Jim Cornette on If Wrestlers Can Turn Down Bad Gimmicks
Вставка
- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- From Episode 78 of Jim Cornette's Drive Thru
Artwork by Travis Heckel!
Send in your question for the Drive-Thru to: CornyDriveThru@gmail.com
Follow Jim and Brian on Twitter: @TheJimCornette @GreatBrianLast
Join Jim Cornette's College Of Wrestling Knowledge on Patreon to access the archives & more! / cornette
Visit Jim's official site at www.JimCornette.com for merch, live dates, commentaries and more!
You can listen to Brian each week on the 6:05 Superpodcast at 605pod.com.
"Puke is good. Puke is nice. I Iike Puke. It fits the WWF Attitude."
Vince talking Droz into his gimmick.
WORKING Droz into his gimmick.
i remember that 21 yrs ago in 1999 when as 16 yr old saw wrestling documentary beyond the mat. got beyond the mat on vhs tape. saw it at northeast ohio movie theatre. best wrestling documentary ever.
My God his gonna puke! His gonna puke!
I remember he called his mom and said "hey Mom, we decided on a name...you're gonna love it...I am now known as Puke". I bet she was like what the fuck? Isnt the owner my age or is he twelve? Haha!
Vince To Hawk :"rocko's your future".
Million Dollar Man was a great gimmick because WWF paid for him to travel, stay, and eat in style to keep up kayfabe. Meanwhile everyone else is driving themselves around and eating at truckstops.
Imagine being Ric Flair..
😂😂
Truckstops always have the best biscuits and gravy.
@@seanrosenau2088 sausage and egg biscuits too!
@@kenrickeasonWoo!
Imagine this: if Glenn Jacobs had said “Naw, I’m not gonna play an evil dentist” or “Really?! A fake Diesel?! I’ll pass!”, he may have been booted from WWE and we wouldn’t have a Kane!
we would.... but with someone else playing him maybe :-D
@@user-li3fr8jl3b 6’10 and 326 pounds with that athleticism and mindset? Where? He and Taker are the only guys in history with that size and abilities
A
Luke Gallows would have had a huge early career boost, instead of playing a mentally challenged hillbilly lol
An exception rather than the norm most guys who take on bad gimmicks end up being stuck with them for the rest of the career, it's hard to change it when every fan knows you by your shitty WWE gimmick, that's why it's better to not work for the WWE than to work for them with a bad gimmick
Vince is a nutcase. Imagine, Vince in his office "Well, think about it, an inebriated chiropractor who soils himself and his music is a droning loud gagging sound. It'll make millions!"
Lmfao!!!
Vince also came up with the name and gimmick of Otto Von Ruthless for Stone Cold 😂
The Bastion Booger gimmick did lead to one of my favorite calls from JR ever.
It was Booger vs. Rick Martel. The whole story was Martel didn't wanna lock up cause Booger smelled so bad, so he gets himself disqualified by gassing him with his "scent of arrogance" and JR exclaims: "HE'S TRYING TO DISINFECT THE BOOGER! "
Mike Shaw’s best work in my opinion was as Makahn Singh in Calgary! He used to drive the host Ed Whelan insane when he had to interview him and it seemed like he was a much better heel and all around performer there than in WCW or WWE, or when he was “Klondike Mike” in Vancouver, BC before he went to Calgary!
😂😂
Didn't Bastian Booger then go on to play an evil monk or something too?
Literally a case of 'Tell me Vince McMahon gave you your gimmick, without telling me Vince McMahon gave you your gimmick' Lol
@@stevelowe2647 he also had a few gimmicks in WCW if I recall correctly, like “Trucker Norm”.
@@scorptarget just my opinion, not God’s word 🤷🏻♂️
Jim really does print his emails out doesn't he
Yep he is a nerd but cool as hell at the same time it’s part of his genius! Good down to earth Ol Ky boy!
Here come the Jim is old jokes just cause he still uses a payphone when his beeper goes off
Lol. That actually made my day better.
He must get hundreds of them. He prints out the ones he wants to read out.
