Recycling Gimmicks?

[RicSpade]

Has anyone noticed that they are recycling certain gimmicks to other wrestlers in the last 10 years? It just seems like they are out of fresh ideas.

Example: Charlie Haas a few months ago when he was coming out to other wrestlers gimmicks. Does anyone remember when Stevie Richards did this?
Carlito and Kofi had similar debut vignettes, which were also similar to Razor Ramon.
Black Machismo doing the whole Macho Man thing
Abyss is a Mankind ripoff
Samoa Joe looks like a mix between Umaga and Tazz
Curry Man was a Japanese Doink the Clown without the water flower.
Mark Jindrak had the Narcissist gimmick

Solutions? Thoughts? Additions? Lets hear them

 

[aintnostoppin]

I don't mind when a wrestler is able to capitalize off of an old gimmick. Take JBL for instance. He just used the Million Dollar Man's gimmick and added some long horns, but he was able to win the WWE championship, which is something the Million Dollar Man was never able to do. Even though he was not as good as the Million Dollar man in the ring, JBL was able to draw as much heat, if not more, than he ever did.

 

[magnetik]

ive started to notice this myself,
boogeyman = papa shango, face paint, creepy black guy (lol), the whole voodoo thing boogey had going.

london & kendrick = the rockers, from the music to the way they wrestled in my opinion, i still think they were a pretty good tag team tho

jeff hardy = sting (to a certain degree in my opinion) the way wwe has him use his energy. im not sayin this as a bad thing it just appears to me that he's sting with a little more hardcore in'em. the face paint doesn't help either.

kennedy and/or MVP = mr.perfect, kennedy's cockiness, mvp is very cocky but very talented perfect never won the wwe title and i dont think mvp will either BUT they both could give one hell of a match. still there's only one mr.perfect.

cryme tyme = harlem heat, no particular reason here just seem like a 2009 harlem heat to me cant really explain it.

legacy = HORRIBLE version of evolution

matt hardy = bob orton cast gimmick

john morrison = hbk, same style that's basically it

dolph ziggler has a recycled gimmick but i cant put my finger on what it is tho

umaga = headshrinker, same look except he has face paint (woulda loved to see him and manu teamed up)

WGTT = the steiners, collegiate wrestling team


its 4:04am i cant think of anymore right now lol. agree or disagree?

 

[rogueyankee]

i'm surprised no one has mentioned that Mike Knox is a ripoff of Snitsky or that Eugene was a ripoff of Kevin Sullivan's dyslexic brother, Dave "Evad" Sullivan. oh, and how about the most famous of all....Hulk Hogan, among others, was a ripoff of Superstar Billy Graham. and has anyone noticed how similar Edge and THe Brian Kendrick are to Brian Pillman?

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

What we don't realize is that most gimmicks are recycled. Ric Flair is the most famous culprit of this...using the 'Nature Boy' gimmick that Buddy Rogers used so well. Jerry Lawler used the 'King of Memphis Wrestling' moniker from Jackie Fargo. JBL copied Stan Hansen, Triple H copies Harley Race, Flair, and Arn Anderson. It's a way of life.

There are few original wrestlers out there. RVD is the first that comes to mind. His moveset is unique and is something we associate with him and only him. Punk's variations of RVD's gimmick is different, but mostly the same. Gimmicks being used over and over aren't a bad thing if the people can pull them off. Flair and Hogan worked out OK. And so is Jeff Hardy.

 

[SavageTaker]

I don't mind it if gimmicks are recycled. Just as long as the wrestler using the gimmick is able to pull it off. Like The Lariat and others have mentioned already, some of the most popular gimmicks of all time were recycled. So as far as I'm concerned they should continue to recycle gimmicks if they were good gimmicks and the wrestler doing them could pull them off. If they use bad gimmicks and the wrestler doing the gimmick can still pull it off then I say more power to that wrestler for being able to pull off a gimmick that people disliked.

 

[jokeboy624]

Gimmicks are like stories, there are only so many in the world. I was once told that there are only seven basic stories in the world, it could be more I'm having a faulty memory on the subject right now, but then you take different plot twist and turns to jazz them up. The same can be said about gimmicks. It's nearly impossible for someone to come into professional wrestling right now and not be "recycling" someone else's gimmick. It's by no means a bad thing as long as they can pull it off, as has been mentioned before. If not move on to a new one.

I don't like blatant rip-offs of gimmicks though where they don't acknowledge it's a rip-off. I've heard stories where Ric Flair beat Buddy Rogers and afterward Rogers said that Flair was the new "Nature Boy", please correct if that's inaccurate. I don't remember having read anything about Jay Lethal acknowledging Macho Man, I think he just uses it, and that I'm not a fan of. Charlie Haas was hilarious because he changed it every week and changed the name to be more fitting to him, which was great.

 

[RicSpade]

I seen a lot of great points so far from you guys.

