The Contentious Ten 07.11.11: Gimmicks That Could Have Made It

Hello, and welcome to The Contentious Ten! My name is Nick Bazar, and I thank you for clicking.

Over the years, a large number of wrestling gimmicks and characters haven’t quite made it or gotten over with a crowd as well as initially thought. Sometimes it was due to the performer himself not knowing how to handle the gimmick or being bogged down by injury; other times it was due to the company not giving the gimmick a chance to develop and gain a following. This list looks at gimmicks that could have, or should have, gone further than they actually did. Gimmicks that were entertaining and unique enough to gain considerable success, or at least more success than they achieved during their run. And so, the Top Ten Gimmicks That Could Have Made It…

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Rob Conway size=6>

Just look at him. Ain’t he a sight to see? The whole damn world wants to look like him. At least that’s what his theme song told us. Rob Conway went from being a part of the relatively successful La Résistance tag team with Rene Dupree and Sylvain Grenier to “The Con-Man” Rob Conway. He was cocky, loud-mouthed and arrogant- basically your typical douchebag. To back it up, he had a fantastic look and was very capable in the ring. Not only that, but he was confident on the microphone and you really felt that he believed everything he was saying, so it’s a shame the gimmick didn’t last longer than it did. He saw some success upon debuting the new persona, but soon became a Sunday Night Heat guy at best, and a complete jobber at worst. I was actually in attendance the night of his last televised WWE appearance. He came out after being off of Raw for quite some time, and guaranteed victory, only to lose to Jeff Hardy in about 20 seconds. Vince McMahon came out and fired him on the spot. Once again, it’s unfortunate because I really feel like he could have been a great mid-card attraction, feuding for the Intercontinental and United States Championships.

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Wrath size=6>

Wrath was known as Adam Bomb in the WWF where he gained some popularity before leaving the company. In WCW, he debuted as a tag team partner to Mortis, managed by James Vandenberg. It never really went anywhere, and he was eventually repackaged as a singles guy with the same name. This is the run that I am looking at as justification for his spot on this list. WCW pushed the guy pretty hard, giving him not only a Goldberg-like winning streak, but a Goldberg-like dominance. He would come to the ring, toss his opponent around for a minute or so, then hit the Meltdown and be on his way back to the locker room. It was simple, effective and the crowds were steadily starting to hop on the bandwagon. It was a push WCW handled relatively well, considering the state and reputation of the company at that point. Then, as is the unfortunate case in many wrestler’s careers, he suffered a serious injury and was off television for approximately one year. With that came the end of his singles career, and any hope he had of possibly being elevated to the main event scene.

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Lance Hoyt size=6>

In 2005, I was convinced that Lance Hoyt would become one of TNA’s brightest stars- a star that TNA could have laid claim to as being completely theirs, as opposed to a castoff that gained popularity elsewhere before joining the company. It’s hard to imagine this now, but that Orlando crowd in the Impact Zone latched on to him with loud “Hoyt, Hoyt, Hoyt” chants every time he would make an appearance. It’s almost as if they got together one day and decided to take this guy in and make him a star on all on their own. They wanted Hoyt to be their guy. TNA obviously heard the reactions he was getting, and for a while, it seemed like they were willing to invest some time in his character. Kid Kash, his tag team partner, left the company and Hoyt began a singles run, feuding with Team Canada and Abyss. For some reason, nothing ever came of it, and he quickly became “just another guy.” It still baffles me to this day. Hoyt could have been something big in TNA.

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Nailz size=6>

Had he not had a serious falling out with Vince McMahon, the Nailz character could have easily benefitted from the era of wrestling he participated in. In other words, his gimmick was perfect for his time. It was the era of big-time gimmicky wrestlers- Big Boss Man, The Undertaker, Ted DiBiase, the list goes on and on. He came in to the WWF with a unique backstory, and was inserted right away into a program with the Big Boss Man. It landed them a featured bout on the Survivor Series 1992 card, and the storyline eventually ran its course. From there, Nailz was slated to move into a feud with The Undertaker, but he was released from the company before it got off the ground. Looking back, Undertaker would have most likely wound up the victor in that feud, but it might have provided an opportunity for Nailz to get his Wrestlemania match. Like I said before, his gimmick was tailor-made for the era, and they could have ran with it for at least a few more years.

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Mordecai size=6>

Remember all those vignettes that started airing on Smackdown in early 2004? Vignettes featuring a pale white giant in a white robe talking of sin and purity. It was different, and pretty damn cool. I was looking forward to Mordecai’s debut, and when he had his first match, I thought he was impressive in the ring. He was capable of working a big man match, and had a certain presence about him. It was refreshing actually, to see a gimmick like his in a sea of generic, muscled up guys off the assembly line. He played the role very well, as it could have easily crossed the line into cheesy and lame. For me, it never did, and remained intriguing till the day it was dropped. I read rumors that they were preparing him for a feud with The Undertaker, and it made perfect sense. Maybe the matches wouldn’t have been anything special, but I think the build would have been something else. It never happened, and the whole gimmick was discarded a few months after his debut. The man behind Mordecai would return for the reincarnation of ECW as a vampire named Kevin Thorne, but it never really did anything for me. I still want to see that Mordecai/Taker rivalry.