It's quite common for a lot of older people to print out their emails, a lot of people that weren't brought up with technology find it more comfortable to read a printed copy
I still laugh at the the apparent fact that they wanted to call Stone Cold 'Chilli McFreeze'
Ice McDagger was the one I laughed the hardest at.
I can just hear Vince growl "Chilly McFreeze!" while Bruce and the others kiss his ass.
JC is the best by FAR!
Or Fang McFrost lmao. Russo is trash but how in the fuck was Vince McMahon anyone's filter? He was so corny
I think that was brought as a placeholder until they could settle on something.
Vince treats his talent like action figures
True. In an interview, Sabu said he was offered a job in the WWE but he would have to change his name to “The Sultan” and have Iron Sheik as his uncle. Sabu turned it down because he felt it was insulting to his real uncle, the original Sheik. Vince later gave The Sultan gimmick to someone else. Sabu said it shows that Vince didn’t really want him; He just wanted a body to fill a gimmick.
@@39Hundred Who was the sultan in the end? I feel like it was an early failed thing for the guy that later became Rikishi, but I'm probably wrong.
Tony Khan: Hold my daddy's $
@@LyingSecret
Sabu was offered a job in 1996 in wwf and the Sultan was created for Sabu originally.
However Sabu turned it down after doing a tryout match for $300 and chose to stay with ECW.
They then put the Gimmick on Fatu
(Rikishi) because he was struggling at that point in time.
Hope that helps
@@asoncalledvoonch2210 Cheers :)
The funny thing is, Shane Douglas legit was a substitute teacher around Pittsburgh for a bit. Couple buddies of mine had him for math class.
Dean Douglas was NOT a bad gimmick. I will stand on this hill forever. If he had a “Hulk Down Equation” moment like THE GENIUS Lanny Poffo did, he’d have been soooooooooo over.
@@mrtrin it wasn’t a bad gimmick but it was doomed by that goofy singlet. I think Vince signed Shane thinking he had the same physique he had during his brief run in WWF in the early 90’s, then when he saw he’d let himself go a bit, he stuck him in the singlet and buried him
@@joshuapaladini1507 Vince should've let him just be The Franchise
@@peacepunksean1942 Shane is glad he wasn't allowed to be the franchise now because he would've lost his rights to the name per the standard contract WWE uses.
@@mrtrin I think it was less a bad gimmick and more Douglas not putting his all into it.
Remember Jim Herd wanted Ric Flair to do a Centurian gimmick and call himself Spartacus.
Ric Flair has reserved some great space in his book about Jim Herd.
@@RedRaider15395 also in his book in 2004 flair said mick foley was glolify hollwood stuntman!
Glenn Jacobs as Isaac Yankem or fake Diesel come to mind. I also wish Owen had turned down the return of the Blue Blazer most of all.
Undertaker and Kane best examples of what Jim talking about when discussing how to make or choise the right gimmick for the right person.
The Undertaker could have been a failed gimmick easily with the wrong person. They hit a home run giving it to Mark Calaway.
@@elmagnificodep Yes, that is what I posted. Thank you for rewritting my post with different words. I always sad original thoughts and ideas were over rated.
undertaker certainly catches your attention more than mean mark.
There are conflicting stories but one is Mark Calloway turned down the Viking gimmick that was later given to Barbarian. Then Vince offered him “a old west mortician” based on a scene in a spaghetti western. Worked out well for him.
U mean the berzerker
As a little kid, I loved Norman the Lunatic. I didn't think anything about how terrible the gimmick was at the time. I was 8 years old. I remember going to a TV taping at the Georgia Mountain Center in Gainesville, GA with my Dad and my uncle. We were sitting in some of the folding chairs at ringside. I'm not even sure who he was wrestling, but the action spilled out into the crowd. Most everyone scattered, except my uncle, who folded up his chair and tried to hand it to one of them saying "Here, hit him with this."
Can you imagine the room Vince was in when Zack Gowen was brought up?
"A one leg wrestler?! THATS GOOD SHIT! "
I'm surprised you even have a printer. I figured you still used papyrus.
I heard something about giving Bret Hart a cowboy gimmick, and Bret said where I'm from, you dont say you're a cowboy unless you really are a cowboy.
