After our previous trip down memory lane spent looking at various WWE and ECW gimmicks that could and should have had worlds of potential, but were given to the wrong person, for one reason or another... this one will be hopping the fence to the other side of the Monday Night War, and looking at WCW. Maybe the person just wasn't a very good wrestler, unable to keep the gimmick prospering in the ring. Maybe they simply had a run of bad luck, and things never quite fell into place. Maybe they just had injuries help to take fate out of their hands. Whatever it is, they simply were not able to hold up their end of the bargain after being given something special by writers. WCW has certainly had their fair share of moments and decisions, bad and good, and this will be looking at both sides of that. Sure, they came up with some very good gimmick ideas, but they also decided to give those very good gimmick ideas to the wrong people.
10. Norman The Lunatic
We've seen similar gimmicks and parts of gimmicks since, but with Norman "The Lunatic", WCW had themselves an intriguing take on the "crazy wrestler" gimmick. Norman was portraying someone who came from an insane asylum, but he wasn't just all crazy, all the time. He had multiple sides to him. He had a softer side, too, but being managed by heel Teddy Long, he wasn't always able to be the person he wanted to be. Long would carry a key with him, and the key was indicating to Norman that Long got him out of the asylum, but could send him back to the asylum at any time if he didn't follow directions. We've seen people like Kane have a "I'm crazy, but some dastardly heel has control over me and my actions" phase, but there wasn't the night and day difference between "crazy" and "not so crazy" like we saw with Norman, and the Norman gimmick was happening nearly a decade before we ever knew who Kane was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz_kdzRgUJ8 Unfortunately, Norman was a lumbering, stumbling mess in the ring at this point, so the gimmick never really went anywhere, even though he did receive some decent pushes. Fortunately for Mike Shaw (the man behind the gimmick), this was still better than what he got in the WWF, where they turned him into Friar Ferguson (a pissed-off Monk) and then Bastion Booger (a hunchbacked slob who burped and farted all the time).
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
