The Ruthless Aggression Era saw a marked improvement in the overall wrestling product from the Attitude Era but with residual elements of the car crash television that made the WWE famous in the late 90’s. Some gimmicks from the Ruthless Aggression Era were as bad as the worst of its Attitude Era predecessors.
Some tasteless and some downright racist and insulting, the WWE didn’t tread water back then unlike today. Instead, Vince McMahon went the whole hog to give us gimmicks that only he found funny or entertaining. With a fair share of terrible gimmicks during the Ruthless Aggression Era, terrible gimmicks like S.H.I.T Rosey (Superhero In Training), Mordecai and the MexiCools didn’t even make this list.
What’s worse than taking 3 of Mexico’s most talented cruiserweight’s and turning them into Mexican stereotypes who came to the ring on lawnmowers? Read on to find out.
5: Vito
Vito LoGrasso was a decent in-ring worker who made his WWE debut as part of the Full Blooded Italian’s faction along with Nunzio and Johnny Stromboli. A few cases of bad locker room behavior later and Vito was given the gimmick of a crossdresser. What’s better for a storyline than homophobia, right?
Vito came out to the ring to wrestle in a dress with colour commentator JBL voicing his displeasure of a man wrestling in a dress. MVP and Willing Regal even threatened Raw GM Teddy Long with a sexual harassment lawsuit to get out of a match with Vito.
The gimmick was more uncomfortable than anything else for those watching and only helped get Vito released soon after.
4: The Dicks
Just take a moment to look at the name of this tag-team. No, this wasn’t a glaring typo. It was another one of Vince’s terrible ideas.
Tank Toland toiled for years before getting his big break from developmental. This dream soon turned into a nightmare when he found out that he was to be a part of a tag-team with Chad Wicks with their characters being that of male exotic dancers.
Chad and James Dick spent their short run as heels, spraying baby lotion into opponent’s eyes to get the win. Their sad run ended after losing handicap matches to the likes of The Boogeyman.
Oh, did I mention that they rubbed lotion on themselves on their way to the ring?
3: The ECW Zombie
WWE’s version of ECW started on Syfy in June 2006. WWE decided to embrace being on Syfy by debuting quite a few ‘strange’ wrestling gimmicks like Kevin Thorne who was a vampire and even an alien. The most famous amongst these is probably the ECW Zombie who debuted on the debuting show of ECW.
He came to the ring and just made noises into the mic, only to get squashed by The Sandman with his kendo stick. The ECW Zombie was never seen again.
2: Kerwin White
WWE’s history is blighted with a history of borderline racist gimmicks like Kamala, Umaga and Muhammad Hassan but no gimmick crossed the line further than Kerwin White. After getting attacked by the Mexicools, Chavo Guerrero dyed his hair white and renounced his Mexican roots to get repacked as a middle-aged white guy.
Accompanied by his trusted catchphrase “if it ain’t white, it ain’t right”, Kerwin White (the former Chavo Guerrero) called out minorities and fans didn’t receive it well at all. The gimmick came to an end after Chavo’s uncle Eddie Guerrero’s tragic death.
1: Eugene
No WWE. How could you? To have a wrestling character who’s ‘special needs’ is so offensive that it’s beyond justification.
Nick Dinsmore debuted as Eugene, Eric Bishoff’s nephew, in 2004. Eugene was mentally-challenged but at the same time, somehow knew how to wrestle. Eugene tricked Bischoff into earning a spot on the Raw roster and the character would repeatedly get bullied by other wrestlers throughout the run. So much for Be-A-Star.
Eugene copied the famous finishers of his “wrestling heroes” during matches and it was painful to see Dinsmore, a competent worker, try to so hard to play the role of a mentally-challenged man.
The gimmick made light of the challenges that the mentally disabled face every day and for what? Just for a few chuckles.
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