1. What gimmick would you recycle that hasn't been done in a while? For me, the Bad News Brown esque loner with no ring music might be pretty cool.
It's tough these days to just assign someone a random gimmick like in the old days, because now it's more about matching the personality with the person. That being said, Sinister Clown is due for a comeback, and I'd like to see someone really run with a Rick Rude womanizing heel gimmick again.
2. Who are the funniest wrestlers in history? The Rock and Piper are great, but I don't think anyone can touch Jericho in his WCW run.
Mick Foley always had a great sense of comic timing as well. Colt Cabana is really entertaining on his podcast, although it doesn't always translate into the wrestling stuff.
I always thought Raven was pretty funny at times during his WCW run. Once he dropped the darker aspects of his character, got away from The Flock and got into the hardcore division and teaming with Saturn, he had quite a few funny lines.
ReplyDelete"The old-timers always told me that to sell the ppv, you had to say something nice about your opponents. So, Bam Bam, I like your head tattoos and Hak, you don't sweat so much for a fat guy."
When R-Truth turned heel, he was kind of like the Bad News Brown loner with no music character. What a wasted opportunity that was since it was such a stark contrast to his smiling come-out-rapping intro.
ReplyDeleteI'd put Kurt Angle in there with funniest wrestlers during his WWF/E time. I know Kurt gets some hate on this board because he's broken down, drug-addled and plain crazy now but man, back in his early years, he was the most complete wrestler I've ever seen.
I think I wrote this question a month ago lol.
ReplyDeleteJericho was revolutionary in that WCW run...he single handedly got Dean Malenko over just by being hilarious. The cruiserweight battle royal introductions are also ridiculous.
My dream gimmick is a sociopath homeless person, who LOVES beating people up. Doesn't care about winning titles or "carving out his legacy," just wants to get to hurt people, then use the money to eat.
ReplyDeleteStinko Malenko!
ReplyDelete1 - Goldust. Bring back that character.
ReplyDelete2 - Santino Marella. This guy always brings the funny.
MMA had a guy like that... His name was (is?) Kimbo Slice!
ReplyDeleteBORE US MALENKO! The man of 1 MOVE!
ReplyDeleteThere's always a place for a Ugandan Headhunter.
ReplyDeleteLOL. That's a pretty good comparison. I'd want a guy who's REAL desperate looking though.
ReplyDeleteJericho's fake names had much more pizzazz in WCW. In WWE he was just saying names wrong (Mitchell Cole, Vivian Garcia, Vance McMahon), but there was no larger joke. WCW had gems like Bore-us, or really funny mispronunciations; like how he'd call Tony Shavone Ski-a-vone
ReplyDeleteYou know which character I'm surprised never showed up in WWF/E.... The Spartan!
ReplyDeleteHercules was an actual living Greek God, so that's in the ballpark.
ReplyDeleteYeah true, but imagine The Spartan! Complete with cool helmet and AOOORGH! war cry. Maybe they can repackage Titus O Neil? The Black Spartan?
ReplyDeleteYou mean Faarooq Asaad?
ReplyDeleteholy crap you're right. he had the helmet and everything...
ReplyDeleteWhen I read your comment, I instantly thought of Bruiser Brody and Cactus Jack.
ReplyDeleteMan, I wonder what the hell they were thinking when they gave Ron Simmons that gimmick. I can understand a dude who was in shape and looked like a gladiator but not an overweight Ron.
ReplyDeleteI totally forgot about Santino! His heel work with Maria and Beth Phoenix was often the only good thing on RAW.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Greenberg!
ReplyDeleteRemember when Jim Ross used to bury the gimmick on commentary while he was still in that character? Asaad would be wrestling & JR would be saying "you have a great athlete like Ron Simmons, and we put an eggshell on his head and pretend he's Greek."
ReplyDeleteYeah I guess that would be a return to the old school wildman brawler
ReplyDeleteJo Jo Dillon
ReplyDeleteThe WINNER of the Lou Ferrigno look alike contest...EL DANNNNNNDEEEEEEEE
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the comment I instantly thought of New Jack.
ReplyDeleteNew Jack's not desperate enough, he's just a criminal. What I want is someone who looks dirty and malnourished.
ReplyDeleteJoJo...that just makes me smile
ReplyDeleteSteve Austin has to be considered up there when it comes to funniest people. His ECW promos, his 96-97 promos, and his 2001 heel turn have amazing comic timing. It reminds me of Larry Bird where you think he's just this hick/redneck type, but he actually has an understated and underrated wit about him.
ReplyDeleteIf it didn't come at the time of the botched Invasion, I think we'd put Stone Cold's delusional heel up there with Hollywood Rock. The backstage segment where he tries to cheer up Vince by playing the guitar gets me every time. "You're stressed...your hair's falling out" cut to later when he's trying to convince everyone he is cheering up Vince "your hair's growing back." The line flies under the radar but is so hilarious.
Honorable mention to Goldust who had comedic chemistry with everyone.
Raisin!
ReplyDeleteYou must be confused. We're talking about wrestlers here.
