10 Awesome Gimmicks Wasted On Terrible Wrestlers
For these 10, in-ring work did not enhance their characters...
Gimmicks in wrestling can be awesome as long as the man behind the character can work a compelling, enthralling match. The Undertaker, Mr. Perfect, Mankind, The Hurricane and Val Venis are a handful of gimmicks that worked because they were as believable between the ropes as they were on the mic or in introductory video packages.
Not every case was quite so successful.
Over the last 20 years, the sports-entertainment world has been home to some awesome gimmicks wasted on awful wrestlers, their effectiveness within the wrestling community hampered by the less-than thrilling work in competition.
In some instances, the wrestler was past his or her prime, a shell of the Superstar that previously captivated fans. In others, they were never what one would call a particularly skilled worker in the first place.
Whatever the case may be, their inability to impress when the bell sounded significantly lessened their impact with audiences.
These are just 10 examples in an endless line of them.
10. David Flair
There was plenty to hate about the end of WCW, including the way David Flair was forced into an on-screen role despite being largely unprepared and untrained. Yet, the second-generation competitor underwent a character change, segueing from golden boy to deranged, crowbar-swinging psychopath. Suddenly, his presence on Nitro and Thunder was more tolerable. The switch worked, getting the son of wrestling royalty over with audiences in a way he had never been.
With Crowbar and Daffney flanking him, Flair became a tag team champion and a staple of WCW programming. He was part of surreal storylines, including one in which he accused Buff Bagwell of being the father of former fiancee Stacy Keibler's child. No matter how much airtime he got or how many industry greats he shared the ring with, he simply could not back it all up from bell to bell.
Luckily, he had a tag team partner in Crowbar (known industry wide as Devon Storm) to help carry him in higher profile matches. Otherwise, the cool and wildly different gimmick would not have been enough to justify the television time invested in him.