10 WWE Attempts To Capitalise On Popular Culture

If you dive deep enough into the WWE Network, you realise that there are certain gimmicks that WWE will attempt to rehash for the rest of time; bad ideas left on the cutting room floor which are picked up, dusted off and forcefully brandished on to a lost, talented individual in want of a better character. Before Pierre Carl Ouellet reimagined himself as a Frankenstein’s Monster under the guise of PCO, he was Jean Pierre Lafitte, an eye-patch wearing buccaneer, sailing the seas in the WWF ring.

Flash forward to 2006, and the Pirates of the Caribbean series was making waves in popular culture, with the first film making $654 million dollars globally, and the second going on to take over $1 billion. As such, Paul Burchill was given the task of transforming himself into Captain Jack Sparrow, swinging into arenas on a rope and holding a cutlass to Mr. Kennedy’s throat. To the credit of Burchill, and his mentor William Regal, the gimmick became a short-lived fan favourite, when the two, previously tagging, had a feud over Regal ridiculing Burchill’s newly found sea-faring spirit.

The success may have come from Burchill stating in a promo that he wanted to play a pirate, rather than the company’s creative making us believe that he genuinely was one. Without the character being taken too seriously, Burchill was largely liked by WWE’s audience, providing the same form of lower-tier entertainment as Santino Marella later would. However, the gimmick was quickly disbanded, and Burchill returned to playing himself (including a gimmick where he and his storyline sister interacted with, you guessed it, incestuous overtones…).