Why WWE Will Always Sell Out EVERY Gimmick

Why indeed.

The obvious reason is cash. Truckloads of it. Money made not just from ludicrously overpriced replica titles, but masks and t-shirts and puppets and tapestry blankets. There was an old industry axiom that proffered the idea that gimmicks sold t-shirts but characters sold tickets. Ideally, the goal was to gain both, but the latter had to come before the former in order for audiences to truly give themselves up to something they knew wasn't actually for real.

As he typically is, Stone Cold Steve Austin is perhaps the best example of this. An initial run of Chilly McFreeze ice trays might have made decent stocking-fillers for the WWE fan of the house even if said fan thought the gimmick was boiling hot garbage. An Austin 3:16 shirt looked the part, but felt vital because fans wanted to gain a deeper connection with the person wearing it on television, and to represent his values and beliefs in public themselves.

That's not what's happening when somebody buys a Fiend mask, but then this isn't just about the very notion of merchandise, or even Bray Wyatt. This is a problem with WWE's one-size-fits-all mentality and the damage it has done to that gimmick and will do to every other one like it, if Wyatt is any sort of precedent.

There were those that tried to smash the system, but they were rule-proving exceptions.

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