@@green_eye_shy_guy YES!! Agreed man. I still have my HCTP save from when I did a Sean O Haire run and had the world title on him. So when I'd replay later as different wrestlers he was part of the big boy stories lol Always liked O'Haire.
Pirate Paul Burchill was massively over with my group of friends back then. That entrance and the spanish fly finisher was incredible. I remember being really sad when the gimmick disappeared.
He’s like a cute throw back to the WWF Golden Era and New Gen with the gimmick personas where we know he’s not a real pirate but we’re hoodwinked to assume he could be one.
I was actually SUPER into his gimmick when I was younger. The whole thing just worked for me. His entrance, presentation, and finisher were all badass!
Let’s be honest: No one at the time could’ve pulled off the gimmick as well as Paul Burchill 😃😃😃 I actually enjoyed it 😃😃 I remember during his entrance for his first match that William Regal was laughing his head off and when Paul Burchill pulled his sword out , Regal absolutely crapped his pants 😂😂😂
Good to remember Paul Burchill, the dude took a career-killing gimmick and made it work till creative didn't want him anymore. Really deserves a lot of praise for that alone.
Yeah, Pirate Paul was one of thr most entertaining characters at that point. I remember clearly how exited his act made us for the possibilities of Smackdown
Honestly the gimmick had “kid friendly midcard” act written all over it. Paul was getting great reactions and the kids in school loved the character and his finisher was awesome. I wished they leaned into it more by having him on the hunt for all the wwe "treasures" ie the championship gold and they could have did some comedic stuff where he finds items from wrestlers old gimmicks like when he was feuding with regal he could have found his hard hat from his man’s man gimmick, that would have gotten some good laughs from the older the crowd. Sorta like a face Repoman
I loved this character and he got a good crowd reaction. What a shame it ended so quickly. There was a rumor that Vince had never heard of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and had no idea pirates were popular at the time, so when combined with the Disney drama he just pulled the plug.
According to Court Bauer and Bruce Pritchard that's true. It's why, despite his bit crowd response, Vince would only have him as a heel. When people said "he should be a face" Vince insisted Pirates are always heels.
The story I'd always heard was that Vince wanted a pirate so Burchill gave him a full on Depp inspired Pirate but Vince had naturally never seen the movie and had either just randomly decided he wanted a Pirate, or vaguely knew that pirates were popular and wanted to cash in but didn't know why they were popular and when he saw the Depp inspired version of a wrestling Pirate, he didn't get it and thought Burchill was doing it wrong.
@@medes5597yup that’s what I remember as well. Instead of saying “huh this character I wanted to be the bad guy is actually a fan favorite, maybe I should change directions and embrace it” Vince being Vince just scraps the whole idea because it’s not what he wanted 🙄
That sudden change in booking for the last 3 matches was so jarring that I almost couldn't finish this episode. Remember when WWF heard "Austin 316" for the first time and just blasted it to the moon? - A pirate rip-off so on the nose could potentially be SO HARD to get over, but our boy did it! And screw Disney, they don't OWN the entire concept of pirates!! All WWE had to do was tweak a few things to keep Pirate Paul Burchill nice and legal but they couldn't be bothered. Then again, they've kinda been raging war on "fun" since the year 2000, so we should be lucky that this dude got any screen time with a gimmick like that.
Best part of the gimmick is finding out later that Vince had no clue what “Pirates of the Caribbean” was and someone had to explain the similarities to him
Sad because Disney doesn't own nor did they come up with the concept of pirates lol. It's honestly silly WWE caved on this they could have probably just tweaked his outfit a bit and still ran with it :/.
He was actually better at the technical stuff than the FWA really showed. Some of his early matches elsewhere were really great technical bouts that nobody will ever see
I can't believe he only had 10 matches with that gimmick. I have an action figure they released of that gimmick so I always assumed he was around longer, especially because I remember it so well
Ah yes, the best character in SVR2007, PAUL BURCHILL! In all honesty, I liked the pirate gimmick. Sure, this run was short but he made the most of it and is still fondly remembered today.... now let's just forget the whole thing with Katie Lea Burchill a couple years after this....
