8 Wrestling Gimmicks That Wouldn't Work In 2016
If they ever actually did anyway...
We live in a professional wrestling world where the full-on gimmick is a dying species. When this writer first started watching the sport, gimmicks were every bit as vital to wrestling as the wrestling itself. We saw law enforcement officers, clowns, living embodiments of natural disasters, kings, superheroes, and more battle it out inside the squared circle. It was wonderful.
Fast forward to 2016, and times are different to say the least. Full-blown character gimmicks have fallen more or less by the wayside in favour of individuals who are just real people that fight, tough guys with human emotions and human motivations. There is a lot that is commendable about this, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't yearn for the old days of wrestling hockey players from time to time.
There are a whole host of famous (or infamous?) gimmicks that brought different levels of success in the past that simply wouldn't work today. Of course, a lot of this is speculation, as you would have got long odds on a dead zombie mortician lasting 20+ years; at the end of the day it is all down to the talent that plays the character.
Even so, it would take some supreme talent to make certain gimmicks work in this day and age. Here are eight that would prove particularly troublesome.
8. The Boy Band
Before one even begins to talk about professional wrestling, it is clear that boy bands no longer work in music in 2016. The 1990s were a time of what seemed like a conveyor belt of boy bands, on both sides of the pond. Whether it was Take That, 5ive, East 17, or any of the others, the music charts were full to bursting point with scantily clad young chaps singing about girls that gipped them.
This is scarcely acceptable in music now, so it certainly won't work in professional wrestling. You could argue that the gimmick never worked at all. 3 Count are the example that jumps to the minds of most (for better or worse), and despite the best efforts of Shane Helms, Shannon Moore and Evan Karagias, the trio were nothing more than a joke way back in 2000.