Paul Burchill

[Mr. Nerfect]

Originally Posted by NeanderCarl I'm not "arguing for the sake of arguing", I just wouldn't by any real stretch describe the Pirate gimmick as a "success"... just because you liked it, or you feel the need to defend Burchill, doesn't mean you can't just admit that the Pirate gimmick went nowhere. What's more, had Vince McMahon "got it" and gotten behind Burchill, you really think a mid-card comedy act would have made it to the top? You really see a guy like "Pirate Paul" headlining WrestleMania (or any PPV for that matter) without uproar from fans, including these forums? As an apparent Burchill fan, you should be happy they dropped the going-nowhere Pirate gimmick and went back to the drawing board.

I'm just going to take what .44 said and post it for my argument:

...it was doing very well for itself given its position, and Paul was getting some mighty pops.

I'm not the only one who enjoyed the character. Other people did, and that was notable during the broadcasts. There were signs in the crowd for the character, and people reacted to it. That was the definition of success I was using. Not generating 5.0 ratings, not main eventing PPVs, merely being an entertaining portion of the show to myself and many others.

I'm not trying to appear disrespectful, or anything, but how can you claim that the character was not a success in those terms. It's almost as if you're acting like the character was not entertaining, and your opinion is all that counts. I'm not even going by my opinion here, as while I was entertained by the character, yes, Burchill could have done more. I'm going by the crowd reactions.

Another thing the character did, was it helped Paul Burchill develop as a performer. I did not think it was nearly as horrible as others did, but when he showed up, he had quite the accent, and his voice was described as people as "awkward" by a lot. The pirate character really helped Burchill get those nerves under control, or whatever was impairing him, and he really developed into a guy that could use body language (outside the context of a match, of course) and his voice much more effectively.

As far as him main eventing goes, even if we did accept that Burchill was never going to main event as a pirate, that was never really the point anyway. My point was not that the sky was the limit was the character, but rather he was just entertaining the role.

I believe that Burchill technically could have ascended with the role. He got some big wins in the character, and was consistently kept strong until that match where he got "injured" by Mark Henry (to mask a real injury, which was the last time we ever saw the character). The character was not meant to be a real pirate, but rather he was just dressing up as a tribute to his ancestor. Granted, the WWE often lose their way with those sort of things, but there could have been some "realistic" tweaking of the gimmick to make it darker, less prominent and eventually have him revert back to being himself.

As far as it being "too campy" goes, I disagree completely. The Undertaker is far more ridiculous. The supernatural shit, as you seem to agree, is just pathetic and annoying, and that is far worse than anything that happened with Burchill. If they used scurvy to explain his absence from the WWE, then we'd have something to talk about.

But yeah, when one of your main acts is a midget running around pretending to be a young child/leprechaun, I don't think a large man dressing up as a pirate as homage to his ancestors is that bad.