No, I prefer his run with Katie Lea a whole lot more. The most disappointing thing about his WWE runs is that they chickened out on the "incest" angle. 2008 was when the entire product had become neutered, and I loved that year, but it started sucking so much after the next year. WWE became Harrison Bergeron.
Believe me or not, this was pitched by both Paul and Katie Lea. A former WWE booker did an article on 10 lessons or cool stuff he had there. He explained the common wrestling fan would be shocked by how many outlandish if not weird ideas are often from the wrestlers themselves, because they go into the "Positive or Negative, they'll talk about me" mindset, he then mentioned that incest angle as being from the two superstars because, as mentioned earlier, they fought that, even if it gave bad buzz, that'll still make them a talking point of ECW.
Ah, Paul Burchill. Excellent Boy Stable material. Didn't realize he had so few matches with this gimmick. Maybe the fact that he was in one of the video games with it made me think it had more longevity to it.
I remember Burchill from the old FWA days I was hyped to see him in WWE. He did an incredible job with this gimmick it should have gone much further than it did.
Cheers as always for putting this together, Hawk. I remember enjoying this run during a fruitful time for Smackdown. You are spot on, this was a great example of getting over by simply having an enjoyable character. I'd never seen the Walk the Plank finisher before, and it did stand out as something different. Funny to think that Birchill was just an absolute beast in different promotions. Curb stomp an all time favourite finisher of mine.
burchill was so good in ring I'd be interested to see how he would have performed if he debuted in today's era which focuses a lot more on in ring ability
Hey Enzo Vital here, glad you did this video Burchill is a very skilled wrestler it's a shame WWE never capitalised on his talent. His storyline with The Hurricane in 2009 in ECW was very nice to follow and I discovered pro wrestling with this feud and have been a massive fan ever since. Big support @Markyd123 your work is awesome man !! Enzo from France 🇨🇵
His interview on the Edge & Christian podcast from about five years ago is worth going out of your way to listen to if you like this character. Paul is hilarious and honest with lots of funny thoughts on this gimmick.
I missed Pirate Paul...though it was funny how the reaction he was getting was better than the reaction other, supposed higher booked, faces were getting (like Bobby Lashley at the time).
If Disney didn't piss their pants, they would of had kept the Pirate Gimmick for Paul, plus he probably would of won a title, not World Heavyweight but maybe United States or Intercontinental.
WWE didn't even have to scrap the whole gimmick. Just give him a new pirate look that wasn't a blatant Jack Sparrow expy while keeping everything else that worked about the character.
I love pirate Paul honestly he's probably one of my favorites at the time from theme music to the look he had it until the poachers named Disney came a knocking
I loved this gimmick my friends laughed but I thought Burchill was awesome. You can tell he loved every minute of it and he was great in the ring. I still can't believe they dropped this in favor of an incest gimmick.
Burchill was awesome! The pirate gimmick was decent enough and people were pretty with it for a while. His run before he got to the E was pretty cool too.
There's a disproportionate amount of wrestling content creators who insist that this gimmick was an outright dud despite all evidence to the contrary. It's nice to know there are people willing to actually acknowledge the fan perception of the time, because Burchill was pretty damn over for that brief run.
I remember playing SVR2007 and Burchill was in the game. I've decided to CAW Captain Jack Sparrow and put all Paul Burchill entrance and moveset to him. It fit so well.
This guy got stuck with a gimmick that was supposed to fail and ended up becoming more popular than anyone ever expected it to be and how did WWE respond when Disney started feeling some type of way about the gimmick? They punish the guy with the gimmick. Where the fuck is the logic in that?
