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Gimmicks: From Good to Bad
July 8, 2006 by Gus D.

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There have been times where a gimmick sounds good, but the WWE usually ruins it by completely changing it and making the wrestler look unbelievably stupid. I think some have been good for a laugh, but sooner or later, it gets really dumb. The following wrestlers have been humiliated by the WWE writing team, once taken seriously, now the complete opposite. Enjoy!

Simon Dean aka Mike Bucci - Where to begin, In ECW Mike Bucci had a hilarious gimmick as part of a faction/stable known as the BWO. Stevie Richards as Big Stevie Cool, Mike Bucci as Hollywood Nova, Brian Heffron as The Blue Meanie. After ECW went under in early 2001, Nova signed with WWE in April 2002. In his debut match for OVW, he defeated John Cena for the OVW Heavy Weight title. After a whole year of dominating OVW, Mike Bucci was called up to the Raw roster to try out a "fitness guru" gimmick. He debuted on RAW as Simon Dean, trying to sell his products to a planted overweight fan. After defeating Hurricane in his debut match, Simon Dean quickly fell into jobber status, from getting destroyed by Kane, wrestling matches on Heat and Velocity. Simon Dean is now on the SD! side of things, he mainly accompanies The Gymini to the ring and when he actually wrestles matches, he loses most of the time. From Nova to Simon Dean. Good to Bad.

Sylvan Grenier to Sylvan - Sylvan Grenier debuted as a heel referee helping the Rock beat Hulk Hogan at No Way Out 2003. At WM20, he makes another appearance trying to help Vince Mcmahon in his match against Hulk Hogan. After that, vignettes start airing on Raw hyping Rene Dupree and Sylvan Grenier as anti-American, a decent gimmick. Over two years later, Sylvan gets sent to SD! debuting as a model. Currently vignettes are airing Sylvan hyping something about Quebec and the prime minister. Sylvan Grenier (anti-American) to Sylvan (model). Good to bad. (I'M NOT SAYING BEING ANTI-AMERICAN IS GOOD).

Big Vito to Big "toughest man to wear a dress" Vito - This one shocks on how anybody stupid enough could come up with this. I'll spare you all the time and skip this crap.

Booker T to King Booker - First off, this guys entrance IS the longest in WWE history, or it may be tied with the Undertaker's. Anyway, Booker T was a decent mid card talent on SD!, feuding with Chris Benoit over the U.S. title in a great best of 7 series, which Booker T won, thanks to Randy Orton wrestling half the matches for him. Now King Booker is jobbing to Bobby Lashley and having William Regal being Booker's b*tch. At least it's better than having Sharmell with a microphone, she sounds god awful.

Lita- Hoooooooooooooo! Lita - Lita used to be one of the most popular divas in WWE history. She started being a valet for many superstar including Essa Rios, The Hardy Boyz, Kane, and unfortunately Edge, which is where Lita is stuck today. Being Edge's whore. From risk-taking diva to career suicide. Good to bad.

Gus D...

Jon Rosaler wrote: Yup, most of these are true but you forgot much more than these guys. "The Expert" Nick Dinsmore to Eugene the retard: How could you forget are mentally challenged wrestling genius (I'm sure I won't be the only one to tell you this)" He is probably the only person ever to go from a top face in OVW to a Dumb jobber in the WWE" Now he's being managed to a guy who wasn't even close to his league, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. It's Pretty Much a Rainman,Forrest Gump, Gilbert Grape, etc. Good to Really bad.

"The Liar" Marty Wright to The Boogeyman. Still "restrained", Wright portrayed a gimmick to scare people and eat worms. Marty Wright sucks, always has, always will, The Man simply cannot Wrestle, Cena could beat him without lifting a finger. So, no, not good to bad. More like bad to Worse.

Michelle Mccool, Trainer from the south to Michelle Mccool, Annoying teacher of the south. Matt Striker's soulmate in the Storyline. I simply cannot stand this gimmick. (Mostly cuz I hate school ;) yay short attention span) Good to Bad.

OVW's great athletes, Johnny Jeter,Ken Doane,Mike Mondo,Nick Nemeth, and (not-so-great) Nick Mitchell to The Spirit Squad. If this gimmick lasts after Wrestlemania 24, I'll be really pissed off. Almost Really Great to shit..

The Basham Brothers to Jobbers we hardly see On Raw and Smackdown! Anymore (But with Velocity gone, Doug may go to ECW as well as Rob Conway.) Danny went back to his Damaja gimmick and Doug has that Bashman. A great tag team became single wrestlers club members who show up when they want to. Good to Bad.

Torrie Wilson. Slightly Entertaining to Plain Useless. Candice and Maria have been around for a short time, so they can make up for loss cause, but Torrie has no business being around, but the dog is ok. In her song, It says I want that girl so bad, but with a girl like that, I want that girl to leave so bad. Good to Bad.

FJ Parlan wrote:
Dude, I was not against your article. I actually I'm having a good read until you said that Booker T is a DECENT MID-CARD WRESTLER. Holy cow, Booker T is one of the best wrestlers in the business(he's not my idol, but I respect him that much), now if you don't recognize that, you're articles about wrestling is not worthwhile for the true fans(I am one, sorry I'm exaggerating, but I think that's how wrestling pats criticize). Plus, this King Booker stuff won't last forever, just to tell you right now.

Jesse Lee wrote:
At the risk of sounding like a mark for some of these wrestlers, I have to disagree with some of the opinions here.

