10 Terrible Gimmick Wrestling Matches One Tweak Away From Excellence

8. Blindfold Match

Sheamus Steel Cage
WWE.com

Why It's Terrible: Because not a lot necessarily has to happen - the gimmick requires wrestlers to miss moves as it does hit them in order to make the most of the stipulation.

One Tweak: Blindfold the referee as well.

Virtually every combination of heel/babyface advantage/disadvantage has been fleshed out in this concept to such a maddening degree that the charm of even something like Jack Roberts' enjoyable outing against RicK Martel at WrestleMani has gradually dissolved. It's time to go all in on the slapstick.

The wrestlers, themselves unsure because of the hoods, do their usual bit of back-and-forth with requisite chicanery, but then have the added problem of dragging the referee around with every move. This would lead to some errant-but-cathartic moves hitting one of the officials instead, used to particularly great drama when the heel is being a cheating turd only to find the referee as clueless as their babyface victim.

It allows for a bit of role reversal too - and anything that empowers a babyface in the modern era is better than the established norm.

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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