Gimmick (professional wrestling)

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In professional wrestling, a gimmick is a wrestler's personality, behavior, attire and/or other distinguishing traits while performing.

1 Nature of a Gimmick
- 1.1 Examples of Gimmicks
2 Conflicting Views
3 See also

[edit] Nature of a Gimmick

The nature and plausibility of gimmicks vary widely. In recent years, the emphasis has been on more realistic gimmicks which portray the wrestler as an actual person, albeit with exaggerated personality traits, as opposed to previous years during which gimmicks could be best described as cartoonish (most of the World Wrestling Federation, now World Wrestling Entertainment, product in the 1980s and early 1990s fits this category)^{[citation needed]}.

Gimmicks can be described as heel or face. A face gimmick is one that is designed to be popular with crowds, often through adopting endearing mannerisms. A heel gimmick is one that is designed to be hated by crowds, usually to make the face more popular in any storyline they may both be involved in (for example, pretending to betray a trusting face). A tweener gimmick falls between the two extremes.

Over a wrestler's career, he or she may be expected to portray many gimmicks, most of which may be implausible or inconsistent (see kayfabe). Sometimes a wrestler may undergo a complete on-screen personality change from one week to the next.

Promotions will often recycle past gimmicks, giving them to newer wrestlers. Typically, a promotion will wait several years before trying to recycle a gimmick in order to allow fans' memories to fade. This is especially easy for WWE to do, because it owns its wrestlers' gimmicks and ring names.

