The 411 Wrestling Top 5 9.23.09: Week 41 – Most Misunderstood Gimmicks

Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions. At the end, based on where all these matches rank on people’s list, we will create the 411 Wrestling Top 5 list. The scoring is very similar to the Wrestler of the Week as it looks like this:

#1 Choice – 5 points
#2 Choice – 4 points
#3 choice – 3 points
#4 Choice – 2 points
#5 Choice – 1 point
Honorable Mentions will break ties, but get no points.

Also, in the case of a tie, the most votes win, regardless of where it is listed in the individual Top 5. I will also use this rule in the event that one item is mentioned more often, but is one point behind. For example, one second place vote and two Honorable Mentions will defeat simply one first place vote.

So, on to this week’s topic…

THE TOP 5 MOST MISUNDERSTOOD GIMMICKS
Because not everything is as straight forward as an ego-maniac like Chris Jericho. There have been tons of gimmicks in the past years of TNA, WCW, WWE, Ring of Honor, and everywhere else, so there is definitly no shortage of choices.

So what did our group of writers select? Let’s find out…

Ryan Byers

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Max Moon – I didn’t think that this gimmick was great, but I didn’t think it was godawful either. A very solid wrestler in a colorful costume designed to appeal to children? Hey, it worked for Jushin Liger and Tiger Mask. I don’t know why it should have been any different in the WWF.

Mohammed Hassan & Shawn Daivari – The first six months or so of Hassan and Daivari in WWE together were awesome. However, the creative team quickly lost sight of what the purpose of the characters was, as they turned from intelligent Muslim Americans who felt stereotyped after 9/11 to generic foreign heels. TNA doesn’t understand what was great about the characters to this day, as they have kept Daivair’s Sheik Abdul Bashir gimmick as a cheap, modern day version of the Iron Sheik.

5.Earthquake – This gimmick wasn’t misunderstood when it first ran, but it has become misunderstood over the years. It seems like every time WWE decides that it is going to do a tounge-in-cheek “homage” to its Wrestlecrap-tastic gimmicks of days gone by, they include a shot of poor John Tenta walking down the aisle as the Earthquake. (For examples, see Wrestlemania XVII’s Gimmick Battle Royale or the Monday Night Raw Tenth Anniversary Special’s tribute to bad gimmicks.) However, Earthquake was nowhere near being a bad gimmick. Yes, he was involved in some cartoony angles like his crushing of Hulk Hogan on the Brother Love Show or, worse yet, making hamburger patties out of Jake Roberts’ squashed snake. There was nothing inherently goofy about the Earthquake character, though. He was a large, intimidating man who was actually one hell of a peformer in the ring for his size, periodically throwing dropkicks and second rope splashes. This made him a legitimate top heel for his era, not the cartoon that WWE history seems to remember him as being.

4.King Booker – The vast majority of people seemed to love King Booker. The regal twist on Booker T’s traditional gimmick was a comedic hit with many fans online, but I had a hard time laughing at Booker’s antics because, in many ways, they struck me as promotiong negative racial stereotypes of black men. Dating back to minstrel shows in the 1800’s, a popular yet unfortunate characterization of black men shows them as incapable of adapting to upper class or “white” society with results strikingly similar to what Booker did when he was the Smackdown Champion a few years ago. I sincerely doubt that there was any intentional racism behind the manner in which Booker was portrayed during this gimmick, but I still had a difficult time laughing at it knowing that there was a time in history that many characters exactly like his WERE put on stage or in front of cameras to intentionally degrade the black man. I have a feeling that if more modern wrestling fans were clued in to the history of how African Americans have been portrayed in mainstream media, they wouldn’t have felt so great about it either.

