What is the most ridiculous current or recent gimmick?

[Triple A]

Was talking to a non-wrestling fan friend and they asked if there were still any really "campy" gimmicks and couldn't really think of anything tbh...

Feels like Bray Wyatt is pretty ridiculous...

Stuff like Isaac Yankem, DDS... Papa Shango...

[Triple A]

Oh The Vaudevillains are pretty good...

[Triple A]

Kane I guess... Feels like everyone else is basically normal

[Triple A]

What about recent gimmicks... like the past 5 years

[ron the dial]

is eugene recent enough? can't remember when that was.

[ron the dial]

santina

[Lock Jaw]

Tell them there is a dancing rassler named Fandango

[Lock Jaw]

Male model Tyler Breeze

[Lock Jaw]

Los Matadores and El Torito

[Simple Fan]

Broken Matt Hardy definitely but if your only taking about WWE then there is Finn Balor with his Demon King gimmick. Stardust was real campy. I'd say New Day can be campy at times as well.

[OverTaker]

How bout the stardust gimmick..thats pretty ridiculous but so am i so whatever. Haha

[Frank Drebin]

Funkasaurus Brodus Clay

[Frank Drebin]

Naomi

[DAMN iNATOR]

There's not a lot to it, and I do love me some Bob Backlund, but the whole Darren Young "Make Darren Young Great Again" stuff is the kind of thing that I would be embarrassed to show to someone as an example of why I like watching pro wrestling.

[Wishbone]

In comparison to gimmicks from the past nothing from the modern era comes to mind. Bray Wyatt can be a bit over the top at times, but the whole cult leader thing seems a lot less crazy than something like Undertaker's gimmick the majority of the time. About the only time it really got super cringe worthy was during the whole New Day visits the Wyatt Compound skit.

I'd say Stardust was probably the wildest it's gotten recently, and even that played off more like Cody just going bonkers rather than them trying to play him off as a real character. I think that's where the issue (or non-issue) lies though. Today most of the over the top gimmicks are explained away by commentary or the wrestlers themselves as nothing more than mind games. We're not meant to believe any of them anymore whereas back in the day many gimmicks tried to pass themselves off as legit.

[Mr. Nerfect]

* The Vaudevillains
* Los Matadores
* Goldust is basically Dustin Rhodes that still dresses up, but it looks somewhat worse now
* R-Truth's crazy bullshit
* Stardust
* Adam Rose and The Bunny
* Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman -- not really counting Harper and Wyatt, because they often seem legit crazy
* Fandango
* Tyler Breeze
* Heath Slater's gimmick of being a loser that somehow still has a job
* The Miz's Hollywood celebrity gimmick
* The Ascension are about as campy as it comes

[Wishbone]

Eh, the Vaudevillains just come off as hipster wannabes to me. Is their gimmick actually that they're old-timey strongmen now?

Maybe it's the fact that I've been watching for so long and I've just been desensitized to the point that anything less over the top than the stuff from the past is passable, but I honestly don't find half the stuff you mentioned any worse than half of what's on TV today. Seems pretty par for the course given the target demographic.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Eh, the Vaudevillains just come off as hipster wannabes to me. Is their gimmick actually that they're old-timey strongmen now?

Maybe it's the fact that I've been watching for so long and I've just been desensitized to the point that anything less over the top than the stuff from the past is passable, but I honestly don't find half the stuff you mentioned any worse than half of what's on TV today. Seems pretty par for the course given the target demographic.

They've become more serious and dark since their call-up, but they still do the early 20th century type wrestlers thing andcin promos have said they're all about trying to bring back a simpler and more innocent time and whatever, basically acting "gentlemanly" in the early 1900s sense. Even one of them, Frank Gotch, was given his name as a callback to the legendary Simon Gotch.

[Wishbone]

So they're hipsters that want to start a social trend toward early 1900s dress and behavior? Sounds like half the college guys running around today.

[Mr. Nerfect]

How are they not massive babyfaces?

[Wishbone]

Just slap some fedoras on 'em and have them constantly get angry about getting friend-zoned by women backstage and you'd make a killing in merchandise sales. Half the IWC would be all over that shit like a fat kid on cake.

