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Gimmicks based on someone else's gimmick


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Posted

Characters that wouldn't exist if not for their connection with a pre-existing character in that promotion.

Seeing Nailz in the YouTube thread got me thinking about this, as while an ex-con gimmick isn't unthinkable on its own, one would assume his in particular was created so that he could feud with the Big Boss Man.

Paul Bearer probably counts as he came along after The Undertaker's debut, and the best or most successful example that comes to mind is obviously Kane. In fact there must be loads of family-based ones, but are there others you're particularly fond of? Maybe some whose obscure origins might surprise people?

Posted

Without ol' Hardcore Bob we wouldn't have got Crash and later Molly Holly.

Without Demolition there would've been no Demolition Crush (obviously).  Brian Adams did his WWF try-out under his real name and had worked in Portland under it too.  It's likely that without the Crush name he also wouldn't have eventually morphed into Hawaiian Kona Crush either.

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Magnum Milano said:

Without ol' Hardcore Bob we wouldn't have got Crash and later Molly Holly.

Without Demolition there would've been no Demolition Crush (obviously).  Brian Adams did his WWF try-out under his real name and had worked in Portland under it too.  It's likely that without the Crush name he also wouldn't have eventually morphed into Hawaiian Kona Crush either.

I do wonder about that one. As a kid who only just missed out on Demolition, I wouldn't have known he was the Crush from Demolition if my friends at school hadn't said he was - they didn't say anything about it when they debuted him as Hawaiian Crush. Which always made me wonder why they bothered re-debuting him under that name if they weren't going to make reference to it.

The most obvious example I can think of is Black Machismo, a literal rip-off.

If, however, we forget direct rip-offs and just go for the ones that could only exist via some logical relationship, Kane's a good one. In himself, he's a hell of a monster, but a huge part of his entire character is the fact he's the Undertaker's brother - it meant there didn't need to be any explanation as to why he was so fucking huge and so horror-film-type monstrous.

EDIT: Hah, beaten to it.

Edited by Carbomb
Posted
Just now, Carbomb said:

I do wonder about that one. As a kid who only just missed out on Demolition, I wouldn't have known he was the Crush from Demolition if my friends at school hadn't said he was - they didn't say anything about it when they debuted him as Hawaiian Crush. Which always made me wonder why they bothered re-debuting him under that name if they weren't going to make reference to it.

I meant more in the name than anything.

There's every chance he could've still got the same gimmick, but may have ended up as 'Hawaiian' Brian Adams or something along those lines.

Posted

Hawaiian Brian would've been a great name, to be fair. Eventually they could've teamed him with Flyin' Brian.

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Posted

Virgil - his entire gimmick and overness was based on being Ted DiBiase's put-upon manservant.

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Posted

Without Ole, Gene and Lars Anderson (Gene being the only one of them genuinely with that surname) forming the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, the young Marty Lunde doesn't take the name Arn Anderson so that he can team up with his 'uncle', and the two therefore don't ally with Tully Blanchard and Ric Flair a year later. Without Arn's gimmick based on a gimmick, Arn doesn't cut a promo referring to his group as the 'Horsemen', from which the name of the stable came.

Posted

Surely some guys in stables come into this, we wouldnt have the great man Viscera without the Ministry, so technically not without Undertaker.

Good old Dave Sullivan without without our Kev. Probably been a few kayfabe siblings/family members over the years. No EC3 without Dixie, lol.

Posted

Protected Chest D’Lo Brown was pretty much the only decent thing Dan Severn ever did in wrestling.

King of Harts Owen Hart was based completely on wanting to outdo the success of the Hitman.

Christian would never have got the job if it wasn’t for Edge and Gangrel’s Lost Boys-inspired gimmicks.

 Phineas Godwinn was only there in the first place because his cousin needed a tag team partner, then became part of Southern Justice because Jeff Jarrett needed backup, and then Mideon was created by the Undertaker’s black magic.

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