Also you were right about the Boogeyman's gimmick. It did started off as pretty serious but Martin Wright (the guy that plays The Boogeyman of course) once stated that the reason why his character turned into a comedy role is because Vince felt like he didn't want him to be too scary since they were transitioning over to PG. Yeah Vince didn't want THE BOOGEYMAN to be too scary... Kind of glad Vince is gone lol
Pirate Butchill is definitely too high, swinging in on the rope, throwing treasure to the audience, wench Regal, it was a lot of fun even if it was silly. Recall this gimmick existed when Pirates of the Caribbean was the biggest movie franchise out there, so it made sense to have it. Then Vince canned the gimmick cause he thought pirates weren't relevant.
Burchill ame up with the idea. Then Vince went "That doesn't make any sense! A Pirate gimmick should be like Jean Pierre Lafitte back in the 90s! What's with your version of a Pirate, Paul?!" Because, apparently, he didn't know potC
I don't think Pirate Paul Burchill was bad at all. Had a fun entrance, the stuff he did with Regal was good, I think he's too high on that list, I'd go Second from the bottom
I was 18 when Pirate Paul Burchill debuted. I loved it. It was hilarious. I was really sad when they ended the gimmick. It wasn't a main event gimmick, but as an undercard/midcard gimmick, I think he could have had a decent amount of success if he was able to keep the gimmick.
As a kid, I love when managers "travelled the world" to find people who could fight and they'd bring people in from depths of the Amazon or living in the woods etc.
As far as Vito goes I recall WCW doing a much better version with Perry Saturn being forced to wear a dress/skirt while wrestling after losing a match to Raven. No excuse for WWE to have gotten it so wrong.
Muhammad Hassan started as an interesting idea. But rather than go with a nuanced gimmick they changed him to one of the derka derka Arabs from Team America
As someone on the autism spectrum, I actually quite enjoyed Eugene. A lot of my other friends on the spectrum felt the same way. It made a lot of us (as in my friends and I) feel like even we could become whatever we wanted regardless of our disabilities. What offended me was all the people without disabilities getting offended for us on the spectrum and then treating us like we were stupid. "Oh, you don't understand why you should be offended, don't worry. We're protecting you." Edit: Some clarification. I am not claiming Eugene wasn't offensive. I am not claiming to talk on behalf of everyone with autism. All I am saying is that I and my friends enjoyed it and inspired us to do things we thought were impossible before seeing Eugene on screen. Adding this edit, and some context, to the post because people seem to believe I am saying something that I am not.
And, as someone on the autism spectrum myself, I honestly get pissed off with people like you defending the Eugene gimmick, and pretending like we all universally loved it, when we definitely didn't. I find the suggestion that autistic people have to be okay with our own misrepresentation quite frankly a bit insulting in itself. Like what, we don't matter as much? Why shouldn't I give a damn about some fully neorotypical person taking my job and hamming it up in the process as well? Why shouldn't I be offended by autism being the only thing a character is, and they have no other character at all (even having to borrow moves off other wrestlers)? Where's the autistic badass? It wasn't bloody Eugene that's for sure. I'm a wrestler. My gimmick's a bee gimmick because I adore bees. I'm very visibly autistic but that's not what I'm about, that's not what I'm for, that's not who I am. I don't speak for all of us and neither do you. I was discouraged by Eugene. It looked like a ceiling. It looked like if I went into wrestling, that's all I'd ever get to be, that I'd never be respected, or taken seriously. I'd have to have an Uncle Eric who neoptism'd me into it in kayfabe (because of course a learning difficulty person could never get in on their own merits). I'd have to have a JBL beat me up and an audience think it's funny. People look back on this with such rose tinted nostalgia goggles but it really was just as bad as any of the other deliberately offensive ones. It wasn't empowering at all. If you liked it then cool but don't go around telling everyone it was actually fine, no it wasn't. And don't effing assume that everyone disagreeing with you necessarily has to be some unasked-for conditionless busybody. This is not true at all! I'm not saying you should be offended, that's not a thing you decide, something offends you or it doesn't, it's a reaction not a choice. But do you get why I was offended? Because with all due respect I think you've been a bit dumb about it, stopped thinking at a particular point and then decided to hide behind a disability badge as an excuse to tell everyone else what to think. I've seen it over and over again and I'm sick of it. You would not have made such sweeping assumptions of agreement if you weren't. You would have considered the possibility of your personal opinion being just that - a personal opinion. Mine's one too. It being as disrespectful as it was is plain fact. How I felt about it is personal taste. How others are or aren't allowed to feel about it is the same. Don't be telling me I'm not allowed to be upset, that's nonsense. Don't even be telling someone without autism they aren't allowed to be upset either! That's nonsense too! More understandable nonsense, but nonsense all the same. Eugene was really awful and we can do a million times better, easily. And they knew it! Autistic people have been wrestlers long before Eugene was a thing. They knew what they were doing and chose to do it anyway. And since it was the guy's own idea, I blame the wrestler for it too. No you don't get to do autism-face and call it fine. It's not fine it's trash. They sum it up as neatly as can be summed up. He was there to be laughed at.
@@Torthrodhel Did I say all of us? I pointed out that myself and my friends enjoyed it. I never said that the entire community enjoyed it. You were looking for something to get angry with and decided to put words in my mouth. Look at the words I used. I never said all of us.
@@tallgoose85 Same thing I said to Jane. I didn't say all of us liked Eugene. I said myself and a lot of my friends on the spectrum liked Eugene. I was not speaking for the entire community. Also, and I seriously want an answer because this is confusing me, why are people attacking me as if I was speaking for the entire community and said Eugene was a good gimmick? I never said it was a good gimmick. I said myself and a lot of my friends liked it and that it made us feel like we could do anything if we wanted to.
@@gameprose4293 I'm gonna simplify and rewrite this because I am emotional. Edited: Your initial post suggested, and completely meant to suggest, that anyone disagreeing with you is some sort of unwanted, interfering, misguided, and fake, person with nothing better to do than patronise disabled people. You STILL were saying that the only reason I could've possibly come to my conclusions, is if I spent all my time on the internet looking for something to be offended by. That's not a neutral "what did I say?" type of statement to make, that's quite insulting, and absolutely untrue. I am saying that is a very bad impression to be spreading around. Please don't.
