Gimmick (professional Wrestling)

In professional wrestling, a gimmick generally refers to a wrestler's in-ring persona, character, behaviour, attire and/or other distinguishing traits while performing which are usually artificially created in order to draw fan interest.

These in-ring personalities often involve costumes, makeup and catchphrases that they shout at their opponents or the fans.

Gimmicks can be designed to work as good guys/heroes (babyfaces) or bad guys/villains ( heels) depending on the wrestler's desire to be popular or hated by the crowd. A tweener gimmick falls between the two extremes, such as wrestlers who manifests many heel and face traits such as Randy Orton's viper gimmick. A wrestler may portray more than one gimmick over their career depending on the angle or the wrestling promotion that they are working for at that time.

Promotions will use gimmicks on more than one person, albeit at different times, occasionally taking advantage of a masked character which allows for the identity of the wrestler in question to be concealed. Razor Ramon was portrayed by both Scott Hall and Rick Bognar.

Occasionally, a wrestler uses a gimmick as a tribute to another worker; such is the case of Ric Flair's Nature Boy persona which he took on as an homage to the original Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers.

When a wrestler acts outside his or her gimmick this is known as 'breaking kayfabe', a term showing pro wrestling's linkages to theatre, where the more common term " breaking the fourth wall" is used.

Gimmicks are annually rated for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards by the publication's owner, professional wrestling journalists, and various industry insiders, such as Dave Meltzer, promoters, agents and performers, other journalists, historians, and fans. The two awards are given to the best and worst gimmick of that year.

History

Beginnings (1860s to 1940s)

Pro wrestling's history has been tied to the use of gimmicks from its infancy. From its circus origins in the 1830s, showmen presented wrestlers under names such as “Edward, the steel eater”, “Gustave d’Avignon, the bone wrecker”, or “Bonnet, the ox of the low Alps” and challenged the public to knock them down for 500 francs.

During the late 19th century-early 20th century, when wrestler Frank Gotch rose to prominence, the focus became on contests largely legitimate (see catch wrestling), which largely resulted in the abandoning previous character gimmicks.

Television era (1950s to 1970s)

It was not until the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the United States during the 1940s–1950s, when Gorgeous George created pro wrestling's first major gimmick. His heel character focused on his looks and quickly antagonized the fans with his exaggerated effeminate behavior, drawing jealousy to the fans. Such showmanship was unheard of for the time; and consequently, arena crowds grew in size as fans turned out to ridicule George.

Gorgeous George's impact and legacy on wrestling gimmicks was enormous, demonstrating how fast television changed the product from athletics to performance. Before him, wrestlers gimmicks imitated "ethnic terrors" (Nazis, Middle Eastern Muslims (Arabs, Turks, Persians, Afghans, etc.), Japanese, Russians, etc.), but his success birthed a more individualistic and narcissist form of character.

He was one of the first pro-wrestlers to use entrance music, "Pomp and Circumstance" which always played as he made his way to the ring.

In Britain, television took British wrestling to the next level when in 1964, it went full-time as part of the '' World of Sport'' show.

The style of wrestling at the time was unique with strong emphasis on clean technical wrestling. Heels made up a minority of the roster, with most shows containing an abnormally high proportion of clean sportsmanly matches between two "blue-eyes" (as faces were known backstage in the UK). This would remain the case for several decades to come. Gimmick matches were a rarity, midget wrestling failed to catch on, while women were banned by the Greater London Council until the late 1970s.

Explosion (1980–present)

During the Golden Age of pro wrestling in the 1980s–1990s, a rise of cartoonish, outlandish gimmicks became popular with the increase of the World Wrestling Federation's popularity.

The WWF contributed to the explosion of gimmicks by becoming the most colorful and well-known wrestling brand because of its child-oriented characters, soap opera dramatics and cartoon-like personas. Most notable was the muscular Hulk Hogan, who marked the 1980s with his "Real-American" gimmick and made his main events into excellent ratings draws. His dominant role in the industry at that time led to this era to be also known as "Hulkamania". Around this time, wrestling became a form of entertainment rather than an official sport.