ReplyDeleteA gimmick that really COULD have gotten over HUGE (and would work nowadays) is Waylon Mercy. Dan Spivey was great as the nice guy turned crazed madman.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think the great Masked Man (Masked Superstar, Super D, The Grappler, etc.) could be huge, since it hasnt been seen in a long time.
Chris Benoyt
ReplyDelete2001 Heel Austin is my favorite character ever.
ReplyDeleteGotta give this one to Foley. I'd rank them 1) Foley, 2) Rock, 3) Jericho, 4) Austin and 5) Nash
ReplyDelete"As a matter of fact, 'Goldberg' ... you're not even gold anymore, you're just GREEN."
ReplyDeleteYes to both, Angle was a phenom. If you look at the promos for Truth at Capital Punishment and Punk for MITB, the Truth character was making similar arguments, but from a race perspective.
ReplyDeleteKevin Nash is pretty hilarious, and as mentioned below Austin was great in ECW. And of course the HBK/HHH version of DX ("I'm up here, Shawn") was awesome. But I agree with the original email, no one can touch Jericho's WCW run, especially his "Man of 1004 holds" gimmick.
ReplyDeleteHis tea bit with Sheamus was also funny
ReplyDeleteYou compare Bryan and Kane to Goldust and Booker T, and I'll go with the latter every time. Booker T and Goldust at the Movies is one of the great skits ever.
ReplyDeleteThen in the hotel room with the girl. "tell me what you want, baby" I want you to re-team with...Golddust."
Nash and Alex Shelley were amazing together. The best wrestling comedy since the Attitude Era, by far.
ReplyDeleteDon't they have Curt Hennings son doing a NXT gimmick as Brandon Wyatt in a similar fashion?
ReplyDeleteOH! Prince Nakamaki...proving that sometimes gibberish rules
ReplyDeleteEdge and Christian were hilarious.
ReplyDeleteDelirious and Colt Cabana had some great moments in ROH.
They gave us Samolean Joe!!! And the Kevin Nash Open Invitation X-Division Battle Royal for Bound for Glory.
ReplyDeletePrince Nakamaki
ReplyDeleteAs an all time classic funny MOMENT, the jug band pose with Team ECK was a riot.
ReplyDeleteYou mean Mike Rotundo's son, the former Husky Harris, gimmick of Bray Wyatt.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking old gimmicks being revived in NXT, Big E Langston doing King Kong Bundy's old "5 count" gimmick and becoming the most over guy in NXT as a result.
Kurt Angle deserves some love here too.
ReplyDelete"Hogan will be there."
ReplyDelete"What? Are you kidding me?!"
"That's right. Paul Hogan of Crocodile Dundee fame will be in the battle royal!"
Bray Wyatt -- awesome gimmick, bad name. Bray?
ReplyDelete"SHUT the front door"
ReplyDeleteQuasentud.
ReplyDeleteEven broken down, he's still a phenomenal performer.
ReplyDelete"You call yourself the Gorilla yet, you hee haw out here like a jackass!"
ReplyDeleteWilliam Regal is way up there for funniest guy.
ReplyDeleteHaha...and Nash getting the X-Division wrestlers new gimmicks. Like having poor Sonjay dress up in Nash's old gimmicks. Like his Diesel outfit or Oz!
ReplyDelete"This man was formerly known as Steve Ansghasjafgjshfaghfshfa..."
ReplyDelete"Who?"
"--I'm still saying his name. -ahsgahgjagjajgsjgajgffdedalovovich. Now? He's Man Called Sting!"
Thread jack: desean jackson out for the season....wowza that's a major blow to the crossface cripplers. I'm sure some people reading this would say he's not that hard to replace but the bodffl is a 16 team league. Not much out there
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's pretty bad. Great gimmick, though.
ReplyDeleteStone Cold Steve Austin is fucking hilarious. Even when he wasn't doing the bizarre stuff post-2001, his unpredictable insanity is always hilarious to watch.
ReplyDeleteLarry Lane
ReplyDeleteGene Mean
ReplyDelete"If you give me a sip of your Slurpee, I'll give you... a bite of my WIENER."
ReplyDelete"What's this a picture of?"
ReplyDelete"My heart... after YOU broke it!"
That was Vince, pritchard, and cornette booking at the time. 96...ugh
ReplyDeleteRon Mysterio
ReplyDeleteEndorsed by Bob Backlund
ReplyDelete"I haven't seen a performance like that since mine in '72. Dallas Stadium. 80 man battle royal. Gauntlet. Yeah. 16 ring. Went down, it was me and the Von Erichs, there was 8 of them in the ring. I had the Claw on all 7 of them."
ReplyDeleteGene-O Machine-O
ReplyDeleteDX impersonating the Nation is right up there. I always get a big laugh out of Hall mocking the Hogan poses during Hogans BATB promo too.
ReplyDeleteI still remember an episode where X-Pac was chasing Goldust backstage and as soon as Goldie rounded the corner, BAM, Booker lays X-Pac out with a metal tray. And then has the whole arena do the "Can you dig that suckaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa??" bit. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteGive me nWo impersonating the Horsemen over the Nation stuff any day.
