10 Best WWE Gimmicks Of 2017
2. Velveteen Dream
Suitably for his act, there is nothing binary whatsoever about the Velveteen Dream.
Though ostensibly framed as a heel, with his intra-match strategies and eminently punchable duck-face pout, the now-unrecognisable Patrick Clark is simply too charismatic, too talented, too fabulous to truly loathe. In modern wrestling, with the death of kayfabe blurring the divide between traditional babyfaces and heels, the apparent goal is to wrench any reaction from the audience. In triggering the conservative crowd and delighting the progressives, Velveteen routinely draws that hallowed Dream reaction.
He's virtually the only in-ring performer permitted to seduce the ringside camera - a stunning production device that separates him from his peers, establishing him as something utterly unique and as special as he imagines himself to be. Dream also seduced the crowd at TakeOver: WarGames in what was a psychologically stunning debutante's ball - a masterclass of non-binary character work that, in the eyes of many, was so sumptuously-worked that it eclipsed the titular barbarism that was the main event.
The Dream is many contradictory things: a face, a heel, style, substance, sexual, asexual, a Rick Rude tribute act and something completely innovative.
He is, objectively, a star.