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The 411 Wrestling Top 5: Top 5 Occupational Gimmicks

September 13, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka

The 411 Wrestling Top 5: Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. We take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to participate and give us their Top 5 on said topic. So, onto this week’s topic…

Week 322 – Top 5 Occupational Gimmicks

Who have been the top 5 OCCUPATIONAL WRESTLERS? We’ve had plumbers, IRS Agents, reverends, mounties, clowns, strippers, prison guards, hockey players, golfers; all kinds of goofy shit, but who was the best?

Shawn S. Lealos
5. The Godfather – Pimping ain’t easy. Charles Wright had failed as Papa Shango, the voodoo character. He failed as Kama, the MMA fighter. However, once he shook his Nation of Domination membership and struck out on his own as The Godfather, he found success. This was the Attitude Era, so he could bring his ho’s to the ring and not have keyboard warriors blasting him as non-PC. He was just pure fun, and that is probably because it was the closest he came to playing himself. A husband and father of four, he was also the manager of a strip club in Vegas outside the wrestling biz.

4. Val Venis – I’ll admit that a lot of Val Venis’ vignettes were cheesy and silly, but he somehow made it work. The guy put his heart and soul into the role of a porn star, and I think the guy was great in the ring. When he joined the RTC, it added an even bigger level to his character, as his natural arrogance really started to shine through. I always enjoyed Val Venis in the Attitude Era and he gave his all to the gimmick.

3. Doink the Clown – Look, these days Doink the Clown is a joke, an afterthought. However, those who watched the WWF when Matt Bourne first debuted the character in the promotion saw something very different. Doink was freaking scary. He was a children’s clown that hated kids and did everything he could to scare them. He was an evil clown, and honestly, who isn’t a little freaked out by clowns? When he became a goofy face, he was ruined. When he was starting out as an evil clown, he was awesome.

2. Big Bossman – I remember when Big Bossman first appeared in the WWF, with his nightclub and handcuffs. He would handcuff his opponents to the ropes and just beat them with his club. He was also a pretty good wrestler as well for a big man. After he went to WCW, I lost interest because he just wasn’t that fun there, and when he came back to the Attitude Era and went all SWAT gear and joined The Alliance, I lost complete interest. However, in the start of his tenure in the WWF, I really enjoyed his character.

1. IRS – It is amazing to see the transformation that Mike Rotunda went through over his career. In the WWF, he was a catch-as-catch-can wrestler and a former tag team champ with Barry Windham. When he went back to the NWA, he was a skilled collegiate styled wrestler who was a lot of fun in the Varsity Club. Then, he returned to the WWF and took on the gimmick or Irwin R. Schyster (IRS), a tax man who made sure that everyone paid. Honestly, it was a gimmick marked for failure that Rotunda made work because he was the ultimate professional. God, I hated him and that means his character worked.

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Kevin Pantoja
5. Rick Martel – Rick Martel is one of the earliest occupational gimmicks that I can recall. Looking back, he was good with Strike Force, but it wasn’t until he donned the “Model” gimmick that he became memorable. I don’t remember if he won any gold with the character, but it certainly was how I was able to remember him. I do know that he came close to winning the Intercontinental Title in 1993, but fell short. Still, he stayed pretty relevant with the character for a few years, which is more than a lot of people in these gimmicks can say.

4. Doink – If the entire Doink the Clown run was done by Matt Osbourne, he certainly would have placed higher. During his run in 1993, Osbourne absolutely nailed the Doink character. He not only delivered when in the ring, but he just got the character and made it work. His run as a heel was some of the finest stuff going in 1993 and he even did well when turning face. He was so enthralling in the role that it was hard to not list him. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to play Doink for the entire run and the multiple people who followed him just couldn’t quite capture the magic. Their performances, along with the addition of Dink, made Doink into a joke and he became pretty unwatchable.

3. The Mountie – Maybe there were better options to list here to some, but dammit, I always enjoyed the Mountie. He was such a ridiculously goofy heel, but he threw himself into the role so well that he parlayed it into success. In 1992, he actually won the Intercontinental, and though it was only for a few days, it is still an accomplishment that a lot of guys with occupational gimmicks never got. Not only that, but a little over a year later, they added Pierre and made a tag team called the Quebecers. I’ve been watching Raws from 1993 and 1994 recently and have found that they were usually a highlight of the show. They even held the Tag Team Titles a few times. Not bad for an occupational gimmick.

