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WRESTLING COLUMNS

The Return of the Real Gimmick"
May 19, 2006 by Rag Morton


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Morning, afternoon or evening! My name is Rag Morton and as not to bore you, in short I am from England and write for a sports newspaper in the UK (any one picks up on my spelling, grammar, I don't care, I've clocked out!); to cut to the chase, the following article is something I HAD to write!!

Recently I feel the WWE has done something that has gone quite unnoticed to many wrestling fans, something that has made me return to a full time viewer of which I have not been since the ruining (to me) of my beloved n.W.o in 2002! In the past year or so the WWE has brought back the return of the gimmick. The real gimmicks! Now you might think that a foot fetish monster is a gimmick but to me it's not a REAL gimmick.

Back in the 'good ol days' we had some fantastic gimmicks - Kamala, Doink the Clown, Earthquake, Typhoon & Yokozuna to name just a few. These guys had managers, theme music, attire, and fighting styles that all contributed to their gimmick. Doink had a flower that squirted water at the opponent for crying out loud! That's a gimmick!!

The era of attitude was no doubt where gimmicks such as the early 90's were tamed down and less 'gimmicky'. The Attitude Era was in my opinion by far the greatest era in wrestling history, but it became too serious for my tastes. 2006 sees the gimmick return. The real gimmicks.

Umaga: A Kamala type character, he has the manager, the music, the attire, the finishing move; this is a gimmick that shows why people like Nathan Jones' gimmick is dismal in comparison and didn't succeed.

The Spirit Squad: Cheerleaders! Cheerleaders! How much more gimmicky can you get! Within the first appearance I knew more about what these guys were like than I did after watching a whole year of some of the other wrestlers. The music, the behaviours and the wrestling style all ooze arrogant cocky high school type...erm cheerleaders!

Boogeyman: The Boogeyman, is for me, a little too child orientated. I think however he works well. Can you imagine The Boogeyman showing up in the Attitude Era"" He'd become a jobber in minutes, which shows that WWE now is looking towards the gimmick for ratings. An example of this would be the huge win over JBL at the Rumble.

Eugene: I think the gimmick is terrible but never the less it's a 'real' gimmick! Again the Attitude Era would never have conjured up 'a Eugene' (thanks too) and goes to show that the gimmicky type characters really are back.

I could go on and list more 'real' gimmicks, Matt Striker, Viscera, Paul Burchill and the resigning of Goldust. But I hope you've got the idea.

Ultimately, the return of the gimmick is for me, very entertaining. Although gimmicks were present late 90's for example Gangrel and The Godfather, they weren't the gimmicks of the kayfabe era. I hope to see more gimmicks come out of the WWE writing teams officers. I would be interested to hear if anyone agrees with the turnaround of WWE and it's success"

by Rag Morton..


Lance Crucifix wrote:
Ok, for who ever is reading this and I mean the OWW staff. I wrote a column, almost exactly like this one, and I was told by Kristy that is violated the OWW Commandments, no analysis of WWE or TNA. I'd like to know why my column was rejected and this one wasn't"
Jake Cairns wrote:
Great Column altough if you look at the attitude era look at val venis he held the ic title with a porno gimmick and i think eugene might of held a ic title back in the attitude era jake cairns
Dirk Mason wrote:
Nice little article. I too have noticed the sudden uprising of the GIMMICK. I just wanted to say that I am a fan of Eugene and the Boogeyman, they are very entertaining. Also how can anyone like the Spirit Squad, they are entertaining wrestlers but most of the time they are just plain annoying.
Ralph wrote: Great article... I agree with the whole gimmick thing going to hell... The 80's and early to mid 90's had some of the best gimmicks ever. Like Brutis The Barber Beefcake, The Million Dollar Man and The Honky Tonk Man just to name a few. However the gimmicks of today are a whole different story. Here is a few Examples of bad Gimmicks:

Eugene: I think his character is a joke. And I can see how that would offend people. And when that happens, what is next for Eugene"""He is a great wrestler...Just call him by his real name "Nick Dinsmore" and let the guy wrestle.
The Spirit Squad: Joey Styles put iut right when he said what he said about male Cheer leaders. Every one of those guys are great wrestlers...So here's an idea.Change their rediculous Gimmick, Make a Tag Team out of 2 of them and keep them on Raw, Put one of them in the New DX, Put one on Smackdown to help save the cruiserweight Division, and send the last one to ECW and let him get Extreme!
Simon Dean: I know I go on about this guy a lot. But turning him into the Richard Simmons of the WWE was not a good move. He brought in more ratings as Nova in ECW as a member of the BWO Mocking Hollywood Hogan or just being a super here type wrestler then he does as Simon Dean. He's a good wrestler and the WWE needs to stop holding him back...
Here are a few examples of good Gimmicks:
The Godfather: A pimp, great Idea and it brought ratings. He was charasmatic, funny, cool and a good wrestler. What ever happened"""
Val Venis: A Porn Star. Pretty much a modern day Ravishing Rick Rude. Great gimmick too. Now teams With Viscera (also a good gimmick). Why aren't they Tag team Champs" They are the closest thing to a Tag Team that the WWE has these days...
Duke "The Dumpster" Drossee: Not a great gimmick, but it sure was better then half the gimmicks today...
Other then that, Bring back DX fast and let them take over again...
Rob wrote:
i agree with you all the way i loved the Additude era! and now i love what they are doing now with all the gimmicks. i love Umaga and the Spirit Squad, the only ones i really dont like is Boogyman and the Great Kahli but those are the only ones i love the rest of them and i cant wait to see what WWE is going to do.
Ryan (Las Vegas) wrote:
Pretty good article, I feel there are a couple of gimmicks you could have added like I feel The Undertaker is even a gimmick. But none the less, a good article. My favorite on your list is The Boogeyman. He is the coolest, weirdest, freakiest wrestler I have ever seen step foot in the ring and he is a dominant force. But from what OWW.com has on the SmackDown! Roster, he is inactive or injured, what's up with that" I would like to see him come back soon. HE'S COMIN' TO GETCHA!!
Count Grog wrote:
Loved this column. I watch wrestling to be entertained, and that is what wrestling is all about, entertainment. I love Paul urchill, The Spirit Squad and the other new WWE gimmicks. The whole concept behind my new promotion GOUGE is just that, entertaining gimmicks. OK we may push the button a bit more than the average WWE gimmick but we beleive people want to see entertaining gimmicks. If they want to see real fighting then watch MMA or Ultimate fighting, this is pro wrestling and I want to be entertained.
Jose Aguirre wrote:
Every wrestler has a gimmick!! Wether it be Indy wrestlers or WWE and TNA, they all have gimmicks. Kurt Angle, wrestling machine when he is face or pompous american hero. JBL is a rich redneck when he is heel, and white trash when he was face. John Cena is a rapper. RVD pot-head without regard to authority. Triple H "King of Kings" or the game. Chris Jericho was a funny man. Kane an unstable psycopath.Shelton Benjamin arrogant pretty boy. See the list goes on and on, even during the ATTITUDE era, Stone Cold and The Rock had gimmicks.
Nick Nunyadambizness wrote:
I disagree with you Jose, a gimmick, is not the same thing as an archetype..... you threw in some personality archetypes, like Kane, and Shelton Benjamin, that are good character archetypes but not gimmicks.... if you wanna be nit picky about it you can say that a real gimmick would be like, the Mounty using the cattle prod...... but, things like "funny man", "unstable psychopath" and "arrogant pretty boy are archetypes to broad i think to be cornerd to gimmicks. One thing i do agree on now is gimmicks are back on the rise, but the gimmicks we see nowadays kinda suck compared to those of say, the 80's. Though, the boogeyman is scarey as hell. BTW, what DID happen to him" Curious.
wrote:

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