Stop With The Half-Assed Gimmicks

[moshingfreak]

Take a look at the wrestlers in WWE now, compared to the 80's and 90's. Back then, there was a wide variety of gimmicks that got huge pops from the crowd, even from the mid and lower card wrestlers. eg, Godfather, Too Much, etc.

Nowadays, there aint many pops, because theres no variation on wrestlers gimmicks.

For example, now, we have new guys, veterans, big guys, small guys and thats about it. The only gimmick that gets over is John Cena's.

WWE has simply lost flava, which explains the "only average" ratings as of late.

agree or disagree?

[Oxstar]

yeah i can agree with u! if u didnt have a gimmick u wudnt be in wrestlin years ago!

[Tornado]

<font color=#33ffff>LEARN TO TYPE. Dammit, your posts are nearly as bad as sexymanalive's</font>

[Head]

WWE has been moving away from "gimmicks" like "Man Mountion Rock, the fat guitar player," and "Max Moon, the alien from mars" for quite a number of years now, and moving more toward giving wrestlers personalities which I think is better. If a wrestler has a set gimmick, its really hard for them to be taken seriously be the fans, and they will probably never be able to move past the midcard at best, while if they are just a straight up wrestler, with a edgy personality or somthing, they have a lot more mobility. I like the direction the WWE is going nowadays with their lower card and mid card wrestlers. They just need to give them a bit more airtime.

[moshingfreak]

WWE has been moving away from "gimmicks" like "Man Mountion Rock, the fat guitar player," and "Max Moon, the alien from mars" for quite a number of years now, and moving more toward giving wrestlers personalities which I think is better. If a wrestler has a set gimmick, its really hard for them to be taken seriously be the fans, and they will probably never be able to move past the midcard at best, while if they are just a straight up wrestler, with a edgy personality or somthing, they have a lot more mobility. I like the direction the WWE is going nowadays with their lower card and mid card wrestlers. They just need to give them a bit more airtime.

I think its boring. Theres no crowd reaction during the part where they spend a lot of time making, the entrances.

back in the day, everybody would yell out "Oh You Didnt Know?" or "HO Train" during the entrances. You dont get that anymore. You don't hear "Word Life" or "theres a Hurricane Coming Through" from the crowd

[sexymanalive]

I disagree it was better like when people entrances hit the crowed will say "U suck" "Get the table" and " you tap out" but in 80 and 90 are the fan would do would cheer when they won the macth now they cheer all the time

[moshingfreak]

If you look at the 80's, the big guys were portrayed as indestructable. Hogan, Zeus, Andre, whatever. And then you had the cocky foriegners. Volkoff, Bravo, The Mounties, etc. You got huge pops for the good guys AND the bad guys.

Then came the Attitude era, which I explained before.

[thebitch]

WWE has been moving away from "gimmicks" like "Man Mountion Rock, the fat guitar player," and "Max Moon, the alien from mars" for quite a number of years now, and moving more toward giving wrestlers personalities which I think is better. If a wrestler has a set gimmick, its really hard for them to be taken seriously be the fans, and they will probably never be able to move past the midcard at best, while if they are just a straight up wrestler, with a edgy personality or somthing, they have a lot more mobility. I like the direction the WWE is going nowadays with their lower card and mid card wrestlers. They just need to give them a bit more airtime.

You can have a gimmick without it being oturageous like the above. John Cena has a rapper gimmick, and I'd say it got him wayyy over, and he can still go even further. They need to stray away from the unrealistic gimmicks (Hurricane, SHIT, racism) and start using better gimmicks again.

And, keep in mind, it isn't only the gimmicks. It is how the wrestler portays that gimmick, and if he/she has the charsima to use that gimmick. I'd say nowadays, 9/10 times a gimmick failure is due to lack of Charisma and mic skills.

[MVP]

Wrestlers need more than just catch phrases to get themselves over. Guys like Road Dogg and the Godfather had good gimmicks, but their in-ring abilities were unbalanced with their high charisma. In those days people like The Rock and Stone Cold had high charisma as well as excellent in-ring abilities, which is why they rose to the top.