At the end of the day, it was a stupid and goofy gimmick that didn't really move the meter on anything. However, zooming in on Slick (primarily his lips) eating a bucket of fried chicken at the beginning of Jive Soul Bro is definitely problematic.
Mohammad Hassan was one of the most poorly conecived gimmiks. The problem was that he was supposed to be an Arab-American facing prejudice just for being Arab. But wrestling doesn't work like that, if you tell the crowd he's a babyface, and he acts like one, they're going to cheer for him. They're not going to refuse to cheer because he's Arab. So, if he can't get heat from the crowd, how about the other wrestlers? Same problem, the Faces can't hate him for being Arab and still be Faces. And if the Heels hate him, so what? Heels hate all Faces anyway. So the only way for Hassan to get heat was to be an actual Heel himself, which destroys the whole concept that he's just an innocent bystander. By the end he was actually working with terrorists, so anybody who didn't like him had good reason not to. It's just impossible to make this gimmick work the way it's supposed to.
I feel like Oklahoma was the worst because it was attacking someone personally. Yes Kung Fu Naki and Eugene were horrible but it was stupid generalizations. Oklahoma was a direct attack of a man. Good list though Gary and Gary. Keep up the good work.
Cmon man, Pirate Paul was really good and would've been a solid midcarder if Vince hadn't cut the legs out from under Paul because Vince never saw the Pirates movies and didn't get the character. Kevin Thorne was also good and he could've easily capitalized on Twilight had he come along a bit later. Plus there was Ariel. The Zombie was supposed to be a bad one off joke character and existed because WWE was making fun of the Syfy channel's demand that ECW have more sci-fi elements. He should not be in -5 stars. Plus his "promo" was gold.
I...kind of liked Eugene when they first brought him in. It's problematic to have someone pretend to be autistic, at a base level, that's pretty bad (especially when it's been revealed recently to have been based on a real person). That said the original version of Eugene was well performed, relatively subtle as far as these things go, and they had those great segments with William Regal being asked to train Eugene, and it turned out he was a wrestling savant. Regal then started to look out for him and defend him against Bischoff and others from mocking him. I thought that was all good stuff. They got increasingly cartoony with the depiction though and that's when it really crossed the line into distasteful for me. Then again, I say all this as someone not on the spectrum, so my perspective really means little. I just think the gimmick was less exploitative and problematic at the start than it ended up being.
I started watching around 2005 so I missed seeing Attitude Era stars like Rock and Austin but would play them as legends on Smackdown vs Raw PS2. Eugene was the only guy I actually got to see hitting Rock Bottoms, Stunners etc on TV so I loved him just for that.
I'm an autist and, tbh. Eugene never really bothered me all that much. The original version was far superior to the later one where they just turned him into "Look! Childish guy funny!"
06:26 uhm... from what i've heard, the Gimmick was BURCHILL's idea, and Vince didn't get it at all because he hadn't heard of PotC and thought that Pirate gimmicks should be like Jean Pierre Lafitte. About Eugene: It is kinda important, imho, to differenciate between his original version, where the gimmick was rather tasteless, but Eugene still was a wrestling savant, and the later version where they just went "Eugene funny childish!"
Akeem was okay as part of the twin towers because Bossan was so great and both of them were huge, hence the name the twin towers after they split his fued with Bossman didn`t go well.
Worst gimmicks/wrestlers in WWE history Gobbledy Gooker Pirate Paul Burchill Eugene Santino Gillberg Max Moon The Goon Dumpster Droese Beaver Cleavage 3MB Jinder Mahal Great Khali Deuce and Domino The Dicks The Hearthrobs Hornswoggle El Torito Los Matadores Fandango Brooklyn Brawler The Killer Bees Braun Strowman Elias and Ezekiel Saba Simba Adrian Adonis Hillbilly Jim Boogeyman Corporal Kirchner Kamala Koko B Ware Red Rooster Akeem Tugboat and Typhoon Earthquake Matt Striker Dean Douglas The Beverley’s Repo Man Skinner Papa Shango The Mountie Bezerker Doink The Clown Damien Demento Bastion Booger Adam Bomb Ludvig Borga Mr Hughes Men On A Mission/Mo and Mable Giant Gonzales Well Dunn Kwang The Godwinns Mantaur Kama Savio Vega Aldo Montoya Isaac Yankem DDS Lief Cassidy Flash Funk Erik Watts Tekno team 2000 The new Blackjacks Rockabilly Make a difference Fatu Los Boricuas Fake Diesel Fake Razor Brakus Tiger Ali Singh Truth Commission Kurgan Val Venus The Godfather The Oddities Mideon and naked Mideon Viscera and Big Daddy V Droz Mean Street Posse Meat Blue Meanie Bull Buchanan Just Joe Rico Johnny Stamboli Chris Nowinski Orlando Jordon Jackie Gayda Nathan Jones Rodney Mack Sylvian Grenier Luther Reigns Simon Dean Matt Morgan with a stutter Ernest Miller Jesus (he was Carlito’s thug) Vito in a dress Chavo as Kerwin White (though that was hilarious) The Highlanders Jillian Hall Jessie and Festus Vladimir Koslov Jimmy Wang Yang The Zombie Big Dick Johnson Roadkill Kelly Kelly Brooke (though she got much better in TNA) Manu Bam Neely Ezekiel Jackson Kizarny DJ Gabriel The Bella Twins Braden Walker (just the awful name though) Eve Torres Mayrse Layla Alicia Fox Rosa Mendes Eric Escobar Slam Master J Savannah Scotty Goldman (just the awful name) Tiffany Micheal Tarver Husky Harris (just the name) Skip Sheffield (just the name) Micheal McGillicutty (just the name) Darren Young Titus O’Neal Tamina Percy Watson Mason Ryan Aksana Maxine Brodus Clay Eli Cottenwood David OTunga Lucky Cannon Tensai (just the gimmick) Camacho Cameron Adam Rose Bo Dallas Summer Rae Mojo Rawley James Ellsworth Baron Corbin (and his other names) Bull Dempsey Dana Brooke Emmalina (just the gimmick) Carmella Nia Jax IIconica Riddick/Madcap Moss No Way Jose Lana Sarah Logan Retribution Shorty G (just the name and gimmick) Ridge Holland Butch (just the name)
My first match I ever saw was Vito vs Regal on Smackdown on September 1st 2006, crazy to think I saw that and was like “man I need more of this” Also same show was Miz’s WWE Debut against Tatanka. Smackdown 2006 woof
In defense of Kung-fu Naki, he was still quite memorable, and maybe even beloved as a character, somewhat over too. Also his theme was catchy af. I'd bump him up a few tiers. I'd also move AJ and Paul burchil up at least one tier each, and also black reign maybe. More or less everything else with I agree with.
