20 Worst gimmicks in wrestling history

According to Vince, tin-foils will be new fashion (Courtesy WWE)

For every good wrestling gimmick, there are ten other that are so bad that they make you slap yourself in the face in disbelief. Sometimes promoters just throw some of their stupidest ideas at us, fans, hoping something will stick.

When I started compiling this list, the top 20 worst ever wrestling gimmicks, I didn’t know what I had in store for myself. Wrestling really has had some awful characters and storylines over the years. It took me a while to narrow down the final list and I’ve included both individual and tag-team gimmicks. After debating with myself for hours, here are the top 20 worst wrestling gimmicks of all time:


20: Mordecai

From a potential match against the Undertaker to being released; Kevin Thorne’s WWE career was forgettable
to
say the least

In 2004, a series of vignettes began to appear on WWE television of white-haired man in a hooded white robe. He spoke about sinners and the ills of society and how he’d bring the day of judgment. He considered himself the right hand of god, who’d trample upon evildoers. He was the reckoner, Mordecai. Mordecai’s character was that of a religious zealot. He was the albino anti-Undertaker. His light was the foil to the Undertaker’s darkness.

Sadly for Mordecai, his charisma and ability were also the opposite of the Undertaker’s. His bleached hair and all-white attire which was supposed to make him look scary just ended up making him look like a silly white rip-off of the Undertaker. Even his finishing move was copied; it was a version of The Undertaker’s Last Ride.

Mordecai, who was brought into battle with The Undertaker, was so terrible that he disappeared from TV screens before the feud had even begun. He was sent back to developmental faster than the time it takes The Undertaker to make his entrance nowadays. He eventually released from the company.

19: Tugboat

WWE’s version of Popeye (Courtesy WWE)

Fred Ottman is the only wrestler who appears in this list twice, something I’m sure that he won’t be proud of. Ottman showed up in WWE at the end of the 1980’s dressed like something out of a Popeye cartoon. I’m not exactly sure if Tugboat was a sailor or a boat enthusiast, but it didn’t get over with fans for obvious reasons. The gimmick was stupid. He wasn’t that good of a wrestler either.

The highlight of Tugboat’s WWE career was when he received a shot at Mr. Perfect’s Intercontinental Championship on the May 5, 1991 episode of Wrestling Challenge.

Unsurprisingly, Tugboat lost.

18: Oklahoma

Hmmm, not so great (Courtesy WWE)

Oklahoma is one of the most tasteless gimmicks ever created in professional wrestling. The character was the brainchild of Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara when they jumped ship to WCW from the then WWF. The character was a parody of legendary WWE commentator Jim Ross and mimicked his Bell’s Palsy.

Ed Ferrara himself played the character of Oklahoma and at one point defeated Madusa to win the WCW Cruiserweight Championship. The character was considered distasteful by most fans and Jim Cornette himself, once almost came to blows with Ed Ferrara for making light of his long-time friend’s Bell’s Palsy.

17: Tekno Team 2000

Boring tag-team of all time(Courtesy WWE)

Take a look at the above picture. This was what Vince McMahon thought people would dress like in the year 2000. In the year 1995, Vince McMahon thought people would wear shiny silver foiled outfits in 5 years time?

Tekno Team 2000 debuted in the year 1995 and received a decent push immediately. Vince saw them as his futuristic, tin foil wrapped team for the future. Troy and Travis tried hard but they weren’t really any good. They didn’t manage to win any championships in either of their two runs with WWE. Even WWE.com lists them under ‘Boring WWE Tag-Teams’.


16: The Bushwackers

(Courtesy WWE)

Before I begin, I must state that The Bushwhackers are WWE Hall of Famers. How? I do not know.

In 1988, The Bushwhackers debuted in the WWF amidst their national expansion phase. Their terrible comedy gimmick involved them licking each other, opponents and even fans. Yes, their gimmick was that they licked people. It’s really hard to believe some of this stuff appeared on national television.

Even though they were popular amongst the fans because of their antics, their gimmick has not stood the test of time. They were not great wrestlers either, with their offense mostly consisting of punches and kicks. Oh, and they licked people of course.

15: Who

Who??? (Courtesy WWE)

The only interesting thing about the masked character Who, was that he was played by the legendary Jim Neidhart, father of current WWE Superstar Natalya. The character seemingly was on TV so Jerry Lawler could crack terrible jokes like ‘Who won the match?’, ‘Who is in the ring?’.