Was it stupid and goofy? Absolutely. Were people like “eh fuck it, he’s a pirate, we’ll play along”? Again, Absolutely. I’m all for goofy midcard characters, wrestling should have these characters mixed in there with serious wrestlers. Also, we didn’t deserve William Regal at all 😂
The funny thing is I was in about 7th or 8th grade when the pirate gimmick was going on. Everyone at school enjoyed the gimmick. We were 13 years old give or take so cut us some slack.
Henry had also injured Batista in early January 2006, forcing him to vacate the Heavyweight Title and scrapping the planned main event for Wrestlemania 22.
The reason it failed was "Out of Touch" Vince McMahon never saw or even heard the movie. He just didn't get it or anything that has happened after the 1980s.
This gimmick was forever cemented in smackdown vs raw 2007 and I'm thankful for that 🙌
We all gave Shawn Michaels his entrance animation in order to recreate his IYH6 rope swing. Good times.
Did you give Pirate Paul a championship?
Guys like Sean O Haire, Rodney Mack, and Paul Burchill are like artifacts, they’re only in one game, but that’s what makes them legendary.
Hell yeah
@@green_eye_shy_guy YES!! Agreed man. I still have my HCTP save from when I did a Sean O Haire run and had the world title on him. So when I'd replay later as different wrestlers he was part of the big boy stories lol Always liked O'Haire.
Pirate Paul Burchill was massively over with my group of friends back then. That entrance and the spanish fly finisher was incredible. I remember being really sad when the gimmick disappeared.
Disney assholes sent legal papers
My best take for this run “a gimmick too good for creative to take it away from you”
He’s like a cute throw back to the WWF Golden Era and New Gen with the gimmick personas where we know he’s not a real pirate but we’re hoodwinked to assume he could be one.
I'm pretty sure this gimmick is actually in one of the Raw vs Smackdown games too!
@@patriksodin9349 svr 2007
@@ryujigoda3445 yep
I was actually SUPER into his gimmick when I was younger. The whole thing just worked for me. His entrance, presentation, and finisher were all badass!
Let’s be honest:
No one at the time could’ve pulled off the gimmick as well as Paul Burchill 😃😃😃
I actually enjoyed it 😃😃
I remember during his entrance for his first match that William Regal was laughing his head off and when Paul Burchill pulled his sword out , Regal absolutely crapped his pants 😂😂😂
i think he had this gimmick before is wwe run but not sure
@@DaleWeise99no, he had a Goldberg like Gimmik in England.
He was my favorite character to play as in SvR 2007
Good to remember Paul Burchill, the dude took a career-killing gimmick and made it work till creative didn't want him anymore. Really deserves a lot of praise for that alone.
I loved the pirate gimmick. Such an unusual but otherwise entertaining character for a very underrated wrestler. 🗡🏴☠️
Yeah, Pirate Paul was one of thr most entertaining characters at that point. I remember clearly how exited his act made us for the possibilities of Smackdown
Honestly the gimmick had “kid friendly midcard” act written all over it. Paul was getting great reactions and the kids in school loved the character and his finisher was awesome. I wished they leaned into it more by having him on the hunt for all the wwe "treasures" ie the championship gold and they could have did some comedic stuff where he finds items from wrestlers old gimmicks like when he was feuding with regal he could have found his hard hat from his man’s man gimmick, that would have gotten some good laughs from the older the crowd. Sorta like a face Repoman
Pirate Paul was great. A shame it ended so quickly.
Paul Burchill was a really underrated worker and the pirate gimmick worked and the fans loved it.
I loved this character and he got a good crowd reaction. What a shame it ended so quickly. There was a rumor that Vince had never heard of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and had no idea pirates were popular at the time, so when combined with the Disney drama he just pulled the plug.
According to Court Bauer and Bruce Pritchard that's true. It's why, despite his bit crowd response, Vince would only have him as a heel. When people said "he should be a face" Vince insisted Pirates are always heels.
The story I'd always heard was that Vince wanted a pirate so Burchill gave him a full on Depp inspired Pirate but Vince had naturally never seen the movie and had either just randomly decided he wanted a Pirate, or vaguely knew that pirates were popular and wanted to cash in but didn't know why they were popular and when he saw the Depp inspired version of a wrestling Pirate, he didn't get it and thought Burchill was doing it wrong.