In the days of multiple NWA territories plus AWA, you could always find work somewhere. That ended in the late 80s.
That's right. Also why Bret balked at wearing a hat and boots filming Lonesome Dove... at first. lol
@@cajunasian71 I admit thats always heavily ironic when you put it all together. How Bret refused the cowboy gimmick as a wrestler in the WWF but later starred in Lonesome Dove TV series. 🤣
@@MGSBigBoss77 It gets better than that. Calgary is known for rodeos and other cowboy stuff. Maybe Bret just didn't want to be somthing he saw his whole young life.
@@Lord_Bibulous Or he foresaw the death of his upcoming WWF career with this gimmick.
I thought I also read somewhere that they actually wanted him to wear a pin stripe suit like a stereotypical mobster would have worn to further emphasize the "Hitman" gimmick.
Terry Taylor's finisher as the Red Rooster was pretty scary to see for his opponent. It always looked like the guy's arm was about to break and fall off when seeing it as a kid. lol
I've never seen that maneuver since. I loved it
Cant remember it ...... i just watched his first match in wwf and he uses scorpion death lock to beat Lanny Poffo
@@user-li3fr8jl3b Cock of the Walk was a standing chickenwing… think CRAZY Bob Backlund’s finisher, but RR would be standing and lift the opponent off their feet
@@mrtrinThe flying hammer lock. George Steele's old finisher
'Can wrestlers turn down bad gimmicks?'
Sure. If they want to find themselves unemployed.
Facts👍🏾
Or they can try to breakout on the indie scene albeit that would be choosing the tough road.
@@DreamStepper "Honey, yeah, I quit that high paying job because I didn't like the character I was going to do, so I'm going to be on the road more and make less money so I can do whatever I want with my pretend wrestling character." Egos, man...
I think Val Venus was playing himself, same with Piper.
@@al5306 I mean that's the very idea that lead to Cody Rhodes at least partially owning his own promotion not to mention wrestlers who have left WWE and returned to become champions, so it's not really as bad as an idea as you make it sound.
it would seem to be more logical to allow the wrestlers some input into their gimmicks. That way, they might be able to emotionally invest in their gimmick so as to make it work
Bruce Pritchard has made such a point of denying that there was a "Box of Gimmicks" and one would be fished out and imposed on a random wrestler who lacked one, that he has made it a catchphrase and even a website. He always maintained that a gimmick was created and intended for a specific wrestler with the thought that it matched that man's look and personality. The Million Dollar Man was an exception
Don’t lie, you know you want to see Spartacus Ric Flair.
But "Norman" led to a classic and immortal line from Bobby Heenan, "I pick booger."
Mike Shaw was very entertaining and a great guy in real life from what I heard. He has a rare interview on UA-cam before he passed away. Rip booger man!!
Xavier Woods mentioned the New Day Gimmick was envisioned by Vince as an old timey gospel gimmick, nothing near what they are today.
My thought from the vignettes they showed before the New Day premiered was that Vince had recycled the Men On A Mission gimmick. Glad they changed it into what they do now.
@@MIKELIN8
Yeah, booty shaking pancake throwing unicorns is far better.
@@darrengordon-hill at least its who they are....
Geeks....black people have never been shown as video game playing dorks.
You can hate the gimmick but they move merch, people love them and they're over still almost 6 years later.
That's the name of the game.
Not to impress internet geeks.
Impress the people buying tickets, merchandise and the person who is signing your paycheck
@DevilKaz that would work if
1. vince had the nuts To actually do it
2. Vince cedes creative to the actual people involved
3. Wrestling fans didn't get thier pussies wet all the time liberal or conservative.
4.embrace the fact that the majority of white wrestling fans aren't liberals.
Because like daniel Bryan's captain planet gimmick.....this is a heel gimmick in the world of professional wrestling.
Just like the nation was .
But itll never happen because conservative wrestling fans will throw bitch fits about it . And it will attract backlash because it would be presented as a heel gimmick. Because apparently speaking about potential racism in professional wrestling makes you a bad guy
@DevilKaz Yeah but would they be faces or heels?