ReplyDelete"I'M SCREAMING, AND I DON'T KNOW WHY! WHOO!"
The Acolyte Protection Agency was kind of a cool concept. A couple of brawlers in the mercenary, guns-for-hire tweener role.
ReplyDeleteThe Rude gimmick for sure. It would have to be the right dude in that role though, otherwise you've got Val Venis instead of Rick Rude credibility.
I think the world needs another Ultimate Warrior type. A high-energy, coked out, war painted dude to come out and go apeshit and pop the kiddies. They always do the stoic tough guy thing with their muscleheads now, never the batshit crazy guy running around and cutting incoherent promos. Thems was the days.
The interaction in '01 between Austin, Angle and Vince is among the best comedy ever on a wrestling show. I also loved Vince saying something like (speaking of Angle to Austin), "He's a goof, but he's a dangerous goof." Awesome stuff.
ReplyDeleteTotally. The funniest part of Dx impersonating the Nation was the comedian doing Owen, but he wasn't part of the group.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of this
ReplyDeleteX-Pac is the group impersonates another group MVP!
ReplyDeleteMonster tag team. Two dudes that come in, kick peoples asses and leave like the Road Warriors.
ReplyDeleteBefore they leave, can they be squashed by Ryback? You know, because he's so over?
ReplyDeleteYeah, Ryback's hungry and needs to be fed.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite skits ever was Booker T and Austin fighting in the supermarket, specifically him hitting Booker with the frozen pizza. 'When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore'. Fucking had me in stitches.
ReplyDeleteSomebody with underrated comedic abilities is Kane. Always has had it, too, not just now, That 'kanenite' promo was gold.
How about Kenny King for the Rude gig? he really seems to do it well.
ReplyDeleteYou know what was a great overlooked gimmick was "The Big Shot" Hardcore Holly. He was a heel who would pick fights in which he was grossly over-matched, and there was no fear of him getting over as a face because he came off as being a delusional ass rather than a plucky underdog. He used to do things like challenge the APA to a handicap match or slap Big Show in the face--and you got the sense that he legitimately believed he could beat up anyone. He was like Scrappy Doo with a beautiful dropkick. What a rarity: a heel without a trace of chickensh*t in him. Unfortunately the art of the gimmick was lost when Crash showed up and they morphed him into the less interesting "super-heavyweight" character, as though the appeal of the gimmick was him having delusions about his size rather than toughness. I think that would be a great gimmick to put on a new guy, though there are shades of it in Bryan's willingness to go after Kane, but Bryan's going to get over as a face because people believe in him.
ReplyDeleteHe uh ... he is over.
ReplyDeleteBut point taken.
The "liver spot" routine is still repeated between my friends and I to this day.
ReplyDeleteWhen Goldust got electrocuted and developed Tourette's, there was no funnier character in wrestling.
ReplyDeleteThough he wasn't an underdog, Holly was still getting over with that gimmick. I think the moral of the story is that wrestling fans will cheer for someone who likes to fight, whether they're braggarts or not. I remember watching a Raw in May 1999 and Hardcore Holly came out to a HUGE pop, leading to me looking out the window to check for flying pigs.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with the sinister clown gimmick is that today, it will be seen (quite rightly) as a Joker ripoff. That was the beauty of Doink's original character --- in 1993, the "psychotic Joker" was still mostly limited to the comic books, so it was fresh in the pro wrestling world.
ReplyDeleteAustin is definitely underrated as a comedic character, though that's mostly due to not displaying his comedic ability during the height of his popularity. His stuff with Angle in 2001 was absolutely hysterical.
ReplyDeleteI actually thought that Eli Cottonwood could make a great new "Waylon Mercy".
ReplyDelete"You are not even in a restaurant, and you just got served!"
ReplyDeleteI believe "Wyatt" is the name of someone in the extended Rotundo/Windham family.
ReplyDeleteMick Foley is the answer for the authentically funniest guy- his promos and his books are all hilarious. Austin was funny because he was so insulting and disrespectful ("Shut up! You remind me of a jackass!"), and Rock & Jericho were probably the funniest on a regular basis, but when Foley was on, he was ON.
ReplyDelete"They call you a gorilla, but you yee-haw like a jackass"
ReplyDelete"Scrappy Doo with a beautiful dropkick..." What a great description,,,
ReplyDeleteJamie Noble as the redneck who strikes it rich and starts living a white trash version of "the high life."
ReplyDeleteKing size bed in a trailer!!
Unintelligible deranged lunatic.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember Santino doing something awesome in NY ripping on the crowd getting them to cheer herpes. Was that him?
ReplyDeleteGod, Booker and Goldust were fucking awesome. Loved that team.
ReplyDeleteDesean hasn't done shit in two seasons. Also, Foles isn't exactly an offensive master at this point...
ReplyDeletewow forgot about this. That was the one time I thought Hardcore Holly was really, really cool
ReplyDelete