Other wrestlers from this era with similarly vivid and outlandish characterization include The Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, The Undertaker, Sting, Goldust, Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, Big Daddy Cool Diesel, Kwang, The Bushwhackers, Big Boss Man, Tatanka, Razor Ramon, Sgt. Slaughter, Irwin R. Schyster, among many others.

Following the Attitude era, the emphasis of gimmicks has been more realistic with wrestlers portraying themselves or actual people without the exaggeration, freakishness or fantastical qualities. It's also more common for the wrestlers to use their actual names. Wrestlers like Randy Orton, Batista, Bobby Lashley, John Cena, and Brock Lesnar are prime examples. All the said wrestlers are depicted as less-exaggerated average people.

Although rare, colorful and cartoon-like characters remain in the WWE, such as Shinsuke Nakamura (a wildly random, erratic mixed martial arts enigma, emotionally charged by the sound of violins) and Matt Riddle (a stereotypical carefree, barefoot surfer Valley boy). Outside WWE, some wrestlers have made names for themselves on the crowded independent circuit by adopting absurdist comedy gimmicks intended to be understood by post-kayfabe fans as purely fictional characters. Two such wrestlers whose independent-scene popularity got them noticed and eventually signed by the internationally televised promotion All Elite Wrestling are Orange Cassidy, an emotionless slacker who puts as little effort as possible into his matches and frequently wrestles with his hands in his pockets; and Danhausen, a demonic but somewhat-bumbling figure in horror face paint who claims to be "very nice, very evil" and attempts to put curses on his opponents.

Common gimmicks

Related to origin

Exaggerating the characteristics of a wrestler's (on occasion fabricated) origin is one of the most commonly exploited gimmicks, in which overarching characteristics of a character play up to clichés and stereotypes.

A long list of wrestlers in this category includes: ''Albanian'' ( Rezar), ''Arab'' ( The Sheik, The Sultan, Muhammad Hassan), ''African'' (Kamala, Abdullah The Butcher, Akeem, Apollo Crews), ''American'' ( The Patriot, Hulk Hogan, 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan, Jack Swagger), ''Australian'' (The Bushwackers, Outback Jack, Nathan Jones, Buddy Murphy), ''Austrian'' ( Walter), ''Brazilian'' ( Arturo Ruas, Taynara Conti), ''Bulgarian'' ( Rusev), ''Canadian'' (Team Canada (TNA), Team Canada (WCW)), ''Chinese'' ( Xia Li, Boa), ''Cowboy'' ( Bob Orton Jr.), ''Cuban'' (Razor Ramon), ''Dominican'' ( No Way Jose), ''Dutch'' (Aleister Black), ''English'' (William Regal, Lord Alfred Hayes, Gentleman Jack Gallagher), ''Fijian'' (Jimmy Snuka), ''French'' ( La Résistance), ''German'' ( Alexander Wolfe, Marcel Barthel), ''Guyanese'' (Ezekiel Jackson), ''Hawaiian'' ( Crush, Leilani Kai, Ricky Steamboat), ''Indian'' (The Great Khali, Jinder Mahal, Akam), ''Iranian'' (The Iron Sheik, Ariya Daivari), ''Irish ''(Finlay, Sheamus), ''Israeli'' (Noam Dar), ''Italian'' (FBI, Santino Marella, Fabian Aichner), ''Jamaican'' (Kofi Kingston), ''Japanese'' (The Orient Express, Mr. Fuji, Kai En Tai), ''Korean'' (Gail Kim), ''Lithuanian'' ( Aksana), ''Mexican'' (Alberto Del Rio, Eddie Guerrero, The Mexicools), ''Moldovan'' (Alex Koslov, Marina Shafir) ''Native American/American Indian'' (Chief Jay Strongbow, Tatanka), ''New Zealander/Maori'' (The Sheepherders, Dakota Kai), ''Puerto Rican'' ( Carlito Colón, Primo and Epico), ''Polish'' ( Dabba-Kato/Commander Azeez,), ''Russian'' (Vladimir Kozlov, Nikolai Volkoff, Lana), ''Samoan'' (Samoa Joe, The Wild Samoans, Roman Reigns, The Usos) ''Scottish'' (Drew McIntyre, Roddy Piper), ''South African'' (Adam Rose, Justin Gabriel) ''Swiss'' ( Cesaro), ''Thai'' ( Super Invader), ''Tongan'' ( Haku, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa), and ''Welsh'' (Mason Ryan).