Friar Ferguson was supposed to be like Friar Tuck, i.e. the big fat "merry monk" who liked to drink and wrestle.
Makhan Singh and his group, the Karachi Vice, were stupidly over in Stampede. He had a great year-long feud with Owen Hart, and everybody in the area was thoroughly captivated by Owen's chase of the North American title.
Hahahah the pope in the spirit squad would be like having the token black guy in a 90s film
I remember hearing Bill Eadie telling how Vince Sr wanted him after getting over in Georgia and MidAtlantic as Masked Superstar but wanted him to be a Cowboy ?
And Eadie turned him down flat. Good for him
Didn’t Vince want Scott hall to be an army man and hall sold him on the Scarface gimmick.
Scott approached him with the idea of a Scarface-like character. I never heard about the soldier gimmick.
Yeah, Scott Hall is one of the FEW guys who came to Vince for the first time IN character and basically sold himself to Vince on the gimmick he wanted. He knew Vince had some idea of a cop or army guy for him, but Scott won Vince over on Razor with that one meeting. I don't think Scott gets enough credit for that, because not many guys could convince Vince of anything, let along change his mind on a gimmick.
@kuma i remember doncallis when he was jackel leader of truth commison in 1997/98 they truth commison was army faction in wwf 1997/98 attitude era.
Hall was ex military wasnt he...
@@user-li3fr8jl3b No, that was Nash. Nash served in 202nd Military Police in Germany, and then as a specialist for NATO.
"They wanted to do cowboy Bret Hart and Im kind of scared of horses" - Bret Hart
It sounded like they wanted him to be a Rhinestone Cowboy, like the Glen Campbell song.
@@mangrove I think every territory had a cowboy in those days. kids love cowboys cause of horses and guns.
Whatever Taka will still always be remembered for that insane spot at Wrestlemania in 1998!
and getting eliminated at the Rumble and Lawler having production play it about 1,000 times
I thought Cornette was going to tell the "Manson the Mutilator" story.
Mason the Mutilator was what Mick said it was. But the Manson is appropriate because in one WCW run I think the first he was made to be Cactus Jack Manson by the office and he hated it. Eventually it got dropped off.
@@willmarkley4237 Regardless whether it was Mason or Manson, it would have killed him in the waters, just like Icy Daggers or Chilly McFreeze for Austin.
RVD turned down the Glacier gimmick.
Glacier was a WCW gimmick, when would RVD have been offered that?
@@crylittlesister6377 This would have been for WCW in 1996. He was offered it before Ray Lloyd became Glacier.
I remember those ridiculous WCW commercials for Glacier. That's when I, around 12-13, could no longer ignore the phoniness of wrestling.
Mick's 1st WCW run, I agree. Not the 2nd, when you're in a title program with the hottest heel in '92-'93: Big Van Vader.
Honestly when thinking about this topic I immediately think of Jim Herd wanting to book Ric flair as Spartacus and Ric's like fuck that and goes to the WWF with the WCW world title
When I think of bad gimmicks, I tend to think of Mike Awesome in WCW. That 70s Guy and The Fat Chick Thrilla. Man, 2000 WCW was so trash.
He wasn’t very good even as Mike Awesome. He was good by ECW standards but he really couldn’t work.
The Fat Chick Thrilla cringy and freaking hilarious at the same time and the 70'S guy damn near killed one of the ICP! Small victories for horrible gimmicks!
I remember when Mick Foley was Hobo Joe in WCW 😂
Lmao. Seriously?
I bet he still nailed it
whaaaaa
No way 😂
Really I herd hobo Joe but didn't think Foley was him.
I mean.... AEW wouldn't exist if Vince would have listened to Cody and allowed him to drop the Stardust character and do his own thing.
Cody might have left because of the gimmick, but AEW came about because people were saying only Vince could draw a crowd of 10k plus. Nobody else had that kind of clout.
So Cody and his buddies decided to do a one off show and they drew more than 10,000.
After that they decided to actually go into business for themselves.
I think the fact that Mike Shaw was able to do anything with the Norman gimmick just shows how good he could be.
