10 wrestlers who secretly hated their gimmicks
Pro wrestling has always been filled with larger than life characters. This has been true ever since Gorgeous George revolutionized sports entertainment by portraying an effeminate heel who rankled the conservative audiences of his era.
Ever since then, there has been a plethora of bizarre, outlandish, or even just plain silly gimmicks come down the pike. Everything from space invaders, time travelling tag teams, and undead warriors have all spent time on a wrestling fan's screen.
But while there are many colorful characters in wrestling--some more successful than others -- there will inevitably be those performers who don't like their gimmick. Perhaps the gimmick or character isn't successful, or it demeans the wrestler portraying it. For whatever the reason, there are a lot of wrestlers who didn't like their ring names, costumes, or their entire persona.
Here are ten wrestlers who secretly hated their gimmick or character.
#1 The Gobbledy Gooker (Hector Guerrero)
Hector Guerrero was a very talented wrestler working out of El Paso, Texas. The older brother of Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero, Sr. (not to be confused with his, perhaps more famous, son Chavo Guerrero Jr.) Hector's only real flaw was the fact he was surrounded by so many talented people in his immediate family. Hector lacked Eddie's raw athletic ability and charisma, or Mando Guerrero's high flying skills.
Still, he was a major star in the 1980s, especially in the southern NWA territories. He captured over thirty title reigns during his tenure, most of them tag team championships with his family or Manny Fernandez. It must have seemed a great stroke of luck when he was offered a WWE contract in 1990.
Unfortunately, he was saddled with the Gobbledy Gooker character. Basically, he was a giant, mute turkey who liked to dance and hatched out of a gigantic egg. Bizarrely, the WWE pushed his debut heavily, lugging around the giant egg to television tapings for months before Survivor Series. And when the Gooker hatched, he engaged in a painfully long segment where he danced with Mean Gene Okerlund while the crowd largely sat silently, unsure if the whole thing was some sort of joke.
To his credit, Hector tried his damnedest to make the gimmick work. Unfortunately, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
How badly received was the Gobbledy Gooker? Well, PWI gives out the "Gooker" award to bad gimmicks in wrestling. To quote Stan Lee, 'nuff said.