a day job

Spirit Squad Member to Dolph Ziggler

Seriously back when they were the spirit squad who would have bet on one of them becoming a world champion

Where not calling him an ex champ are we? He never even touched the belt

Yes he did, he had the belt around his wasit, he was world champion. Therefore he is a world champion.

Did you call Kane a world champ back when he won it before 2010?

I think a balance needs to be struck somewhere between the 80s/early 90s when every possible job a person could do was represented in the wrestling business (garbage collector, hockey player, snake man, tax collector, amry general etc) and
the way it is currently with 8/10 wrestlers looking like a generic wrestler from Smackdown vs Raw. Most gimmicks now seem to be an extension of their real personality, which I think probably started with Bret Hart (can anyone think of others who were basically themselves before Bret?) But even wrestlers without obvious gimmicks in the 90s had different movesets and ring attire etc whereas it is very hard to differentiate between a lot of wrestlers today.

Dont think I agree with the Undertaker or JoMo ones.

American Badass was a great gimmick, and Undertaker carried it well.

And JoMo's gimmick never changed, just his name, he was still a smarmy pretty boy.

Good point animal. Bret though technically on the mat was in a league of his own and plus the catchphrase 'The best there is, was, ever will be' and 'The Excellence of Execution' and I think Vince was stupid to think that he couldn't cut it in the attitude era because Austin brought the best out of him on the mic and Bret brought the best out of Austin on the mat. I just don't think any of the roster have that anymore. Have anything that really defines them. There also needs to be representation of the working guy and it needs a big change because it is just dreadful to watch talented wrestlers just not given the right gimmick to go that step further.

The Undertaker as the badass was gash. He carried it to the point that everyone could see that he wasn't suited to it at all. I didn't buy it and I was amazed it lasted because he didn't need a gimmick change.

Jomo didn't come to the ring making out he had number 1 albums. Didn't need to change his name or gimmick.

I thought the Bad Ass gimmick gave Taker a chance to be more rounded as a character and on the mic and he could basically be himself

It was a move to show WWF moving away from gimmicks and Taker was a symbol of that and given how pleased I was at WM20 when the deadman returned I now think a new gimmick change would have been good if he didn't have so little time left in his career

Chuck Norris wrote:Yes he did, he had the belt around his wasit, he was world champion. Therefore he is a world champion.

Did you call Kane a world champ back when he won it before 2010?

did I call Kane a champ? Yes he beat Austin fnr the WWF Title in the Main Event of a major PPV

I cant recall Ziggles touching the belt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UZ1eMxxpZk

Sound, I still dont consider him a champ tho much in the same way i dont consider Andre a champ

He's recognised as a world heavyweight champ and also the 22nd triple crown champ

I know hes recognised, so is Andre i just cant consider them ex champs

I didn't think Andre was recognised, the story was Jack Tunney wiped it from the record books I thought?

Na Andre is officially recognised, im not sure if they only did this after he died tho'

Cool, learnt something new today!

I don't understand why Andre was recognised but Dibase wasn't?

Because DiBiase didn't win it, Tunney stepped in when Andre forfitted the title, if DiBiase wanted to be champ he was going to have to win it