Gimmicks are very important to a wrestler's development, but it most certainly should not be the only factor of their success. Diesel is a prime example of a bad wrestler who became famous pretty much only because of his gimmick, a big trucker guy/bodyguard of Shawn Michaels. He was never very talented as a wrestler, and because of that he drew the least out of any WWE Champion. If THAT doesn't convince you, look at Goldberg right now. I think that's the reason WWE has moved away from flavorful gimmicks.

[Savio]

The bashums hold there gimmick well.

[MVP]

The bashums hold there gimmick well.I agree, in fact I think they ought to keep their masks and their leather straps on when they wrestle. They remind me of the old school Demolition when they have their entrance attire on.

[Savio]

Yeah they wore it out to the ring once. I dont remember if they wrestled in it though.

[BasicThuganomics]

The bashums hold there gimmick well.


You're right, but I don't think the WWE knows how to use their gimmick to actually get them over. But the Bashams are good in ring talents, I hope the gimmick they have works out, because I don't know how many more times the WWE can get away with Los Guerreros vs WGTT to spice up the SD tag division.

[Loose Cannon]

Yeah they wore it out to the ring once. I dont remember if they wrestled in it though.

I rememeber one of them wrestling in the mask once

[Innovator]

the Bashams should wear them at all times, then no one can tell them apart

[Corkscrewed]

Funny.

The time I saw the Bashams wear their masks to the ring, they took them off ceremonially before they wrestled.

But I agree, there should be more gimmicks, or at least more ways of making characters different and interesting. I mean, you have like four or five different indestructable hosses right now: Lesnar (the first and only real good one), Batista and his clone (right down the finisher) Matt Morgan, Goldberg, Big Show. They are all big guys with power. Even Kane, who could qualify in that category, has his psychotic criminal mindset, and that got him way over until Shane killed him.

You can have gimmicks without introducing Doink the Third. Keep it real, but make it varied and interesting.

[ColdwaVer]

They need to stray away from the unrealistic gimmicks (Hurricane, SHIT, racism) and start using better gimmicks again.

Precisely what racism are you talking about?

[Fryza]

Precisely what racism are you talking about?

Probably to Teddy Long/Rodney Mack's stuff when they got more ait time..

...and how is racism an unrealistic gimmick? :wtf:

[XL]

I gotta agree with moshingwrestlingfreak apart from I'd steer clear of the outrageous 80's gimmicks.

There are so many bland, personality lacking "stars" at the moment. I mean take the young, up and comer role for example.

We got Orlando Jorden, Garrison Cade, Mark Jindrak and I'd go as far as saying Maven, La Resistance and Rob Conway.

We got the big monsters Jon Heidenreich, Batista and Matt Morgan.

The we got cruiserweights like Akio, Sakoda, Spanky and Paul London.

None of these guys ooxe charisma or personality.

Don't get me wrong I'm not ripping on the guys I just mentioned, its part of the booking committees job to find fuller roles for these guys. I just wonder why the WWE thinks we should care about what these guys are doing!?!

[ColdwaVer]

Probably to Teddy Long/Rodney Mack's stuff when they got more ait time..

...and how is racism an unrealistic gimmick? :wtf:

I guess what he really meant was "sterotyping" but still, as far as I know Long's gimmick was mostly his idea. But some people can't understand caracituring ethnicities into wrestling characters. I'd say that Eddie Gurrerro is probably more over now than he's ever been. Lance Storm has never been bigger than he has as an Un-American or a Canadian Hero (or whatever.)

As far as racism being unrealistic... that gets a big :wtf: from me.

[Kane Knight]

I guess what he really meant was "sterotyping" but still, as far as I know Long's gimmick was mostly his idea. But some people can't understand caracituring ethnicities into wrestling characters. I'd say that Eddie Gurrerro is probably more over now than he's ever been. Lance Storm has never been bigger than he has as an Un-American or a Canadian Hero (or whatever.)

As far as racism being unrealistic... that gets a big :wtf: from me.

It's very realistic. so yeah. :wtf:

Racism is pretty big out there. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to find it. It doesn't really mean it's something I want to see on my TV screen, but it's definitely far from unreal.

But really, since the perception of your typical wrestling viewer is sheep-fu</>cking, ignorant, bigoted, trailer park trash...Can we really expect them to put an educated latino or an Asian who's not one of the top ten martial artists in the world? Aren't we expecting a little much out of the WWE if we ask them to not show contempt towards the french?