@@medes5597yup that’s what I remember as well. Instead of saying “huh this character I wanted to be the bad guy is actually a fan favorite, maybe I should change directions and embrace it” Vince being Vince just scraps the whole idea because it’s not what he wanted 🙄
@@SensiofRabbitude
Yeah, Vince was expecting an Errol Flynn sort of pirate and instead got Johnny Depp and didn’t get it.
@emanuel martinez it wasn't Vince tht scrapped it but Disney legL paperwork
I saw the video, I clicked. Every once in a while I remember this run and recall it as one of the greatest things ever.
That sudden change in booking for the last 3 matches was so jarring that I almost couldn't finish this episode. Remember when WWF heard "Austin 316" for the first time and just blasted it to the moon? - A pirate rip-off so on the nose could potentially be SO HARD to get over, but our boy did it! And screw Disney, they don't OWN the entire concept of pirates!! All WWE had to do was tweak a few things to keep Pirate Paul Burchill nice and legal but they couldn't be bothered. Then again, they've kinda been raging war on "fun" since the year 2000, so we should be lucky that this dude got any screen time with a gimmick like that.
Best part of the gimmick is finding out later that Vince had no clue what “Pirates of the Caribbean” was and someone had to explain the similarities to him
Sad because Disney doesn't own nor did they come up with the concept of pirates lol. It's honestly silly WWE caved on this they could have probably just tweaked his outfit a bit and still ran with it :/.
*4:05* That might be the funniest and most accurate statement I’ve ever heard! 😂 I’m dying
Pirate Paul Burchill was fantastic, and admittedly one of the things that got me hooked on pirate culture.
Pirate Paul, Boogey, Mexicools, Khali, this era of Smackdown was so golden in its intriguing weirdom
7:50 No, instead Vince McMahon had not watched Pirates Of The Caribbean, and did not understand how a pirate could be face.
Burchill had so much potentiel going on WWE. A bit sad he missed is career.
and than i started watching this and i dunno why is potentiel was that high, hes slow at doing movement no agility and missed so many spot.
Burchill had the greatest run in Britain before he was picked up. He was an absolute monster in the FWA with a fantastic gimmick.
He was actually better at the technical stuff than the FWA really showed. Some of his early matches elsewhere were really great technical bouts that nobody will ever see
Regal is such a good sport on anything they have him do ❤
I can't believe he only had 10 matches with that gimmick. I have an action figure they released of that gimmick so I always assumed he was around longer, especially because I remember it so well
Burchill and Regal have very good ring chemestry
Ah yes, the best character in SVR2007, PAUL BURCHILL!
In all honesty, I liked the pirate gimmick. Sure, this run was short but he made the most of it and is still fondly remembered today.... now let's just forget the whole thing with Katie Lea Burchill a couple years after this....
No, I prefer his run with Katie Lea a whole lot more. The most disappointing thing about his WWE runs is that they chickened out on the "incest" angle. 2008 was when the entire product had become neutered, and I loved that year, but it started sucking so much after the next year. WWE became Harrison Bergeron.
@@quentinkaasa47 really? that angle is fukd up bro😝🤢🤮
Believe me or not, this was pitched by both Paul and Katie Lea. A former WWE booker did an article on 10 lessons or cool stuff he had there. He explained the common wrestling fan would be shocked by how many outlandish if not weird ideas are often from the wrestlers themselves, because they go into the "Positive or Negative, they'll talk about me" mindset, he then mentioned that incest angle as being from the two superstars because, as mentioned earlier, they fought that, even if it gave bad buzz, that'll still make them a talking point of ECW.
@@Paugose Someone should have reminded him about the Red Rooster, not all publicity is GOOD publicity.
@@mrmusickhimself Or JBL doing a funny walk in Berlin.
