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We look at ten failed gimmicks that no one should ever have given the green light.
The Undertaker is an unstoppable undead warrior. Steve Austin is a hard-hitting, beer drinking redneck. John Cena is the kiddie hero who never gives up.
These are good gimmicks, which have stood the test of time. A wrestler's gimmick should help them stand out, and enhance whatever natural attributes or talent they bring to the table.
Unfortunately, there have been many gimmicks which just didn't work. Sometimes this was the fault of the wrestler portraying them, but often the gimmick was just flawed from the start. Here's a look at ten of the most groan-inducing gimmicks in the history of wrestling.
10. TL Hopper
In the 1980s, Tony Anthony was a rising star in the southern promotions, particularly Smokey Mountain Wrestling. With a decent size, and above average promo skills, he entertained audiences with his Dirty White Boy gimmick to cement him with solid mid-card status.
When the WWE acquired his talents, they weren't impressed with his lack of physical conditioning or his less than male model looks. Vince McMahon thought he looked like a plumber...so that's exactly the gimmick they gave him.
TL Hopper had a few vignettes--all plumbing related--such as showing up unbidden in Jerry Lawler's pool. Then he had a few unmemorable matches, and was released. You might say WWE flushed this gimmick down the drain.
9. Repo Man
During the WWE's classic era, there was no team as dominant, as powerful, and as seemingly unbeatable as Demolition. The face paint wearing duo of Ax and Smash obliterated their competition with great gusto.
When the WWE hired the team Demolition was ripped off--that is, INSPIRED --from, the Legion of Doom, management decided they didn't need two face paint wearing post-apocalyptic warrior teams. Ax retired, and the Demolition gimmick was shelved.
This left Barry Darsow, who had been Smash, without anything to do. He was assigned a gimmick that, to this day, makes little practical sense; The Repo Man. The reasoning behind the gimmick seemed to be that everyone hates the repo man when they repossess their car, so Repo Man would gain massive heel heat.
The reaction from WWE fans was mostly confusion. Repo Man wore a mask, which no real-life car repossession agent would ever bother with. Also, his comedic antics weren't really in line with a heel badass. Repo Man hung around for awhile, before Barry Darsow's contract ran up. Then he was quietly released, and this gimmick was left twisting in the wind. Where it belonged.
8. Phantasio
This gimmick was so bad, it only lasted for one match!
Phatasio was portrayed by journeyman grappler Harry Del Rios. With ratings down, and PPV buyrates in a downward spiral, the WWE decided to focus on 'flashy' gimmicks that would be easy to understand for children.
Phantasio's big move was 'magically' making his opponent's boxer shorts fly off, and rolling them up for a pin. He also removed Earl Hebner's boxers, which ended up being striped like a referee's uniform.
After one appearance on television, Phantasio worked one more dark match for WWE and the gimmick was retired. You might say it disappeared in a puff of smoke!
7. Xanta Claus
There's no explanation for Xanta Claus other than someone in WWE's creative getting drunk at Thanksgiving and blurting "but what if there was an EVIL Santa Claus? Who was the reverse Santa Claus and lived at the South Pole and stole presents from children?"
That's literally Xanta Claus's gimmick. The evil Santa Claus appeared during WWE's extremely family-friendly post Hogan era. Basically, during the mid 1990s Ted Turner lured away a lot of the talent that wrestling fans grew up watching. This meant that the children who had cheered Hogan, Macho Man, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan were now in the coveted 18-36 year old male demographic.
Advertisers left in droves, including Randy Savage's lucrative Slim Jim tie-ins. The WWE audience was much younger than the WCW audience, and Vince McMahon always tried to pander to his audience. Unfortunately, this is where gimmicks like Xanta Claus and Max Moon come in.
Xanta Claus, aka Boo Boo Bradley from Smokey Mountain Wrestling, would go on to great success in Paul Heyman's ECW promotion under the non-family friendly name of Balls Mahoney. I guess ANYTHING sounds better than Xanta Claus! It was a gimmick that was HO-HO-Horrible!
6. Kiss Demon
As the nineties wound down, the Monday Night Wars heated up. The WWE/WCW rivalry was at an all-time high, and it seemed that WWE might finally be gaining momentum. Eric Bischoff needed something to get his show, Nitro, ahead of its competitor- Raw. Applying his business acumen, he reasoned that by reaching out to other fandoms, he could draw new viewers into the fold.
