10 Occupational Wrestling Gimmicks You Won't Believe

6. Tony D'Angelo

The Fiend
WWE.com

It was already karmically amusing that lifetime political chess player Triple H was to have his developmental vision warped beyond recognition in 2021 thanks in part to a damaging defeat at the hands of nascent upstart brand AEW.

It was even funnier when one of the debuting gimmicks on the reimagined show was a mafioso who believed his fortunes to be elsewhere beyond racketeering and "waste management".

Tony D'Angelo is at least extremely convincing as far as ludicrous caricatures go in 2022, thanks to the commitment to the bit from the previously unused Performance Center unknown Joe Ariola, But already the cracks and creaks in his attempts to normalise criminal behaviour in the literal and figurative pro wrestling arena are beginning to show.

The journey for Ariola and the D'Angelo persona will eventually have to be away from the gimmick, or at very least pivot towards a babyface that no longer chooses and uses literal crime as his route to success. That, or all of us simply have to fuggadeabowdit. But what sort of stereotype would ask us to do that?

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett