10 Old School Wresting Gimmicks That Need To Return

Not all wrestling was better in the past. You don't always have to be born earlier.

WWE's decades-long monopoly over the mainstream has raised several generations of fans to accept a number of troubling norms as the "right" way to do things. This - much like WWE's initials still being the shorthand for wrestling in general - is the power that market dominance (and complete ownership) provides.

Billionaire-backed AEW is not a little engine that could or some sort of plucky upstart organisation, but by adhering to so many more long-standing tenets and attempting to create new ones, they are trying to retrain audiences conditioned to cheap finishes and dreaded "protective" booking measures. To be successful beyond its first four years, Dynamite can't be a show that leans entirely on the past. But to not embrace the elements that worked would be the sort needless negligence thankfully not yet exhibited by their booking practices.

It doesn't work every time. There is nothing - nothing - on a, say, a 1982 edition of the World Wrestling Federation's weekly television show that would stand up against just about any Seth Rollins match from 2020, and one of them included a man's f*cking eye being extracted. But that's not to say that same episode wouldn't have tight psychology worth studying, or a connection between babyface and audience a contemporary star could grab from.

The below personas have mostly been consigned to the past. But then, if wrestling's as cyclical as all the old-timers say...

All Elite Wrestling almost certainly won't call a new group The Four Horsemen should they reveal themselves within the next few weeks or months on Dynamite, but a new stable will be that in all but name.

But...what's causing all this?!

Every tease - red herring or otherwise - of its future existence has been laden with references to the legendary quartet. It began in the background when Cody's relationship with "coach" Arn Anderson saw Andersons and Rhodes' breaking bread for the first time. In a legendary 1994 promo Dusty once told Dustin that "the view never changes" in relation to why he couldn't trust 'Double A' in his role as Ric Flair's enforcer. He wasn't around to do that for the 'American Nightmare'.

Since then, Tully Blanchard has resurfaced from wrestling obscurity, got inside the head of Shawn Spears to target Cody (and, latterly, given him Barry Windham's black glove to get f*cking serious) and helped guide FTR to tag team glory as natural successors to his devastating 1980s double act with Anderson. MJF has suggested he might need a stable, Cody has flashed the four fingers, FTR stood for "Fear The Revelation" despite not revealing anything and on and on it goes.

The gimmick doesn't need this list to show why it's still needed - it'll soon show it.