10 Wrestling Mysteries That Were Supposed To End Differently
2. The Gobbledy Gooker
In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving 1990, the night WWE’s annual Survivor Series event would take place, a large and confusing egg sat ringside.
Popular rumour said that Ric Flair would be emerging from the egg. The newly signed Undertaker sat at home and was afraid to pick up the phone in case Vince called to tell him he was going to be playing The Eggman. In truth, when the giant egg hatched what else could emerge by a giant turkey? Not even the talent of Héctor Guerrero, who wore the costume, could make this one work.
Despite Roddy Piper on commentary saying that the crowd loved the Gobbledy Gooker, the gimmick sunk like a stone. After a few more appearances, the character vanished from television.
It was always going to be this character, but WWE envisioned a far different turn of events.
Originally, Gooker was designed as a company mascot; something for the young WWE fan to be entertained by. Whilst the superhero-like characters of wrestling appealed to some, WWE wanted to target even lower demographics with this larger than life dancing animal gimmick.
Why exactly a turkey was picked to be the company mascot for the WWE only Vince McMahon knows. In an ironic and beautifully linguistic sense, Gooker is one of the company’s biggest turkeys of all time.