I wanna first point out that calling yourself something, isn't as bad as almost totally being someones gimmick. Like Mark Jindrak when he was paired with Teddy Long that was a blatant reuse of the Lex Luger in his first WWF run. Calling yourself the new Razor and new Diesil or whatever, but if you were to call yourself "The New Nature Boy" or "The Great one" or something like that if your not completely mimicking its not really recycling the gimmick.

 

[HardCoor]

Like some one said earlier... there are only so many gimmicks to go around. The main thing is to make them your own. JBL used a twist of The Million Dollar Man, mainly because he was wealthy, any wealthy wrestler will forever be compared to the Million Dollar Man. However JBL did not compy the gimmick, he built from it. He created a character of his own from it. There are plenty of cocky wrestlers who are skilled in the ring... that does not mean they are all copying Mr. Perfect. There are similarities, which makes it work.

Shark Boy and Jay Lethal, stole gimmicks. That is completely different from other examples we have heard. Shark Boy made puns from SCSA's catch phrases, but he didnt really make the character his own. Jay Lethal copied Macho Man, even brought SoCal Val into it and copied some Macho Madness storylines.

I feel like there is a major difference here and those wrestlers who can build off of past wrestlers in similar gimmicks will achieve much more than those who simply mock and copy past wrestlers with their gimmicks.

 

[y2empleh]

Has anyone noticed that they are recycling certain gimmicks to other wrestlers in the last 10 years? It just seems like they are out of fresh ideas.

Example: Charlie Haas a few months ago when he was coming out to other wrestlers gimmicks. Does anyone remember when Stevie Richards did this?
Carlito and Kofi had similar debut vignettes, which were also similar to Razor Ramon.
Black Machismo doing the whole Macho Man thing
Abyss is a Mankind ripoff
Samoa Joe looks like a mix between Umaga and Tazz
Curry Man was a Japanese Doink the Clown without the water flower.
Mark Jindrak had the Narcissist gimmick

Solutions? Thoughts? Additions? Lets hear them

There is a difference between 2 gimmicks being similar and one gimmick being recycled over and over. But since you mentioned certain gimmicks, let's examine your choices.

Charlie Haas: Yes he mimicked other wrestlers but those gimmicks were not HIS gimmick. His gimmick was an impersonator. It did not put him on his own but it did make him slightly entertaining until creative could find something for him. I'm personally a fan of his work so I would much rather see this then him being another "future endeavor"

Carlito/Kofi: Yes their caribbean gimmicks are similar to Razor Ramon. However, it works for them. You look at them and the first thing that comes to mind is "caribbean". I could not see those two being "cryme time"

Black Machismo: I'll agree with you here. This is a direct recycling. Yes, it tried to give him a "character" but it has run his course. If anyone is going to take Lethal Consequences seriously as a tag team, he has to drop the gimmick.

Abyss/Mankind: Other then the fact that their masks are somewhat similar, their characters are different. Mankind was just a crazy lunatic. Abyss is simply a "hardcore monster"

Samoa Joe: Other then they are both Samoan, I see no similarities between him and Umaga besides they both started off as a wrecking machine that always wins (then again that does seem to be done with every single samoan wrestler/tag team). With Tazz, other then they both liked to use the rearnaked choke, Tazz made his name as a small guy that suplexes people. Joe has made his name as a big guy that does the stuff the little guys can do.

Curry Man: This one has me scratching my head. Curryman is NOTHING like Doink. Doink was about pulling practical jokes on people. Curryman is just a stereotypical japanese cartoonish mascot that likes spicy foods and women. Also keep in mind, Daniels originally used Curryman in Japan some 10 years ago.

Jindrak: Unless he used this gimmick near WCW's end (which I stopped watching), I have no recollection of this. The only gimmick of his I remember was his advice speaker gimmick he used for a while before DDP came along and they essentially gave him that gimmick and sent Jindrak on a future endeavor. I've always loved Jindraks version of it personally.

 

[Dave]

It never bothered me to any great extent when I was younger but now it is beginning to piss me off quite a lot. I think it is one of the reasons that WWE in particular is becoming very stale and boring at points. The one that come to mind straight away is the one regarding that Mendes bitch that followed Beth Pheonix around for a while proclaiming that she was "her biggest fan". Hello! You did the same fucking thing with Mickie Jame for God's sake. Albeit, they took it to a different exten with Mickie and it worked well because she seemed like a right psycho. When this one came along though, I just could not get over it. They are most definitely getting worse for it. I look at the list the OP posted and I was quite shocked. No wonder wrestling is getting more and more predictable and no wonder more and more people are switching off.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I think The Hart Dynasty has potential to be something. In order for this stable to get to the next level either Tyson Kidd or DH Smith would have to be ECW champion or tag team champions, but that's a long way away from happening. Other than The New Hart Dynasty I do think some of these recycled gimmicks are getting old. Vladmir Kozlov, Sheik Abdul Bashir,and The British Invasion are all examples of the anti-american gimmick which has been done so many times, for so long.