3.Goldberg – Goldberg wasn’t misunderstood by everybody, but there was a small contingent of fans who I absolutely could not stand during the height of the man’s popularity who were constantly screaming that Bill Goldberg’s gimmick was a “Steve Austin ripoff.” These people were idiots who think that having a bald head, a goatee, and wearing black trunks constitutes a “gimmick.” In reality, the two characters were completely different, despite their superficial physical similarities. Granted, they were both portrayed as superhumans capatable of taking down many opponents at once, but that is the case with virtually every main event babyface in wrestling history. Goldberg was the silent assassin who really had no motivation other than being the top wrestler in the world unless he was crossed by a specific opponent who he would then turn in to a target. Austin, meanwhile, was the bragadocious redneck who talked the talk as much as he walked the walk, spitting venom on the microphone as well as he struck in the ring with his ultimate goal being kicking ass more than it was being in the main event. There characters were completely different, and anybody who attempts to tell you that Goldberg was nothing more than Austin-lite is confused.

2.David Flair, United States Champion – I believe that I’ve mentioned this before in the Top 5, but I was perversely entertained by David Flair’s US Title reign in WCW. It was entertaining largely because I don’t think that I’ve ever seen such a large number of supposedly “smart” fans getting worked by an angle in exactly the manner that was supposed to work them. Every time I read an article or saw a message board post related to Flair’s title run during the time, it generally ended with “OMG!!!! HE SO DOESN’T DESERVE THE TITLE, CHRIS BENOIT SHOULD HAVE THE BELT!!!” or some variant thereof. Of course, what these supposedly educated fans failed to realize was that is exactly what fans were supposed to think watching the show. This wasn’t Bill Watts shoving Erik down our throats or Fritz Von Erich positioning little Chris as a wrestler when he was clearly not ready. This was a dramatization of those historical events, yet there were many people who couldn’t tell the difference between the two . . . and it ws hardly WCW’s fault. The angle clearly got across that the younger Flair was not ready for prime time and only had the championship because Papa Ric was the President of WCW at the time, and he only retained it through chicanery like Arn Anderson attempting to pay off Bobby Eaton to take a dive, ultimately interfering in the match when Beautiful Bobby refused to go out like that. If you go back and watch tapes of the angle for what they are instead of viewing them through the glasses of smarky hatred for anybody who is incapable of putting on a ***** match, they’re pretty damned entertaining.

1.The Spirit Squad

I don’t care how much “smark cred” I lose by saying this, but the Spirit Squad was AWESOME. Yes, the idea of a male cheerleader faction in 2007 sounded ridiuclous on paper, because it harkened back to the early-90’s WWF in which every grappler seemed to have a ridiculous side job. However, I put the individual members of the Spirit Squad in the same category of wrestlers as the Undertaker: Guys who were given gimmicks that read like lame ones on paper but wound up being played so well by the performers behind them that the “terrible” gimmick turned out to be terribly entertaining. In this case, the whole idea behind the Spirit Squad was that they were a cult-ish crew of goofballs who overwhelmed their opponents based on sheer numbers, and everybody in the pack of five did their best to make the characters over the top and amusing. Though Nick Nemeth (currently Dolph Ziggler) and Nick Mitchell (currently unemployed) were primarily window dressing, the threesome of Johnny Jeter, Mike Mondo, and Ken “Dykstra” Doane easily could have been breakout stars from the group if they were pushed appropriately. Jeter was the least distinct of the three, but he was essentially what Buddy Roberts was to the Freebirds . . . the guy who was technically competent, necessary to holding the group together as its “glue” even though he was not the most glitzy or well-remembered. Mondo had EVERYTHING that was necessary to be a comedic professional wrestler down pat. I doubt that he ever could have been a main eventer, but he had mannerisms, facial expressions, and timing that were reminescent of Crash Holly, who managed to become one of the most popular midcard acts in the history of the company, albeit for a relatively short time. Doane, though just under the size that WWE likes for its main eventers, had every other tool necessary to be a top of the card performer in professional wrestling. He was significanlty better in the ring than guys like Randy Orton were when they were first called up to the main roster, and he oozed a cocky heel charisma that many people wish they had. The positive attributes of threse three men were combined in to one heck of a heel stable in the form of the Spirit Squad, but nobody remembers them positively just because they were portrayed as male cheerleaders and were murdered in a series of matches by D-Generation X. It’s a shame, really.

