What happened to gimmicks and cool names?

Spyro

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GOATsso was talking about this on his podcast, and got me thinking; there just ain't many gimmicks or cool names anymore.

Look at the AE, you had Kane, The Undertaker, The Rock, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Triple H, Mick Foley (and his aliases), Rikishi, The Godfather, Gangrel, Goldust, Val Venis, Hardcore Holly, Big Boss Man, The Big Show, Viscera, Bradshaw and the list goes on. Lots of cool gimmicks, with cool names.

Look at the 80's, "The Model" Rick Martel, Hercules, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Junkyard Dog, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, Koko B Ware, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, "The Hitman" Bret Hart, Ricky "The Dragon Steamboat, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, The Honky Tonk Man, The Iron Shiek, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, "Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels and the list goes on. Again all memorable gimmicks with memorable nicknames.

Now look at the modern era, where are the memorable nicknames? Cool names? Awesome gimmicks? It seems like everyone has a two barreled name, like Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, Cody Rhodes, Darren Young, Jack Swagger etc etc.
Would Gangrel be as memorable is his name was Gary Smith? Or The Godfather if it was Jim Grant? I mean who do you remember more, Gangrel or Billy Kidman? Characters and names like The Undertaker, Kane, Andre the Giant, The Big Show, all recognizable. How is Big Cass, Big E (just another big name) or Braun Strowman good? Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Bray Wyatt; all generic two barreled names considering their gimmicks; Baron Corbin another. Finn Balor is supposed to be some demon or some shyt, and his name is "Finn Balor"? Wft?

Forget about generic names, what about nicknames? "The Show off" Dolph Ziggler, "The Eater of Worlds" Bray Wyatt, "The Real American" Jack Swagger. Are any of these as memorable as Macho Man, The Deadman, Nature Boy, The Beast, The Viper, The Animal, The Hitman etc etc. And gimmicks, where are they? What is Sami Zayn's gimmick, or Curtis Axel, or Heath Slater, or (dare I say it) Roman Reigns, or Del Rio, or Zack Ryder, or Apollo Crews, Titus O' Neil I could go on.

Don't get me wrong, there are a few cool names/nicknames/gimmicks nowadays, but they are too few and far between. They need to address this because it's the main reason I find myself not giving a shyt about most of the roster and thus their matches, just my two cents. (got thread idea from GOATsso)

Thanks if you read it all lol :whoo:
 
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MushroomX

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Stone Cold Steve Austin killed the gimmick. His "real life" beer drinking, and blue-collar persona destroyed any chance at people believing a clean cut persona, like John Cena. I mean Hogan wasn't afraid to use a chair, but after Stone Cold, having a gimmick became extremely hard.

If the gimmick is too far fetched, "A Dancer - Fandango, A Model - Breeze, Demonic Tag Team - Ascension." they are dead in the water. WWE is trying to hard to go straight G material. That's just my opinion, but also I like the philosophy of sink/swim, stop getting Creative involved with promos; force Wrestlers to become interesting.
 

DaylitoJames

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Didn't the announcers used to give up the nicknames? It was because of Jim Ross that I would call Austin "The Rattlsnake" and the Rock "The People's Champion" and Bobby Heenan got me calling Goldberg "DA MAN!"

Maggle Cole don't sell me on shyt because he is garbage, yall remember when he tried his damnest to have "Controled Frenzy" be Kofi's nickname?:scust:Too bad the "Lunatic Fringe" shyt stuck around
 

Heelish

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Didn't the announcers used to give up the nicknames? It was because of Jim Ross that I would call Austin "The Rattlsnake" and the Rock "The People's Champion" and Bobby Heenan got me calling Goldberg "DA MAN!"

Maggle Cole don't sell me on shyt because he is garbage, yall remember when he tried his damnest to have "Controled Frenzy" be Kofi's nickname?:scust:Too bad the "Lunatic Fringe" shyt stuck around
Didn't he try to sell us "The Asskicker" for HHH a few years ago? :mjlol:
 

Playaz Eyez

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Stone Cold Steve Austin killed the gimmick. His "real life" beer drinking, and blue-collar persona destroyed any chance at people believing a clean cut persona, like John Cena. I mean Hogan wasn't afraid to use a chair, but after Stone Cold, having a gimmick became extremely hard.

