Old Gimmicks, New Faces

[Food Library]

Back to Dibiase Jr., people praise him all the time in that regard. Supposedly he does have charisma. I admit I never saw it. He is not as bland as, say, Charlie Haas or Shelton Benjamin, but he is definitely neither a face nor a personality that sticks out in a crowd. Some people see the next big thing in him. I see vanilla.

I agree with that statement a lot. But I think Ted has a bright future. He just needs to find something that works for him so he can shine. I didn't think Orton really had "it" until after his stint with legacy. It might be because anyone hanging around Trips and Flair are bound to be over shadowed. He played his role very well and broke out. I'm not saying Dibiase will do the same but I think he has the potential to do so. Maybe I'm just an optimist.

 

[hollowpoint]

I'm not saying this is a good idea or a bad idea.

But the only way for this to work is if the audience perceives the the new wrestler has the approval of the old wrestler.

In comic books, countless gimmicks are passed from one man to the other.

So as an example: Let's say before Kane retires, he gives his mask to another wrestler. Obviously not just on a whim, but a nice drawn out storyline.

Or, if Road Warrior Hawk scouts tag teams and give his approval and shoulder pads to a team, claiming he wants the LOD to live on.

If done respectfully and had the company backing, it would have a better chance not to fail.

I think this would be the only way the idea would work. Otherwise it would be rejected hard by the hardcore fans. I personally do not want to see another mankind,Kane, or Undertaker, because there is only one and there is never gonna be anything better than the original.
The new guys will always be compared to the older generation whether they have a "gimmick" or not.

 

[thadarksandman]

directly rehashing old gimmicks would be a total turn off. Regardless, bringing back old school archetypes is maybe a plausable idea, but not exact gimmicks. and they kind of do that now. Ziggler and rhodes have the vain arrogent jerk thing going, as done by curt henning, rick martel and many others.

Mcyntire needs to get either the rowdy roddy type(which i don't think he could do) or an old school heel gimmick, complete with an asshole manager.

but TBH, rehashing the attitude era is never going to happen, and that is a good thing.

All the Attitude era people out there seem to think that either redoing gimmicks, adding more cursing and violence or what have you, will make a better product. But the fact is that it would all be a cheap imitation.

besides, the attitude era is overrated anyway. It was good, it was popular, but it was not as great. I was a teen so it was awesome, but as an adult i wanna see more like what it is today, proffessionalism. Guys getting over because they are themselves, not cause of some facepaint or mask.

 

[ToyfareMark]

How about just having some gimmicks, no one really has one. I want a white trash guy, or people who had various jobs, or time in the military, even some bs back ground story on some people. And no, being from Ghana isn't a gimmick. The WWE has been vanilla for a while now. I am beginning to even long for Duke the Dumpster Drosse.

IMO Gimmicks are great and all, but eventually a gimmick needs to evolve into a character. Too many people in WWE these days are basically just guys in tights. There are signs of improvment though,

Cody Rhodes "Dashing" gimmick is becoming more of a character, and fans are reacting well to it. Zack Ryder is becoming more of a character. Of course unless you watch Superstars religously you arent gonna know that.

I just think gimmicks should lead to a character, not a gimmick being a character itself.

 

[GW_Hart86]

yea, I think the biggest problem that the WWE has today is people constantly comparing todays talent to the old. It really needs to stop. Wrestlers like The Undertaker, HHH, Stone Cold etc, as a great and world class as they are, if they are not fit to compete regularly then they just need to retire all together and stop re-appearing every so often.

Fans end up dwelling on these guys and looking at their "come-backs" as saving the business from decline. People should really start concentrating on and getting behind existing and up and coming talent, looking to the future!

Leave the old gimmicks in the past and in the hall of fame where they belong!

 

[stasheroo]

Recycling old gimmicks is not a bad idea but replacing a specific character doesn't make much sense. Grabbing a guy from FCW and putting him in mankinds old costume and having him go around acting like mick foley would be silly. I think if you were to take an old gimmick like LOD or Demolition and put it on to guys with one of the original members as their manager that may work. The gimmick that Husky Harris is using now I think is fine its basiclly Raven with a mask hopefully he can do something with it.

That's what I was thinking. If you took a team with an appealing gimmick and put together an updated version, you might have something.

With the Road Warriors or Demolition, I think that's a gimmick that might work in a repackaging if you had the right ingredients.

You'd have to have big guys that moved well in the ring and had personality. Not call them Hawk and Animal obviously, but similar type one word names and similar yet unique facepaint, etc.

If you got the rub of having an original member 'pass the torch' the fans might accept them.

Two things I will say, one I think there's a place for face-paint to be used again to increase originality among wrestlers.

And two, if not gimmick names, today's wrestlers need some moniker to differentiate themselves from the rest of the 'wrestling factory' guys out there.

Enough of the {insert generic name here} guys with nothing to distinguish themselves!