[edit] Examples of Gimmicks

The Rock: a cocky and charismatic bully, who coined memorable catchphrases such as, "If you smell what The Rock is cooking."
Hulk Hogan: an all-American patriotic good guy who carries the United States flag to the ring, protects the underdogs, has a theme song about being a "real American," etc.
Gorgeous George: a heel wrestler who came to the ring in sequinned robes, sprayed disinfectant on himself and cheated on every opportunity. Although he did not invent the professional wrestling gimmick, he popularized it for generations to come.
Mick Foley: most recently portrayed, under his real name, as a wrestling legend and all-around good guy or bad guy. Previous gimmicks include Cactus Jack (a violent tough guy), Mankind (a mentally ill man wearing a leather mask) and Dude Love (a fun-loving hippie).
Shawn Michaels: known as The Heartbreak Kid or HBK. After leaving the tag team The Rockers, he was presented as a flamboyant, arrogant and charismatic male stripper who in his entrance theme called himself a "sexy boy." This persona evolved into that of a juvenile and vulgar heel renowned for his arrogance and insatiable ego while in the WWE's D-Generation X stable of 1997 and early 1998. Since his WWE return and (real-life) conversion to Christianity his persona has been altered to that of a legend of the business whose popularity stems from his past reputation and achievements rather than his on-screen flamboyance. In his return to DX, now a face tag team, Michaels has been more the straight man of the duo (often talking Triple H out of especially risque actions or being distracted by Triple H so he can do them out of Michaels's sight).
The Undertaker: his initial gimmick was of an undead wrestling phantom/zombie. During the Attitude Era he was the cult leader of the Ministry of Darkness stable. He was later humanized into his American Badass gimmick, that of a biker with red hair. At WrestleMania XX he readopted the Dead Man gimmick.
The Dudley Family: of Extreme Championship Wrestling, all of whom were half-brothers in ECW storylines, despite varying wildly in physical characteristics and race. The most enduring partnership in the stable, the Dudley Boyz, are now in Total Nonstop Action.
Doink the Clown: originally an evil clown loosley based on Pennywise, until he received a midget partner named Dink, then the gimmick was changed to more of a regular circus clown.
Irwin R. Schyster: an Internal Revenue Service tax collector who is also a professional wrestler. I.R.S. epitomizes the "day job" era of the early 1990s WWF, in which a wrestler's gimmick was often defined by a second job they supposedly did away from the ring^{[citation needed]}.
The Hurricane: an outlandish superhero in the vein of the Batman TV show. This gimmick developed to the point that he was given a sidekick "Super Hero in Training (S.H.I.T.)," Rosey. He later betrayed Rosey, moved from Raw to SmackDown and removed his costume. He started going by his real name of Gregory Helms and adopted the gimmick of a vengeful, serious competitor who is determined to overcome the stigma of his silly former persona through success in the ring.
John Cena : a white rapper based on Vanilla Ice, who for several years wore a large metal chain around his neck and a throwback sports jersey connected to the city where he was performing. In 2006 he starred in the movie The Marine and began wearing military-related attire to the ring, including camouflage shorts, dog tags and a T-shirt with the words "Chain Gang Assault Battalion."
The Boogeyman: a worm-eating psychopath with facepaint, a smoke-emitting staff and a clock he smashes against his head, who yells "I'm coming to get you" and scares the living daylights out of his opponents.
Randy Orton: a cocky, self-proclaimed "Legend-Killer" who humiliates and disrespects veterans and respected wrestling personalities. Also sometimes known as RKO, his initials (Randy Keith Orton).
Edge: the "Rated-R Superstar," who does shocking .things like having sex in public and shooting on fellow wrestlers. Originally he was in a tag team with Christian as a goofy surfer. Edge's current gimmick is similar to that used by "Loose Cannon" Brian Pillman towards the end of his World Championship Wrestling run.
Eugene: a mentally challenged wrestling savante.
Kane: also known as The Big Red Machine or The Big Red Monster. A sadistic, uncaring "monster" who appears to suffer from schizophrenia, antisocial personality disorder and Munchausen syndrome, among other mental illnesses^{[citation needed]}. His character is the half-brother of The Undertaker and supposedly burned over 98% of his body as a child, though he wears nothing but wrestling tights to the ring now. Viewers later found out that the burns were never physical but rather mental^{[citation needed]}. Originally he wore a full-body red and black wrestling suit, gloves and a mask, but later he removed the mask and upper-body attire and shaved his head.
Chris Jericho: also known as Y2J, a play on the Y2K phenomenon in the year 2000, and The Human Highlight Reel. A cocky, trash-talking rockstar with popular catchphrases such as "I'm the king of the world" and "Assclown." (In real life he is a rockstar, vocalist of Fozzy, but humble and friendly unlike his wrestling persona)^{[citation needed]}.
John Bradshaw Layfield: a rich Texan businessman living in New York. This character appears to be patterned after J.R. Ewing from the popular 1980s television show, Dallas or even possibly George W. Bush (in real life, Layfield is a successful stock market investor and is featured in the financial news media). Bradshaw was previously cast as a hard-drinking Texan trailer-park cowboy while in the Acolytes, then Acolyte Protection Agency, with tag partner Farooq.
Red Rooster: a talented Southern "rassler", Terry Taylor was brought to the WWF to look and occasionally act like a rooster in the ring, complete with a streak of red hair that stood on top of his head. Despite being a long-time veteran, Taylor also played a rookie in this role. This is an example of the use of a gimmick to bury a wrestler who is not well-liked by a promoter^{[citation needed]}.
Mr Perfect: an incredibly skilled multi-discipline athlete who constantly brags about his numerous flawless performances.
"The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase: a rich man who tried to buy the championship, whose gimmick is seen as the predecessor to Bradshaw's JBL gimmick listed above.
Sting: started as a blonde surfer with facepaint much like a Hulk Hogan-style fan favorite, but after being thought of as a traitor (which was proven wrong), he returned in black and white with darkened, longer hair and a trenchcoat in a gimmick mimicking The Crow comics and specifically movie look^{[citation needed]}. After keeping silent as that character until he gained redemption, he started speaking again, as in his previous gimmick, except with a mean streak thereby combining the characters.