Burchill actually took his gimmick from Alan Tudyks character from Dodgeball.
Steve the Pirate!
I absolutely loved Pirate Paul when I was a kid. I'll always remember his entrance in Smackdown vs Raw 2007. Severely underrated theme song as well.
Ah, Paul Burchill. Excellent Boy Stable material.
Didn't realize he had so few matches with this gimmick. Maybe the fact that he was in one of the video games with it made me think it had more longevity to it.
I remember Burchill from the old FWA days I was hyped to see him in WWE. He did an incredible job with this gimmick it should have gone much further than it did.
Cheers as always for putting this together, Hawk. I remember enjoying this run during a fruitful time for Smackdown. You are spot on, this was a great example of getting over by simply having an enjoyable character. I'd never seen the Walk the Plank finisher before, and it did stand out as something different. Funny to think that Birchill was just an absolute beast in different promotions. Curb stomp an all time favourite finisher of mine.
The rated yarr superstar.
Most of those crowd reactions were sweetened on Smackdown back in the day. Hell, they still do it almost every show
"So he is now William 'don't look at my ass' Regal" I popped!
burchill was so good in ring
I'd be interested to see how he would have performed if he debuted in today's era which focuses a lot more on in ring ability
See his FWA stuff
Hey Enzo Vital here, glad you did this video Burchill is a very skilled wrestler it's a shame WWE never capitalised on his talent.
His storyline with The Hurricane in 2009 in ECW was very nice to follow and I discovered pro wrestling with this feud and have been a massive fan ever since.
Big support @Markyd123 your work is awesome man !!
Enzo from France 🇨🇵
Thank you Enzo, I LOVED “Pirate” Paul Burchill as a kid
I enjoyed Paul Burchill's pirate gimmick.
I loved Paul Burchill, and Katie Lea Burchill too. Two of the most underrated gimmicks/wrestlers of the past 20 years.
Did you also love the incest gimmick between the two of them?
Burchill’s C4 finisher was amazing and unique for its time. Now we see Spanish Flies getting handed out like candy lol
I'm glad I'm not the only one that actually enjoyed his Pirate gimmick. And his theme song was great too
His interview on the Edge & Christian podcast from about five years ago is worth going out of your way to listen to if you like this character. Paul is hilarious and honest with lots of funny thoughts on this gimmick.
Every time a wrestler gets over organically they have to cool them down.
Such a shame Burchill never got a decent push considering the crowd reaction. He was a monster in FWA back in the UK
The mythical filter dropped the ball again with this gimmick.
I missed Pirate Paul...though it was funny how the reaction he was getting was better than the reaction other, supposed higher booked, faces were getting (like Bobby Lashley at the time).
Pirate Paul Burchill was one of the many wrestlers I remember seeing on Smackdown growing up.
If Disney didn't piss their pants, they would of had kept the Pirate Gimmick for Paul, plus he probably would of won a title, not World Heavyweight but maybe United States or Intercontinental.
No chance it's a jobber gimmick
WWE didn't even have to scrap the whole gimmick. Just give him a new pirate look that wasn't a blatant Jack Sparrow expy while keeping everything else that worked about the character.
As not-so-frequent wrestling watcher, His finishing is so memorable to me. That's look so good on his gimmick.
I’ve been asking for this for YEARSSSS!!
I love pirate Paul honestly he's probably one of my favorites at the time from theme music to the look he had it until the poachers named Disney came a knocking
If they just brought him back in 2008 in his powerhouse gimmick like in the independence then he would’ve been a top star!
We only remember him from SvR 2007
I loved the gimmick, but I never understood why they didn’t do a whole “stealing the gold” bit to steal a championship belt.
He looks like a mix between hangman page and kenny omega
I totally forgot about this gimmick! I thought it was cool despite being corny, Paul burchill was like able
I loved this gimmick my friends laughed but I thought Burchill was awesome. You can tell he loved every minute of it and he was great in the ring. I still can't believe they dropped this in favor of an incest gimmick.
