Vince Russo's 10 Worst WWE Ideas

5. Beaver Cleavage

Vic Venom Wwe
WWE.com

In early 1999, Headbanger Thrash was sidelined with an injury. Given that the Headbangers had lost momentum as a tag team, and that Mosh (Chaz Warrington) was still healthy, WWE decided a gimmick change was in order. What did creative come up with?

Well, unfortunately, Vince Russo decided to take an office in-joke to a dark place. According to Bruce Prichard, Warrington was nicknamed "Beaver Cleaver," due to his resemblance to the classic TV star of Leave it to Beaver. Ergo: Chaz was repackaged as "Beaver Cleavage," a manchild with a voluptuous mother named "June" who made incestuous innuendo in vignettes.

Best as I can theorize: this was Vince Russo's attempt at recreating the success he found with boundary-pushing sex gimmicks such as Val Venis in 1998. However, the thing about Val Venis is that, aside from the racy pornstar gimmick, ultimately, he was a tried-and-true wrestling archetype: a sleazy, well-built ladies' man, not unlike Ravishing Rick Rude. People saw Val Venis and they understood how to respond to it, positive or negative.

With Beaver Cleavage? How does an audience respond to an incestuous manchild parody of a '50s TV show other than confusion and discomfort? That's not heel heat, that's "I am extremely ashamed that this is what I watch in my free time" non-heat.

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