Brian Damage
A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality, whatever the case may be…some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not so favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.
Today we browse the gimmick of 3 Count
In the Summer of 1999, World Championship Wrestling brought in a number of young, good looking wrestlers for a planned sitcom project. The project ultimately never really got off the ground and that left the company with a bunch of wrestlers with nothing to do. Enter WCW manager/composer Jimmy Hart. Hart apparently had an idea to utilize some of the unused talent in a gimmick that he had thought up a couple of years earlier. Jimmy Hart picked Gregory ‘Shane’ Helms, Shannon Moore and Power Plant trainee Evan Karagias to form a boy band gimmick.
The boy band gimmick was inspired by the very popular trend in the 1990’s with groups such as NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys among others. Hart wrote a song for the trio to use entitled, “Can’t Get You Outta My Heart.” Hart then took the three wrestlers to the very same recording studio that the Backstreet Boys used to record most of their hit records in Orlando, Florida. According to Shannon Moore, the three wrestlers legitimately sang the song and it took just 3 days to record and complete. Hence, Hart came up with the name for the trio called ‘3 Count.’ Moore insisted that this was not just a wrestling gimmick, but Hart wanted to truly see if he could break 3 Count into the mainstream music world.
While the song and trio never achieved superstardom out of WCW’s bubble, 3 Count did find a niche audience and some success in the company. The song was popular enough, that Hart wrote and produced a second song called “Dance With 3 Count.” 3 Count became the first ever threesome to simultaneously hold a singles title, when all three wrestlers pinned Brian Knobbs and win the WCW Hardcore title. Shane helms said he was completely invested in the 3 Count gimmick and learned all the dance routines that were choreographed by the Nitro Girls. Helms said both Moore and Karagias didn’t take the gimmick as seriously and would not practice their routines.
Shannon Moore later admitted that he wasn’t completely sold on the boy band gimmick and asked Hart if they could change it to the trio being rock stars instead. MMA star Tank Abbott was briefly added to the gimmick as a superfan and eventual bodyguard/enforcer for 3 count. Overall, 3 Count broke up in 2000 and only lasted a total of 9 months. Both Shannon Moore and Shane Helms stated that they are still often asked about the 3 Count gimmick more than any other gimmicks they had in their careers.
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