Wrestling Gimmicks are Painful to Watch

In the 1980's, the wrestling world thrived on gimmicks. Wrestlers such as the Ultimate Warrior, "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Andre the Giant, and others became household names as a result of their outlandish characters, whether it be an unstoppable giant, a man who believes money can and will buy success, or an energetic fan favorite in war paint.

Next came the Monday Night War era. There were still many good, edgier gimmicks, but u could tell they were running their course. For every Stone Cold Steve Austin type character, a dont trust anybody, beer-drinking, play by redneck, you had someone like Goldust, supposedly from Hollywood, California, who made you want to change the channel because just the sight of him made you feel dirty and gave you the urge to take a shower. Despite some questionable characters such as Val Venis the porn star in the WWF, or Kwee Wee the "gay" wrestler in WCW, wrestling was at an all-time high.

Fast forward twenty years from the Golden Age of wrestling and 10 years from the Attitude era. Characters such as Curry Man, Super Eric, and Shark Boy remind us why we would rather tune in to see a 400 pound Samoan dance in an over-sized thong and yellow sunglasses. With more time devoted to tired over used storylines and worthless gimmicks, wrestling can be hard to watch. A guy like Jay Lethal would be taken a lot more seriously if he wasn't dressed like a scrawnier version of the Macho Man. Maybe then he could get his buddy, The Guru away from his girl Val.With in the last year or two, I've seen Vince McMahon become the father of a leprechaun, absent minded Festus, and deranged TNA wrestler Abyss (whom i prefer to call Kanekind for obvious reasons). This all has taken away with people who can actually wrestle, and has just wasted the fans time.

What I'm saying is that although the fans like storylines to go along with their wrestling, we prefer not to sit through Kane, Undertaker, and Paul Bearer, part two (Abyss, James Mitchell, and Judas Mesias). To the writers, when you see that you are overkilling a gimmick like Shark Boy and his Austin 3:16 fantasies, please leave it alone. You save the fans and yourselves agony when you stick with the good (Undertaker, Sting, Triple H, etc.) and do away with the bad (Sharkboy, Jesse and Festus, The Guru, etc.).