Emmalina barely qualifies as any kind of gimmick since it was basically just a bunch of vignettes. As the story goes, after Emma went out with a legit back injury WWE decided to repackage her as a sort of throwback to Attitude Era characters like Sable and the Cat where her whole schtick would be “look at how attractive I am, I don’t like wearing clothes.” So when she was ready to come back they started running the vignettes, but since they had no actual plans for her beyond the repackaging it became a sort of inside joke to keep running them every week (not unlike what happened with Veer Mahan). Then by the time they had a spot for her on TV, they lost confidence that Emma could pull off the “sexpot” schtick and just re-debuted her previous gimmick.
This gave me a idea for a video (putting it out there cause not sure how to approach it) taking gimmicks like mantaur and making them work (hoof boots sounds kinda cool but get rid of the bull head)
Akeem the African Dream is actually worse, even, than you think because there WAS a "reason" behind it: in the '90s, it was the first time prominent African-American celebrities started to do things like reclaim their heritage and roots, sometimes even changing their names. The reason Pritchard "thought it was funny" was because he's a massive racist.
Controversial opinion: I quite like the Eugene character (and his relationship with Regal was pretty fun). I understand the problems with the character, but I don't think it deserves to be among the worst.
I can honestly say nobody was laughing AT Eugene. That is absolutely re writing history about his character. I’m wondering if the people who are critical of that character actually watched how the character was portrayed ?
Please can you do this same tier list concept but with what are considered the worst wrestling theme songs? *I mainly just want to see the placement of the X Factor theme and Rob Conway’s theme
Akeem the African Dream was Vince McMahon taking another shot at Dusty Rhodes who was billed as the American Dream. In My opinion, Emmalina shouldn't have been ranked at all. Emmalina had multiple vignettes building up the transition of Emma into Emmalina, but when Emmalina debuted she said on that very show that she was going back to Emma. By the way, if you think Dustin Rhodes' Black Reign gimmick was bad, you don't remember his gimmick Seven which he really hated and was worse.
Yep the Pirate Paul Birchell was around 2006. Fun fact the reason why he was giving that gimmick because Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was released around that time and it was SUPER popular at the time and Vince thought he could cash in on it's popularity by having Paul dress as a pirate referencing Jack Sparrow. Needless to say, it didn't last long and Paul went to having a biker gimmick instead
Vince never actually watched any of the films though and his idea of a pirate gimmick was more akin to the stereotypical old Cornish "arrrgh" parrot-on-the-shoulder type. I heard that's why he cancelled Burchill's pirate gimmick, because he was expecting it to be like that (and assuming the Pirates films to have been like that too), and didn't know what to think about the Sparrow impression because he had no idea what it was referencing.
Vince McMahon didn't even know who Johnny Depp was. True story. Apparently, he wanted a serious pirate, and had no frame of reference for the goofy Jack Sparrow Burchall was doing.
@@Jackaljkljkl the mind boggles to what "serious pirate" could've meant in Vince's mind. I guess something more akin to Davy Jones from the films, maybe? Just without the monstrous elements. Either way if he wanted to capitalize on a trend he should've at least understood the trend! lol I can see a serious pirate character potentially having been really good. Maybe if he'd been clearer about what he wanted, it might've been kinda awesome.
The worst ones on here were definitely The Zombie and The Yeti. I actually liked the Boogeyman during his active run, even though they definitely should've gone down a more horror character type of way, that would've worked so much better. Styles hanging with Flair may have been TNA not nearly utilizing his potential, but I wouldn't put it in a worst gimmicks of all time list. I would put Cameron Grimes there though. And while I agree that the Eugene thing is very sensitive, I disagree that we didn't laugh with him, he was well liked and over with the fans. Best gimmick of all time is easily gonna go to The Undertaker.
The zombie was there to be ridicolous and get beaten up by Sandman for a pop, and then we never saw the gimmick again. To me it's silly to remember it as such a bad stain when it was clearly made on purpose to be bad and to disappear after 1 night. I know it kinda went down in history as the worst thing to ever happen to ecw but just because someone in the past interpreted it wrongly we dont need to all be conditioned by that wrong opinion. Later on in the video, Ross got to Gillberg and quickly dismissed him saying "he was a jobber and filled his role", wich I agree with! But the same applies to the zombie. Of course it was bad. It was bad so that Sandman would come out and beat him up
It's all relative right? Some things were just plain fun at the time even if they were dumb. John Cena and in his thuganomic period is still stupid to me but I'm not sure most people would agree with that.
Emmalina had some legs imo. I like the idea of a glamorous DIVA who is good at wrestling. But back then I believe it would boil down to cocky diva who runs away from fights
Paul Burchill as a pirate was great and it was over, only stopped when Vince heard it was similar to Jack Sparrow, but wow most gimmicks are ripoffs. It was great, fight me.
