Greatest Gimmicks in WWE(F) history

[LooseCannon25 0]

I would have to go with the Waylon Mercy gimmick/character. I thought the gimmick was way ahead of its time and Dan Spivey played it perfectly. I know it's a rip off of the Cape Fear movie but nonetheless it was awesome stuff......right down to his haunting entrance music and faces...........Who else comes to mind?

[Guest Some Guy]

The original Mankind gimmick never got over in a money drawing way despite being cool and played to perfection by Foley.

 

That and Alex "The Pug" Porteu. That gimmick was money baby!

[Guest JHawk]

Heel Doink. it was getting over until Vince said "This is getting over, so let's turn him face and kill what's making the gimmick work."

 

I'm likely in the minority here, but I think Reverend D-Von would have worked had they given him more of a Christopher Daniels-type angle to run with.

[LooseCannon25 0]

Evil Doink was a great gimmick..........went to shit when he turned face and got Dink

[Guest BionicRedneck]

Heel Doink was THE MAN~!. The music, the cigar, the balloon popping...he had it all.

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

Waylon Mercy by far. If Spivey hadn't gotten injured it might have worked.

[Guest Eagan469]

BERZERKER!

 

HUS! HUS! HUS!

 

[Guest BorneAgain]

Well, Heel Doink obviously, and The Rougeau brothers for their comedy aspect alone. And call it a guily pleasure, but I always thought Repo Man had limitless possiblities.

[Guest Breetai]

Motherfucking Repo man.

 

I'd love to see him work with the Guerreros.

[Guest Repo Man jr]

Repo Man could of been the next big thing if it wasn't for HHH. He had really great mic skills, speed, youth (In his mid to late 20's), UFC like submissions (The Crowbar), and even though his luchador costume disguised it, he was actually about 6'11, 300 pounds!).

[Guest Nevermortal]

BERZERKER!

 

HUS! HUS! HUS!

 

If you like The Berzerker, there's a guy in IWA Mid-South called Jimmy Jacobs who does the Berzerker gimmick. Its funny as fuck.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

I liked the Ringmaster... had it been given the chance it would have made way more money than that 'other' gimmick he used afterwards.

 

I liked Kama "The Supreme Fighting Machine" as well.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

I would have liked to see them give Reverend D-Von a chance, rather than job him out to Farooq like 2 or 3 weeks into the gimmick.

[Guest RavishingRickRudo]

They never quite got the religious character right. The problem is that it's trying to be too preachy (no pun intended) rather than subversive. They just should have a wrestler with a Messianic complex (ala Matt Hardy and his MF'rs - just taken A LOT further) rather than just a self-righteous christian.

[Guest Austin3164life]

Does the Million Dollar Man count? He never was the "Top Dawg" in the WWF for a long period of time.

[Guest deadbeater]

Speaking of self-righteous, Molly's 'pure and wholesome' character. She should have been asked to play it Ricky Steamboat straightlaced in the ring, give advice Bulworth style, destroy a Bangbus or 2, and question divas wasting time to pose for this and that while they should be eating, sleeping and drinking wrestling.

[thuganomics 0]

I got to go with D-Von. That was a great idea that the WWE just blew to hell. Total clusterfuck for what could have been cool.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Loved the heel doink and I didn't think that the Ringmaster was honestly all that bad......

[Guest evilhomer]

I liked Kama "The Supreme Fighting Machine" as well.

Papa Shango would have kicked his ass.

 

 

 

The most recent one would have to be Reverend D'Von. He seemed a little uneasy on the mic so he probably could have used some time off of tv to develop his craft a little bit better. Given the time and the right direction, he really could have created a great heel faction.

 

 

Uncle Waylon is my all time favorite that never went anywear. Dan Spivey played the character perfectly, the vignettes leading up to his debut were awesome, and he was great to watch. They screwed it up even in the short time they had by fueding him with Diesel who had no idea what to do with such a brilliant character. The best Nash could come up with was a weak promo calling him a used car salesman who is really sneaky. Spivey stayed in character and played the kindly southern gentleman who has never sold a car in his life but it was a total waste. As great as the character and player were, I think it was too smart for the WWF to work with at the time.

 

 

I liked Barry Windham's Stalker gimmick, of course that was until he made his debut. I was thinking have him stalk Sunny, freak her out, gain a lot of sympathy, have a heroic face come in and save the day for her. No, instead he's a ummm wild game hunter, except he never actually hunts, he has apparently never killed an animal. He comes to the ring in camoflauge gear and talks in a spooky voice.... ewwwwww, please restrain your excitement.

