10 Weirdest Ways Wrestlers Got Their Gimmicks

Goldberg proved that sometimes the simpler the gimmick, the greater the success.

He was a dominant athlete who bulldozed his way through the WCW roster with pure force, strength, and aggression. He often drew criticism in the form of disparaging comparisons to Stone Cold Steve Austin. Both men being bald bad asses who wore plain black trunks, though Austin did so with more Attitude. In this vein, it only seems correct that a big part of Goldberg’s gimmick would also be inadvertently inspired by refreshments. His iconic catchphrase, "who’s next?”, came to him in a restaurant. He recalled:

“I’m sitting down with one of the producers of the Love Boat and my brother, Steve. And we’re about to order and the producer looks at me and he says, ‘you know, you have to have a gimmick; you have to have a saying; you have to have a slogan; you’ve got to get people behind you’ and I said, ‘you know what? You’re right.’ You know where I’m going, don’t you? So, the waitress comes up, and she looks, and she goes, ‘who’s next?’ and that was it. I swear to God, I looked at them, and I went, ‘that’s it. Who’s next?’ because after I beat the first guy, it’s open f**king season! So, it’s perfect! It’s plain, it’s simple, it’s straight to the point. I don’t like to be wordy. It gives too many options to people to tear you down.”

A reminder for up-and-coming wrestlers and writers to keep their ears open at all times