Do You Think "Cult Wrestlers" Are Vital To Pro Wrestling?

[James Greiga]

A cult wrestler is a wrestler who usually debuts with a hated gimmick or gets mixed to negative reviews. He's hated by both fans and critics no matter if he's heel or babyface but eventually becomes very popular or just gets good reviews in hindsight. They usually have a very controversial gimmick or a gimmick thats incredibly fresh which is why most people dont like it because its so progressive. An example is Goldust, The Miz, Mankind, Zack Ryder, Brodus Clay, The Boogeyman and even CM Punk with his old "Straight Edge Messiah" gimmick. Remember when Zack debuted as a solo wrestler with Alicia Fox as his valet people hated that "Woo Woo Woo" shit not because he was heel but because it was stupid as hell and now Brodus Clay is in the same situation with fans torn between hating him and loving him.

This can also apply to wrestlers who debut with a very outlandish gimmick and are immediately loved like Kane or The Undertaker but those are very very very rare cases.

This may sound like an obvious answer but look at some of these guys. Goldust, while very deserving and very talented in his gimmick, was never given a main title or even put in that kind of feud with a top guy. Miz got the title but people would not stop talking about how he didnt deserve it, he wasnt ready or how he was still missing something which were all true. CM Punk got the big title but that was because he had already gotten the WHC title before he even had that gimmick. Let's be honest most cult wrestlers don't even make it to the main event status AND stay there. Mankind and Undertaker are the only exceptions. Kane, even with the mask, never got the spotlight he deserved, he got the WWE title for a day and when they gave him the WHC it was only because they ran out of ideas.

So with it in mind that these wrestlers usually don't go down in history as a "Big Dog of Professional Wrestling" but contribute a great deal to the wrestling zeitgeist, do you think they are important in pro wrestling or do they serve no more purpose than a typical midcarder?

 

[Famous Shea]

Absolutely. Just look at Daniel Bryan (or Bryan Danielson for you ROH marks) as a good example today. Daniel Bryan was pretty much indifferent for the WWE crowd when he was made to be a babyface for the most of 2011. While most of us Internet followers were behind Bryan, he didn't necessarily make waves with the rest of the WWE crowd. By the beginning of 2012, he made his way into being a heel as an arrogant asshole, but again, the WWE crowd didn't give as much heat to him like other heels like Mark Henry or John Laurinaitis.

It wasn't until Wrestlemania 28 for some unbelievable reason that the Miami crowd was completely behind Daniel Bryan and chanted "YES! YES! YES!" in unison for Bryan that made him an instant cult wrestler. Sure he got squashed by Sheamus in 18 seconds, but I think it was a blessing in disguise. Just look at Raw the night after; the crowd kept chanting "YES! YES! YES" all night long even if he didn't appear on Raw that night.

Do I think cult wrestlers are vital to pro wrestling? 100% yes. Daniel Bryan is easily the best example of this today.

 

[Mark Gallows]

They are vital, but in a different way I think. You need a strong mid-card to keep the shows entertaining, to keep people watching till the main-event. I don't get why guys these days are so against being "mid-card", it's not an isult, they're just as important to the product as the top guys. But yeah, why not have some "out there" characters, it's entertaining and it's different, variety is the spice of life, as the old saying goes. Goldust had a really good run initially, feuding with Piper, Razor and eventually Pillman, when they watered down the character to being a comedy character, that's when he lost his shine. The other side of that argument is, the guys with the really weird character's never seem to break into the main-event, probably due to Vince's love of generic bodybuilders in recent years.