10 Gimmicks That WWE Dropped Without Explanation

6. 'Blackbeard' Paul Burchill

Pirate Paul Burchill
WWE.com

Disney's first Pirates Of The Caribbean movie grossed an eye-watering $654m worldwide in 2003. That, naturally, made cheeky-chappy pirates (in-keeping with Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow) all the rage. WWE introduced their own pirate-y treat in early 2006, and Paul Burchill was the lucky recipient of the character.

Shame Vinnie Mac hadn't seen the film.

Despite debuting his new sea-faring gimmick right before the second movie's release in July '06, Burchill's new guise was canned by June when Mark Henry squashed him and sent the rope-swinger packing. Apparently, McMahon didn't see the funny side of a bumbling pirate, and so WWE dropped it.

When Burchill later returned to the company, he was a standard menacing heel, not a wisecracking privateer who looked great with a bit of guyliner. The less said of his wonky incest follow-up with kayfabe sister Katie Lea, the better.

Advertisement
In this post: 
Wade Barrett
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.