Mahkan Singh could have worked in WCW, I think. Have him come out, and talk about how he always wanted to fight. Couldn't amateur wrestle because he was too big to make weight. Didn't play football because football is boring when you're a lineman. So he traveled. Moved around the world. Found a place in Pakistan where you could fight. No weight classes. No rules. Two guys, one winner. Found a guru, and that guy took him under his wing. When the time came he gave him his new name, Mahkan Singh. Mahkan Singh didn't cry when his father died, but when he was given the honor of that name, he cried. Now his guru has sent him back to America, a place that doesn't feel like home anymore. Gave him just one order, "Fight them our way". Give him the Asiatic Spike or something similar, have him get DQed a lot. Two on one matches where he squashes both guys and gets the DQ for going crazy. Post match interview is something like, "The announcer said I lost. What do your eyes say?"
I think you could have gotten some good uppercard matches out of a guy like that.
That's a great basic outline for that gimmick. It's a damned shame that no American promoters ever cared enough to try something like that with him.
Strangely enough he wrestled as both Mike Shaw and Makhan Singh for The Hart Family in Calgary in The Eighties with Stampede. Think Cinematic Matches are outrageous? Imagine keeping track of the finish for a storyline where FIVE different people including Shaw and at least one of The Harts double cross one another in the same match!😂 Trivia Item: One of the guys was a Canadian Heel named John Foley. No relation to Mick.B.W.
One problem: Pakistan is a Muslim nation, not Hindu. That’s why they broke away from India, so it should be India he went to.
@@patrickdaly5068 Sure. When I said 'guru' I meant it in the more generic sense of somebody like a spiritual leader, and not in the specific sense of being Hindu. Sometimes you use these words and forget where they originated.
Thanks for commenting!
@@egyptian316 I stand corrected to a degree also. I didn’t realize until after I commented that he apparently had a “stable” of some sort and called it “The Karachi (something)”. I can’t remember if it was in the comments or a Wikipedia page. That’s a coincidence because I once had a friend who was originally from Karachi, Pakistan.
I'm sure Johnny Curtis decided that the idea of pouring milk on himself would be a great way to get him over instead of choosing to veto the idea.
Still better than Fandango
Isn’t there an old wise tale about Bret Hart turning down a cowboy gimmick. Good choice
Yes Bret said Vince wanted a Canadian stampede cowboy.
Yes they wanted him to be Cowboy Bret Hart
@DevilKaz kinda goes with the glasses
Cowboy with assless chaps
@@Rahab111222 Shawn went with that part of the gimmick....
"You print them out?"
"Well YES!"
".......Ok"
Did Adrian Adonis have the chance to turn down the flower shop angle? I bet he did it to keep his job.
He definitely had a chance to not fight Dan Spivey, but his pride got his head busted wide open like a watermelon
One of the more silly gimmicks that I can’t help being fond of was IRS.
@mercoid I loved it, I always felt just to add a bit of realism to it though he should have at least taken the tie off when he got in the ring 😂 maybe having some wrestling attire under his shirt and braces, would have been better.
He Totaly pulled that off, rotunda was awsome
Mike Rotunda could’ve been a Harvey Wippleman rip-off and he’d have made it work. The guy was simply phenomenal.
I used to love watching Barry Windham and Mike Rotundo as tag team partners
He and MDM were so good that it sold the audience that a rich man and a tax collector could get along.
How did he get through this without mentioning the Ding-Dong's or Hunchbacks? 😁😅🤣😄
The Hunchbacks never even got past the suggestion stage, because someone (Ole Anderson IIRC) pointed out yes they can never be pinned, everyone will just make them submit
"You print them out?" 😂😂😂
Sabu once said he was offered a job in the WWF but he would have to change his name to “The Sultan” and have Iron Sheik as his uncle. Sabu turned it down because he felt it was insulting to his real uncle, the original Sheik. Vince later gave The Sultan gimmick to someone else. Sabu said it shows that Vince didn’t really want him; He just wanted a body to fill a gimmick.
I think rikishi was the sultan for a bit. Rikishi ended up having a phenomenal run later, as rikishi. So probably sabu would have been a lot better off taking the sultan gimmick?
