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Good gimmicks that never caught on


tiger_rick

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Making my way through WWF Raw from early 1995 and I see a Henry Godwinn squash. I'd never seen him as a heel until the Godwinns turned on LOD in 1997. My first experience of him back then was probably the pig pen patch. He was a goofy reincarnation of Hillbilly Jim.

 

I really liked this character though. He's got excellent creepy country music, he dresses dark and has an aura of the country bumpkins from Deliverance. His work was decent too and he moved great for such a big guy.

 

I see from History of WWE that it didn't amount to much. A short run hanging around the terrible Million Dollar Corp. and a load of losses to shitehawks on house shows.

 

What a shame something a bit different and with tons of potential for creepy skits didn't go anywhere. He could easily have been built up to a WM match with Taker which would have been a billion times better than the Bundy match.

 

What other decent gimmicks came and went? Don't say Waylon Mercy - we all know!

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I thought the Godwinns had potential when they started using their real names and became Jarretts heavys as Southern Justice but that didn't last long at all if memory serves.

 

I really liked Tatanka especially when he turned but that didn't really go anywhere other than the Million Dollar Corporation. Was he tag champs with bigelow?

 

Edit: Thinking about it, Dibiase has a lot to answer for.

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I think they were going to stick with that weird gimmick when he changed his name, because the first vignette for him they called him Fandangoo. Minging.

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They have repackaged Fandango and he's still a flop. He doesn't even get a spot on Raw these days. The only thing that got over was his entrance theme.

 

They haven't repackaged him. He's just got a new bird and a second facial expression. It's the same shit gimmick that the novelty died out on a long time ago.

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Sean O'Haire's 'Devils Advocate' is a given, much like Waylon!

Planet Stasiak. Fuck knows I adored that gimmick!

Chaz was another one I actually liked and thought could have done alright, if they'd stuck with it.

Muhammad Hassan could have been majestic, only for the wrestler inhabiting the gimmick was septic and the lads behind the curtains lacked bollox.

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Granted I'm looking at this through an 8 year old's viewpoint, but I thought that Max Moon was a pretty cool gimmick but Konan didn't last long with the fed and it all fizzled out really. 

The heel Doink was turned babyface much too soon, they had so much mileage left in the character.

Also, I liked the Narcissist Lex Luger. It was obvious why they went along with the Made in the USA stuff, but the angle with his titanium plated arm was starting to hot up and a few features in WWF magazine etc. That all went to waste afterwards though, even though they were angling for a Luger/Bret feud by the looks of it.

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Heel Doink is a great shout! He was a genuinely terrifying character and the commentaters putting over that he was actually a dangerous guy who just dressed as a clown to get in ppls head was brilliant. Even in 2015 an evil heel clown would unsettle ppl

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Heel Doink today would get treated like shit by JBL so I would like it's chances. I bloody loved that gimmick though, someone on YouTube did a comp of all his subtle appearances before the Crush angle. Great stuff.

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There's also the amazing ECW spinoff of Borne Again, which was Matt Borne wearing the wig and painting half his face, with the idea being that having to play Doink had made him go crazy. Shame he didn't stick around to develop it more.

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I had a five disc heel Doink DVD set at one point. I think Landy made it. Hope I've still got it somewhere.

 

I don't think he didn't catch on. I just think people started to like him so they turned him. Agree with the endless wasted possibilities Chilli mentioned earlier but not quite what I was thinking of.

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