There's been loads not even featured I'd say.. The Goon, Naked Mideon, Man Mountain Rock, Waylon Mercy, that carnival dude a few years ago can't remember his name, Giant Gonzalez, Aldo Montoya, Avatar, X Factor faction, Techno Team 3000, Dr Death, Dan Severn, Tugboat, OZ in Kevin Nash first wcw run, Adam Bomb, Crush in nation of domination and Owen Hart, kwang, The Sultan, the demon wcw kiss ripoff, corporate ministry, kozlov, heel Michael Cole, loads of others too I'm sure
One gimmick I'm surprised isn't mentioned is the Black scorpion.overhyped,lame ass magic tricks ,a gruff voice over and a conclusion which left people unsatisfied.also not mentioned is Dustin Rhodes as se7en.a gimmick so bad Dustin ended it on his debut as it.
Speaking as someone who has a disability (Cerebral Palsy), I found the Eugene gimmick very offensive. Like every gimmick before him , I know it was treated as a joke but to me it wasn't very funny, making fun of someone who is disabled is horrible. But wwe didn't care at all they just laughed all the way to the bank I know that the guy who portrayed Eugene (nick Dinsmore) isn't disabled, but I'm sure he hated the doing Eugene gimmick. But also that kid Zack Gowen who was disabled (he lost a leg to cancer) proved to everyone he could be a good wrestker with only one leg. Hopefully nothing like making fun of disabled people ever happens again in WWE . Just making a point.
I enjoyed the Boogeyman gimmick, shouldn't be on the list in my opinion. While others were grossed out when he bit the mole off of Jillian's face, I thought it was hilarious. And Roddy Piper's reaction was priceless.
Eugene was an awful gimmick for sure but I think it's important to remember how often one sees cognitively-disabled adults at wrestling shows and how infrequently those individuals are represented in the entertainment they enjoy. A few years ago, I made an academic presentation for a disability studies symposium where I analyzed Eugene's appearances on RAW leading up to and including his first match using Wolfensberger's Social Role Valorization (SRV) principles and the results were shockingly favorable to the character. I wish I knew what cognitively-disabled wrestling fans thought of the character back in 2004.
Dang, 9 in 07! You missed out on the good 90s wrastlin’! I was born 89 and I feel I missed a lot of good stuff and caught up with it by the time I started watching in 96! Nwo/ dx 4 life! Suck it!
I agree that the Gooker was shyte. It was so bad, it had an annual award named after him. However, I would argue that he doesn't belong on this *gimmick* list as, eventhough it was a wrestler in the costume, and it was on a wrestling show, it wasn't actually a wrestling gimmick. In so much as, he was ever going to wrestle in that thing, or, take it off and wrestle under that name.
The real worst gimmick is the individual that didn't center-align the last category in the tier list.
Not even that bad
Can’t unsee it now. Thanks!
Thanks, cant unsee it now
That just warrants nuclear heat right there
Also you were right about the Boogeyman's gimmick. It did started off as pretty serious but Martin Wright (the guy that plays The Boogeyman of course) once stated that the reason why his character turned into a comedy role is because Vince felt like he didn't want him to be too scary since they were transitioning over to PG. Yeah Vince didn't want THE BOOGEYMAN to be too scary...
Kind of glad Vince is gone lol
The be fair the boogeyman was really scary kept me up at night
It's funny how bad boogeyman played Vince to get a job
Iuiiji pop
He used to scare the fuck outta me
Pirate Butchill is definitely too high, swinging in on the rope, throwing treasure to the audience, wench Regal, it was a lot of fun even if it was silly. Recall this gimmick existed when Pirates of the Caribbean was the biggest movie franchise out there, so it made sense to have it. Then Vince canned the gimmick cause he thought pirates weren't relevant.
Burchill ame up with the idea. Then Vince went "That doesn't make any sense! A Pirate gimmick should be like Jean Pierre Lafitte back in the 90s! What's with your version of a Pirate, Paul?!" Because, apparently, he didn't know potC
I don't think Pirate Paul Burchill was bad at all. Had a fun entrance, the stuff he did with Regal was good, I think he's too high on that list, I'd go Second from the bottom
He should not be on this list. If it wasn’t for the lawsuits he would be WWE Champion. I adored the gimmick!
For real. He owned that pirate gimmick and made it work! His other "gimmick" with his "sister" was WAY worse!
yeah, it makes no sense at all to admit they actually liked it and put it bullpoo category afterwards
Pirate Paul Burchall was bad
Yeah boogeyman and pirate Paul were kinda similar in terms of quality.
I was 18 when Pirate Paul Burchill debuted. I loved it. It was hilarious. I was really sad when they ended the gimmick. It wasn't a main event gimmick, but as an undercard/midcard gimmick, I think he could have had a decent amount of success if he was able to keep the gimmick.
Intercontinental champ forsure
I loved that gimmick that entrance was mad cool
Nice reference/tribute to Bryan Alvarez with the "-5 Stars" ranking on this list.
Great work, gentlemen--as always...
Kevin Thorn was a great Gimmick in my opinion just for Shelly Martinez as Ariel that about it IMO
As a kid, I love when managers "travelled the world" to find people who could fight and they'd bring people in from depths of the Amazon or living in the woods etc.
As far as Vito goes I recall WCW doing a much better version with Perry Saturn being forced to wear a dress/skirt while wrestling after losing a match to Raven. No excuse for WWE to have gotten it so wrong.
wwe did it themselves in the late 90s with Pillman against Golddust and did it well
Muhammad Hassan started as an interesting idea. But rather than go with a nuanced gimmick they changed him to one of the derka derka Arabs from Team America
As someone on the autism spectrum, I actually quite enjoyed Eugene. A lot of my other friends on the spectrum felt the same way. It made a lot of us (as in my friends and I) feel like even we could become whatever we wanted regardless of our disabilities. What offended me was all the people without disabilities getting offended for us on the spectrum and then treating us like we were stupid. "Oh, you don't understand why you should be offended, don't worry. We're protecting you."
Edit: Some clarification. I am not claiming Eugene wasn't offensive. I am not claiming to talk on behalf of everyone with autism. All I am saying is that I and my friends enjoyed it and inspired us to do things we thought were impossible before seeing Eugene on screen. Adding this edit, and some context, to the post because people seem to believe I am saying something that I am not.