How am i going to keep my emails if I don’t print them?
Wtf
Just when I thought I had watched every Cornette Drive-Thru , I must have missed this one because I don't remember it . But I cant complain about unfound Corny treasure I haven't seen yet 3 years later !!!
Bastion Booger was awesome! The twist of the gimmick was that his odor rendered him practically invincible - anyone wrestling him would be overcome. Rick Martel did an amazing job selling for him.
12:55
I feel like this is the same conversation we'll be having about Otis years from now 😔
REST IN PEACE MIKE SHAW
Gamma Singh and Makhan Singh had a faction called The Karachi Vice. Announcer Ed Whalen started calling Makhan Singh Toilet Bowl. In the Stampede Territory he was called Toliet Bowl.
Mike Shaw was a great worker a multi time North American and International Tag Team Champion. At his weight Mike Shaw could dropkick like Owen Hart. After he left WWF I saw Mike Shaw in a Capital One Commercial that had Vikings in it.
I miss watching Stampede Wrestling. Wasn’t there a ref that had a whistle?
@@davidgerow I miss it too.
@@davidgerow Yes, It was Sir Cedric Hathaway. Sorry .I just saw your reply.
Trucker Norman, Yacht Captain Mike Rotunda and Babyface Abdullah the Butcher!! Ha ha!
grew up in Stampede territory, i remember Makhan Singh
not really for any wrestling, but for one promo Karachi Vice made in my hometown
shot upstairs at what used to be an infamous strip club/hotel called 'The Park'
... that was the day i learned what strippers do ;)
jim cornette becoming head coach of the chicago bears--------a breath taking concept.
Cornette vs. Ditka in a mid-80's shit talking contest would've been awesome...
Cornette vs Buddy Ryan would’ve just as fun.
Woulda been better than Wannsteadt.
He can’t be worse than Mongo was in wrestling
It’ll be a payback
@@MrT571 hahahaha I am a chicago guy and a bears fan and I havent heard that name in yeeeears (and with good reason). Only thing Dave had going for him was a great mustache. Those 90s bears teams were so so bad...Kramer wasnt too bad though upon reviewing his stats, but I didnt care for any of our other QBs.
Tales From The Tour Bus was great
Beer City Bruiser is 2020s Bastion Booger
How insulting. Beer City Bruiser is way more athletic than Bastion Booger was.
BCB is a very good athlete. However as Makhan Singh in Calgary and Global and as various personas answering to Norman in WCW, the late great Mike Shaw was terrifically talented himself. He had a flying short arm scissors in his repertoire. Given his girth, that's impressive!B.W.
@@madbrowniac7871 And he could do a flying bodypress onto a board.
Bruisers former gimmick was a lumberjack named Dinn T Moore
What didn't help Terry Tailor in WWE was before the Red Rooster gimmick. Was when Mr. Perfect debuted 3 months after Tailor. Mr. Perfect was squashing him at house shows all across the US. And when I say a squash match. 3 minutes 1 way squashes with 0 offense by Tailor ending in a clean Perfect plex. I witnessed it at a MSG house show. The next week at Nassau Colliseum. And 3 weeks later on WWE Prime Time at some other arena in the US.
Tales from the tour bus is done by Mike Judge. It's an amazing collection of stories for anyone who hasn't seen it.
Those are some great stories
In regard to the Red Rooster AKA Terry Taylor I think it was Jim Duggan who once said on a shoot "Terry was one of those guys who if he could have either the bread, or the belt, he'd take the belt." I also heard Terry Taylor was a bit conceited so I wonder if the Red Rooster gimmick was a punishment. Heenan himself said he was was embarrassed by the angle but as a favor to Vince went a long with it.
Vince is the Charlie Manson of wrestling. Talking people into doing things.
Didn't Kamala say that he didn't make that much money? That he was always getting screwed over with paychecks, which is the reason he reached out to Vince for a bit of help only for Vince to refuse.
Yep, but he didn't want the boys to know at the time.
Luckily for Vince, Kamala didn’t pull a Nailz on him.
