WWE: 10 Worst Gimmicks Of All Time

3. Gillberg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci-78OxKROw Introducing a bad gimmick is one thing; but the introduction of a wrestler into the WWE who can't even wrestle is quite something else altogether. It was once listed on the WWE website that Gillberg's "finishing move" was the roll up pin, and that gives you the kind of idea what wrestling ability Gillberg lacked, in direct correlation to one Goldberg of WCW - who the character was solely created with the intention of mocking. I imagine that when the writers in WWE first suggested the idea of a wrestler whose sole purpose was to "piss off the competition" it was the kind of thing Mr McMahon absolutely loved, but in truth, it did nothing but help to make even more of a spectacle of an Entertainment Industry that was suffering during this period at the expense of cheap gags and focusing on one liners and sexual innuendo as opposed to great, technical, wrestling. I should also say that, before anyone thinks you just might be able to "try this at home", Gillberg still had to be professionally trained - he still had to be fit, agile and know how to take a fall before he even set foot in the ring. Duane Gill had been wrestling in the WWE for almost a decade before he made his debut as Gillberg - filling in as the occasional jobber you might see on Superstars and helping lower card wrestlers like the 1-2-3 Kid to actually register legitimate wins. If you don't believe me - look that up - it really happened! Gill knew his way around a wrestling ring and so the gimmick made it seemed rather absurd that the average length of his matches were about 30 seconds! In a rare show of wrestling ability, at WWF No Mercy 99 (a PPV event held right here in the UK) Gillberg faced Tiger Ali Singh - and the crowd actually cheered when he managed to begin the match by throwing a few punches and defending himself with competence. Gillberg features so highly on this list because of the decision taken by Commissioner Shawn Michaels on an episode of Raw in 1999. Obviously Goldberg was a major champion and Gillberg didn't have a chance of winning anything resembling a belt, before Michaels ordered Christian (then a member of the Brood) to put the Light Heavyweight Championship (which, itself, has now been lost to history) on the line against Gillberg. The resulting match is one of the worst examples of a title changing hands in the history of the WWE and made Shane McMahon's successful "defence" of the European Championship against Gillberg a few weeks later look credible. Gillberg retained the title (and I'm not sure he ever defended it) even after being released from the WWE - a total of almost 2 years - and was paid to make a once off return to Sunday Night Heat in 2000 in order to issue an open challenge and be defeated by Essa Rios. If that sentence hasn't put you off the WWE then I really don't know what will.