The undeniable influence of the Puroresu style in the world of professional wrestling has resulted in many wrestlers using fabricated ''Japanese'' origins or being billed from a Japanese city, without actually being natives of the country. Prime examples of this include Yokozuna, Awesome Kong, Hawaiians Professor Tanaka and Mr. Fuji, and British wrestler Kendo Nagasaki. Several Japanese wrestlers who wrestle outside of their home country are known to play up or exaggerate aspects of their cultural heritage as part of their gimmicks for an overseas audience.

Masked

Masked wrestlers made their appearance in Europe ( Theobaud Bauer in France, 1865) and the United States (Mort Henderson as "Masked Marvel" in 1915) considerably earlier than in Mexico, but it was the latter that popularised the use of masks. This, in some cases to signify a high-flyer style, influenced by Lucha Libre.

A specific masked gimmick may be used by more than one wrestler at a wrestling company's request since their identity can be permanently concealed. This is the case of Mexican Sin Cara and Japanese Tiger Mask. Masks also allow a wrestler to perform as more than one character for a variety of wrestling promotions. In Mexico, a masked wrestler's identity is often not even a matter of public record, and being unmasked, usually as a stipulation of losing a match, is considered a great humiliation. It is a major taboo for a Mexican wrestler who has lost his mask to start wearing one again, though this has occasionally been violated, as in the case of Rey Mysterio.

Other wrestlers who have used masks in their performances include: The Masked Superstar, Mexican-American Kalisto, Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik, or Japanese legend Jushin Thunder Liger.

Sports

A high number of wrestlers who start their careers in another sport incorporate their athletic abilities as part of their act. That is the case for Olympic medallist Kurt Angle, who previously competed in freestyle wrestling and alludes to it in his attire and wrestling style. Brock Lesnar is also an ex- amateur wrestler, NFL player and UFC champion. Welsh wrestler Mason Ryan is also a former Gladiator and football player. English wrestler Wade Barrett was also a former bare-knuckle fighter as well as Elijah Burke who is also a former amateur boxer. Former MMA fighters Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler also uses their MMA background as part of their characters as well as former American Ninja Warrior competitor Kacy Catanzaro, former kung-fu fighter Xia Li, and Matt Riddle, who always wrestles barefooted during matches, presuming that he had an MMA background career in the past before debuting in WWE along with Mojo Rawley's "hyperactive" wrestling style due to being a former NFL player before debuting WWE as well as the stable The Four Horsemen.

Superheroes, supervillains and other comic-based characters

The theatrical nature of professional wrestling easily blends with comic hero and villain characters, made popular in the 1980s by legend The Ultimate Warrior and Sting, whose character was inspired by the 1994 movie ''The Crow'', based on the comic book of the same name.

Other wrestlers with superhero and supervillain gimmicks include late WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes' sons Gold and Stardust, Big Van Vader, Bam Bam Bigelow, Pierre Carl Ouellet, Dr. Luther, the magician Phantasio, Icarus, Super Eric, Dexter Lumis, Samoan Rosey during his "the Super Hero in Training" (the S.H.I.T.) phase and his tag-team partner The Hurricane and valet Super Stacy, Earthquake/Avalanche and his tag-team partner Typhoon in The Natural Disasters stable, and tag-teams The Road Warriors, Demolition, KroniK, The Assassins, The Super Assassins, The Machines, and most recently, The Ascension, and The Viking Raiders/War Machine.

Some of these characters are brought during very short periods of time for entertainment value. The Joker and Harley Quinn from the Batman comics have inspired wrestling attire for Sting and Alexa Bliss respectively. Finn Bálor's Demon King persona is visually based on Spider-Man villains Venom and Carnage. Sandman's character name is also based on Spider-Man villain Sandman as well as Rhyno, who's character name was based on a pun on the Spider-Man villain Rhino. Raven's character name was based on DC Comics superhero, Raven. Kenny Omega's taunts were inspired by video games since he was a big fan of them. Mantaur's character name was also based on a pun on the word Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull creature from Greek Mythology. Luchasaurus' character name is a portmanteau

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