And, as someone on the autism spectrum myself, I honestly get pissed off with people like you defending the Eugene gimmick, and pretending like we all universally loved it, when we definitely didn't. I find the suggestion that autistic people have to be okay with our own misrepresentation quite frankly a bit insulting in itself. Like what, we don't matter as much? Why shouldn't I give a damn about some fully neorotypical person taking my job and hamming it up in the process as well? Why shouldn't I be offended by autism being the only thing a character is, and they have no other character at all (even having to borrow moves off other wrestlers)? Where's the autistic badass? It wasn't bloody Eugene that's for sure.
I'm a wrestler. My gimmick's a bee gimmick because I adore bees. I'm very visibly autistic but that's not what I'm about, that's not what I'm for, that's not who I am. I don't speak for all of us and neither do you. I was discouraged by Eugene. It looked like a ceiling. It looked like if I went into wrestling, that's all I'd ever get to be, that I'd never be respected, or taken seriously. I'd have to have an Uncle Eric who neoptism'd me into it in kayfabe (because of course a learning difficulty person could never get in on their own merits). I'd have to have a JBL beat me up and an audience think it's funny.
People look back on this with such rose tinted nostalgia goggles but it really was just as bad as any of the other deliberately offensive ones. It wasn't empowering at all. If you liked it then cool but don't go around telling everyone it was actually fine, no it wasn't. And don't effing assume that everyone disagreeing with you necessarily has to be some unasked-for conditionless busybody. This is not true at all!
I'm not saying you should be offended, that's not a thing you decide, something offends you or it doesn't, it's a reaction not a choice. But do you get why I was offended? Because with all due respect I think you've been a bit dumb about it, stopped thinking at a particular point and then decided to hide behind a disability badge as an excuse to tell everyone else what to think. I've seen it over and over again and I'm sick of it. You would not have made such sweeping assumptions of agreement if you weren't. You would have considered the possibility of your personal opinion being just that - a personal opinion. Mine's one too. It being as disrespectful as it was is plain fact. How I felt about it is personal taste. How others are or aren't allowed to feel about it is the same. Don't be telling me I'm not allowed to be upset, that's nonsense. Don't even be telling someone without autism they aren't allowed to be upset either! That's nonsense too! More understandable nonsense, but nonsense all the same.
Eugene was really awful and we can do a million times better, easily. And they knew it! Autistic people have been wrestlers long before Eugene was a thing. They knew what they were doing and chose to do it anyway. And since it was the guy's own idea, I blame the wrestler for it too. No you don't get to do autism-face and call it fine. It's not fine it's trash.
They sum it up as neatly as can be summed up. He was there to be laughed at.
@@Torthrodhel Did I say all of us? I pointed out that myself and my friends enjoyed it. I never said that the entire community enjoyed it. You were looking for something to get angry with and decided to put words in my mouth.
Look at the words I used. I never said all of us.
@@tallgoose85 Same thing I said to Jane. I didn't say all of us liked Eugene. I said myself and a lot of my friends on the spectrum liked Eugene. I was not speaking for the entire community.
Also, and I seriously want an answer because this is confusing me, why are people attacking me as if I was speaking for the entire community and said Eugene was a good gimmick? I never said it was a good gimmick. I said myself and a lot of my friends liked it and that it made us feel like we could do anything if we wanted to.
@@gameprose4293 I'm gonna simplify and rewrite this because I am emotional.
Edited: Your initial post suggested, and completely meant to suggest, that anyone disagreeing with you is some sort of unwanted, interfering, misguided, and fake, person with nothing better to do than patronise disabled people. You STILL were saying that the only reason I could've possibly come to my conclusions, is if I spent all my time on the internet looking for something to be offended by. That's not a neutral "what did I say?" type of statement to make, that's quite insulting, and absolutely untrue.
I am saying that is a very bad impression to be spreading around. Please don't.
@@gameprose4293 I understand what you are saying... don't let people bully you into how they felt... all characters have pros and cons
With Boogeyman, his matches were never long enough for him to sweat the paint off
I like the Pirate entrance too Fraser...I was however 20 but let's not worry about that.
No Bastion Booger? No Beaver Cleavage? You guys barely scratched the surface on bad gimmicks.
Seriously. I didn't expect to see obscurities like the Ding Dongs or Phantasio, but they missed some prominent examples.
I feel like Mantaur should be representative of Effing Bullpoo since he is half-man, half-bull, all shit.
In an alternate universe Mordecai is the next Undertaker and takes up the mantle of Supernatural Gimmick.
How did Akeem avoid being in the problematic group with the other offensive stereotypes?
That’s what I was thinking too! Akeem needs to be in the minus 5 stars tier too because it was also racial offensive
At the end of the day, it was a stupid and goofy gimmick that didn't really move the meter on anything. However, zooming in on Slick (primarily his lips) eating a bucket of fried chicken at the beginning of Jive Soul Bro is definitely problematic.
Holy shit nobody cares!
Akeem was actually a Vince Rib on Dusty Rhodes 'the American Dream', the way he spoke and danced was a take on Dusty's style.
He should have been in the problematic group.
Mohammad Hassan was one of the most poorly conecived gimmiks. The problem was that he was supposed to be an Arab-American facing prejudice just for being Arab. But wrestling doesn't work like that, if you tell the crowd he's a babyface, and he acts like one, they're going to cheer for him. They're not going to refuse to cheer because he's Arab.
So, if he can't get heat from the crowd, how about the other wrestlers? Same problem, the Faces can't hate him for being Arab and still be Faces. And if the Heels hate him, so what? Heels hate all Faces anyway.
So the only way for Hassan to get heat was to be an actual Heel himself, which destroys the whole concept that he's just an innocent bystander. By the end he was actually working with terrorists, so anybody who didn't like him had good reason not to. It's just impossible to make this gimmick work the way it's supposed to.