Aaron Hubbard

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Spirit Squad – I really like these guys, as four of them were really talented and tried to get their individual personalities over. They lived the gimmick and turned a crappy idea and made it work.

Goldberg – Not a hard gimmick to understand, but people who claim that he was a “Steve Austin ripoff” clearly don’t know what they are talking about.

Jushin Lyger/Tiger Mask – I’m amazed at how few people know that these are characters based on cartoon wrestling superheroes! Even more surprising is that nobody seems to care!

5.The Undertaker – I always laugh and shake my head when fans complain “The Undertaker should job more often!” Hey folks, let’s get a clue. HE’S THE UNDERTAKER! He’s the WWE’s conscience, the guy who comes in and beat the evil when nobody else can beat it. He is an avenging angel that punishes the wicked of the wrestling world. That’s his gimmick and it’s one of the best of all time. And if he jobbed all the time, it would ruin his character. If you hate the character, that’s fine. He’ll probably retire soon, and I doubt there will ever be another Undertaker.

4.Doink The Clown – Ah Doink. People always remember this guy as the kid-friendly babyface that he played for most of his career. I can’t really blame them, but it’s a shame really. The original Doink character was a stroke of genius, wrestling’s version of “The Joker”. Yes Doink was a clown, and yes he played silly tricks and had cartoony features. But, there are two things that separate him from most cartoony gimmicks. 1) He had mood swings that bordered on multiple-personality disorder; he’d change from manically happy to remorseful to angry, all in the same promo. 2) He was originally perceived as a serious technically wrestlers. Yes, he was insane, and yes he was cartoony, but he was a real threat and was far more serious than he would become later. I have no idea why this character was abandoned, but I think it had a lot of mileage. Sadly, this probably won’t be used or revisited for a while due to it’s similarities with Heath Ledger’s Joker.

3.Bryan Danielson – Alright people. Let’s just get this out in the air and put it to rest. “The Best Wrestler In The World” is a catchphrase. It’s Bryan Danielson’s character, his gimmick, his personality. Whether or not this is accurate is always open to debate, because it’s entirely subjective. It’s an age old gimmick; everyone from Lou Thesz to Ric Flair to Triple H has used it as a defining character trait. But because Bryan DARES use “Best In the World” instead of “The Man” or “The Game”, people think he has an ego and always want to prove that he’s not “The Best In The World”. Hey, why don’t you go prove that Taker isn’t a zombie or that John Cena isn’t a marine? IT’S A FREAKING GIMMICK!

2.Stone Cold Steve Austin – I think people tend to remember Austin as the beer-drinking redneck who rebelled against his boss, an almost comedic character that rose more Hell than anyone in wrestling. But I think people tend to forget that these character traits were added to Stone Cold later the gimmick’s life, in order to emphasize his “blue-collar” image against the evil corporate mogul Vince McMahon. Initially, “Don’t Trust Anyone” was much more important to Austin’s character than “Oh Hell Yeah”. Austin’s character was that of a “stone cold” fighter with a killer instinct. He never had friends and he never wanted anybody. He was out there to win matches, kick ass, take names and earn title shots. The rebel nature was always there, but the almost jovial version of Stone Cold that we remember now is a far cry from the evil, sadistic villain he originally played. It wasn’t until 2001 when Austin when play anything close to this, and even then, he had lost so much of his edge that he could never be the “stone cold” character he once played.

