10 Wrestling Gimmicks Probably Made Out Of Spite

2. The Billionaire Ted Skits

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The Billionaire Ted skits of 1996 WWF programming were the creation of a desperate Vince McMahon.

Up until that point in time, McMahon had operated under a mantra of never referencing rival wrestling promotions. He'd lost main event attractions like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage to WCW - those names backed up by JCP/WCW favourites such as Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger and the Steiner Brothers - and WCW Nitro was starting to topple WWF Raw on a worrying basis when it came to ratings.

Backed into a corner, struggling to find new stars, and not helped by Kevin Nash and Scott Hall's impending departure, Vinny Mac fired back by creating the characters of the Huckster, the Nacho Man, Scheme Gene and Billionaire Ted.

These skits were designed to highlight how old and broken down WCW's roster was, how Ted Turner was merely some bumbling hillbilly, and also to question the values and practices of Turner's company - including insinuating steroid abuse in WCW.

If the Billionaire Ted stuff was a one-off, sure, it was mildly entertaining. The fact that these segments played out for three whole months and culminated in a 'match' where Huckster and Nacho Man suffered heart attacks meant this all became tedious, tasteless and stunk of desperation.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.