What was the gimmick that you thought would never succeed, yet it succeeded big time?

[PSachkovsky]

I'd have to say, I always thought that Doink's gimmick was ridiculous and stupid, yet I was shocked to see how well it was played out, and how fans made it go VERY over!

Second pick will be Goldberg. When I saw him wrestle for the first time, I thought he'd be nothing but a midcarder, but when he went all over the place, and won the title from Hollywood Hogan, I was like: That shocked me more than anything! Never expected THAT to get so far...

 

[Trance Metaphor]

John Cena's rapper gimmick. I expected corniness and embarrassment. It certainly looked that way at first when he came out to a corny old school theme and Bull Buchanan as his sidekick. Then the battle raps began and he was more over than Himalaya. A rapper that wrestles? That's pretty ridiculous, but he made it work even when he won the US title and the WWE title by giving them his style.

 

[JaylisJayP]

Daniel Bryan. I thought the guy was worthless, then they let him talk a little more, I watched him wrestle a little more...and I was totally on board with his gimmick/character. Yes!

Seriously, it just makes me think how many other guys could get over if they got a chance on the mic. Every time you hear 5 seconds of Kofi talking, you hear some potential in there. What are they waiting for with this guy?

 

[Mr_Excitement007]

Hmm I have to chose the one and only Goldberg I guy who came out in black boots trucks and win his match quicker then most divas these days do for early half of as career, yawn then when he got somewhat a personality at the end of wcw and his wwe run he looked like such a clown trying to match wits with Rock , HHH , Austin who would of guessed him that far at least Stone Cold in the black gear was cool he had the key Goldberg was missing a personality that you could cheer boo just enjoy

 

[H33LTurn]

I didnt think that The Funkasaurus or Ryback were going to make it past day 1. The gimmicks were particularly cartoony and Ryback in particular is just Goldberg in RVD's attire. But hey, they survived and I'm kind of glad. Sometimes you gotta give it a chance before you decide a gimmick is a dud.

 

[ccotreau1]

I would have to say Kane after the mask came off. I loved the intrigue of Kane in the mask back then, and liked how they did the mask removal and how Kane progressed as a character.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

I never thought Doink would last very long and yet he kicked around for far longer than he should have.

More recently, Santino has to get the vote. The Milan Miracle bit was one thing, but it's the comic stuff I could do without at this point.

 

[Jerichoholic8894]

Honestly? The Undertaker. I just never saw a deadman being very successful, but he showed me wrong

If you would of sat Badass Undertaker and Deadman Undertaker infront of me and asked which I thought would get over, i'd pick American Badass. Boy would I be wrong

 

[sXeB34ST]

John Cena's rapper gimmick. I expected corniness and embarrassment. It certainly looked that way at first when he came out to a corny old school theme and Bull Buchanan as his sidekick. Then the battle raps began and he was more over than Himalaya. A rapper that wrestles? That's pretty ridiculous, but he made it work even when he won the US title and the WWE title by giving them his style.

I have to agree whole-heartedly. John Cena in general. I saw him come up with his pseudo-Prototype gimmick and just really didn't like it. Obviously, he had enough talent in the ring to go somewhere in the business, had a really awkward, but good look nonetheless (simply needed to figure out how to utilize what he had) and he had an intangible charisma about him. He started off his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick and I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever seen, however, gave him credit for being bold enough to actually go out there and make himself look like a moron every night.

As time progressed, occasional lines here and there made me chuckle, and we started seeing a bit more wit, especially during his time as a babyface. The spinner US championship is where I officially marked for Cena, but was afraid to claim being a fan because of how stupid the character was. As time progressed, I figured "Vince must love this guy" and thought they'd ride the character out more and more and more. Now, ten years later, Cena is essentially the new Hulk Hogan, at least as far as his in-company standing goes. Obviously, wrestling isn't quite as widespread as it was, popularity wise, as it was during Hogan's go-around. Provided the 'sport' was still building at that juncture.

I saw Cena go from rewinding what he said in a promo, and making me want to kill myself, to modern day Hulk Hogan status. If that's not going from "expected to fail" to "succeeding big time" I don't know what is.

 

[jared96]

Erick Young current gimmick it is plain boring.
i prefer when he was in world elite.
the reason i dont like the new gimmick to much like santino

 

[vampireblade]

Honestly, it was Johnny Ace. I remember thinking when he first came on screen that he had no charisma and was just boring. However as time passed he got better and became one of the most hated figures in recent memory he got over like crazy everyone loved to hate him, me included.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

When it comes to wrestlers, when Randy Orton first appeared I thought he was way too generic and awkward (kind of skinny too). He had this awful "Thank you to the fans" gimmick while injured that didn't seem to fly. At that point I thought he would disappear quickly. The Legend Killer gimmick changed all that as it was clear that WWE believed in him and he was getting over.

But the one gimmick that I totally underestimated was The Rock. The $500 shirts and matching attitude was such a change from his smiley, island boy, 3rd generation superstar gimmick. I never thought it would turn in to much and he would be relegated to the bottom feeder of the Nation of Domination. I was kind of wrong about that.

The lesson is never underestimate the power of Vince's trust in guys whose dads partied on the road with Vince in the 80's. Vince may have been in the next room when they were conceived.

 

[Diet Soda]

CM Punk's straight edge spiel.

In all honestly, when he arrived in ECW I had very little knowledge of his indy background, so his hype went over my head.

