One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every Year Of WWE History

33. 1992 - The Worst Gimmick Ever Was Debuted

WWE's Deepest Secrets Vince McMahon
WWE Network

You’d think - and be accurate in your assessment - that the Gobbledy Gooker was the worst gimmick of all-time. The Gooker was an unintelligible anthropomorphic turkey who never wrestled and could not hope to wrestle through a mask and with no boots. The Gooker was a mascot too stupid for kids. 

But then, you comb through the Observer archives and discover that the man who’d gain minor fame as Road Block in WCW (Joseph D’Acquisto) was granted a 1992 Superstars tryout under the ring name ‘The Retriever’. 

You pause. 

Retriever. 

Surely, Dave isn’t referring to a dog here. 

Even early ‘90s Vince McMahon wouldn’t entertain something that silly, and the idea is so preposterous that you’d have read about it by now on some Worst Gimmicks Ever listicle or other. 

Digging deeper, an entry exists for the June 29 dark match on Cagematch: the Golden Retriever, managed the Genius, defeated Brian Costello. 

No way: WWE didn’t debut a dog, did they?

Sadly, no fan-cam footage of the match exists. Neither the WWE Network nor YouTube yields any results. This is crushing - pure weapons-grade literal dog sh*t happened on WWF TV, and there’s no visual evidence. A guy had a dog gimmick! Did he bark? Did he wear fur?! Why can’t this be available for everybody to laugh at?

Suppose there’s always the singles career of Brian James for that purpose.

 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!