1.Dude Love – This gimmick is almost universally crapped on by all except those who love goofy, “wrestlecrap” characters, or those intelligent enough to understand how brilliant and non-“wrestlecrap” the gimmick was. First of all, Dude Love is not so much a separate gimmick as much as it is an extension of the Mankind character. Mankind/Mick Foley was mentally unstable, the cause being that he was not gifted with desirable physical attributes for the career path he chose. He was overweight, ugly, had scars all over his body, and would never be called athletic. In spite of all this, he gave of his heart and sacrificed his body to try and achieve his dream. All he ever wanted was to be accepted, to be a star, to be loved. This eventually manifested itself as “Dude Love” the cartoony alter-ego that was simultaneously a parody of the kid-friendly ridiculous gimmicks of the mid-1990’s, and a glorification of it. In this quest for acceptance, The Dude “sold his soul” to Vince McMahon, the evil corporate leader. He turned his back on the fans and his friend Steve Austin, in the hopes that he could win his boss’ favor. The character was a veritable favor, showing the lengths we go to in order to be accepted, and also showing that consequences of “selling out”. The Dude eventually bled into the “human-muppet” version of Mankind. Foley’s character was driven by the need for acceptance, and the Dude was pure, unadulterated crying out for that acceptance. Far from the “cartoonish hippie” that many consider him to be.

Stephen Randle

HONORABLE MENTIONS

John Morrison – Misunderstood by his theme music. They’ve yet to explain to me why a guy doing a Jim Morrison tribute has faux Hendrix entrance music.

The Ultimate Warrior – Misunderstood by everyone, according to his long, rambling diatribes, which are frequently misunderstood simply because nobody can actulaly read them.

Hassan and Daivari – The original premise was intriguing and could have been a ground-breaking gimmick of wrongfully persecuted Arab-Americans, but was almost instantly turned into jingoistic crap because apparently WWE thinks wrestling fans aren’t that into subtlety.

5.Matt Hardy Version 1.0 – Misunderstood by WWE Creative. Proof that Matt Hardy actually could play a decent heel character, he went to Smackdown back in 2002 and re-invented himself as an insane cult leader who believed he was the biggest heel on Smackdown and even managed to attract followers. It was crazy and interesting, but (possibly after Paul Heyman quit booking, I don’t recall), the whole point of the gimmick was missed by the Creative team once Matt moved back to Raw and he regressed back to Matt Hardy, Pretty Boy Wrestler Who Is Evil Because He Dumped His Girlfriend.

4.Doink The Clown – Misunderstood By WWE Creative. He was a freakin’ evil clown who, originally, could actually wrestle and even main-evented Raw back in the day. But noooo, we have to have kid-friendly clowns with midgets and pies to the face! Good Lord, why do I remember anything wrestling-related from the early 90s with fondness?

3.Cactus Jack – Misunderstood by Vince McMahon. Obviously, the story is thirdhand from what Mick Foley heard from other people and wrote in his autobiography, so it could be entirely untrue, but in his book, Foley talks about how every year he’d call up J.J. Dillon and see if WWE was interested in him, and it got back to him that every year, Vince would tell Dillon to “keep that ear-tearing freak away from him”, or words to that effect. Years later, Mick ends up a three-time WWE Champion, #1 New York bestseller, etc.

2. Randy Orton – Misunderstood by his own booking ever since they decided that a guy who beats up old people would make a killer top babyface back in 2003. So, is he a confident, world-beater? A coward? A Legend Killer? A superior athlete, or someone who escapes from title matches by the skin of his teeth, often in the weakest way possible? A manipulative bastard, or a dumbass who keeps getting one-upped by a series of GMs, guest hosts, and other Superstars? It’s a different Randy every show!

1. The nWo, WWE version – Misunderstood by anyone who could have stopped this abortion before it got underway, apparently. This has been picked to death for years, but the basic fact still remains that WWE brought in the original nWo without understanding the concept behind the gimmick, and expected to re-catch lightning in a bottle just by bringing in Hall, Nash and Hogan without all the factors that made the nWo a phenomenon in the first place. There was no surprise, no real rebellion, and definitely none of the dominance that made the original nWo a massive success. Hell, within two weeks, Hall and Nash were fleeing from a rampaging Steve Austin while Rock essentially no-sold getting hit by a transport truck and beat Hogan decisively at WrestleMania to kill the group within one month of its debut (although it took several more to die and go away forever, unfortunately).