That cut to Ross singing Three Count's theme was amazing 😂😂
I feel like Oklahoma was the worst because it was attacking someone personally. Yes Kung Fu Naki and Eugene were horrible but it was stupid generalizations. Oklahoma was a direct attack of a man. Good list though Gary and Gary. Keep up the good work.
Cmon man, Pirate Paul was really good and would've been a solid midcarder if Vince hadn't cut the legs out from under Paul because Vince never saw the Pirates movies and didn't get the character.
Kevin Thorne was also good and he could've easily capitalized on Twilight had he come along a bit later. Plus there was Ariel.
The Zombie was supposed to be a bad one off joke character and existed because WWE was making fun of the Syfy channel's demand that ECW have more sci-fi elements. He should not be in -5 stars. Plus his "promo" was gold.
The Boogeyman is a freaking LEGEND 😩👍👍👍👍
My dishonourable mentions would include Skinner, Nailz, The Truth Commission, Aces and Eights, and farting Natalya.
Pirate Paul absolutely doesn't deserve to be on this list; that was goofy in concept, but absolutely brilliant in execution
As much as I like A.J. Styles, I'm surprised he was even on this list...
Pirate Paul Burchill’s entrance on SDvRaw2007 was awesome. I used to play as him just for it lol
Loving the list guys, very good as always 🙂
That sneeze was powerful, scared the whole house XD
I...kind of liked Eugene when they first brought him in. It's problematic to have someone pretend to be autistic, at a base level, that's pretty bad (especially when it's been revealed recently to have been based on a real person). That said the original version of Eugene was well performed, relatively subtle as far as these things go, and they had those great segments with William Regal being asked to train Eugene, and it turned out he was a wrestling savant. Regal then started to look out for him and defend him against Bischoff and others from mocking him. I thought that was all good stuff. They got increasingly cartoony with the depiction though and that's when it really crossed the line into distasteful for me.
Then again, I say all this as someone not on the spectrum, so my perspective really means little. I just think the gimmick was less exploitative and problematic at the start than it ended up being.
I started watching around 2005 so I missed seeing Attitude Era stars like Rock and Austin but would play them as legends on Smackdown vs Raw PS2. Eugene was the only guy I actually got to see hitting Rock Bottoms, Stunners etc on TV so I loved him just for that.
I'm an autist and, tbh. Eugene never really bothered me all that much. The original version was far superior to the later one where they just turned him into "Look! Childish guy funny!"
Every former wcw wrestler who found success in wwe & Vice versa.
Kevin Thorn had so much potential. He just wasn’t booked properly. After Shelly got released, he seriously went downhill. No fault of his own.
06:26 uhm... from what i've heard, the Gimmick was BURCHILL's idea, and Vince didn't get it at all because he hadn't heard of PotC and thought that Pirate gimmicks should be like Jean Pierre Lafitte.
About Eugene: It is kinda important, imho, to differenciate between his original version, where the gimmick was rather tasteless, but Eugene still was a wrestling savant, and the later version where they just went "Eugene funny childish!"
funny how they built Emmalina for like 4 months, then she appeared only to go back to Emma. only lasted a minute on Raw
I am suprised Kerwin White did not make the list. Great content as always!
Akeem was okay as part of the twin towers because Bossan was so great and both of them were huge, hence the name the twin towers after they split his fued with Bossman didn`t go well.
Worst gimmicks/wrestlers in WWE history
Gobbledy Gooker
Pirate Paul Burchill
Eugene
Santino
Gillberg
Max Moon
The Goon
Dumpster Droese
Beaver Cleavage
3MB
Jinder Mahal
Great Khali
Deuce and Domino
The Dicks
The Hearthrobs
Hornswoggle
El Torito
Los Matadores
Fandango
Brooklyn Brawler
The Killer Bees
Braun Strowman
Elias and Ezekiel
Saba Simba
Adrian Adonis
Hillbilly Jim
Boogeyman
Corporal Kirchner
Kamala
Koko B Ware
Red Rooster
Akeem
Tugboat and Typhoon
Earthquake
Matt Striker
Dean Douglas
The Beverley’s
Repo Man
Skinner
Papa Shango
The Mountie
Bezerker
Doink The Clown
Damien Demento
Bastion Booger
Adam Bomb
Ludvig Borga
Mr Hughes
Men On A Mission/Mo and Mable
Giant Gonzales
Well Dunn
Kwang
The Godwinns
Mantaur
Kama
Savio Vega
Aldo Montoya
Isaac Yankem DDS
Lief Cassidy
Flash Funk
Erik Watts
Tekno team 2000
The new Blackjacks
Rockabilly
Make a difference Fatu
Los Boricuas
Fake Diesel
Fake Razor
Brakus
Tiger Ali Singh
Truth Commission
Kurgan
Val Venus
The Godfather
The Oddities
Mideon and naked Mideon
Viscera and Big Daddy V
Droz
Mean Street Posse
Meat
Blue Meanie
Bull Buchanan
Just Joe
Rico
Johnny Stamboli
Chris Nowinski
Orlando Jordon
Jackie Gayda
Nathan Jones
Rodney Mack
Sylvian Grenier
Luther Reigns
Simon Dean
Matt Morgan with a stutter
Ernest Miller
Jesus (he was Carlito’s thug)
Vito in a dress
Chavo as Kerwin White (though that was hilarious)
The Highlanders
Jillian Hall
Jessie and Festus
Vladimir Koslov
Jimmy Wang Yang
The Zombie
Big Dick Johnson
Roadkill
Kelly Kelly
Brooke (though she got much better in TNA)
Manu
Bam Neely
Ezekiel Jackson
Kizarny
DJ Gabriel
The Bella Twins
Braden Walker (just the awful name though)
Eve Torres
Mayrse
Layla
Alicia Fox
Rosa Mendes
Eric Escobar
Slam Master J
Savannah
Scotty Goldman (just the awful name)
Tiffany
Micheal Tarver
Husky Harris (just the name)
Skip Sheffield (just the name)
Micheal McGillicutty (just the name)
Darren Young
Titus O’Neal
Tamina
Percy Watson
Mason Ryan
Aksana
Maxine
Brodus Clay
Eli Cottenwood
David OTunga
Lucky Cannon
Tensai (just the gimmick)
Camacho
Cameron
Adam Rose
Bo Dallas
Summer Rae
Mojo Rawley
James Ellsworth
Baron Corbin (and his other names)
Bull Dempsey
Dana Brooke
Emmalina (just the gimmick)
Carmella
Nia Jax
IIconica
Riddick/Madcap Moss
No Way Jose
Lana
Sarah Logan
Retribution
Shorty G (just the name and gimmick)
Ridge Holland
Butch (just the name)
imo, Boogeyman was the absolute Best! the entrance, the look, he was decent in the ring too. solid gimmick
same goes for Pirate Paul Burchill
Boogeyman wasn't that good in the ring
My first match I ever saw was Vito vs Regal on Smackdown on September 1st 2006, crazy to think I saw that and was like “man I need more of this”
Also same show was Miz’s WWE Debut against Tatanka.