One of his ideas involved rapper Master P and his No Limit Soldiers stable. Bischoff paid Master P millions for a scant few appearances and the rights to use his name and music in promotions and advertisements. Not satisfied with reaching out to the Hip Hop community, Bischoff decided to go after the ageing baby boomers by utilizing one of their icons; the Glam Rock band Kiss.
Instead of having the middle-aged, undersized band themselves compete as wrestlers, there would be a stable of wrestlers 'inspired' by Kiss. The first, and only, of these wrestlers to debut was The Demon, alternately played by Dale Torberg and Bryan Clark.
The character was an instant dud and was quickly pulled off the air. But Gene Simmons, a founding member of Kiss was not happy. He demanded WCW bring back the Demon character, and they were contractually obligated to oblige.
Much like Kiss themselves, The Demon didn't burn out, he faded away...
5. It's the YETI!
The term 'monster heel' is a term bandied about in pro wrestling circles, usually referring to an extra large performer who is booked to look unstoppable. Like, say, Frankenstein's Monster.
Modern examples of monster heels include Braun Strowman and Kane. The Yeti is an example of taking the term monster heel a little too literally. Yeti are mythological creatures, said to be snow-centric sasquatches. So why in the world is he covered in bandages? He looks like a Mummy, not a Yeti. But the worst is yet to come.
Then, after Yeti gets into the ring, he proceeds to...um...well, you can watch the video below and see for yourself, but you can't unsee the footage. You've been warned.
Is it over Yeti? No, it was never 'over.'
4. Deuce and Domino
Deuce and Domino were decent wrestlers, but this gimmick is nothing short of awful. Said to be the sole brainchild of Vince McMahon (funny how's there's so many of those on this list) Deuce and Domino came in and quickly captured the gold from long-reigning champions London and Kendrick.
While the fans cheered for London and Kendrick well enough, they reigned during perhaps the least significant period in WWE tag team history, and the Deuce and Domino heel beatdown just landed flatly. The duo banged around for a little while but failed to make an impact, and were eventually released.
Some things SHOULDN'T come back in style...
3. Laurel Van Ness "Crazy Bride"
After being dumped by kayfabe fiance Braxton Sutter, Laurel Van Ness adopted a 'crazy ex-girlfriend' gimmick that did nothing for her character or anyone involved with her storylines.
What do you do with one of the most beautiful, talented women in wrestling? Reduce her to a misogynistic joke, apparently. Making a woman pine over a man to the point of madness is so tasteless by today's standards, that this gimmick is more insulting than hilarious.
2. Fake Diesel and Razor
After Scott Hall and Kevin Nash departed WWE and formed the NWO, Vince McMahon was very bitter and angry. He thought that since he'd built up Kevin Nash and Scott Hall on television so much for the last few years that they were essentially stealing from him to work for another promotion.
After a court battle with WCW, two things were decided; Scott Hall and Kevin Nash could wrestle in WCW under their real names, much to Vince's chagrin, but Vince didn't have to go home completely empty-handed. He won the rights to the Razor Ramon and Diesel names, characters, and likenesses. This meant that while Scott Hall could use the crucifix powerbomb he couldn't call it the Razor's edge, but he was allowed to chew on a toothpick.
Vince tried to recoup his losses by bringing back the characters he owned played by new wrestlers. This was met with utter scorn and amusement in equal measure. The ploy failed miserably, and Vince was forced to abandon his revenge plot.
1.Glacier
Hey, you know what was popular in 1996? Arcade fighting games! And do you know which was the most popular?
Yes, the incredibly violent and bloody video game beloved by kids and teens everywhere was raking in lots of money, and WCW wanted in on that spinal fluid dripping action.
The build-up for Glacier was ridiculous, with numerous video packages and vignettes airing trying to build him up, and all utterly failing. His look was so obviously a ripoff of Mortal Kombat's Sub Zero that it's a wonder Midway never sued for trademark infringement.
Fortunately, Glacier didn't last long. I guess you could say the fans gave this gimmick the cold shoulder!
And now, you probably need a shower, because you've just been subjected to ten of wrestling's worst gimmicks!
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