10 Best WWE Gimmicks Of 2017
You have the right to remain fabulous.
It’s something of an indictment of the WWE main roster creative process that the most entertaining, flat-out fun gimmicks of 2017 occupy the lower card or fourth brand fringes, about which management doesn’t seem to care.
Those under the scrutiny of micromanagement often failed to get over, with typical fatalism. Shinsuke Nakamura lost his King Of Strong Style crown through a bafflingly unfunny and profligate regicide. Finn Bálor's Demon was stripped of any substance and sidelined into a superficial programme with Bray Wyatt, whose own Eater of Worlds bit yielded more bad puns than good matches. The Lone Wolf Baron Corbin cut a lonely figure in the summer months as the victim of a typically counterproductive onscreen punishment. Bobby Roode is more goofy than glorious these days. His histrionic posturing only worked when he was the man he said he was; absorbed into the SmackDown doldrums, his mannerisms look decidedly daft in these cold winter months. To underscore the extent of the problem, the majority of these men are but dishonourable mentions on the inverse version of this list.
The main roster creative regime failed so many upper midcard stars.
With one superb exception...
10. WOKEN Matt Hardy
WOKEN Matt Hardy has only graced our mortal plane of existence for a fortnight, granted - but the euphoria of WWE treating an outside creation with respect, fused with the so-bad-it's-good brilliance of the act in itself, lands it a place on this list regardless. That, and the dearth of traditional gimmicks fused with the death of so many others.
Last night's retread was more wheel-spinning than head-spinning - but last week's introduction totally warranted the trending buzz. Hardy was hysterical in that side-splitting split-screen promo - his arch, terrible English accent has lost none of its comedic potency because the pronunciations are a constantly-evolving, beautiful butchering.
The delayed timing, once thought the killer, has indirectly benefitted Matt. James Franco's The Disaster Artist has thrust the so-bad-it's-good Room back into the public consciousness, and Matt's transposition of the trope into pro wrestling, against all odds, feels à la mode once more.
WOKEN Matt's name may yet become beautifully apt; if this works - if the intellectual property of a performer outside of WWE finds a new cache - the company might open their eyes to the fact that wrestlers are generally more creative than wrestling writers.