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Gimmicks that really should not have worked but just did.


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Not really relevant to the thread, but its always been weird to me that Hulk Hogan is probably the most famous wrestler ever, yet he dropped the name for 3 years and nobody really battered an eyelid. He was Hollywood Hogan during his heel run and it didnt make a difference. You'd think that would have been a bit of a risk for them.

 

Was that not to do with saving money on paying Marvel? Always assumed there was a bit of a legal thing with them, since he went massively mainstream anyway?

 

That's what I heard, too. I always assumed they felt it played right into their hands anyway, as re-branding as "Hollywood" highlighted just how far gone he was as a heel, and that the Hulk Hogan brand was already too deeply established to be damaged by it - the fans already knew him as "Hulk", regardless of what he called himself.

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True. Wrestling in 1990 was serious legit business. All the other guys in the Survivor Series match with him must have been thinking "shit, I can't stand campy gimmicks, we'd be taken seriously if it wasn't for the bookers dressing this one bloke up as a cunt. Why cant he be a no-nonsense bad-ass like the rest of us?"

 

 

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You must realise that there's a qualitative difference between the gimmicks you've highlighted there and an undead zombie who also sort of works at a funeral parlour. None of the above have any supernatural powers, and in fact Dusty and the Harts were just wrestlers-who-dressed-a-bit-flash.

 

Your sarcastic posting style is a highlight of the forum but this was a swing and a miss.

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That's what I heard, too. I always assumed they felt it played right into their hands anyway, as re-branding as "Hollywood" highlighted just how far gone he was as a heel, and that the Hulk Hogan brand was already too deeply established to be damaged by it - the fans already knew him as "Hulk", regardless of what he called himself.

 

 

As a semi regular viewer of Nitro at the time, it always felt as if "Hollywood Hogan" was interchangeable with "Hollywood Hulk Hogan"

 

The longevity of the Goldust gimmick is an interesting one.   The've PGed it a lot, so he's now a loveable oddball instead of a borderline sex pest, but his 2014 run was one of his best.   Knowing how beloved Dusty was, it wouldn't surprise me if Goldust had another bigish run in a month or two.  

 

Cody will probably get a better run, although I'd say its evens if he comes back as Star Dust. 

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The Hurricane turning up during the WWF/WCW Invasion was completely out of left-field; it was like something out of 1995. I think, though, that the character was so out of place that it got over. Sure, he spent most of his tenure as a jobber, Cruiserweight or tag guy, but when I first saw that character, I wasn't thinking "here's a guy who'll get a pinfall over The Rock."

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The Hurricane's gimmick wasn't that he was a superhero though, like it would have been if he'd turned up in 1991, when the Undertaker was a deadman. His character was that he was a jobber that is a mark for the Green Lantern and has decided that he's going to pretend to be a superhero now. In that sense, it was appropriate for the era in which it was happening.

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Sting is a very famous musician (way more famous than Steve Borden), yet he used Sting's name and was established as the wrestler "Sting". You dont even associate the two. One is Sting from the Police and the other is Sting from WCW. If that happened today people would be all over it if WWE debuted a character called "Kanye" or something more ridulous.

 

Didn't Gordon "Sting" Sumner forget to trademark the name "Sting" and wrestler "Sting" got in there before him? Isn't Sumner paying wrestler "Sting" to use the name?

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I think its more of a case that Sting owns the gimmick as it pertains to wrestling. Sort of like how Hulk Hogan can now put "Hulk" on whatever he wants, because he proved in court he's got as much right to use it in his line of entertainment, because its established enough not to confuse the market with the Incredible Hulk. You'd think that Gordon Sumner would eat Steve Borden alive in court if he was put in a position where he'd have to pay a fee for the name "Sting".

 

I was reading something before that Sumner was trying to get the "Sting.com" domain name, but the word "sting" was so common, he couldnt outright own it. You can only own a word like that as it pertains to your profession. Sort of like how nobody can use the name "Undertaker" in TNA or ROH, but you can do what you like with that word outside wrestling.

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Yeah, there's a difference between a trademark and copyright. Trademark literally refers to a trade - such as wrestling or fast food or what have you.

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Yeah, there's a difference between a trademark and copyright. Trademark literally refers to a trade - such as wrestling or fast food or what have you.

Never really thought about that before.  You learn something new some days.

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The Hurricane's gimmick wasn't that he was a superhero though, like it would have been if he'd turned up in 1991, when the Undertaker was a deadman. His character was that he was a jobber that is a mark for the Green Lantern and has decided that he's going to pretend to be a superhero now. In that sense, it was appropriate for the era in which it was happening.

 

Exactly. It was a gimmick perfectly summed up in his regular spot where he'd get enough offence in on much bigger guys to once again delude himself into thinking he could hit them with a chokeslam.

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I was reading something before that Sumner was trying to get the "Sting.com" domain name, but the word "sting" was so common, he couldnt outright own it. 

 

If he doesn't own someone is sure being nice as it appears to be very much about him (I'll try to stop being annoying now, apologies).

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