10 Ridiculous Wrestling Gimmicks That Shouldn't Have Worked (But Did)
When WWE Creative give you lemons, make lemonade.
Professional wrestling specialises in bold, brash, and colourful characters. Though the sport was initially forged on the back of legitimate shoot techniques and spirited competition, it has gradually evolved to become as much about personalities and stories as matches.
Fans don’t just tune-in for explosive action any more: they want drama, suspense, and rogression. None of these are possible without a cast of interesting, dynamic characters, and wrestling history is littered with memorable personalities.
From “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan to Mr. McMahon and Shawn Michaels, wrestling’s greatest gimmicks helped define the era they performed in. These wrestlers are known as much for their personas as they are their great matches, and if it weren’t for the right creative direction, they wouldn’t be the titans of industry they’re considered today.
Wrestling is just as much defined by its bad characters as the good ones, however. The industry’s creative minds have birthed some real abominations over the years, and a bad gimmick can all but bury a wrestler’s career. The Shockmaster, Gobbledy Gooker, and countless others serve as prime examples of this, but a poor gimmick isn’t always a death sentence.
There are plenty of wrestlers whose performances have been strong enough to overcome poor creative direction over the years. When creative gave them lemons, these performers made lemonade, and inexplicably succeeded in the face of certain failure. Here are 10 ridiculous wrestling gimmicks that somehow worked.
10. Fandango
Fandango currently comprises one half of the most pointless tag team on WWE’s SmackDown roster, and having rarely been used on television since the 2016 Draft, it doesn’t look like his prominence will grow any time soon. It’s entirely possible that he’ll never rise above enhancement talent again before his career eventually ends, but that doesn’t take away from what he was able to accomplish early in his WWE career.
It’s easy to forget just how over Fandango was at the height of his powers. For a brief period of time, Fandango had fans around the globe caught-up in the “Fandango-ing” craze. The sight of sold-out buildings full of people singing and dancing along to his catchy theme song became a common sight on Raw and SmackDown, and for a while, he was a big deal.
Fandango defeated Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 29 during the peak of his powers, and while it’s clear his gimmick had a limited shelf-life, he deserves immense credit for helping get his theme song to number 11 on the UK singles chart for a day in 2013. The former Johnny Curtis should’ve been dead in the water after being assigned a goofy salsa dancing gimmick upon debuting on the main roster, but he was hugely popular at one point, and only started tailing-off as his creative direction wavered.