2. Val Venis – The only occupational gimmick that I think could match Val Venis in perfectly fitting the Attitude Era was the Godfather. I picked Val over him though for a few reasons. Val fucking nailed the porn star role. Seriously, remember his vignettes? They were unbelievably cheesy and had no right to work. But, Val threw himself into the role and I couldn’t help but enjoy it. He had the voice and the mannerisms down and took something that shouldn’t have worked and found success. He won multiple midcard titles, and did different things with the character to change things up, but always found a way to be relevant and over in an era crowded with top stars.

1. Big Bossman – When I read the theme for this top five, Big Bossman was the first guy to come to mind. He was one of the few guys that was able to make the gimmick work very well as both a face and a heel. He got very over in both situations and was always one of the better big men in the ring in history. When he left to WCW, things didn’t work out so well but he always found a way to be rather relevant in the WWE. Even after returning in the Attitude Era, he changed things up donning the black Shield like attire and was a major part of the Corporation, even holding both the Hardcore and Tag Team Titles at the same time.

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JUSTIN WATRY
5. Doink The Clown – Would I be out of line in thinking Doink the Clown should be considered for the WWE Hall of Fame? I mean, we already know what the inductions are all about, so the counter argument only goes so far. My choice for Doink is more personal than anything because of an interaction I had with him at my first live wrestling event. Get a picture with him, walk around the ring with him, hanging out with a buddy of mine I have not seen in ten years. Really gets me all nostalgic. I wrote a nice tribute for Doink when he passed away on The Layfield Report. Unfortunately, the website is no longer up and running and since I delete everything immediately after posting, that column may be gone forever. *sigh*

4. Spirit Squad – “but but but they were just stupid cheerleaders!!!” Um yeah, that was the point. Welcome to wrestling and thanks for playing. DX beating the Spirit Squad in handicap matches did get tiresome after awhile, but boy were they fun. I often wonder if The Pope had taken the chance would his career had gone any different? Dolph Ziggler took the opportunity and worked his way past it (and the golf thing) and became a two-time World Champion. Nearly every single top main event performer had to start out with some kind of goofy/bad gimmick. Talent can overcome that though. Pope declined it in fear of looking foolish, but as I mentioned, legend after legend after legend has proven the cream rises to the top eventually. Regardless, this is a silly and fun list, so the Spirit Squad get my vote.

3. The Undertaker – Call it a mortician, funeral director or whatever. The Undertaker is a gimmick and one that has survived the test of time. Most come and go by falling flat. Not this time. More than twenty years later, the Dead Man is main eventing pay-per-views and living the gimmick. It is amazing, especially when you go back to my previous answer. Imagine turning down an idea to play a ‘zombie like figure who is dead’ because it sounded like a terrible idea. Well, one man took the chance and turned it into WrestleMania main events, WWE/World Title wins, a near three decade run, and one of the most respected wrestlers of all-time. All by playing The Undertaker…

2. APA – Hey, they got paid money. Therefore, it was their occupation, right? To go out and protect people…or to go out there and destroy people. JBL and Ron Simmons are friends that fit together like peanut butter and jelly. Of all the breakups during the brand split, I still remember when the APA left their little ‘office’ set up and went their separate ways. The two did reunite down the road, but it was only for a kinda-sorta short run on Smackdown leading to the solo main event run of JBL. Even in cameos to this day, the APA get one of the loudest crowd reactions each time. If only I could think of one word to describe this tag team…Ron?

1. The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke – No explanation needed.

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Ryan Byers
5. The Blacktop Bully – I’ve always had a soft spot for this character, which was played by Barry Darsow, the same guy who has also been known as Krusher Kruschev, Demolition Smash, The Repo Man, and Mr. Hole-in-One. The Bully was a wrestling trucker who showed up in WCW in 1994 and, for reasons that I’m not entirely clear on, started harassing Dustin Rhodes. One of my favorite things about Darsow in this persona was that he was incredibly vocal and incredibly loud, always shouting great over the top wrestling taunts like, “I’ll break your stinkin’ arm!” That feeds into one of my other favorite aspects of the Blacktop Bully, which was his finisher, at times referred to as the “Barely Legal” and at other times referred to as the “Breaker 1-9.” It was a submission hold, which involved Darsow doubling over his opponent’s arm and shoving it into his chest, which looked horrifically painful. Of course, there was the bit where he had one of the worst matches I’ve ever seen in his “King of the Road” bout against Dustin, but we’ll put that aside for now . . .

