10 Horrible Gimmicks That Wrestlers Pitched THEMSELVES
A world in which Lloyd Boner/Buddy Peacock headlined WWE WrestleMania.
It's easy to blame creative teams for everything. Bad gimmick? Someone on the writing staff came up with it. Horrible debut promo? Somebody in creative will surely take the flak for scripting that tripe. Often, that's the simple solution to everything - creative, creative, creative. Here's the thing: Sometimes it isn't always their fault.
Wrestlers come up with bad ideas too.
Everyone included here thought these characters would either draw some serious cash, prolong their run in a company or get them a foot on the ladder quickly. Or all three. That's an insane thought when deep-diving on some of the gimmicks they pitched. Sure, someone higher up had to slap a green light on things or bat them away in the end, but that doesn't change the fact workers themselves did the scheming first.
WWE, WCW and TNA all get some attention here. AEW if you fancy being pedantic. Well, a few of the workers analysed did end up under Tony Khan's watch eventually! Clearly he and The Young Bucks are to blame then. Only joking (obviously).
Check these creative horrors out.
10. WWE’s Very Own Surfing Werewolf!
Justin Gabriel almost became a werewolf that's super into surfing, sky diving and other extreme activities. "Almost" is perhaps a little generous, because apparently Triple H was bloody horrified when he learned of this pitch to ex-boss Vince McMahon. Gabriel was serious though, and thought the hybrid would be cool.
Imagine this on episodes of Saturday Morning Slam.
The former Nexus member only revealed his grand plan after being canned by WWE in 2015. Gabriel went on Chris Jericho's podcast to pop a quick, 'Ex-WWE star buries creative' rating, but was remarkably upbeat about taking this surfing werewolf character to the independent scene. Or, perhaps, back to WWE someday.
Yeah, that didn't happen. Pro wrestling was spared the vignettes that would've had our Justin sprouting fur and fangs as he popped off a sweet 360 which might've made Kelly Slater proud. How rad, eh? This definitely sounds like something Vince would've been into in the 1990s.