I love Sylvan, he's a young one who you can tell tries his best. He maybe isn't the best and most certainly not as great as Mr. Kennedy. However, his La Resistance gimmick was gold and this new Ambassador Sylvan could help him work more on the mic so that he may become one of the better stars in the future. I don't see much hopes for the Ambassador gimmick itself, but it could lay the seeds for something incredible in the future.

King Booker is an awesome gimmick. Just ordinary Booker T was getting boring. This new faction of King Booker w/Sharmell, Finlay, and Regal could be something interesting for the next few months. Though in the long term, nothing big would happen. Everything else you've said I have to agree with. Nice column!

Ernesto Diaz wrote:
You are totally right about these gimmicks being from good to bad. Although I don't care about Sylvan or Simon Dean. Booker T was great as a face and he should just drop the King Booker gimmick. Also Lita should stop being a ho and start wrestling. She broke up with Edge a long time ago.

SoulChamber wrote:
I agree with Gus D. Its so lame how Mike Bucci went from Hollywood Nova to the one of the weakest, most dispicable characters in the WWE, it was always funny to see Simon Dean get his ass kick anyways. Lita ruined her career with the Kane/Matt Hardy/Edge eras, it was a bad idea by Vince McMahon to turn Lita into an accompany of Edge. There is one thing I sort of disagree with on Gus D. and that was it wasn't the "King Booker" gimmick that ruined Booker T, it was Sharmell that ruined it. Sylvan Greniere and Big Vito never caught my eye as good gimmicks anyways.

Susan Dietz wrote:
Dear OWW, I agreed with the columnist about some of the gimmicks that the WWE has used but some gimmicks need to be changed, here's some examples:

Hunter Hurst Helmsey to HHH - He was dressed as a British duke and in the beginning I believe he also had Bobby the Brain Heenan as his manager and along came the first DX days that HHH was teamed up with the Diesel/Kevin Nash and Shawn Michaels, and the rest is wrestling history.

The Repo Man - I rest my case.

Undertaker - Went from being the dead man to biker dude to back to being the dead man but he's wrestled for over 20 years ballpark yet he is not a mainstay on Smackdown he doesn't make weekly appearances he's been picked for PPV's only it seems.

The one point I did want to bring up is when wrestlers switch from Federation to Federation.

The Dudley Boys Now Team 3-D - What does team 3-D do that the Dudley boys didn't or don't do" There's no evolution of character.

Christian to Christian Cage - There's no change or growth in his character persona.

These wrestlers went from WWE to NWA/TNA but there seems to be many wrestlers going to TNA that used to be with WCW but there's no oomph or pizzazz in their story lines a major fault in WCW.

Mike wrote: Slyvian, Nova, and Vito: Right on the money King Booker: No --- Yea this is not Bookers best gimmick but this is getting him something he has looked foward to since the invasion angle crashed, a WWE title. After getting what he deserved in WCW, the 5 time champion is now getting his title shot agianst mysterio, and due to mysterio needing knee surgery I am thinking he is going to come out on top. Yea the entrence is long, but I doubt it's going to stay that long for awhile. And Finley and Regal are pretty funny, I mean I can wait for them to turn and fued with each other, but for now it's fun. So Booker T. His gimmick may not be the best, but it's making him a 6 TIME 6 TIME 6 TIME 6 TIME 6 TIME 6 TIME World Champion!

Long Live the Rated R Superstar as WWE champ

James wrote:
I agree with most of your opinions on gimmicks with the exception of Vito. The WWE attempted to get some humor out of Mike Bucci's new character and failed miserably. Watching the new Vito, however, has given me more than a few laughs. He pulls off the feminine angle better than Goldust ever did. Go on, Vito.

Gus D. wrote:
I want to thank all of the readers who responded to my column. It was my first for OWW.com and surely not my last. Thanks Again!

Adam Sykes wrote:
''Anyway, Booker T was a decent mid card talent on SD!,'' --- No, he wasnt, Booker T ''WAS'' one of the best tag team wrestler you could come across in the 90's, he slowly moved his way up to being one of the best all around mid card wrestlers, eventualy pushing himself up to being the 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, 5 time, WCW Champion. Then after being humiliated time after time during the alliance storyline, he was demoted to a midcard-at best wrestler, leading up to his biggest moment thus far in the WWE, being beaten by triple h at wrestlemania, in a pretty decent match. Once again dropped down to mid card status, worming his way out of matches with benoit, running from the boogeyman, up untill recent winning the returning king of the ring tournament. As a pretty big Booker T fan i have to say, thus far in t he WWE he hasnt been as highly rewarded as this in some time, i'd hardly say this is his lowest point. The rest of your article is prett sound, apart from the lita bit, for a start, she hasnt changed gimmick, cause she necver really had a gimmick, she's mostly always been ''lita'', and her patheticaly helping essa rios beat gillberg, to standing at ringside when the druggy boyz tagged, and her forced marriage/love affair with kane, this with edge is probably the best she's had in a while either, if not ever.

Jonathan Preston wrote:
I must say that the biggest crock for Superstar transitions is Jamal from 3 minute warning to the unstoppable, undefeated Umaga. Uhhhh, can you say Samoa Joe rip off. Give me a break!!! Its just not real to me. Especially, considering that he wasn't that great as Jamal and now he can't be stopped as Umaga. Anybody who is a true watcher of wrestling knows who Umaga was before and I think the change isn't realistic at all...

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