[Mr. Nerfect]

They should set-up a ring for intergender wrestling called "The Friend Zone." As gentlemen, The Vaudevillains promise never to use striking or put a woman in an actual submission hold, but being heels, the one outside the ring always causes a distraction allowing the other to hit a clothesline or something.

[Wishbone]

In the name of inclusion they can also bring back El Torito but now acknowledge that he's otherkin. Fitting with the heel gimmick the Vaudevillains can take out anyone who makes fun of him or even looks at him weird and demand that they use the pronouns "they" and "them" when referencing or referring to him.

[Anybody Thrilla]

They've become more serious and dark since their call-up, but they still do the early 20th century type wrestlers thing andcin promos have said they're all about trying to bring back a simpler and more innocent time and whatever, basically acting "gentlemanly" in the early 1900s sense. Even one of them, Frank Gotch, was given his name as a callback to the legendary Simon Gotch.

Frank Gotch came before Simon Gotch, you goofus.

Also, Wishbone is hilarious right now.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Wishbone is tremendous. :y:

[Ruien]

Kane. The guy goes from normal, to a demon, to a corporate lackey, to a corporate lackey/monster, back to a demon.

[Emperor Smeat]

No Way Jose from NXT.

Golden Truth - Pretty much mixing together R-Truth's goofball-ness and Goldust weirdness for the team gimmick.

[Stickman]

Finn Balor is a pretty terrible gimmick. Bray Wyatt is pretty good baring his moves and never winning. Other than that, who has a gimmick nowadays? Bunch of bland jabronis flipping around.

[Cool King]

I'd have to go with Finn Bálor as being the most ridiculous current gimmick.

From what I've got so far from watching him and to be fair, that isn't much, is that he's just some normal guy but he becomes a demon once a month or so.

So basically, it's like he experiences some kind of demon period.

[Mr. Nerfect]

The presentation of Balor in NXT was pretty good, but I hear that it's more "he's an actual demon!" on RAW. :lol:

[Big Vic]

The weirdest gimmick today is how the 'Shining Stars' started off:

2 members of the Puerto Rico tourism board that want to get people to visit Puerto Rico by wrestling matches.

How does someone come up with that, and why do they think it will get over?

[Mr. Nerfect]

There's no heat in it. I guess they were meant to be heels because they said it's better than America, but they didn't really...do anything. Poor guys are just trying to get their hotel business started.

When people were rhetorically asking "Did the Puerto Rico tourism board slip WWE some money?" I thought it was a joke, but maybe they actually did? But why make them heels if that is the case?

[hb2k]

Broken Matt Hardy has to win this in a landslide, surely. Shining Stars are goofy and lame, but that's their careers.

Matt Hardy. Yelling "Ahhh Senor Benjamin, this is a wonderful xylophone!" in an accent of questionable origin is on another level.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I had a sad chuckle at that line about The Shining Stars. It's a shame, because they're good hands in the ring and great with crowds, but the crowds have just been conditioned time and time again not to care about them.

[Big Vic]

There's no heat in it. I guess they were meant to be heels because they said it's better than America

I'm not sure but in the beginning they didn't do any heelish things that I remember...I think they were supposed to be faces. But then they got no reaction.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Oh geez, I thought they would have had to have been heels. I'm sure they trashed American cities as being polluted and stuff. Or maybe I am just making that up because I need some sort of compass?

[Big Vic]

Oh geez, I thought they would have had to have been heels. I'm sure they trashed American cities as being polluted and stuff. Or maybe I am just making that up because I need some sort of compass?I think they did that after their debut match against the 2 jobbers where they got no reaction.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Okay. Wow. Poor guys didn't stand a chance.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Primo should be a heel and Epico should be a face.

[slik]

Goldust/R-Truth

[Heyman]

Was talking to a non-wrestling fan friend and they asked if there were still any really "campy" gimmicks and couldn't really think of anything tbh...

Feels like Bray Wyatt is pretty ridiculous...

Stuff like Isaac Yankem, DDS... Papa Shango...

Fandango from 2013?

[Anybody Thrilla]

The Shining Stars were definitely supposed to be heels with their debut, mostly based on them saying how much better Puerto Rico is than everywhere else.