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And every time he opened his mouth, the fan reaction would only get louder. Hassan drew some unbelievable heat from the crowds every time his music started to play.
NO GIMMICKS BEATS TV
Somehow, he still played the character on TV perfectly. Mark Copani, the man who played Hassan, isn't even from the Middle East. It could have been an all-time great gimmick, but WWE showed no restraint and went too far. It made him a lot of money, and was enough to get him in the WWE Hall of Fame. Sure, the character was about as one-dimensional as you could get, but fans still loved it. That type of character worked for decades, and made Duggan a fan favorite. So at local shows, an easy way to get the crowd going was to match up an evil foreigner and a true American hero. All he had to do was wave the American flag, carry a 2 x 4, or lift his thumb in the air and yell “Hooooooooooooooo!”.ĭuggan was another man in a long line of ultra-patriotic wrestlers.īack before companies were televised weekly, it was harder to know who the good guys and bad guys were without having seen the talent previously. He was no longer needed to do those big brawls to get over. When he was brought into the WWF, though, he started to transition into more of a cartoon character than a brawler. Is there any wrestler who can get the crowd cheering by doing so little?įor a while, Jim Duggan was actually a pretty good wrestler in Mid-South Wrestling. Instead, we're getting Fandango (a potential future worst gimmick in the making).īut had WWE got behind Waylon fully, and had Dan Spivey not had to retire early, this could have been big. Bray Wyatt (the former Husky Harris) is doing a similar act in NXT which is looking very promising. The gimmick was years ahead of its time, and hopefully it's time for WWE to revisit this idea.
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He was a completely different breed of heel that didn't seem to catch on like it should have. Mercy wrestled in the era of WWE characters like Adam Bomb, The Narcissist and Giant Gonzalez. You knew here was something seriously wrong. The way he talked in a normal, polite tone was unconvincing. He was a big man who seemed to barely be hiding the craziness that was inside of him. What made the gimmick so good was Dan Spivey's portrayal. Mercy was based off of Robert DeNiro's character in Cape Fear, which is probably one of the few times that WWE has kept up on pop culture. Unlike other heels of his era, Waylon Mercy wasn't a loud, shouting heel. Still, Helms made the character a fan favorite when it could have easily been a giant embarrassment. In the end, the character seemed to overstay its welcome, especially when he teamed up with Rosey as the Super Hero In Training (boy, did WWE sure think that acronym was hilarious). It was a fan friendly mid-card act that sold merchandise, which is about as much as you can ask for from such a cartoonish gimmick. When Hurricane was wrestling, you could look into the crowds, and see a lot of bright green Hurricane T-shirts, as well as children wearing replicas of his mask. He soon transformed into The Hurricane, a living, breathing superhero.Īmazingly, Helms was one of the first Alliance members to get over in his new company (he somehow fared much better than Shawn Stasiak, Billy Kidman, Hugh Morris and Chuck Palumbo ever did). Initially, he was happy-go-lucky Gregory Helms, but that came off as too bland. Hurricane Helms was a soldier in the war against the WWF during the Invasion. Stand back! There’s a Hurricane coming through. With that said, here are the top 25 gimmicks in WWE history. Sometimes a wrestling gimmick just hits at the right place at the right time, and more importantly with the right person playing the role. The gimmicks on this list theoretically could have gone to someone else, but these guys were given the part and ran with it. While some choices will be debatable, I’m trying to look past characters that are essentially exaggerated personas of themselves like Steve Austin, Bret Hart, Ric Flair and The Rock. Some gimmicks, such as Raven and Tazz, were popular in other companies, but they didn't transfer over well to the WWE, so they're not found here. The acts listed here didn't need to be created in the company, but they needed to be popular, creative or show a great deal of potential there.
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This list takes a look at the best gimmicks ever seen in the WWE, and here are the criteria it's based off of: They usually had to rise above it, and hope to be recast someday. Most of the biggest names in wrestling history didn't reach the top with a ridiculous gimmick. Hopper, Bastion Booger, The Goon, Beaver Cleavage, Meat, The Dicks and so many, many more? For every great gimmick the WWE has given fans over the years, there's probably been 10 that were terrible.