10 Insane Details Wrestlers Put Into Gimmicks (And WWE Didn’t Care)
Aleister Black, Alexa Bliss and others master the little things in the "Land Of The Giants"
The best way to convert getting over in WWE into Stephanie McMahon corporate double-speak would be to say "there's no set formula".
That this isn't entirely untrue is part of the problem, though.
No, there is no magic formula for how to book that ensures you'll get a Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin or Rock anytime you need one. This was objectively proven when Vince McMahon tried to make a carbon copy of John Cena with Roman Reigns and created a 'Big Dog' so despised by the audience that he had to turn him heel during a crowd-less era so everybody wouldn't pop huge for the switch.
But that's not to say there can't be tried and true methods of trying. Or successful routes that require patience, persistence and some creative care that have worked countless times before. Or just not scripting your wrestlebots to walk, talk and act like detestable cretins every waking moment.
It makes for a dispiriting viewing experience, not least when the talent are so obviously awesome and too good for suffering as result of such ridiculous circumstances. It must be particularly infuriating for a performer when the company completely no-sells a wrestler's attempt at collaboration. But they all know when they sign on the dotted line that McMahon in particular doesn't play well with others.
If he did, he'd have spotted some of these...
10. Aleister Black
It was only when the (past and) future Tommy End was future endeavoured that the audience were fully clued up on the lengths Aleister Black had gone to to try and get his gimmick of...sitting in a cupboard more over than it actually was.
Seemingly stuck between a rock and a hard place, Black was neither a favourite of Vince McMahon, nor somebody The Chairman loathed enough to bury enough to accidentally push. You know the type; forcing CM Punk to drop a Pipe Bomb, the Becky Lynch "heel" turn, Daniel Bryan's obvious oppression. The sort of thing that makes a talent even more undeniable than they were before. Black had what he thought was the answer - colour.
To those that cared enough to believe in a functional lore within WWE, the former NXT Champion bathed the back of his dimly lit promos in the colour scheme of his future feuds. A novel bit of foreshadowing in a functioning organisation, but such a thing wasn't destined to draw the attention of his bosses even if Twitter or Reddit had spotted it. And they didn't.