Julian Bond

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Seven – If you’ve seen this gimmick done by Dustin Runnels back in the crazed end days of WCW, you know why he had to be on this list. Still really don’t know what the hell he was aiming for.

5.Shockmaster – Crazy…yes. Misunderstood…definitely. It could be said to be just a dumb-ass gimmick with a big wrestler placed into a gitterized-Stormtrooper helmet…but what was the actual point?!? If the “falling out through a wall via a shitty looking puff of smoke and looking like an ass and living forever in embarrassingly wrestling moment history” incident never happened, what the living hell was the Shockmaster? Makes me wonder.

4.Delirious – When I first went to a ROH show and saw the man known as the masked Delirious, I honestly did not understand what the hell the gimmick was supposed to be. He ran around like a crazy person, he spoke in mumbled inaudible words, and he randomly at times chewed on random objects while sitting in the corner of the ring. After awhile I understood that this WAS the gimmick…simply put the man was…delirious. But not everyone understands this. I’ve showed my ROH DVDs to friends and showed them Delirious and they proceeded to scratch their heads in confusion. I love the gimmick to death and think that it still remains entertaining, but I know that a few people really just don’t get it. I see a cool wrestling gimmick be super-hilarious and others just see a goofy guy in a mask acting like an idiot.

3.Al Snow – This choice may actually be met by wrestling fans saying that this gimmick has been widely recognized and understood in the past, but I beg to differ. Al Snow carried his woman’s mannequin head called…”Head” (and the words “Help Me” written backwards on the forehead) around with him at all times talking to it like a real person and people including myself at the time with his time in the WWE Attitude Era thought that he was just plain crazy. But unknown to me, the gimmick was originated in his time in ECW when it was known to some smart fans that Snow used the fake head to portray a guy with schizophrenia developed from the fact that he was a major jobber in his first WWE stint (in real life) and projected all of his anger and frustration towards the head. So while a good bunch of folks got it in ECW, a whole lot of fans I believe truly didn’t get it while he was throwing himself through tables in the WWE. Snow was sadly just seen as a guy who looked and acted insane, but yet he actually had a deeper meaning to the craziness that wasn’t really explored as much as it could have been.

2.DDP (his “Motivational Speaker” stint in WWE) – This particular gimmick of the man known as DDP was definitely one of the most misunderstood gimmicks of all time in my book. In his last stint in the WWE, DDP transformed from stupid pathetic stalker (of Undertaker’s wife Sara…oh…memories) to asshole motivational speaker. The creepy dead-eyed stare of DDP grinning at the camera for like 20 long eternal seconds was looked at by some to be stupid as hell and pointless. But to myself and some others, it was seriously pure genius. DDP in real life was a good motivational speaker, so the WWE just took this and turned it up by 1000 degrees. DDP came to the ring with a dumb-ass looking headset microphone on his head and then proceeded to berate the crowd for being too fat and too ignorant with “motivating words”. The gimmick was sadly gone and long forgotten after DDP left the company, but I believe it was one of the best and definitely misunderstood.

1.The Sprit Squad – I am 210% behind Ryan on this being one of the most misunderstood gimmicks of all time. My friends and tons and TONS of fans have shitted on the Sprit Squad since day one simply because the guys were annoying male cheerleaders. But I explained to them and will explain here, that was the whole freaking point! These guys weren’t just annoying as shit, weren’t like stupid looking cheerleaders, and didn’t just have dumb names (“Miiiiiiiickey!!!), but they actually knew how to wrestle. They were picture-perfect heels and they were awesome working young talent. Not going to go down the line of who made up the group because as a coherent unit these guys were good stuff. They did little things like bring a damn trampoline to the ringside to proceed to jump and doing crazy moves on their opponents on it to doing a group finishing move involving throwing up a wrestler in a freaking sick-looking alley-oop cheerleading maneuver (i.e. Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 22). This stuff may seem very stupid and girly as hell, but these guys had mega heel heat and could back it up in the ring. Most people think that it’s the dumbest gimmick OF ALL TIME (seriously…even above the Shockmaster!!), but I and a small handful of others actually thought the gimmick was horribly misunderstood and underrated.