 

 

And Heel Doink ruled all.

[Guest AndrewTS]

Evil Big Bossman ruled.

[Guest mach7]

I would have to go with the Waylon Mercy gimmick/character. I thought the gimmick was way ahead of its time and Dan Spivey played it perfectly. I know it's a rip off of the Cape Fear movie but nonetheless it was awesome stuff......right down to his haunting entrance music and faces...........Who else comes to mind?

I second that motion!

 

I remember on a RAW back in '95, Mercy was facing Doink. The fans were giving him some serious face heat and even chanting "Kill the clown!" It was great! Too bad about Spivey's back, or who knows, Mercy might've still been around to this day.

[Guest cabbageboy]

Gotta go with Papa Shango on this one. My ultimate guilty pleasure gimmick.

 

Evil Doink was a gimmick that I really hated at the time, mainly because I thought having a clown on wrestling was really stupid. But in retrospect, he was cool until he turned face.

 

I actually saw his debut at a TV taping in Oct. 1992. He was just standing around in the crowd, giving kids balloons, freaking everyone out.

[Guest AndrewTS]

Nathan Jones and Sean O' Haire. The gimmicks? Great.

 

Of course, the guys using them range from bad to fucking awful in ring skills and mic skills, so they bombed when they had to debut.

[Guest JMA]

I think the Headbangers were misused. They should have played up the fact that they were hardcore Marilyn Manson fans. Maybe even have "Beautiful People" as their entrance theme. They could have also did freaky and controversial stuff (like Manson). They shouldn't have been a comedy team.

[Guest Vyce]

MANTAUR~!

 

Okay, seriously, I have to agree that Heel Doink fucking ruled. I was a HUGE fan. I had an evil Doink poster on my wall until they gave him the goddamn midget and turned him face.

 

Oh, and maybe this is the craziness talking, but Bastion Booger could have been an even better comedy gimmick. I can only imagine the type of shit Russo could have come up with for him. Too bad Shaw didn't last through to the 2nd Austin Powers movie - we could have at least seen a Fat Bastard gimmick for him. They could have tied it in with a pregnancy angle, where he chases the woman around, wanting to eat her fetus.....

 

.....I went to far didn't I? I'll stop now.

[Guest BobbyWhioux]

EVIL BOB BACKLUND.

 

Yes, I know he did get hella over and won the WWF Title.

 

But, it still didn't go nearly as far as it could have. The coolness and overness of that gimmick alone (setting aside how good a wrestler Backlund still was in his mid forties) deserved more than three days with the title.

 

Stupid Diesel. Stupid Clique.

 

Other than that, the usual suspects: Evil Doink, Waylon Mercy (man that was so cool), Evil/Dark Mankind, Repo Man.

 

I also thought the RTC should've gone much farther than it did. (I loved the RTC. Right up my alley.)

 

Also, Brian Pillman was doing stuff I was absolutely eating up just before he died.

I still feel that The Headbangers got cut off at the knees and should have gone over on the Newage Outlaws (no, not New Age; Newage, to rhyme with sewage, for that's what they were at this point after being neutered by the tagline/face/DX stuff) in late 1998. ["Tag Team Champions of The Universe!" with plastic knockoff belts like the WWF sold to kids! Come on!] They should've gotten more.

[Guest Vyce]

I also thought the RTC should've gone much farther than it did. (I loved the RTC. Right up my alley.)

 

I generally didn't like the angle, nor the people involved in it (outside of Steven Richards, and maybe Morley).

 

If anything, they should have had the balls to go ALL THE WAY with the angle and added a nice, disturbing religious subtext to it all. REALLY hyped it up. Have Richards start acting like he's literally been talking to God, who has commanded him to "destroy all sinners" or something like that.

[Guest BobbyWhioux]

If anything, they should have had the balls to go ALL THE WAY with the angle and added a nice, disturbing religious subtext to it all. REALLY hyped it up. Have Richards start acting like he's literally been talking to God, who has commanded him to "destroy all sinners" or something like that.

Yep. Exactly. All the way. Hyper right wing, religious fanaticism, maybe even throw in a little good old fashioned fascist undertones.

 

But they didn't have the balls to go all the way. They never do. [Refer to the Unamericans last year.]

[Guest ViciousFish]

What was the Waylon Mercy gimmick? I don't remember it

[Guest Lemon Drop Kid]

You know, instead of randomly turning Kama into a stereotypical pimp, they should have just made him into a dark, quiet ladies' man who also would beat people's asses. And they should have called him Kama Sutra.