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 Johnny B. Badd
For the first several months of 1991, Marc Mero was used as enhancement talent in World Championship Wrestling. It wasn’t until booker Dusty Rhodes approached the young wrestler and started talking to him that his career completely changed. Dusty told Mero that he resembled ‘Little Richard’ a great deal and asked Mero if he ever heard of him. Mero, at first, thought Dusty was talking about another pro wrestler, so Mero told Dusty he never heard of him. That is when Dusty started singing Little Richard songs and then Mero realized who Dusty was referring to.
Dusty started working with Marc Mero on developing a character based on Little Richard. Initially, Dusty came up with the name of ‘Precious’, but Mero knew there was a valet in wrestling with that name already and balked at it, but promised to go home and come up with another name. Mero heard the Chuck Berry song Johnny Be Good and thought since his new character was going to be a heel…why not wrestle as ‘Johnny B. Bad?’ Mero credited Diamond Dallas Page with adding an extra D to the name Badd and came up with the catchphrase of I’m a B-A- Double D…Bad Man! Mero said that Dusty made the Johnny B. Badd gimmick his personal project and worked closely with Mero on how the character should be presented. Rhodes worked on every small detail from the way he talked, walked and the overall look of the gimmick.
When Mero signed his first WCW contract, Mero said he invested a lot of his own money on costuming and merchandise he would use as a part of his act including a Badd Blaster which was a gun that fired off confetti and frisbees. When the Johnny B. Badd character became popular with WCW fans, Mero said that the company began investing into the character and allotted Mero $50,000 for costuming including robes, tights, boots, makeup, etc. Eric Bischoff loved the gimmick as he found it very entertaining…but felt that Dusty Rhodes was a bit shortsighted in its development. Bischoff felt that while a very entertaining gimmick, it was hard to push Johnny B. Badd further than a mid card act, as he felt fans wouldn’t take him seriously as a main eventer. The character needed more of an edge to him and that was very hard to accomplish with it. Regardless, the Johnny B. Badd gimmick was successful for WCW and definitely got the attention of Vince McMahon and the WWF…who eventually signed Mero in 1996.
You can read other Gimmick Table entries here