Jeremy Thomas

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Zombie – The Zombie was freaking awesome and should have become an ECW mainstay. Hell, he would have been more over than Colin Delaney.

Demolition – I always thought that the tag team that were always considered to be a lesser Road Warriors grew into their own and became something different than the original inspiration. I tend to be the only one, though.

Ultimate Warrior – He’s the most misunderstood wrestler of all-time…in an aural sense. Because I don’t think any single living soul ever understood what his promos were saying.

5.The Spirit Squad – I’m not as gung-ho about the Spirit Squad being misunderstood as my fellow staffers are, but I always thought it was a gimmick that could work…and frankly, it did for what they needed. Nicky, Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, and Mikey were obnoxious, they were ridiculous, and they were a lot of fun to watch. All five guys did their best to make it work, and the talent inherent in the group can be seen in the way that Ken Doane and Nick Nemeth went on to singles careers in the ‘E, and made their respective gimmicks work better than they should have.

4.Mohammed Hassan & Daivari

I was very intrigued by how Hassan and Daivari first appeared when they came out. Yes, they were undoubtedly Muslim heels, but they were justified Muslim heels at first. Hassan’s first interview, if I recall, had no headdress, had no robes. It was an Arab-American who was furious at the way that Americans were stereotyping him and people like him. It was unfortunate that they decided to go all out and build it into Arabs who were about as American as the Iron Sheik. I suppose maintaining an intelligent and interesting gimmick is too much for the ‘E to maintain. Eventually he’d gone too far and the Undertaker sent him packing, and that was that. Is there any wonder why Mark Copani quit the business to work in Hollywood as a writer?

3.Pirate Paul Burchill – This gimmick was misunderstood, but not by fans…by Vince McMahon. First off, the booking crew gives the incredibly talented Burchill one of the silliest gimmicks they could imagine…a pirate. Even in the day where the Hurricane was an increasingly popular character, this was over the top and silly. But then you know what? Burchill made it work. The character was somehow, by the sheer force of Burchill’s skills to connect with a crowd, getting over. Then Vince kills off the gimmick because he doesn’t think pirates are popular, right at the height of the Pirates of the Caribbean craze in favor of an incest gimmick with Katie Lea that they never follow through on and is based on a seven-year-old teen movie. Yeah, I don’t understand these guys sometimes.

2.Latino World Order – The lWo were seen as just another nWo rip-off. The big problem with this is that it wasn’t at all. This came out of real-life heat between Eddie Guerrero and Eric Bischoff where Eddie didn’t think Bischoff cared about Latino workers and wasn’t going to push them, even though they dominated the cruiserweight division that drew in a lot of fans. Bischoff refused to push them, and the Latino World Order was born. The group may not have had a lot of impact, but at the time they formed in 1998, they were far more interesting to me than the bloated nWo and I’ve always thought they didn’t get the credit they deserved due to their misunderstood status.

1.Stephanie McMahon – Stephanie McMahon is one of the most hated backstage powers in professional wrestling today, second only to Vince Russo. People hate her on-screen character too. They said she was too irritating, her voice made them want to claw their ears out, that she was a conniving bitch and only got her spot because of who she was related to. Hmm, who in the world does that remind me of. Oh, that’s right…Vicki Freaking Guerrero, who a vocal portion of the IWC love and the casual fans loved to hate. I submit that Stephanie McMahon as a character was pitch-perfect at doing what she was supposed to do, which is make fans hate her, and that people give her shit because they don’t like her creative decisions. That is completely unfair to her on-screen persona and I think she deserves better.