10 WWE Gimmicks Wrestlers Refused

5. Chris Jericho Is No Goon

Chris Jericho Goon
WWE

For those not around during the New Generation years, that time was an incredibly mixed bag for the WWF.

For every Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels who was allowed to thrive in the spotlight, there were multiple career or sports-based horrendous gimmicks at the bottom of the card. From plumber TL Hopper, to baseball player Abe 'Knuckleball' Schwartz, to the magician Phantasio, there was so much dross to fight through just to get to the good stuff.

The idea was to have these gimmick-heavy wrestlers appear as stars without really ever being stars. They'd start off hot with a surprise win or two, then they'd be fed to guys higher up the card as a way for those bigger names to beat a supposed somebody.

As a favour to Jim Cornette, Vince McMahon offered some of these spots to Corny's Smoky Mountain Wrestling boys, with Tracy Smothers becoming Freddie Joe Floyd and Tony Anthony becoming the aforementioned Hopper.

At that same time, a young Chris Jericho was amongst the Smoky Mountain ranks and was offered a spot in McMahon's organisation. Jericho refused the gig and opted instead to focus his energy on Japan and landing himself a spot in ECW - and in hindsight he believes that the offer on the table for him was the character of brawling hockey player, the Goon.

Of course, Jericho's father is NHL great Ted Irvine, and we all know how McMahon at that time loved to pull on real-life elements for his gimmicks of the day.

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Senior Writer

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