The most influential gimmicks in WWE

Ric Flair

WWE, in its present day avatar, is exciting and fast-paced for sure. The new generation wrestlers are as good as any that came before them; quite the confident bunch and dedicated lot who go out and willingly put their body on the line and give it their all, to entertain the fans of this zany sports/entertainment spectacle.

But, like in any other world, it’s important to know where you came from to determine where you stand and how far you will go.

Pro-wrestling has always appealed to the public because of its unique mix of athleticism, story-telling and most importantly, interesting characters and personalities.

With the increased exposure to the staged nature of the sport and its inner workings, pro-wrestling has lost a lot of its old-world charm. But as long as the industry throws up interesting characters that capture the imagination and aspirations of the general public, it will always find its place in the mainstream pop-culture world.

Having said that, there have been countless memorable gimmicks over the years, which fans have held close to their hearts for various reasons.

But not every gimmick or character-type is something that resonates with the audience on a personal level so much that they take something out of the gimmick into their lives or live vicariously through them. While the Undertaker and Doink the clown gimmicks are memorable and awesome, they are perfect examples of what I am talking about.

But the list of gimmicks below have stood the test of time and have gone on to become more than just acts and have become the blueprints for developing wrestling characters over the years.

You wouldn’t have to look far, as with them the influences have shown within the business itself, in the wrestlers who came after them. Some have cited their influences openly while the others have had their characters tweaked and developed to resemble the past success by the writing team.

Ric Flair – The Nature Boy

The ‘nature boy’ gimmick is one of the best gimmicks to ever come out of the industry and what adds credence to the entire story is that the wrestler who plays the gimmick, embodies the character perfectly.

For Richard Fliehr to morph into Ric Flair, he didn’t have to make a lot of adjustments as he was living the lifestyle (some say, he still is!) when the gimmick was at the height of its popularity.

The jet-setting, limo-riding, wheeling-dealing wasn’t just an act, it was the truth and Flair inspired many of the men in the audience to want to be like him and many more women to be with him as he was just a product of the ‘Era of Greed’ in the 1980s.

Flair wasn’t all show though as his claim of being a ‘sixty-minute man’ wasn’t false and he could really go in the ring. His feuds with Ricky Steamboat and ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage have become the stuff of legends because of the level of anticipation that built around the rivalries wherein the fans couldn’t wait to see the cocky, vain, good-looking bad guy get his comeuppance at the hands of the good guys.

This gimmick spawned many a look-alikes, from the ‘Heartbreak Kid’ Shawn Michaels to the present day ‘Show Off’ Dolph Ziggler and will continue to inspire many a more in the future. Whoooo!

Stone Cold Steve Austin

Steve Austin

The most recent of the gimmicks in this list, it’s also the one to resonate very deeply with any person alive due to its primal nature and universality.

Think of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin and the image that comes to mind is that of an authority-defying, beer-swilling, rebellious character who stood up to the system and brought it to its knees, and he did that in style that hugely entertained.

Austin came along in a time when the people had had enough of the corporate dominance seeping in, which had led to an atmosphere of constant fear and insecurities in the minds of average folks.

The red-hot reception that Austin would get everytime he thwacked his evil boss, Mr. McMahon was evidence that a lot more people than originally intended, were vicariously living out their dreams through the Texas Rattlesnake.

And of course, Austin was the perfect guy to play the role given his battles with the powers-there-is in his career and his natural intensity and the rugged personality.

The gimmick will never really go away as it is more relevant now than it ever was and over the years, we have seen flashes of it in the CM Punk character, and now Daniel Bryan looks ready to be taking on the corporate regimen.

The storyline though is set to be relived anytime possible, and that’s the bottomline because Stone Cold said so!

Superstar Billy Graham

Billy Graham

It wasn’t until the ‘Superstar’ came along that wrestling started its evolution to becoming rasslin’ and the works. Before that, wrestlers were largely shooters with sports background and largely had a following in pockets of the country.

The showmanship aspect that Muhammad Ali embodied in boxing was brought into the wrestling world by Billy Graham who looked every inch the marketable persona that he claimed to be.

A hulking and awe-inspiring presence, Superstar could inspire hate and awe like no other till then and during his feud with Bruno Sammartino, cut some of the best promos that have stood the test of time and have become measuring yardsticks for the generations of guys to follow.

He claimed to have 22-inch pythons and his bleached blonde haired good looks made it hard to not like him and more than compensated for his lack of great wrestling ability.

When Vince Jr. took over from his dad and decided to head down the ‘show-business’ route, he knew what would be the blueprint for success in his new endeavour.

Since the Superstar’s heydays, many a clones have come and gone and have cited him as their influence, be it Hulk Hogan, Scott Steiner, Triple H etc.

His influence has crossed over into other sports too when Chael Sonnen, a popular MMA fighter used his lines to send the crowd into a frenzy.

But then again, who wouldn’t want to be that guy who is “The man of the hour, tower of power, too sweet to be sour….”