The character appeared for the first time on the July 6, 1996, episode of Superstars and disappeared with two months without creating a blip. What a waste of Jim Neidhart’s considerable talents.


14: Glacier

Even an undefeated streak couldn’t help this gimmick(Courtesy WWE)

Glacier might be the only Mortal Kombat themed wrestler on this list, but he wasn’t the only Mortal Kombat themed wrestler WCW created. Glacier was clearly a Sub-Zero rip-off, his WCW debut was much hyped and vignettes aired for months building the anticipation.

WCW did everything they could to push Glacier from special set designs and lasers during his entrance to a year long undefeated streak. Glacier’s run flopped and melted into a stream. Even though Glacier stayed around for a few years, he never did much of note and never managed to live up to the initial hype.

13: The Dicks

The Dicks, really? (Courtesy WWE)

Tank Toland wrestled in WWE developmental before he was called up and put together in one of the worst tag-team gimmicks of all time, The Dicks, along with Chad Wicks. The kayfabe brothers were a pair of male exotic dancers who also wrestled for some reason. They came to the ring all oiled up and all they did was rub their abs.

The gimmick was absolutely dreadful and just shows how infant like Vince McMahon’s humour can be. The Dicks, really?


12: Max Moon

Another outrageous gimmick (Courtesy WWE)

Max Moon showed up in WWE in the fall of 1992. He was billed as hailing from outer-space and his elaborate blue body suit had markings that were supposed to look like circuit boards. The costume also came with wrist devices that shot out fireworks.

The highest point of Max Moon’s WWE career came during the first ever episode of Monday Night Raw when he fought and lost to Intercontinental Champion, Shawn Michaels. Its hard to tell what demographic WWE thought Max Moon would appeal to other than 5 year olds.

11: Mexicools

Not so cool (Courtesy WWE)

Indirect racism and wrestling have gone hand in hand for many years and has reared its head in WWE quite a few times over the years. In the early 2000’s, WWE’s buyout of WCW created an influx of talented wrestlers from WCW’s roster.

Part of this influx were 3 of the most well known Mexican cruiserweights of the 1990’s, Psichosis, Super Crazy and Juventud Guerrera. What did WWE do with them? They had the trio come to the ring on a lawnmower.

A lawnmower the trio labeled ‘Mexican Limo 2005’. The group came to the ring and made fun of Mexicans who lived in the United States. When the novelty wore off, WWE soon removed them from the roster. It was a waste of three very talented wrestlers who’d already proved they could have great matches in WCW.


10: Phantasio

A magician who removes underwears(Courtesy WWE)

Phantasio was a magician. A magician who wrestled. Let that sink in for a moment.

He debuted in 1995 on an episode of Wrestling Challenge and the gimmick was so poorly received that Phantasio made only one televised appearance. He lacked any real magical ability and possessed even less wrestling ability.

He threw party streamers at opponents during matches and his special move was ‘magically’ removing his opponents underwear. And Vince wondered why fans weren’t hyped about Phantasio!!?

9: The KISS Demon

(Courtesy WWE)

Rock band Kiss main-evented the August 23, 1999 episode of Monday Nitro performing their song God of Thunder. Fans at the stadium who had come to watch WRESTLING weren’t into and viewers at home switched over to the then WWF.

At the end of the performance, Kiss rolled out their own Kiss themed wrestler, The Demon, who came complete with Gene Simmons face paint. The Demon’s push ended within a month and in the end just appeared on TV to finish off with contractual obligations. The highlight of his career came when was being the legendary Great Muta’s stooge as part of Vampiro’s faction, The Dark Carnival.


8: Kerwin White

Chavo’s worst gimmick to date(Courtesy WWE)

Another racist WWE gimmick on this list? Unsurprising. Why Chavo Guerrero was repackaged to play a middle aged white man? No idea. After getting attacked by the Mexicools, Chavo dyed his hair white and renounced his heritage. He drove a golf cart to the ring and wore sweaters. His tagline was “If it ain’t white, It ain’t right”. Still think the gimmick wasn’t racist?

The character was a racist who called out minorities and fans didn’t receive it well at all. The gimmick ended after the tragic death of Chavo’s uncle Eddie Guerrero in 2005.