So when this wrestler, virtually unknown to myself, appears on TV and cuts this short, fairly weak promo, I couldn't be convinced that he'd be a future multiple world champion.

Spoiler

[YOUTUBE]SSgiQEPYu4U[/YOUTUBE]

"Don't let these tattoos fool ya... I'm straight edge." So we're to assume that everyone with a sleeve is a drunkard or a drug-addict?

 

[Jdulemba1001]

It has to be Doink the Clown. Seriously, a wrestling clown? Are you kidding? But looking back, man I loved that clown, so I guess I was wrong.

 

[Last Man Standing]

Easy... The Undertaker. Can you imagine the pitch they gave to Mean Mark?

"He's a dead guy/zombie/demon sorta guy who apparently control lighting bolts. Who's specialty is Buried Alive matches even though he barely ever wins one. He's receives power from an urn that a fat mortician carries with him."

Sounds great, huh?

 

[smizzy]

Goldust. I still don't what the hell he was supposed to be? Haha. And I mean, I don't even know if it was so much success as it was longevity.

Also, Mr. Socko's insane fan base is a little surprising considering it wasn't even intended to be a permanent gimmick but caught fire after the Vince hospital segment. Which begs the question, why is the cobra popular. I mean, how many 7 year olds watch this show? That's the only fan base is see for the garbage.

 

[midgensa]

I was always shocked with how over John Cena got with his goofy rap. But I knew after seeing it a couple of times that he was going to be over because he was making the fans eat out of his hands.

Obviously, looking back though ... Doink is UNBELIEVABLE. There is no way that guy should have been in matches that mattered at all, but he pulled it off somehow.

 

[Dalinkwent]

I'm going with Kurt angle on this one. He could talk and wrestle, bit his gimmick was so corny in the context of the Attitude Era, yet he became so good that he would get a massive pop when his music hit despite being a heel.

 

[Foshinzo]

Kane

I thought it was dumb when he debuted, as great as that debut was scripted, and I still think it's pretty dumb, to be honest. The whole premise is hilariously ridiculous, even for pro wrestling. Still, Jacobs ran with it and he's made a career out of it, so in all seriousness, good for him. I never liked Kane, I think he's dumb, but clearly I'm not in the majority, here.

 

[HBsam31]

I didn't think Undertaker would have made it as far as he did when he first debuted. I also have to agree with the people that said Doink to. He really made that gimmick work and I would have liked to have seen what would have happened if he stayed a heel. When Daniel Bryan Came back after being "fired" in the Nexus angle I never thought he would take off like he did. I thought he was going to be to generic and boring for most fans, but he proved me wrong and is at the top of his game right now, and doing well.

 

[dman1373]

CM Punk's straight edge spiel.

In all honestly, when he arrived in ECW I had very little knowledge of his indy background, so his hype went over my head.

So when this wrestler, virtually unknown to myself, appears on TV and cuts this short, fairly weak promo, I couldn't be convinced that he'd be a future multiple world champion.

Spoiler

[YOUTUBE]SSgiQEPYu4U[/YOUTUBE]

"Don't let these tattoos fool ya... I'm straight edge." So we're to assume that everyone with a sleeve is a drunkard or a drug-addict?

I actually just started watching roh when punk went to ovw. So when punk came and cut his promos, i thought they were shit,(mostly because the gimmick.) It pissed me off when he was going over shannon moore and justin credible. Two guys i really liked. Then he started to grow on me, cause he was having really good matches. And then CM Punk turned heel. Once he turned it into im better than you cause im straight edge, then he became amazing.

 

[SinCityBlitz]

The Bushwhackers. They were known as the Sheepherders and wrestled in hardcore type of matches before the WWF. To see them show up in the WWF acting the way they did was a total shock. But to their credit they took the gimmick and ran with it and became pretty damn popular.

 

[Sinabite]

If the Road Warriors had debuted during ANY other time period in the history of wrestling the crowd would have probably tossed chairs at them.

Another, who I was a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEE fan of was Atom Bomb

 

[Jerichoholic]

I have to go with The Miz in this one, From the annoying host of Smackdown to the main event of Wrestlemania, i remember at one point when he was feuding with Jomo and they were making comparisons to HBK and Marty Janetty obviously neither will ever reach the heights of HBK but no way would i have ever guessed that The Miz would have gone on to have a better career than Morrison and fair play to the guy he put in the work and he won a lot of people over me being one of them, hopefully he will get another push upon his return.

 

[berlinbrawler]

John Cena's rapper gimmick. I expected corniness and embarrassment. It certainly looked that way at first when he came out to a corny old school theme and Bull Buchanan as his sidekick. Then the battle raps began and he was more over than Himalaya. A rapper that wrestles? That's pretty ridiculous, but he made it work even when he won the US title and the WWE title by giving them his style.

Not me. I saw Cena coming. I knew that he was going to be huge... Well, "knowing" is too strong a word. More accurately I FEARED that he was going to be huge. I hated that wigga gimmick so much. I hated his face. Hated everything about him (and that was LONG before it was cool to hate him). But I could see the crowd connecting to him. I had a strong feeling that he was here to stay and become the next sad chapter after Austin, Rock and Triple H. (Although I probably didn't expect him to be the top dog in 2012 still.)

What I didn't expect to get over was Eugene. And make no mistake about it - for a while Eugene was over huge. They had him face Triple H at freakin' Summerslam. The fans got sick of it eventually, but that was one gimmick I didn't expect to last one month.