Smackdown 2006 woof
In defense of Kung-fu Naki, he was still quite memorable, and maybe even beloved as a character, somewhat over too. Also his theme was catchy af. I'd bump him up a few tiers. I'd also move AJ and Paul burchil up at least one tier each, and also black reign maybe. More or less everything else with I agree with.
Emmalina barely qualifies as any kind of gimmick since it was basically just a bunch of vignettes. As the story goes, after Emma went out with a legit back injury WWE decided to repackage her as a sort of throwback to Attitude Era characters like Sable and the Cat where her whole schtick would be “look at how attractive I am, I don’t like wearing clothes.” So when she was ready to come back they started running the vignettes, but since they had no actual plans for her beyond the repackaging it became a sort of inside joke to keep running them every week (not unlike what happened with Veer Mahan). Then by the time they had a spot for her on TV, they lost confidence that Emma could pull off the “sexpot” schtick and just re-debuted her previous gimmick.
What do you mean "The Yetay is Jack's favorite gimmick"?!
We all know his favorite gimmick is the
MISFITS!
IN!
ACTION!
(dew-new-new...)
Love tier lists!!!!
No Kerwin White? No “Moppy”-era Perry Saturn? 🤷🏻♂️
This gave me a idea for a video (putting it out there cause not sure how to approach it) taking gimmicks like mantaur and making them work (hoof boots sounds kinda cool but get rid of the bull head)
When talking about the worst gimmicks of dustin rhodes, you could have included “seven” as well
Finally! Gary Youtubz and The Youths of Fraser
Akeem the African Dream is actually worse, even, than you think because there WAS a "reason" behind it: in the '90s, it was the first time prominent African-American celebrities started to do things like reclaim their heritage and roots, sometimes even changing their names. The reason Pritchard "thought it was funny" was because he's a massive racist.
Controversial opinion: I quite like the Eugene character (and his relationship with Regal was pretty fun).
I understand the problems with the character, but I don't think it deserves to be among the worst.
I still remember the interaction between Gene Snitsky and Heidenreich during Survivor Series 2005. I like your poetry. I like what you do to babies.
I remember Eugene. HOLY SHIT the complete and utter cringe when he was on. I felt second hand embarrassment just watching.
This weekend is ending well with this tier list :)
I can honestly say nobody was laughing AT Eugene. That is absolutely re writing history about his character. I’m wondering if the people who are critical of that character actually watched how the character was portrayed ?
Please can you do this same tier list concept but with what are considered the worst wrestling theme songs?
*I mainly just want to see the placement of the X Factor theme and Rob Conway’s theme
Mantaur seems like it could never work but Black Taurus is legitimately enjoyable to watch. The secret is to wear the cow hat.
Pirate Paul Burchill was underrated af and would work now
This is the perfect list for "The Arrogance of Youth"
Akeem was hilarious. Thats dancing?
I actually laughed my ass off.
I feel sorry for the man.
Gang was great
I do love these deep dives.
Akeem the African Dream was Vince McMahon taking another shot at Dusty Rhodes who was billed as the American Dream. In My opinion, Emmalina shouldn't have been ranked at all. Emmalina had multiple vignettes building up the transition of Emma into Emmalina, but when Emmalina debuted she said on that very show that she was going back to Emma. By the way, if you think Dustin Rhodes' Black Reign gimmick was bad, you don't remember his gimmick Seven which he really hated and was worse.
What about The Retribution?
I think sting used water based makeup while they used longer lasting alcohol based makeup for The Boogeyman
3 Count was insanely talented I think, some of my favorite matches ever
Kevin Thorne is what happens when you take all the cool factor from Gangrel and don't give him anything in return.
I have a tier list of how dirty,sweaty guys want my socks to be when I sell them to them from mild to toxic😆
Very surprised that Kizarny the Carny wasn't even in the running.
Yep the Pirate Paul Birchell was around 2006. Fun fact the reason why he was giving that gimmick because Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was released around that time and it was SUPER popular at the time and Vince thought he could cash in on it's popularity by having Paul dress as a pirate referencing Jack Sparrow. Needless to say, it didn't last long and Paul went to having a biker gimmick instead
Vince never actually watched any of the films though and his idea of a pirate gimmick was more akin to the stereotypical old Cornish "arrrgh" parrot-on-the-shoulder type. I heard that's why he cancelled Burchill's pirate gimmick, because he was expecting it to be like that (and assuming the Pirates films to have been like that too), and didn't know what to think about the Sparrow impression because he had no idea what it was referencing.
Vince McMahon didn't even know who Johnny Depp was. True story.
Apparently, he wanted a serious pirate, and had no frame of reference for the goofy Jack Sparrow Burchall was doing.
@@Jackaljkljkl the mind boggles to what "serious pirate" could've meant in Vince's mind. I guess something more akin to Davy Jones from the films, maybe? Just without the monstrous elements. Either way if he wanted to capitalize on a trend he should've at least understood the trend! lol
I can see a serious pirate character potentially having been really good. Maybe if he'd been clearer about what he wanted, it might've been kinda awesome.
