The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Rich Guy Gimmicks

Over time, wrestling has time and again revisited the rich guy gimmick. It makes sense. Wrestling is marketed as a form of entertainment that appeals to the “common man”—the person struggling to make ends meet who embraces pro wrestling in order to escape into a world of drama and fights.

The rich guy gimmick—particularly used to characterize a heel performer—capitalizes on this dynamic by showing fans someone who has more and isn’t afraid to let the world know it. The rich guy has it easy, pays off other wrestlers to do his bidding, talks down to the fans, and all but asks for an ass kicking. This week, I’m reflecting on seven gimmicks of this ilk that felt nailed the character and used them to further the talent involved and connected storylines.

#7. The Mean Street Posse

An honorable mention goes to Shane McMahon who brought in The Mean Street Posse to further his own rich guy gimmick. The deal here was that Shane came from privilege and, by extension, when he became an active in-ring performer, brought two real-life friends and one kayfabe legit wrestler in to have his back. The trio played the part of big bullies who had Shane’s back—comical for the fact that they weren’t actually very good fighters in the context of the WWF, and came to the ring in sweater vests and khaki pants that bespoke anything but a rough background.

In the complicated network of Attitude Era acts, The Mean Street Posse stand out as a welcome bit of well-executed comic relief who bolstered Shane’s mid-card heel act, and functioned as entertaining foils for a variety of tag teams—perhaps most entertainingly, the legends tandem of Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson, affectionately nicknamed The Stooges, who ultimately turned face and bested the Posse in a Loser Leaves the WWF match on Raw.

#6. Alberto Del Rio

Alberto Del Rio debuted on WWE’s main roster in 2010 as a Mexican Aristocrat. He drove flashy cars to the ring. He wore a pretentious scarf. He had his own personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez, who took every opportunity to aggrandize his boss. He immediately clashed with Rey Mysterio, who represented more of an everyman aesthetic.

So, Del Rio had all the accoutrements of the rich guy gimmick, and went to quite a bit of success in the gimmick, including a Royal Rumble win, a Money in the Bank contract win, and a WWE Championship reign (he would attain additional championship gold, but I would argue that most of his other accomplishments came after he had essentially left behind the affluent aspect of his gimmick). I could see an argument for moving Del Rio up one or two spots in this countdown, but ended up keeping him right here because, while his kayfabe wealth didn’t detract from his persona, it also didn’t feel critical to the success of the character, at least in the long-term, whereas the rich guy gimmick was either more intrinsic to, or at least helped spike a character’s heat more meaningfully for the men I’ve ranked above him.

#5. Jamie Noble

Jamie Noble arrives on this countdown for not altogether dissimilar reasons to The Mean Street Posse. He was never a main eventer—though people tend to forget how good he was in the ring—but when he took on a rich guy gimmick, he adjusted his character in brilliant, largely comedic ways to arrive at the most memorable character work of his wrestling career.

Prior to that point, Noble had established himself as a low-brow, “white trash” character, but the gimmick’s fortune turned when he kayfabe inherited a six-figure sum from his aunt, and both went on a spending spree and took on his best comedic interpretation of what a wealthy dude ought to act like, with kayfabe partner Nidia at his side. This culminated in him offering Torrie Wilson $10,000 and then $25,000 to sleep with him, only for Billy Gunn to defend her honor.

The WWF probably could have gotten more mileage out of this gimmick, but it dissipated when Noble briefly turned face, and by the time he was a heel again, the money didn’t really play into his character anymore (though one could argue this was a masterstroke of booking, since Noble didn’t inherit that much money relative to his lifestyle change, which was part of the humor of the storyline—it makes sense that the money would have run dry). Just the same, Noble’s run felt like an improvement upon a very similar storyline WCW ran with Diamond Dallas Page (who just missed the countdown) stumbling into wealth, played to a bit better comedic effect, with a storyline that was easier to follow.

#4. JBL

John Bradshaw Layfield’s transition from APA barroom brawler to Texas millionaire was sudden and not entirely logical from a kayfabe perspective. Moreover, his advancement from career mid-carder and tag wrestler to suddenly emerging as the longest running World Heavyweight Champion of his era is a wrestling oddity that few saw coming and that historians will likely have trouble tracing with any precision.

But there’s a reason why the JBL character supplanted APA Bradshaw so readily as the worker’s most memorable gimmick, and why his world title run ended up perfectly respectable—it’s because it all worked.

There’s the age-old pro wrestling adage that the most successful wrestling gimmicks are reflections of the worker’s true personality, with the volume cranked up. Before he took on his rich guy gimmick, JBL had started making appearances and writing columns as a conservative financial pundit. Thus when he started riding into arenas in a bull-horn-adorned limousine, spouting off racist rhetoric against Mexican people, and accruing his Cabinet stable of cronies to back him up, all of the pieces fell into place for a pretty terrific chicken shit heel character. There’s a nearly year-long stretch from 2004 into 2005 for which JBL dominated Smackdown programming and he lingered as an upper mid-card act off and on for years to follow, perhaps most prominently buying off the services of financially hurting Shawn Michaels to be his manservant and hired gun.