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Ahmed Johnson size=6>

I talked about Ahmed Johnson last week as one of my guilty pleasures, and a lot of readers had some negative things to say about the guy. Some argued that the only reason he got over was because he was pushed down our throats with dominating squash matches. I will revert to my main point about the early success of his character- intensity. His intensity set him apart then, and would continue to set him apart today if he was still around. It wasn’t something that everybody had. WWE has tried to get big, muscular guys over with squash matches for years, but not all of them are success stories. It isn’t as simple as throwing a guy out there and making him look like a monster. Ahmed’s intensity, coupled with his incredible presence, made him different. It was a huge contributor to his ability to get over with the audience. But, like I said last week, he was very injury prone. If it wasn’t for his constant setbacks due to injury, he would have been in the main event scene.

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Seven size=6>

What can you say about Seven? Well, there actually isn’t much to say, because if you blinked in the year 1999, you probably missed him. It was basically Dustin Rhodes in all white face paint, decked out in black. The vignettes leading to his debut would show him terrorizing kids with strange images, and executives were concerned that he was a child molester or abductor. As far as I know, he only made a couple appearances on WCW Monday Nitro to introduce his character before literally floating to the ring and cutting a “worked shoot” promo on how stupid the character was. The crowd had no idea how to react, and the character was dropped. We all know what Rhodes was able to do with the Goldust character, and it would have been interesting to see where he could have gone with Seven. Had the higher ups not been worried about the questionable content of the gimmick, I think it could have really taken off. My main reason for believing that is simply because Rhodes was the guy playing the character. He was motivated to reinvent himself after his departure from the WWF, and it would have been something to see.

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Waylon Mercy size=6>

Waylon Mercy was a fantastic idea for a character, and Dan Spivey made it work for the short time it was around. In a way, Mercy was similar to Festus, as the ringing of the bell turned him into a completely different person. He had an eerily calm presence and demeanor on his way to the ring, shaking hands with the referee and even his adversary. That same calm presence was displayed in his vignettes, where he would peacefully introduce his character and deliver his promo. However, once that bell rang, he transformed into a maniac, pummeling his opponents and finishing them off with his Sleeper. He was creepy without needing black costumes and talks of the devil or any of that typical stuff. It was a character that stood out amongst the campy stuff around him, and in that way, was very ahead of its time. To expand on that, Mercy would have had no problem fitting in with the Attitude Era, where I think the character would have only continued to grow. That never happened though, as it came to an abrupt end when Spivey was forced into retirement following a back injury in late 1995.

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Monty Brown size=6>

Like Lance Hoyt, Monty Brown could have easily been a homegrown star in TNA. When that didn’t happen, he moved on to the WWE where he was starting to build up steam and seemed to have a bright future ahead of him. Instead, he will ultimately be looked back on as a guy that never reached his full potential. That said, in no way is it his entire fault. In TNA, there were many chances to push him over that upper mid-card position and into the main event. The fans wanted it to happen. What they did instead was inexplicably turn him heel, and push him back down the card. When he signed with WWE and debuted as Marcus Cor Von, I thought for sure he’d find success. He had developed a good repertoire of moves, had an identifiable finisher, was well above-average on the mic and had an incredible physique- what more could you want? Other than outside issues interfering with his career, there was no reason he wouldn’t be a huge star in the WWE. Those issues did in fact develop, and he was forced to leave the company. I respect any person who is willing to let go of their passion to attend to family matters, and that ended up being his choice. I hope we haven’t seen the last of him.

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Battle Kat size=6>

Just kidding.

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Sean O’Haire size=6>

Sean O’Haire came into the WWE with quite a bit of hype. He was one of the last emerging young stars in the dying days of WCW, and obviously had a ton of talent both in the ring and on the mic. He had a natural charisma, magnified in his promo work introducing the Smackdown reboot of his character in 2003. The character, like many of the gimmicks highlighted in this list, was very unique. He would encourage bad behavior, and living a life of crime. Along with the character, he had a distinctive look that was marketable and didn’t scream “generic.” In the end, he might have been a case of being given too much, too soon. Upon his debut, he was partnered up with Roddy Piper in a feud with Hulk “Mr. America” Hogan. On the surface, being inserted into a storyline with these icons right away could be seen as a positive, but after it was over, he was left in a limbo before being released the following year. He hasn’t done much of anything in the world of professional wrestling since then, and for a guy with so much potential, it’s unfortunate. Out of wrestlers who didn’t make it like we thought they would, O’Haire had, in my opinion, the best chance to.