 

[[email protected]]

It could honestly be worse.

I can remember the early 90s when Vince McMahon decided that for some reason, wrestlers were just bad people.

He didn't really many real wrestlers in the roster when you look at it. Instead, wrestlers were all something else.

-Isaac Yankem, DDS (Who came up with that anyway?)
-Bob "Spark Plug" Holly (AKA Thurman "Sparky" Plugg, Nascar Driver)
-Man Mountain Rock (Fat ass boring Rock Star. Who let him in there?)
-TL Hopper (a plumber, really?)
-Mancow (I don't even know where to go with that, except it looked like the offspring of Vader and a Bull)
-Gobbledy Gooker (I have no idea what that was, a chicken?)
-Doink the clown (Enough said)
-Repo Man (I always wondered if someone ran over him while he was actually trying to repo a car.)
-IRS (I am so afraid of the tax accountant)

Thats just a few. At least we have actual WRESTLERS now.

 

[ztwhite]

Wrestling has always been about recycled gimmicks simply because it's hard to come up with a gimmick for the thousands of guys and gals who have tried their hand at wrestling. Dozens of guys have borrowed / stolen gimmicks from their idols over the years.

The thing that gets me the most is that when someone actually does have a fresh gimmick, the fans normally don't embrace it. They enjoy seeing the same recycled gimmicks.

 

[Sasori]

Hmm your right some gimmicks are being recycled but they work! Think about it Christian for example took notes from the Rock and he's just as charasmatic and good at mic skills as the Rock was and he's a wat better wrestler! The Hart Dynasty very similar to The Hart Foundation and it works! Remember the Hooligans Kendrick and London? They were just like the Rockers same music,same wrestling skills, and one left the other! Kendrick's career was almost IDENTICAL to HBK's until he got drafted to RAW this year! All though some gimmicks that are recycled are getting boring remember Cena IDK why but his new gimmick reminds me of Lex Luger I just don't no why! And Matt Hardy's lil Lex Luger stint using the cast as a weapon... meh not so great

 

[Age of Orton]

The problem at present is most of of the fans who were into it when they were younger like myself back in the mid 90s remember how they had different gimmicks and were a lot of the guys now are all prototypes of the same mold, however back then WWE was going for the cartoon like characters nowadays they're trying to get the wrestlers to be that of the 80s plain wrestlers with they're own look, no cartoons or over the top gimmicks (minus a couple of them)

Wrestling is always about recycling the chances are at some point WWE will go back to they're cartoon like gimmicks.

 

[LamaNamaneumi]

Stone Cold....The Sandman
Matt Hardy...."Cowboy"Bob Orton, I'm waiting to hear Cole use his " shades of...." with these two.
JBL was like J.R. from the tv show Dallas I always thought, he never relly used his money like The Million Dollar Man did.

When I think of reycled gimicks I think of guys who switched from WWE to TNA or WWF to WCW if you will.
Nailz....The Prisoner
The Big Boss Man....The Boss
Million Dollar Man....Billionair Ted(with the NWO)
Goldust....Black Reign
Even Undertaker's devil gimick is a rubb off of Kevin Sullavin from the 70's.

 

[RicSpade]

There is a difference between 2 gimmicks being similar and one gimmick being recycled over and over. But since you mentioned certain gimmicks, let's examine your choices.

Charlie Haas: Yes he mimicked other wrestlers but those gimmicks were not HIS gimmick. His gimmick was an impersonator. It did not put him on his own but it did make him slightly entertaining until creative could find something for him. I'm personally a fan of his work so I would much rather see this then him being another "future endeavor"

What Charlie Haas did was a blatant reuse of Stevie Richards gimmick in the late 90's, it looks likes this gimmick isn't used now.

and as far as a wrestler recycling gimmicks, its different if the wrestler uses a similar gimmick in a different federation (i.e. Goldust as Black Reign) because not all wrestlers have their gimmick trademarked for use everywhere.

 

[LynchCats]

With regards to Jay Lethal, I believe I read an article where he said the Black Machismo gimmick was to pay homage to the Macho Man as he was Lethal's fav wrestler as a child, much like Hogan influenced guys getting into wrestling (Edge most notorious).

 

[Blade]

Perhaps wrestling companies are "recycling" gimmicks, but so what?
Each wrestler gives a gimmick a new twist, no two wrestlers will play a gimmick the same. Different wrestlers have different qualities and bring out different aspects of a gimmick. I don't see it as "recycling", I see it as looking at a classic gimmick in a different way.

And the Black Machismo gimmick isn't recycling. Jay Lethal's gimmick is that he thinks he's someone from wrestling's past. Savage didn't think he was someone from wrestling's past, his gimmick was being himself... The Macho Man.