The JBL gimmick was all about power and bravado through money, making him an easy selection for this countdown.

#3. Vince McMahon

I expect that anyone reading this column is well aware of Vincent Kennedy McMahon’s history as the owner and CEO of the WWF/WWE. Moreover, I expect folks are well aware of the ways in which McMahon blurred reality and storyline in the late 1990s with the launch of the Mr. McMahon character, before launching the heel gimmick full-tilt.

It was a masterstroke of booking and execution.

Yes, Eric Bischoff piloted the heel-authority-figure-supreme character on the national stage in WCW before McMahon launched his persona. But I don’t think there’s any doubt that McMahon pulled off the act better, combining wonderful chicken shit heel character work, bravado, real-life credentials as a businessman, an imposing physique, and a remarkable willingness to take physical punishment to add up to a positively iconic heel character. Albeit with a few noteworthy exceptions, the WWF had historically depended upon monster heels at the top of the card—the Andre the Giants, King Kong Bundys, Earthquakes, and Yokozunas of the world. Mr. McMahon denoted a paradigm shift. It wasn’t big bullies who the fans loathed so much as their pompous rich asshole boss. McMahon embodied that ethos with aplomb, reveling in the fact that he could fire people or book them into uncomfortable situations at will.

As is the case for virtually any successful act in wrestling, the Mr. McMahon gimmick did get overplayed, progressing from revolutionary to a bit stale by the time McMahon was still bullying and pushing his Kiss My Ass Club in the late 2000s. Just the same, for its greatest peaks, and the ways in which McMahon offered the optimal foil for the wildly successful redneck Steve Austin character, McMahon is an surefire pick for a top three spot in this countdown.

#2. Ric Flair

Ric Flair built his legend upon his days as a (and arguably the last ) great traveling NWA World Heavyweight Champion who traversed territories and put on great matches with a variety of opponents. His in-ring game is among the best ever. His skills on the mic ought to make anyone’s top ten list. But then there’s all that panache.

Ric Flair wore elaborate robes to the ring and three-piece suits and a Rolex outside of it. He billed himself as a limousine-riding, jet-flying son of a gun. In short, Flair portrayed a lifestyle that was all about living high class (and arguably bought into his own hype a little too far in real-life living beyond his means). More than a character, though, Flair went a long way toward making affluence and a fast lifestyle cool in the world of professional wrestling—prompting fans to wear suits to the arena to be like him, and purportedly luring a Wilt-Chamberlain-esque number of women back to his hotel rooms.

Perhaps best of all, Flair as a wealthy playboy acted as a near-perfect foil for Dusty Rhodes, the top face of the day, and purported son of a plumber who was potbellied, wore blue jeans, and talked jive. It was the common man versus the machine. Flair, perhaps more than any pro wrestling persona before or after, engendered heat out of jealousy—fans hated him because they really did want to be him and have everything that he had, in contrast to Rhodes, who was the embodiment of the masses.

#1. Ted Dibiase

While I think you can make an argument of any of the top three performers in this countdown winding up in the top spot, there has been no gimmick—much less, iconic and wildly successful gimmick—more dependent on money than Ted Dibiase as The Million Dollar Man.

Make no mistake about it—Dibiase was a very good worker and talker. When he showed up as a rival for Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, though, it was the character’s deep pockets that set him apart and made him a unique villain of his era. Dibiase literally bought the world title out from under Hogan, to end The Hulkster’s first world title reign via collusion with Andre the Giant, an evil twin referee, and his bodyguard Virgil. Thus, the WWF immediately established him as more than another over-the-top gimmick player, but an actual force to be reckoned with. He would go on to further his heat through his well-archived stunts of giving fans menial tasks to complete for money (before sabotaging their successful completion) and recruiting other wrestlers to align themselves with him on the very reasonable premise that he had the money to buy their cooperation.

Unlike Ric flair’s character work, Dibiase didn’t necessarily make wealth cool, but he did make it an irresistible tool for accruing heat. Thus, it makes complete sense that he remained a heel for almost his entire time on a national stage (excepting a brief managerial run in WCW and arguably some legend spots in WWE). Whether he was wrestling as a singles star, teaming up with IRS for the underrated Money Inc. tag team, acting as the mastermind behind his own heel stable, or financially backing the NWO, the money was a major contributing factor to the character’s ongoing credibility, continuity and story arcs, Before Mr. McMahon, he was the boss we wanted to see beaten by Virgil. His Million Dollar Corporation, while ultimately ineffectual, represented monster corporations targeting the little guy.
Perhaps most notably of all, The Million Dollar Man gimmick is the one that all other rich guy gimmicks since have had to answer to in one form another—even the successful the JBLs and Alberto Del Rios of the world getting dismissed as poor man’s Ted Dibiases.