10 Best WWE Gimmicks Of 2017

4. Neville

fashion police
WWE

There is no better wrestler in the company at fusing genuinely thrilling pro wrestling with the idealised vision of sports entertainment.

Neville's heel turn was a triumph. A man as talented as he is faced a monumental task, in that he had to tone down his awesome, pop-generating offence to draw the desired reaction. He did and he didn't, eating his cake with a spoonful of sublime storytelling. Neville only unleashed the spectacular reaches of his arsenal when his opponents dragged it out of him in a brilliantly dramatic matches, the lowly platform on which they were wrestled something of a disgrace. Neville reserved the Red Arrow only for those worthy, expertly depriving fans of its beauty in the meantime with classic d*ckhead posturing.

There was even scope for comedy. His sadly-abandoned insistence on dropping alien North East English idioms into his promos even fashioned something worthwhile from the anti-American trope deployed so unimaginatively elsewhere. Backed up with a wonderfully blunt, OTT, ALL CAPS Twitter game, Neville was as much a joy to read as he was to watch.

The past tense still hurts.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!