10 Weirdest Ways Wrestlers Got Their Gimmicks
Goldberg, The Hurricane, and more gimmicks that came from a weirder place than the writer's room...
From the beginning of time to the present day, humanity has taken any feat that can be compared, turned it into a competition, and built a sport around it.
While you could spend an entire lifespan with your eyes held open by Clockwork Orange clamps watching sports, not all are interesting to every consumer.
Sports entertainment has always excelled in standing apart from any competition to which it is compared. One key feature employed to accomplish this is the assignment of gimmicks.
In other combat sports, many athletes become lost in the shuffle of generic flexing guys in black shorts. Sports entertainment excels at remedying this. Though the merits of individual gimmicks can be debated, generally the added layer provided by character work is a huge draw for the fandom.
Gimmicks are limited only by the minds that turn their creativity to the gloriously bizarre world of professional wrestling. A place where an undead mortician is one of the most over icons, and a litany of musclebound pretty boys are thrown out to rot as yesterday’s fresh meat.
Some gimmicks come about the typical way – brainstorming, writing, rehearsing, redrafting, and debuting – others come from less conventional practices…
10. Abe “Knuckleball” Schwartz
As The Brooklyn Brawler, Steve Lombardi became professional wrestling’s prime jobber. Though this took three runs to truly make an impact. In between which he adopted gimmicks such as the baseball/The Warriors inspired MVP, Doink the Clown, a Knight, and Kamala’s handler Kim Chee.
His second go at a baseball gimmick perhaps has the weirdest origins.
Pop culture has always had a place in the entertainment side of wrestling, nonetheless, Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz was niche (at least for international fans and those revisiting classic WWE) and out of place. The gimmick was inspired by the 1994 MLB strike, which concerned a decrease in profits and a proposed cap on players’ salaries. Knuckleball was a heel who blamed wrestling fans for the strike, reasoning that the competition led to a cut in baseball crowds.
The aesthetics of the gimmick were cheesy even for the time period with Knuckleball having his face painted as a baseball (to a child birthday party standard) and entering to a carnival rendition of Take Me Out to the Ball Game. These measly efforts gave predictable results, leaving Lombardi to continue onwards in his jobber lane.