Mike Shaw was great. He played the top heel character so well in a Stampede territory that produced so many legends. Shame what they did to him on the big stage.
While in University, I worked briefly as a security guard at the Victoria Pavilion in Calgary during the mid-1980’s. Mike Shaw was an extremely good heel as Makhan Singh. And he was an extremely nice man. He was always very kind and pleasant to everyone backstage in the dressing area. I always rooted for him to be a huge success on the ‘Big Stage’ - if he had of been permitted to bring the Singh character to WWE or WCW I think he would have been a star heel. Died way too early. Great guy.
Some guys are so good they could make a terrible gimmick good: Dusty Rhodes w/ polka dots, Mike Rotunda w/ IRS, but just like anything else in life-you have to earn your way to influence yourself into better opportunities. Your physical presence; work on promo skills-Razor Ramon & Austin influenced their way into successful gimmicks. Getting a rub from right guy-Diesel & Hunter Hearst Helmsley into HHH w/ Shawn in DX. Glen Jacobs has no chance with bad gimmicks but being big & working hard made Kane work. This is life people-how you get promoted and the same principle applies. Influence based on creating greater value for yourself
Dusty didn't need a stupid gimmick to get over in Vince's company,he was ALREADY a national as well as an international star at that point in his career, much like Harley Race, & Dory Funk Jr were already stars, so were Adrian Adonis, Ronnie Garvin & Dino Bravo were before they went to go work for Vince & much like with those guys, Dusty was given rhe bad gimmick because Vince wanted to show those guys " who's boss".
The polka dot tights was a rib and he ran with it. He didn’t realize he was the butt of a joke.
But he made it work.
@@dr.floridamanphd Dusty knew what was going on. He was an older guy. got fired from wcw, and was getting paid well while waiting for something better to come along. when he got his old job back he was gone. everyone thought he wouldn't be in the wwf that long. he rolled with it and left on good terms.
IRS could have been really bad, but Rotunda made it really work.
Vince McMahon circa 1996 "Fang McFrost, it's such good shit!"
I guarantee Glenn Jacobs didn't want to be an evil dentist or fake Kevin Nash. But finally he got the character of Kane. He probably would not of got that chance if he complained about the ridiculous characters.
I remember watching Stampede when TSN was a specialty channel and saw Mike while he was white hot. Frankly, I think he'd rather be the monk than anything else he went through down south 🙄
Punishing Mike Shaw by making him Bastion Booger for being too fat, but it's not like Norman the Lunatic had Luger's body. Props to Stan Hansen for saying Fuck you when they tried to put him with those corny cowboys in WCW. Does or did Vince McMahon have a vomit fetish?
Makhan Singh was an amazing gimmick....no need to ruin it. Mike Shaw could make it work...maybe anywhere....As for gimmicks that sound bad BUT...Doink the Clown (Matt Bourne).
18:22 to the end cracked me up. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Boogeyman and Blue Blazer has to be two of worst gimmicks from two of the best performers ever.
I like jim in his mind its still 1985/86. I remember Vince chewed him out on raw when he had the rock n roll express out there,"he said get rid of that 80s crap"
I remember when Mike Shaw did commentary on Raw once. Very entertaining. Good shit pal.
It's weird how many Canadians were almost cowboys. Both Jericho and Bret were told to be cowboys at one point.
You ever hear of something called Calgary Stamped. Western Canada is cowboy country.
Mike Shaw was fantastic in Stampede Wrestling. Waste of talent.
10:10 Best line I ever heard!
Let's take a 6'9" guy who wrestles like a cruiserweight and turn him into a zombie mortician!!
Terry Taylor as the red rooster was horrible.
Mike Shaw was not the only white convert at that time. Gary Albright became Vokhan Singh. They were part of a group called Karachi Vice, which had only 2 actual Pakistani's on it. Gama Singh and a manager, Abu Weezal. Jason the Terrible and Steve DiSalvo among other heels were also in this group.
Wondering about the decrease in audio quality then realized this is from an older episode.
Bruiser Brody didn't work for Vince McMahon Jr cause he would put him in stupid gimmick
Looking at the workers in the Spirit Squad - it's criminal that individually all 5 of those guys could've made good mid-card money and props to Dolph for getting more than that.