4. Dusty Rhodes – Speaking of Dustin Rhodes, here’s his daddy Dusty. Of course, when I place Big Dust on the list of Top 5 Occupational Gimmicks, I’m not putting him on the list for the work that originally made him famous in various NWA territories. I’m putting him on the list for his early 1990s run as a wrestler for the WWF, where, in addition to wearing polka dots and being matched with an out of nowhere valet, was portrayed as a “common man” working hard with his hands. Rhodes’ pre-debut vignettes featured him in a variety of blue collar jobs, including plumber, garbage man, and pizza delivery boy. Dusty’s WWF persona was a bit absurd in that he was a proven draw as a serious wrestler and probably could have been used at a significantly higher level in the company than he actually was. However, at the same time, Dusty has such natural charisma that he took what would otherwise be lousy material and turned it into a gimmick that brought about more than its fair share of laughs. In short, Dusty probably should’ve gotten a better run that he did, but at least he was very entertaining in the run that he got.

3. The Mountie/The Quebecers – I’ve gone back and watched a fair amount of footage of him recently, and I have to say that Jacques Rougeau was maybe one of the most underrated heels of the early 1990’s. In addition to being a fine performer in the ring, he also had boatloads of charisma and was one of those guys who you could always count on to do and say the “little things” to add a little bit of extra entertainment value to the segments in which he was involved. He was going to be able to make anything that he did work, and, when he became DA MOUNTIE~! he turned it into a very memorable midcard heel act, complete with delightfully off-key entrance music, legal threats from the real RCMP, and a slightly hokey “shock stick.” Of course, the only thing that could have been better than one Mountie was two mounties, and that’s what we got when Carl Ouellet joined the act as “Pierre.” Though not as charismatic as Jacques, he brought more size and power to the ring along with an uncanny agility, adding to the act greatly.

2. The Godfather – When you write it down on paper, the phrase “wrestling pimp” sounds ridiculous, perhaps just as ridiculous (if not moreso) than “wrestling garbage man” or “wrestling dentist.” However, no matter how odd the concept sounds, when the former Papa Shango actually became a wrestling pimp, the man was OVER. He may not have been a main eventer by any stretch of the imagination, but the remarkable popularity of the gimmick lead to him receiving some of the loudest crowd reactions of any wrestler aside from the Rock and Steve Austin during the Attitude Era of the World Wrestling Federation. Many memorable angles were born of the Godfather’s opponents being offered a ride on the “ho train” in lieu of having a wrestling match, and the unusual character combined with the fun-loving personality of the man behind the character lead to this being one of the best remembered acts of the late 1990s, even if it is one that we will probably not see on WWF nostalgia shows for some time given the company’s current “PG” direction.

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1. The Big Bossman – Let’s face it, the majority of Occupational Gimmicks are jokes. Nobody really cared about Tony Anthony running around as T.L. Hopper, and WCW’s wrestling pianist the Maestro was laughable. However, if there is one person who has been able to transcend what could have been a lousy Occupational Gimmick and turn it into a very successful career, it’s been one Ray Traylor. Traylor, from Cobb County, Georgia, had been in wrestling for several years before he made his debut with the WWF, where he was repackaged as wrestling prison guard the Big Bossman. Originally the character was a heel who actually got very good heat in a program against Hulk Hogan thanks to an angle in which the Hulkster was handcuffed to the ring ropes and brutalized with the Boss’ nightstick. Before long, the Bossman had turned babyface, and he wound up hanging out at around the top of the company’s cards for many more years, all the while cutting appropriately themed promos on opponents about how he was going to put them behind bars, make them serve hard times, make them respect law/order/justice, and so on down the line. In fact, the gimmick was so popular that, when the Bossman jumped to WCW after finishing up his WWF run, his new employers tried as hard as they possibly could to keep the gimmick alive, first calling him the Boss and then the Guardian Angel to keep Traylor using nightsticks and handcuffs. Intellectual property lawyers (real lawyers, not wrestlers doing lawyer gimmicks) prevented that from going on for too long, but they couldn’t keep fans from thinking of Traylor as the Big Bossman for the rest of his career, no matter what name he was actually going by at the time.

YOUR TURN KNOW IT ALLS

List your Top Five for this week’s topic in the comment section using the following format:

5. CHOICE: Explanation
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