Saturday Six – Failed Wrestling Gimmicks

Welcome to the Saturday Six, where each week I let you get to know me a bit better with the help of a list. Any idiot can do a Top 5 list, which is why I kicked it up a notch to a Top 6. This week’s topic: Failed Wrestling Gimmicks.

With John going away on vacation, it’s my turn to give this a shot, and write about something other than games. As any wrestling fan knows, history is loaded with gimmicks that failed for any number of reasons. Some were well done and just fell victim to bad booking, while others should’ve never left the mind that thought of it. I could easily sit here writing about them until my fingers fall off, so I’ll just stick with some of my personal, uh . . . “favorites.”

1. Giant Gonzales — Here’s one that, despite having been unsuccessful in just about every way during his brief WWE run, I still personally enjoyed. Maybe because at the time, I could relate to being considerably taller than all of my peers. This guy stood at over 7’7″ during his wrestling career, meaning even The Undertaker had to look up at him to make eye contact. With a strange outfit and a (quite literal) “monster heel” gimmick, it was pretty clear that he wasn’t going to last, whether it be because of skill level, booking or health reasons. Still, his name will be forever in the history books, since he did get a match with Undertaker at WrestleMania, only losing by disqualification.

2. Seven — What do you get when Goldust heads to WCW in a time when they’re aching for a creepy character? The answer is . . . whatever the hell they were thinking here. With an entrance and attire nearly identical to Undertaker, but with a face like – as Dustin put it – “Uncle Fester,” this gimmick died just one moment after it was born, in fear of people misinterpreting the character.

3. Glacier — While we’re still at WCW, here’s one of my legitimate favorites on this list. If you’ve watched enough of the WWE Network, chances are you’ve seen this guy come up in pretty much any conversation about bad gimmicks. From his entrance to his gear, he had that special kind of 90’s cheesiness all over him, but in all the right ways (at least in my opinion.) Sure, it’s not even a little subtle that they were trying to cash in on the popularity of Mortal Kombat with that Sub Zero look, but at least he was a skilled wrestler to back up that kind of comparison. Despite being considered a bad gimmick by what seems to be a lot of the WWE, he does still bring this character back from time to time in the independent circuits, so really whether this was a failure or not depends on who you’re asking.

4. The Demon — A perfect example of both “gimmick that failed only because of bad booking” and “why WCW no longer exists,” The Demon was based on, endorsed by, and debuted during a live concert by Kiss. As if that wasn’t enough to make people believe this guy would reach the top fast, he was intense in the ring and had some good momentum going for him early on. Unfortunately, the people pulling the strings at WCW labeled him a failure before even competing, and saw fit that this most likely very expensive character would stay on the mid-card forever, having pretty much every star on the roster bury him until his departure.

5. Mordecai — Another example of someone who had everything going for him if it wasn’t for the creative team, Mordecai should have succeeded. Essentially the Bray Wyatt of the “Ruthless Aggression” era, he was meant to be some kind of cultist, but with more of a religious theme to the character. He looked fittingly intimidating, had a powerful move set, a cool entrance, pretty much everything a WWE newbie could possibly ask for. The problem was, again, mostly with the people behind the scenes, who for some reason couldn’t figure out what to do with him. After just months on the main WWE roster, the character was thrown away and he was sent back to the developmental area, eventually returning as Kevin Thorn, a vampire gimmick that just repeated Mordecai’s fate.

6. Dr. Isaac Yankem, DDS — That’s gotta be Kane! Well, not quite. Before WWE fans were introduced to “The Devil’s Favorite Demon,” they saw him as Jerry Lawler’s personal dentist. This character was brought into WWE for the sole purpose of aiding Lawler in his feud with Bret Hart, but after that storyline wrapped up, Isaac fell into jobber territory for the remainder of his rather short run (lasting only about a year.) Soon after that, he had a run pretending to be Diesel in a terrible attempt at replacing the real Kevin Nash, who had made the notorious move to WCW at the time, before finally finding success as the Big Red Machine himself.

Jeremy Harrison has been into gaming and just about everything nerdy or out of the norm for as long as he can remember. He likes to keep an open mind about things, but also has a strangely high amount of fun getting into a rant or good debate. . . which is probably why he was recruited to this site in the first place. You can Email Jeremy or follow Jeremy on Twitter @NightmareAsylum or Facebook