Interesting fact: Dolph Ziggler started his career as Kerwin White’s caddy.

7: Eugene

We all loved him but still (Courtesy WWE)

Nick Dinsmore played the character of Eugene, Eric Bischoff’s relative who had ‘learning difficulties’. Bischoff was ashamed of Eugene and wasn’t happy when Eugene tried to earn himself a place on Raw, something that he achieved. Eugene used famous wrestling finishers of his supposed WWE heroes. He hung around for a while and was presented as a wrestler with ‘special needs’. He hung around for a while till fans interested waned.

Eugene was a terrible and offensive gimmick that made light of people with serious mental disabilities and all for a few comedic bits that never amounted to anything.


6: Oz

Is that Kevin Nash? (Courtesy WWE)

Take a look at the man in the picture. That was actually one of Kevin Nash’s early gimmicks in WCW in the early 1990’s before he’d join the WWE for the first time in 1993. The gimmick was said to be the idea of booker Dusty Roads and came to the ring in emerald green robes and a pointy hat.

Oz was pushed for about a months before his push was dropped when Nash refused to sign a new contract. For the rest of 1991 Oz lost to Rick Steiner and Dustin Rhodes to Arachnaman.

5: Mantaur

Jim Cornette’s biggest failure (Courtesy WWE)

WWE’s New Generation Era was one of the company's least successful eras. With wrestlers such as Mantaur featured, its not hard to understand why. When Mantaur started off in 1995 he even wore a minotaur like headpiece that was soon discontinued.

WWE gave Mantaur a decent push and he was even paired with manager Jim Cornette. But even the legendary Jim Cornette couldn’t get the fans to care about Mantaur. The high point of Mantaur’s career was his appearance in the 1995 Royal Rumble where he got eliminated by Lex Luger.


4: Arachnaman

Just because Spiderman wrestled once in the film (Courtesy WWE)

Just when you thought this list couldn’t have anything even weirder, we have a Spiderman rip-off, Arachnaman. Arachnaman was played by the late Brad Armstrong, a former member of the Faboulous Freebirds, who certainly deserved much better.

WCW even had Arachnaman shoot string out of its wrists. Even the costume looked like a cheap knock-off. Marvel soon sued WCW for gimmick infringement and Arachnaman left our TV screens forever.

3: Bastion Booger

A fat man with a diaper (Courtesy WWE)

Mike Shaw had already had his share of bad gimmicks before he showed up in the then WWF wearing an oversized diaper and eating on his way to the ring. A few months earlier Shaw had shown up as Friar Ferguson, ‘the mad monk’, a gimmick that had offended the Catholic Church of New York.

Forced to drop the monk gimmick, WWE gave Shaw the new nickname Bastion Booger, a glutton who wore a diaper and ate on his way to the ring. The gimmick was allegedly a punishment for his burgeoning weight. Booger’s highest point was a win over Owen Hart on an episode of All American Wrestling. He served as a jobber for the rest of his time in the WWF before leaving in 1994.


2: The Shockmaster

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Fred Ottman returns to our list at #2 with his WCW gimmick, The Shockmaster. The Shockmaster’s debut was the worst of all time, and just words wouldn’t do it justice, which is why I’ve included a video, only for The Shockmaster.

Shockmaster debuted on a ‘Flair for the Gold’ segment at Clash of Champions XXIV as the secret tag team partner of Sting and Davey Boy Smith, while The Shockmaster made his entrance he tripped over a piece of the set and fell face first causing his helmet to come off. This was live TV. There was no recovery from this even though WCW continued to bewilderingly push The Shockmaster.

1: The Yeti

Can we just stop! (Courtesy WWE)

Take a look at the picture above. Does that look like a Yeti to anyone? Why WCW pushed a man draped in bandages, presumably a mummy, as a Yeti is anyones guess. The Yeti debuted at the 1995 Halloween Havoc main event between The Giant and Hulk Hogan.

He was initially supposedly introduced as part of a frozen block of ice from which he broke out to interfere in the main event as part of The Dungeon of Doom. The match ended when The Giant and The Yeti gave Hulk Hogan a double bearhug. The Yeti’s super unsuccessful career thankfully ended after three more appearances.

What terrible gimmicks have I missed out? Comment below or tweet me @pratyaygh and let me know.

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