Jake "The Snake" Roberts: used the memorable gimmick of bringing his python Damien into the ring to strangle his opponents. The snake was effective against André the Giant, who was terrified and it actually did bite Randy Savage.
Muhammad Hassan: (as well as his manager Daivari) used a highly controversial gimmick of an angry Arab American who was sick of the discrimination towards him after 9/11. Mark Copani (his real name), actually an Italian-American, was later released due to the public backlash against the character following an angle which aired shortly after terrorist attacks in England (but was taped before), in which masked terrorists working for Muhammad attempted to strangle The Undertaker with wire, evoking sensitive publicized incidents of terrorist beheadings. His character was killed by The Undertaker at the next pay-per-view by a last ride to below the entrance ramp^{[citation needed]}.
Mark Henry: first a heel character who was obsessed with romance and known as Sexual Chocolate. He later returned with The World's Strongest Man gimmick (more realistic as he came in 6th place in a weightlifting competition at the 1996 Olympics)^{[citation needed]}. This gimmick would show Henry as a man who possessed tons of strength and would go on a path of destruction, injuring (in kayfabe, and in reality) many wrestlers.
Mae Young: a woman in her early eighties who is usually seen stripping or parading scantily clad on WWE television. Young is an example of a gimmick influenced by popular culture; her character is heavily based on Mae West^{[citation needed]}.
The Hollywood Blondes: a tag team generally composed of two young, blonde wrestlers. Generally, the gimmick involves the wrestlers being cocky heartthrobs, causing the predominantly male audience to boo out of jealousy. In the 1970s, Jerry Brown and Buddy Roberts had the team name. In the 1980s, it was Rip Rogers and Ted Oates and in the 1990s, it was Steve Austin (as Stunning Steve Austin) and Brian Pillman, who were the better-known team owing to their nationwide exposure on Turner Broadcasting System. In the late 1990s, Lenny Lane and Lodi gave this concept a homosexual spin as the West Hollywood Blondes. The former tag team of MNM (Mercury-Nitro-Melina) is an example of this gimmick with an attractive female manager in Melina, as are the young tag team of The Teacher's Pets (Idol Stevens and K.C. James, although Stevens has darker hair) and their naughty teacher valet Michelle McCool.
Tiger Mask: a famous junior heavyweight wrestler in Japan, who wears a tiger-themed mask and uses high-flying moves in the ring. Four wrestlers have portrayed the Tiger Mask character.
Spirit Squad: a five-man male cheerleading team known for performing disrespectful cheers and ultra-athletic moves, sometimes involving a trampoline and annoying their opponents with an airhorn.
Mickie James: originally an energetic preppie girl who displays bipolar, obsessive and lesbian behavior, among other strange actions. She was similar in some aspects to Kane but is now a face, retaining only her enthusiasm and vicious streak^{[citation needed]}.
Melina and Johnny Nitro: the Hollywood couple who think they are better than everyone around them. The relationship between Nitro and Melina became emphasized when the tag team of MNM broke up after Mercury's departure.
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin: also known as The Texas Rattlesnake. He was a beer-drinking, foul-mouthed renegade who has blatant disregard for authority and lives by the creed "Don't Trust Anybody (DTA)." His feud with Mr. McMahon was a driving force behind the Attitude Era and late 1990s wrestling boom. Stone Cold had numerous popular catchphrases such as "Austin 3:16 says 'I just whipped your ass'" and "And that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so" and often gave opponents (and the audience, to their delight) the finger, in between gulps of beer. He had arguably the most popular gimmick in wrestling history, combining traits of a blue-collar everyman with those of a rebellious, independent antihero. Although he attempted to portray a heel character in his comeback and alliance with The Corporation in the early 2000s, the crowd saw Stone Cold as a permanent face. His catchphrase from that period of "What?" is still commonly repeated by crowds interrupting the promos of heels.
Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake: a barber who rendered his opponents unconscious before cutting their hair.
Big Boss Man: a former prison guard who fought for law, order and justice as a face while savagely beating his opponents up with his nightstick, as a heel.
"The Kings": this gimmick was used by several superstars such as Jerry Lawler, Harley Race, Haku (also known as King Tonga earlier in his career), Jim Duggan, Randy Savage (Macho King), Owen Hart (King of Harts), Mabel (King Mabel), Chris Jericho (King of the World & King of Bling-Bling), Triple H (The King of Kings, a gimmick which may be seen as a combination of his The Game persona and his early Jean-Paul Levesque/Hunter Hearst Helmsley personas) & most recently Booker T (King Booker). In Booker's case, the gimmick developed after winning the 2006 King of the Ring tournament on SmackDown.
Kevin Thorn and Ariel: two more modern vampires who tend to bite each other and their opponents and dress in complete black and red.
Montel Vontavious Porter: known as MVP, a play on the term Most Valuable Player, he is a cocky free agent who thinks he is not only the best wrestler but the best athlete ever. He approaches the ring out of an inflatable entrance structure similar to those in the National Football League and wears an ostentatious jumpsuit resembling a Power Ranger. A similar gimmick is used by Bobby Roode in TNA.
Cryme Tyme: known as Shad Gaspard and JTG, they are two stereotypical African-American thug wrestlers. They performed in a series of video vignettes before their Raw debut in which they committed crimes in order to train in various athletic skills, such as robbing a convenience store and carjacking a white man lost in the ghetto.
Vito: "the toughest man to wear a dress", who puts his dress over his opponents' heads. Formerly the no-nonsense partner of fellow Italian Nunzio.
Eddie Guerrero: a fan favorite who often won matches, despite his technical wrestling skill, by lying, cheating and stealing. He played up the urban Mexican-American stereotype by driving lowriders to the ring, exclaiming "Viva la Raza!" and calling people "ese" and "homes."
Jimmy Wang Yang: an Asian "redneck" who wrestles in a high-flying style, formerly Akio.
Jillian Hall: A beautiful blonde woman who is a successful fixer for wrestler example MNM and JBL.
Ron Simmons: A retired wrestler and JBL's former partner, who has a comic gimmic by saying one line, "Damn!"
Chris Benoit: A ruthless wrestling machine, who injures wrestlers in a methodical way. This eventually evolved from a young stud-type bully to a more respected tough guy.