If the gimmick is too far fetched, "A Dancer - Fandango, A Model - Breeze, Demonic Tag Team - Ascension." they are dead in the water. WWE is trying to hard to go straight G material. That's just my opinion, but also I like the philosophy of sink/swim, stop getting Creative involved with promos; force Wrestlers to become interesting.

..........but after (and along with) Stone Cold, you had Kane, Big Show, Undertaker, Bad Ass Billy Gunn, Gangrel, The Godfather, Edge & Christian, etc, and that was for like a 7 year period, so how did Austin "kill the gimmick"?

Agree about your latter point though. The WWE has simply lost touch with actually being creative. Hell, as of 2013, Vince still thought black characters are Disco/70s based with the Funkasaurus gimmick. There needs to be an entire culture change within the WWE. They amount to an NBA team being stuck on titles they won 15 years ago while acting like they've won presently. The need to start from scratch with a lot of the creative team and producers.
 

MushroomX

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..........but after (and along with) Stone Cold, you had Kane, Big Show, Undertaker, Bad Ass Billy Gunn, Gangrel, The Godfather, Edge & Christian, etc, and that was for like a 7 year period, so how did Austin "kill the gimmick"?

Agree about your latter point though. The WWE has simply lost touch with actually being creative. Hell, as of 2013, Vince still thought black characters are Disco/70s based with the Funkasaurus gimmick. There needs to be an entire culture change within the WWE. They amount to an NBA team being stuck on titles they won 15 years ago while acting like they've won presently. The need to start from scratch with a lot of the creative team and producers.

How can I explain. Austin generated a character that blurred the line of face/heel, using Heel tactics to get Face pops. His character had resonance with ordinary people, blue-collar vs the boss. So it was so entrenched in realism to the fans, that it was hard to go back to a gimmick-heavy atmosphere.
 

Spyro

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Didn't the announcers used to give up the nicknames? It was because of Jim Ross that I would call Austin "The Rattlsnake" and the Rock "The People's Champion" and Bobby Heenan got me calling Goldberg "DA MAN!"

Maggle Cole don't sell me on shyt because he is garbage, yall remember when he tried his damnest to have "Controled Frenzy" be Kofi's nickname?:scust:Too bad the "Lunatic Fringe" shyt stuck around

"Lunatic Fringe" :mjlol::mjlol::mjlol:



:snoop:
 

Playaz Eyez

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How can I explain. Austin generated a character that blurred the line of face/heel, using Heel tactics to get Face pops. His character had resonance with ordinary people, blue-collar vs the boss. So it was so entrenched in realism to the fans, that it was hard to go back to a gimmick-heavy atmosphere.

Ahhhh you know what, I thought you meant literally the types of names. Even with that, there's a way to have a gimmick yet not be so overly hokey. I think the Wyatts are a good example of that (that I think Bray should limi the lengthy promos to backstage skits and not in the ring).
 

Doctor Doom

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No one actually has a gimmick anymore :francis:


Outside of a few people, all of them are just regular guys. :francis:



Doesn't help they all have twitters and refer to their shyt as "characters" :francis:



I remember checking Bray Wyatt's twitter expecting some :demonic: shyt, but this dude having normal ass conversations with BABYFACES :francis:



I still lose sleep over the fact that they referring to them as "characters" :francis:



I knew it wasn't the hyper-realism even as a kid, but I would still be shook to walk up to a guy like Kane or the Undertaker and ask for an autograph because they had the aura.


The only monster I'd be on some :lupe: shyt walking up to would be Brock



shyt is just lame now :martin:
 

TBdaGhost

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For a while me and my boys would not realy watch wrestling but buy the rumble. One year we were saying this like every wrestler had a Jon Smith type name. Then Drew McIntyre (who none of us had seen before) came out. And we all lost it :russ:
 
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