Posted on by bdamage1
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 The Tazmaniac
Early in Peter Senerchia’s career in the late 1980’s, he felt he needed a gimmick to stand out and get more bookings on the independent scene. Senerchia said he saw a plush Tasmanian Devil doll that he had in his car and thought a gimmick based on the cartoon character would be a cool idea. Senerchia was already a big fan of the character and believed that his physical presence of being on the shorter side and stocky could really make that gimmick work.
Senerchia was concerned that Warner Brothers (Who owned the rights to the Tasmanian Devil character) would find out about his gimmick and either issue a cease and desist or sue him despite the fact he was wrestling on the independent circuit making about 40 bucks a show. Senerchia went to work on the name and look of the character to differ it a bit from the cartoon character. Senerchia came up with the name of ‘The Tazmaniac.’
He said that he incorporated a few different wrestlers and their gimmicks to his character. The Tazmaniac was a combination of the Missing Link, the Wild Samoans and the Steiner Brothers. He would act like a wild animal like the Tasmanian Devil, wear face paint and use multiple variations of the suplex in his matches. The Tazmaniac would wrestle all over the indies and places like the USWA and the early days of ECW. Of course, the character would later be tweaked to just Taz and become ‘the Human Suplex Machine’ for the remainder of his career.
To read other entries in the Gimmick Table series…Please Click Here.