Every wrestler needs a gimmick. If youre a tough amateur wrestler, or boxer, like, say, Danny Hodge, then your gimmick will likely be based around your sporting prowess. Ditto for stars like Kurt Angle, Mark Henry, Ken Shamrock and even latter day Brock Lesnar. However, if youre just a good, solid wrestler, then people need a reason to come and watch you wrestle and this is where the power of a good gimmick comes into play. Who would you rather watch wrestle a main event, Texas Red, Mean Mark Callous or The Undertaker? If you answered anything other than Taker, then youre a nob, plain and simple. A good gimmick can mean the difference between languishing in the mid card and rocketing to the top of the sport, or, to put it into more salient terms, a good gimmick and a bad gimmick are usually several tax brackets removed from each other. OK, weve established The Undertaker as a good gimmick. We can also safely add characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Bruiser Brody and Randy Orton to the good pile. ...But what makes a bad gimmick? Is it the wrestler playing the role, the fan reaction, the timing, or a combination of all three? Lets take a look at 10 weird (and sometimes woeful) concepts that never quite translated into big bucks for anyone involved...
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
