What happened to gimmicks and cool names?

[Berniewood Hogan]

"So, Pop, I was thinking maybe we could give these guys nicknames..."

"All nicknames are reserved for you, son. No one else can have any."

"Thanks, but I have like fifteen nicknames already. Hunter Hearst Helmsley, The Blueblood, Triple H, The Game, The Cerebral Assassin, The Asskicker..."

"GOD DAMN IT, ONLY YOU CAN HAVE NICKNAMES!"

"Okay, but maybe we could get more guys over if..."

"Nobody's getting over unless I say they're getting over. Or if they suck Pat's cock."

"..................................."

"Okay, Dad. You're a genius."

 

[DaylitoJames]

Sheamus is another who people like to give shyt towards, but he's got a different name, cool nickname (The Celtic Warrior); epic theme/entrance, unique look and very good in the ring. Also actually has a gimmick, something which most guys on the roster lack; women included. Might not be the most charismatic guy, but guy is very underrated.

Gonna start calling Sheamus the nickname "Rocksteady" once that new Turtles movie comes out

 

[Rack4K]

There's nicknames and then there's prefixes.

Nicknames are The Rattlesnake, the people's champion, the cerebral assassin, the excellence of execution, the lunatic fringe, the Irish lasskicker, etc. Its something they call the wrestler in addition to their actual names. Something they just use to add more character. They haven't stopped doing that, there's still plenty of that in the company.

Prefixes are tied to the actual name. Its basically the name itself. Bret 'the hitman' hart, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, 'Ravishing' Rick Rude, Jake 'the snake' Roberts, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper...these names made the characters HUGE. Larger than life.

There's no prefixes in wrestling anymore, except 'The Phenomenal' AJ Styles. Before that, the last time they did it was probably 'Dashing' Cody Rhodes. They should bring it back. For instance, they should call shorty Sasha 'The Boss' Banks. That should be her name. That should be what is said as she walks to the ring, as she's introduced before interviews, etc. It makes everything bigger.

 

[Spyro]

There's nicknames and then there's prefixes.

Nicknames are The Rattlesnake, the people's champion, the cerebral assassin, the excellence of execution, the lunatic fringe, the Irish lasskicker, etc. Its something they call the wrestler in addition to their actual names. Something they just use to add more character. They haven't stopped doing that, there's still plenty of that in the company.

Prefixes are tied to the actual name. Its basically the name itself. Bret 'the hitman' hart, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, 'Ravishing' Rick Rude, Jake 'the snake' Roberts, 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper...these names made the characters HUGE. Larger than life.

There's no prefixes in wrestling anymore, except 'The Phenomenal' AJ Styles. Before that, the last time they did it was probably 'Dashing' Cody Rhodes. They should bring it back. For instance, they should call shorty Sasha 'The Boss' Banks. That should be her name. That should be what is said as she walks to the ring, as she's introduced before interviews, etc. It makes everything bigger.

Too bad most of them suck

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Sheamus is another who people like to give shyt towards, but he's got a different name, cool nickname (The Celtic Warrior); epic theme/entrance, unique look and very good in the ring. Also actually has a gimmick, something which most guys on the roster lack; women included. Might not be the most charismatic guy, but guy is very underrated.

Sheamus is boring as shyt and had the rocket strapped to his back early on solely cause he fixes HHH's protein shakes and wipes the sweat from his chest during workouts.

 

[Here Comes the Pain]

The Celtic warrior sheamus
The apex predator randy Orton
The world's largest athlete the big show
The world's strongest man mark henry
The beast incarnate brock lesnar
Mexico's greatest export alberto del rio
The bulgarian brute rusev

 

[El Poyo Loco]

Montell
Vontavious
Porter

MVP


That gimmick was never ment to be a face gimmick. Once they turned him face it was over he was best as the arrogant superstar athlete.

 

[Kill Dat Noize]

Sheamus is boring as shyt and had the rocket strapped to his back early on solely cause he fixes HHH's protein shakes and wipes the sweat from his chest during workouts.

sheam was over a babyface fella.

could have been a legit contender for heel monster brock at one point.

 

[Pinyapplesuckas]

everybody has such a shyt regular name now

Buddy Murphy


Wesley Blake
Elias Samson

Erick Rowan

Luke Harper

Daniel Bryan



Imagine if they debuted The Undertaker today...and he was just named Mark Cameron or some shyt

 

[StraxStrax]

Stardust

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Mark Cameron

 

[richaveli83]

I also hate how they don't have actual wrestling themes. All the entrance themes are some BS rock theme. Jim Johnston should be the only composer for wrestlers.

 

[JoogJoint]

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

I've been mentioning this for years. No one has a gimmick, everyone is just generic there's no difference character wise between most the guys on the roster.

Bray is one of the few with one and they still fukk that up most of the time.

Both of y'all are correct.

It's something that I have been thinking about for quite some time now and I know from pro-wrestling purists I might catch heat for this, but workrate is only half the battle into make ultra mega superstars in pro-wrestling especially when it comes to a company like the WWE. Nobody has any characters, everybody is just playing on being a "smark favorite," but what about the character development? Storylines? How are you getting the fans to engage in what's going on in the ring?

I know wrestlers like SCSA says he was primarily a wrestler first and foremost and he's right, BUT what made people more engaged in what he was doing IN the ring? It was his CHARACTER. Everybody nowadays focuses so much on workrate and perfecting their craft in the ring and I respect that, but it doesn't make a person a superstar or get people invested in you as a pro-wrestler.

I think that's what sets the Golden Era and the Attitude Era apart from this PG Era is that you actually had to have a personality or a gimmick to get people engaged in the product. You had to be well rounded athlete, not just my wrestle well.

It's too workrate based nowadays.

 

[The Prince of All Saiyans]

TL Hopper

 

[Playaz Eyez]

I couldn't help but come back to this thread after coming across this



I know they're just getting to NXT, but Nick Miller and Shane Thorne