The worst ones on here were definitely The Zombie and The Yeti. I actually liked the Boogeyman during his active run, even though they definitely should've gone down a more horror character type of way, that would've worked so much better. Styles hanging with Flair may have been TNA not nearly utilizing his potential, but I wouldn't put it in a worst gimmicks of all time list. I would put Cameron Grimes there though. And while I agree that the Eugene thing is very sensitive, I disagree that we didn't laugh with him, he was well liked and over with the fans.
Best gimmick of all time is easily gonna go to The Undertaker.
Worst gimmick ever is Roman Reigns face run
Surprised you didn't mention that The B Team beat The Revival at Wrestlemania for the Raw tag titles.
Cant believe Voice of a generation, songstress of our times Jillian Hall wasn't on this list
The zombie was there to be ridicolous and get beaten up by Sandman for a pop, and then we never saw the gimmick again. To me it's silly to remember it as such a bad stain when it was clearly made on purpose to be bad and to disappear after 1 night. I know it kinda went down in history as the worst thing to ever happen to ecw but just because someone in the past interpreted it wrongly we dont need to all be conditioned by that wrong opinion.
Later on in the video, Ross got to Gillberg and quickly dismissed him saying "he was a jobber and filled his role", wich I agree with! But the same applies to the zombie. Of course it was bad. It was bad so that Sandman would come out and beat him up
Paul burchill was dope as the pirate that entrance was fire 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Mordecai was really dope too they ended that too early
Pirate Paul Burchill shouldn't be in a worst gimmick list 🤣🤣
It's all relative right? Some things were just plain fun at the time even if they were dumb. John Cena and in his thuganomic period is still stupid to me but I'm not sure most people would agree with that.
Emmalina had some legs imo. I like the idea of a glamorous DIVA who is good at wrestling. But back then I believe it would boil down to cocky diva who runs away from fights
Paul Burchill as a pirate was great and it was over, only stopped when Vince heard it was similar to Jack Sparrow, but wow most gimmicks are ripoffs. It was great, fight me.
Perry Saturn moppy gimmick missing from this list.
You're forgetting that Kung Fu Nakis theme fuckin slaps.
There's been loads not even featured I'd say.. The Goon, Naked Mideon, Man Mountain Rock, Waylon Mercy, that carnival dude a few years ago can't remember his name, Giant Gonzalez, Aldo Montoya, Avatar, X Factor faction, Techno Team 3000, Dr Death, Dan Severn, Tugboat, OZ in Kevin Nash first wcw run, Adam Bomb, Crush in nation of domination and Owen Hart, kwang, The Sultan, the demon wcw kiss ripoff, corporate ministry, kozlov, heel Michael Cole, loads of others too I'm sure
Is kizarny the carnival guy you’re thinking of?
Waylon Mercy was a good gimmick done poorly. Bray Wyatt’s original character was pretty much the same gimmick done better.
One gimmick I'm surprised isn't mentioned is the Black scorpion.overhyped,lame ass magic tricks ,a gruff voice over and a conclusion which left people unsatisfied.also not mentioned is Dustin Rhodes as se7en.a gimmick so bad Dustin ended it on his debut as it.
Thanks 🙏
That was a sneeze? I thought that was a torpedo launch!
"30 years of age. how old are you?" 26 Ross, And the sad thing is I've been watching you make dumb noises since you were 26 aswell. cheers mate!
Hershey's chocolate should be in the minus 5 stars by itself.
Eugene was offensive at the time. I was around and trust me, an obviously intellectually disabled person made people outside of wrestling squirm
Speaking as someone who has a disability (Cerebral Palsy), I found the Eugene gimmick very offensive. Like every gimmick before him , I know it was treated as a joke but to me it wasn't very funny, making fun of someone who is disabled is horrible. But wwe didn't care at all they just laughed all the way to the bank I know that the guy who portrayed Eugene (nick Dinsmore) isn't disabled, but I'm sure he hated the doing Eugene gimmick. But also that kid Zack Gowen who was disabled (he lost a leg to cancer) proved to everyone he could be a good wrestker with only one leg. Hopefully nothing like making fun of disabled people ever happens again in WWE . Just making a point.
I enjoyed the Boogeyman gimmick, shouldn't be on the list in my opinion. While others were grossed out when he bit the mole off of Jillian's face, I thought it was hilarious. And Roddy Piper's reaction was priceless.
It's even more fucked that Steph based WWE's Vito off the Sopranos character when you get through that storyline in the show.
Eugene was an awful gimmick for sure but I think it's important to remember how often one sees cognitively-disabled adults at wrestling shows and how infrequently those individuals are represented in the entertainment they enjoy. A few years ago, I made an academic presentation for a disability studies symposium where I analyzed Eugene's appearances on RAW leading up to and including his first match using Wolfensberger's Social Role Valorization (SRV) principles and the results were shockingly favorable to the character. I wish I knew what cognitively-disabled wrestling fans thought of the character back in 2004.
I think Black Reign coulda been something, but Dustin definitely was not in good shape at the time and that probably dragged it down.
Main Event: ECW Zombie vs. The Yeti
Very surprised Kerwin White wasn't an option!
Can you put a link to the tier list so we can fill it out on our own?
Dang, 9 in 07! You missed out on the good 90s wrastlin’! I was born 89 and I feel I missed a lot of good stuff and caught up with it by the time I started watching in 96! Nwo/ dx 4 life! Suck it!
Andy Gray the voice of my youth thank you Ross
How was Beaver Cleavage not on this list?! 😂
Shockmaster would have been crap anyway because Tugboat was so slow in the ring.
I loved Eugene as a child. I did not laugh at him.
Eugene was God Tier. The HHH program was good. You felt for him. He was over like rover.
I agree that the Gooker was shyte. It was so bad, it had an annual award named after him. However, I would argue that he doesn't belong on this *gimmick* list as, eventhough it was a wrestler in the costume, and it was on a wrestling show, it wasn't actually a wrestling gimmick. In so much as, he was ever going to wrestle in that thing, or, take it off and wrestle under that name.
Akeem the White African dream is really really bad and didn't age well 😂