6:59 Not only is he a pirate, but Paul is also a magician after pulling off a hair drag on a bald man.
I absolutely loved the WWE during the ruthless aggression era of the mid-2000s. Personally I also would have gave pirate Paul Burchell at least a C.
I miss gimmicks in wrestling
Pirate is one of the hardest characters to not be cringey at I think he nailed it
Burchill was awesome! The pirate gimmick was decent enough and people were pretty with it for a while.
His run before he got to the E was pretty cool too.
An old timey pirate in the 21st century was never going to last.
I really liked burchill ! Even the Pirate gimmick . I was rooting for him to be a bigger star .
I loved Burchill's gimmick and enjoyed his run. He'd have been a great US Champion
6:45 he went from the kiss my ass club to the don't look at my ass club 😂
There's a disproportionate amount of wrestling content creators who insist that this gimmick was an outright dud despite all evidence to the contrary. It's nice to know there are people willing to actually acknowledge the fan perception of the time, because Burchill was pretty damn over for that brief run.
no, it really wasn’t…it was cringe all the way.
crazy his run was 10 matches. i feel like he was on TV for way longer
That Finley signage got a good chuckle out of me. 😂
For a tall guy, he pulled that finisher of pretty well.
2:49 oh my damn that back arch was holy😮😮😮
I remember playing SVR2007 and Burchill was in the game. I've decided to CAW Captain Jack Sparrow and put all Paul Burchill entrance and moveset to him. It fit so well.
I really loved this gimmick it was dumb but fun lol.And he was decent in the ring.
Yeah, a factor on this is that the second Pirates Of The Caribbean movie was about to come out around this time.
This guy got stuck with a gimmick that was supposed to fail and ended up becoming more popular than anyone ever expected it to be and how did WWE respond when Disney started feeling some type of way about the gimmick? They punish the guy with the gimmick. Where the fuck is the logic in that?
I loved this gimmick. Not a main event character but enjoyable reason not to fast forward.
I was thinking about him the other day and then this video pops up I love how shit like that happens
The standing Spanish fly was dope AF
Was it stupid and goofy? Absolutely. Were people like “eh fuck it, he’s a pirate, we’ll play along”? Again, Absolutely. I’m all for goofy midcard characters, wrestling should have these characters mixed in there with serious wrestlers.
Also, we didn’t deserve William Regal at all 😂
I used to love Paul Burchill as a kid
Lemme get the bearcat Keith Lee in this series please🙏🏽
Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 vibes 🔥
Love the theme of his gimmick…
Paul burchill was a beast in Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 I put him in a tag team with Regal again they won the tag belts a few times on my GM mode
Love Pirate Paul. He ruled ass
btw, can we get a retrospective on the 'Hall of pain?'
The funny thing is I was in about 7th or 8th grade when the pirate gimmick was going on. Everyone at school enjoyed the gimmick. We were 13 years old give or take so cut us some slack.
That last rhyme was dope
Hell yeah the chart is back!
shoulda been a C since they legitimately went out of their way to bury him at the end and there was nothing he could do about it
I thinks it funny that even MarkyD didn't even bother watching those brother peace videos
If the tuned down pirate would have happened, we wouldn't talk about Paul Burchill today.
I remember watching this when i was young He was over he really was
Pirate Paul Burchill had one of the best finishing moves in WWE history
seeing a gimmick like this in 2006 is weird but seeing how over he was is even weirder
I remember when Mark Henry beat him up like when Akainu killed Ace 😂😂😂😂
Henry had also injured Batista in early January 2006, forcing him to vacate the Heavyweight Title and scrapping the planned main event for Wrestlemania 22.
Wonder if Regal came up with this character
The reason it failed was "Out of Touch" Vince McMahon never saw or even heard the movie. He just didn't get it or anything that has happened after the 1980s.
I have read that the gimmick ended because Vince (who hadn't seen the Pirates movies) didn't understand it.
Paul was awesome but got such a short end of the sticks