Gimmicks. Wrestling has been full of them decades. Gimmicks are truly a necessary evil. It may not always seem like it, but everything we see is a gimmick, to one degree or another. Referees, for example, are one such point. Can't have a match if we didn't have someone "officiating" the matches. The matches alone are a gimmick, considering they have winners and losers determined in advance. Don't forget the matches can even have different rules, depending on what a promoter wants to accomplish for a particular match. The commentators? Someone needs to sell the storylines/angles to the fans watching on TV.
The wrestlers themselves are obvious, as are most of the stuff you'll see.
With that said, most fans will admit that there are great gimmicks. Some, not so much. Then, there are those that are downright ugly. Let's see how many I can cover before going batshit crazy.
Considering I've been watching religiously since the late 80's (casually since '83-'84), I've seen my share of gimmicks that truly qualify as good, bad, and downright nasty. I'll try to be as fair as possible, considering different factors. As an example, I'm not going to complain about the Iron Sheik as his character/gimmick was par for the course, at that time. Same could be said for Sgt. Slaughter, for similar reasons.
Some gimmicks are never appropriate ever, no matter what. Jeep Swenson, being billed as the Final Solution, should be a great example of this point. I know I used to sleep during History class, but I have to think the creative team in WCW must've skipped their history classes outright. I still managed to get high marks in History, despite my frequent naps.
I'm debating on the Katie Vick angle, as that's more of a bad storyline as opposed to an actual gimmick. Maybe I'll just include anything that's good, bad, or ugly. If I include storylines, then this is also a prime example of something that never should've left the drawing boards. Why it was even contemplated is completely beyond me.
While we get ideas that are pure ugly, we still manage to get ideas that scream "what were they thinking?" Gobbeldy Gooker is one such idea. It was hyped for several weeks, leading to the 1990 Survivor Series. This is probably better remembered for the debut of the Undertaker.
Speaking of Undertaker, that's one idea that must've looked horrible on paper. After all, we're talking about an undead zombie character that couldn't feel pain. We're talking about a character that debuted roughly two decades before the Walking Dead debuted on TV.
I realize zombie-esque characters have been huge in TV and movies for a long time. Not entirely sure when this concept first began. Yet, having a character like that in wrestling could've made things a bit difficult, to say the least. After all, when you look at a wrestler that can't feel pain, you can't make him submit. Can't beat him in a match if you can't make him tap out.
When a wrestler can't feel pain, it's hard to slow him down, let alone get him on his back. Pinfalls would be difficult, to put it nicely. When you get a match like a Last Man Standing match, how do you stop someone that can't be put down for more then a couple seconds?
Yet, Undertaker's character not only caught on, but remained popular for over 26 years. Amazing, to put it mildly.
Then we have characters like Doink. Decades before the creepy clown phase we've been going through, we had Doink the Clown. I'd like to think we got rid of the creepy clowns, but most of them are still in DC.
On a serious point, Doink started off as a heel that loved pulling pranks on fans and wrestlers. You'd think this would've become annoying shit. Yet, as a heel, Doink was actually pretty damned entertaining. As a face, not so much. As a heel, definitely entertaining. Then, to be honest, heels typically represent certain aspects of human society we don't always want to admit to. This includes being an egotistical prick that can't do anything wrong (Mr. Perfect), that rich asshole that can buy whatever he pleases (Million Dollar Man), the jerk that plays pranks on people who are otherwise too nice (Doink).
Knowing how people generally behave, it should be no surprise that a heel Doink succeeded at all. As a real life example, my brother was at his church on a Saturday. It was during the late morning/early afternoon. He had promised he'd help with some minor stuff, mostly light cleaning. The head pastor had stepped out when my brother showed up. Left the door unlocked so bro wouldn't have to wait for the pastor to arrive.
When the pastor arrived, he could easily spot bro's vehicle in the parking lot. Didn't think much of anything for 10-20 minutes. After awhile, he realized that he didn't see or hear bro. Something seemed odd, so the pastor looked around the church to see if he could find my bro.
Long story short, the pastor entered a room, only to have my brother bark at him like a dog. Bro was crouched in such a position that he couldn't be spotted until it was too late. Bro nearly took a foot to the face, do to the panic he caused with his pastor, but it was worth it. The pastor didn't live this down for a couple of months.
It's really the idea that stuff like this, as funny as it may be to certain people, is easily relatable. It's not much different then a bunch of teenagers at a different church bro had been a part of, previously. They ended up in a snowball fight that ended up in the church itself, briefly. A snowball ended up wizzing past the head of a woman, scarring her to the point she had to go home and freshen up, to put it nicely.
While most of the adults were fuming over this, when my brother found out about it, he was laughing to the point he nearly went home to freshen up.
Maybe it's stuff like this that allows people to enjoy goofy and/or unusual characters. Much like having a darker personality that allows us to appreciate dark characters. When we see characters like Eugene, a "mentally challenged" wrestler, fans typically want to cheer on the underdog. Well.....I'd certainly say a "mentally challenged" wrestler would be a major underdog.
Sure, Eugene was meant as comic relief, but he was certainly an underdog. People love to see others succeed when they would normally fail, otherwise. Doesn't matter if it's in a movie, TV, real life or what not.
In this regards, Eugene had a benefit. He was good in the sense that people wanted to see him overcome the odds. Granted, the guy that played the part (Nick Dinsmore) was a highly competent performer. That certainly made the character more entertaining.
It can be amazing just what characters will become popular while others fail. Since it's getting late, I'm calling it a night. More on this later.
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