10 Wrestling Gimmicks Based On LIES!

Stranger than fiction...

Sgt Slaughter
WWE

Professional wrestling doesn't rely on truth.

As countless wrestlers repeatedly infer, there's nothing fake about how much it hurts falling on your back for a living, nor anything artificial about the damage the grind of the wrestling road does to your mental and physical wellbeing, but a predetermined fight having any sort of actual truth to it is often its undoing.

Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart had good matches with each other at the peak of their powers, but excellent ones with others. It spoke to their inability to connect effectively with each other on a personal level - their wars would have been exponentially better had their rivalry not mirrored the very real disdain behind the scenes. It works the other way too - Matt Hardy and Edge couldn't wage a personal war once they were being paid to do so on television - the need for communication implied an understanding that undermined the premise. Truth, as vital is it is in storytelling ordinarily, can damage all the key tenets of a wrestling rivalry, if not used with a delicacy virtually alien to those who tell the stories.

That's why it was best left unsaid by this lot...

10. Mr Perfect

Sgt Slaughter
wwe.com

The magic of Mr Perfect was that Curt Hennig came as close to that unreachable benchmark as just about anybody to lace boots for Vince McMahon in the 1980s.

Wrestling apocrypha has it that the gimmick was to go to either Hennig or eventual 'Red Rooster' Terry Taylor. Whilst it's hard to theorise how Taylor may have managed with the magnificent moniker in the alternate timeline, it's likely that the effervescent Hennig could have gotten that stupid chicken strut over as well as his own perfect persona.

WWE cannily weaved reality into fiction when introducing him to the masses - the multi-talented star's sporting skills were highlighted before he'd ever made his name or secured an on-screen undefeated streak, but the vignettes weren't everything they appeared.

In a charming set of bloopers unveiled on his 2008 'Life & Times Of Mr Perfect' DVD, the company revealed the multiple takes it took to get the perfect games at the bowling alley, the billiards clearances and the picturesque Genius-popping dives.

Perfect was as perfect as he needed to be between the ropes, and that was always enough. But nobody - not even the ebullient Hennig - had everything.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett