Tyler Breeze Continuing the Tradition That Gorgeous George Began

Thirty-nine years before Tyler Breeze was born, Gorgeous George strutted into the Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles and began a melee with Billy Mitchell that incited a riot.

It wasn't just that someone had tossed Mitchell out of the ring and defeated him that led to folks leaping into the ring—and to one fan being knifed—it was that it was this effeminate, narcissistic, showy bastard George who earned the victory that night. In his over-the-top persona, George Raymond Wagner hadn't just found a fitting, successful gimmick, he created a wrestling trope that is still used some 50-plus years later.

The Hall of Famer injected spectacle and showmanship into pro wrestling like no one else had previously. He cut the path that Breeze now saunters down.

Credit: WWE.com (Courtesy of Pro Wrestling Illustrated)

George is the godfather of the cocky, flamboyant heel, and NXT's Breeze is one of his many descendants. Breeze shares George's love for elaborate outfits, for irritating the audience with his arrogance and for preening in the wrestling ring.

The two heels of disparate generations also share an adoration for nicknames.

George called himself The Toast of the Coast, Sensation of the Nation and most famously The Human Orchid. Each of the monikers added a new layer to his gimmick. Each one pointed to his enduring self-love.

The same is true for Breeze.

He goes by The King of Cuteville and Prince Pretty. In a clear tribute to the man who blazed the trail for characters of his kind, Breeze also answers to The Gorgeous One.

One can see George's influence in Breeze's entrance as well. 

When The Human Orchid made his way to the ring, he did so in loud, pompous fashion. His downy robe bounced as he stepped. He fussed with his hair. A valet awaited him on the ring apron, ready to spritz him with perfume.

Breeze's ring gear leans on ridiculousness just as George's did. Neon tassels hang from his boots. His fuzzy coats often look like the spoils of a Muppet hunt.

Breeze is no mere copycat, though. He has made the shtick his own, adapting it for the modern world.

Where George often admired himself in a hand mirror, Breeze does so by way of his cell phone. Breeze glides to the ring while talking selfies, his smug face appearing on the Jumbotron.

Prince Pretty has traded in George's Marcel curls for a ponytail, his ruffled robes for glitter and blue fur-lined boots. But while the wardrobe has changed, the core of the character remains the same.

For one, Breeze is cartoonishly egotistical. He believes he is the hottest man in the ring, a supermodel with no equal, both a better looker and a better fighter than his foes.

That was a big part of how George angered the audience as well. There is a key difference, though, between the George-like heel and the standard cocky one. Seth Rollins is a different species than Breeze and George. So was Mr. Perfect or The Rock.

It's a heavy-handed femininity meshed with brutishness that distinguishes Breeze from those men. 

That was what George mastered. As John Capouya wrote in Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad-Boy Wrestler Who Created American Pop Culture, "It was the way George synthesized those two conflicting meanings, his shifting mixture of butch and belle, that made him unique, sui gorgeous."

In short, George was prettier than the man across him in the ring, but could still whip him.

He frequented salons to maintain the luxuriousness of his hair. He wore satin, feathers, bows. 

And in the hypermasculine world that is pro wrestling, that made him stand out.

Breeze has kept that tradition alive. His character is a clear juxtaposition to the manly brutes and macho superheroes around him.

While Baron Corbin snarls at the camera, Breeze purses his lips. Colin Cassady bellows out his catchphrase; Breeze prefers to sing sultrily into a microphone.

Under the frills and glitter lies a dangerous man, though. Breeze often grows vicious in the ring. He DDTs foes dizzy or kicks them in the teeth. So far, WWE has allowed Breeze to balance his prettiness with power.

That is a huge reason for the George gimmick enduring. He was no mere comedy character; he was a formidable contender despite his extravagant appearance. Fans wanted to see him lose because of all the airs he put on, but he rarely did thanks to the ruggedness he showed once the bell rang.

WWE needs to keep that in mind as Breeze's journey continues.

He has excelled at not only paying homage to George, but building on the pre-existing gimmick, shaping it to fit him. While it's impossible not to see echoes of The Toast from the Coast in Breeze today, he is his own man.