[edit] Conflicting Views

Fans often dispute over the definition of a gimmick. Several definitions have developed over the years.

Over-The-Top - This is the most conservative view. This definition sees a gimmick as any personality portrayed by a wrestler which exceeds the limitations of reality and is often cartoonish. They may also have a science fiction feel to them. Examples of this would be the vampire personas portrayed by Kevin Fertig (Kevin Thorn) and David Heath (Gangrel), Marty Wright's Boogeyman character, and Doink The Clown. This usually determine the characters heel and face status based on fan reaction.

Feasible But Still Hokey - A shoot-off of the Over The Top, this definition sees a gimmick as a personality portrayed by a wrestler which stays within the confines of reality but is still outlandish and often cartoonish and is obviously known by the fans to not be a wrestler's true personality. Examples of this would be Booker Huffman's King Booker persona, Nick Dinsmore's mentally retarded Eugune character, and Jeff Jarrett's country singer character used in his original run in WWE from 1993 to 1996.

Uncommon - This definition sees a gimmick as any personality portrayed by a wrestler which departs from what is considered the norm in society, that is, the attitude and personality of an average person. It may not necessarily be over-the-top or unrealistic. In fact, many realistic characters fall into this category. Examples include Steve Williams' "Stone Cold Steve Austin" character, who excessively swears, drinks beer, flips the bird, and defies authority, Alex Shelley's film producer character in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and Lex Luger's Narcissist character who thought himself to be perfect and posed in front of mirrors before his matches in the WWE from late 1992 to mid-1993.

Distinguishable Attitude-This definition sees a gimmick as any personality given to a wrestler which enables him or her to stand out on their own. It gives them a unique identity which no one else has, thus making them special in their own right. As a result, characters can be realistic or unrealistic. They often reinforce the fact that this wrestler is different, giving constant reminders about their special identity. Examples of this would include Eddie Guerrero's "Lie, Cheat, and Steal" lifestyle, Terry Brunk's "Sabu" character, who is psychotic, dangerous, and sometimes self-destructive, and Troy Martin's "The Franchise" Shane Douglas character in the original Extreme Championship Wrestling, who would often remind people that he is "the franchise" and "the absolute best."

Not The Real Personality-This is the most liberal definition. Using this definition, any and all personalities portrayed by a wrestler, realistic or unrealistic, are considered a gimmick if the wrestler using it does not act that way in real life, that is, outside of the wrestling business. Using this definition, some may consider a wrestler who does not use his or her real name as having a gimmick. Examples include Page Falkinburg's "Diamond Dallas Page" character in World Championship Wrestling, Randy Orton's "legend killer" character (he, in real life, has a lot of respect for the legends), and Steve Borden's "Sting" character in WCW, who was originally a surfer.

As it can be imagined, sometimes these definitions can conflict and contradict each other. Using these varying definitions, one wrestler's character may be considered a gimmick, while under another definition, it is not. A good example would be the CM Punk character used by Phil Brooks. The CM Punk character is straight edge, that is, he does not drink, smoke, use drugs, or partake in promiscuous sexual activity. Using the "Uncommon" definition, this would be classified as a gimmick. However, using the "Not The Real Personality" definition, this would not be considered a gimmick, since in real life, Brooks is in fact straight edge. Similar conflicts also arise in TNA wrestler Kurt Angle's Olympic gold medalist character and Michael Hickenbottom's (Shawn Michaels) born-again Christian character.