@stephen trout i thought at time kenny leader of spirt squad had potential be solid midcarder in great tv14 ruthless agression era. kenny had good look he was tall athletic great leg drop. decent promo. he could been good midcard talent as multi time ic and us champion in ruthless agression era.
mike shaw was hilarious in stampede wrestling, he was cutting a promo on bill kazmaier (former strong man turned wrestler) and said "the way they elect the mayor of regina, is they round up all the homeless bums and give them all a dry piece of cow manure, whoever throws it the farthest gets to be mayor, kazmaier got disqualified because he threw a wet one" a masked tag team called the viet cong express were standing behind him and gama singh who is from pakistan was beside him and they were all laughing hysterically, just for your own information regina is in the province of saskatchewan and it's about an 8 hour drive east of calgary and it's one of the cities they went to regularly, imagine having to drive that far in -40 below weather
he had such a great heel voice too, it came off as aggressive and snivelling at the same time
he was a 6'1 400 pound hairy heel with wild hair and he could keep up with all of the 220 pound wrestlers like ben bassarab, chris benoit and biff wellington
he had a classic feud with owen hart, owen won his first north american heavyweight title against makhan singh, but unfortunately was at a house show and they only showed the ending which was owen diving off the top rope for the win, then they showed a music video tribute of owen's career so far in stampede wrestling and i'm sure they used eye of the tiger for the music
mike shaw could have easily gone into wwf or wcw as himself and would have gotten heat, between his look and the way he talked the people would have been booing him and throwing garbage everytime he spoke and he knew how to work as a big man, no stupid flips or top rope moves, his finisher was a simple splash, but he knew how to cheat so it got a lot of heat from the crowd but it didn't insult your intelligence
mike shaw was easily the heel of the decade for stampede wrestling and the only guy who could compare to him was bad news brown but he didn't have any long stints in calgary where he could truly dominate
i saw mike shaw's shoot interview with rf video, he came as a well spoken great guy and a good family man, between owen, mike and bad news i miss watching stampede wrestling at 4 pm on saturdays
Hurricane is a great example of what Jim was talking about at the end.
I grew up near mike shaw. Hes probably the only pro wrestler from the upper peninsula of Michigan to make it to WCW/WWF. I remember my cousin getting pissed off n wanting to fight him one night when he carded him while he was working as door man at a Bar.
Hello to Da Yooper, from a Lower Peninsula troll!
The great Lou Thesz was born in the UP.
I like the fact that Jim mentioned Terry Taylor being turned into the red rooster and totally derailed his career, I always thought he could have been the next Ric Flair
@possum65
Terry Taylor was one of the few baby faces that JCP had, but still didn't get a real push from Dusty....
VINCE McMAHON
was snorting
ROGAINE instead of COCAINE
As a child I really liked the Red Rooster.
Jim archiving the whole internet with physical fucking paper! Love it ❤
I honestly thought the thumbnail was Eugene another bad gimmick for a good worker
Man Jim printing his emails is hilarious, of course he does, I love it.
Didn't Manny Fernandez refuse to do the Polka Dot gimmick & was later given to Dusty Rhodes?
I just listened to Bastion Booger's theme tune thanks to Cornette's description. Nearly shed a tear laughing.
Given this topic I have to ask, was Sinn Bodhi any good? I only saw him as Kizarny which I thought was an incredibly stupid gimmick. Let's have a guy do a month or 2 of promos but have him do it in carny so it was hard for him to talk and hard for the fans to understand what the hell he was saying. By the time he got on TV I didn't care so I wondered how he was before that train wreck.
Lol Sugar Bear! 😁 😅
I loved Norman the lunatic! One of the best WCW gimmicks ever imo.
Legitimately ...Disco Inferno would be the best gimick ever
Big Mike Shaw was great as Norman the Lunatic. The rest of his gimmicks, other than Makhan Singh, sucked.
When the turkey slicer comes a choppin. There will be no worries about gimmicks.
I can tell you what McMahon was thinking. Kids will love it.