Vince McMahon made an iconic addition to The Hurricane's gimmick in WWE
The latest edition of Sportskeeda UnSKripted with Chris Featherstone welcomed Gregory 'The Hurricane' Helms as our guest this week. During the conversation, Hurricane was asked several questions about his career in WWE and his opinion on the current product.
Several fans were curious to know more about the work that went into creating The Hurricane gimmick. Our guest revealed how he worked together with the crew on little things that later became a huge part of his personality on WWE Television.
Hurricane on how Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon influenced his gimmick in WWE
Talking about all the elements of his WWE persona, Hurricane revealed that he always relied on making the backstage crew laugh. That way, he knew that he was doing the right things. Hurricane went on to explain his experiments in WWE and said,
"You know I think I just said it here and there. Just kind of randomly going with, 'Hey! What's up with that?". I think people say that all of the time. It's just the way I said it; I don't know why I said it like that. A lot of stuff with that Hurricane character was trial and error. You know when I started talking in that Superhero voice, I had never heard a Superhero talk like that. And you never hear a Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or any of the cartoons or superheroes talk like how I chose talk as Hurricane. I have no idea why I was doing it at the time."
"But, I would kind of listen to the camera guys on the side and the lighting guys. When they would laugh, to me, it was always a good tip. Because they have seen it all, these are the guys behind the scenes that use the audio and people who are watching at home, never see these guys. But they (crew members) have seen it all. They have been there with Rock, Austin, and keep in mind that the roster that was there at the time. It was the most stacked roster that ever existed, and there will never be another roster like that. But if I could make those guys laugh, if I could make that room laugh, that would tell me something. So, a lot of this stuff was trial and error."
But that's not all. It was the reaction from Shane McMahon that made Hurricane to establish an iconic catchphrase for his WWE gimmick. Following that, Vince McMahon went a step further and made that even more interesting with a subtle addition. Here's what Hurricane had to say:
"The first time I said 'Excuse me, there's a Hurricane coming through', it was in a backstage segment with Kurt Angle. And Shane McMahon started laughing, and he thought it was funny. That's why I kept it. If he hadn't laughed, I might not have kept that catchphrase. And then Vince McMahon added the 'stand back' and just little pieces here and there."
Hurricane was also asked if he thinks a gimmick like his will work in WWE today. To this, the former Superstar responded by saying that it is possible, but the creative will have to be careful with their choice because not every WWE Superstar can pull off something like this.