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 Eugene
Nick Dinsmore was under a WWE developmental contract for a number of years, mainly tagging with Rob Conway in a tag team known as ‘Lords of the Ring.’ While Dinsmore was heavily pushed in WWE’s developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling, he was growing frustrated with not getting called up to the main roster. After wrestling a dark match at a WWE TV taping, Dinsmore received a harsh critique from then vice president of talent relations Jim Ross, that changed the trajectory of Dinsmore’s career. Jim Ross complimented Dinsmore on his wrestling ability, but told him that he lacked “personality.”
Feeling frustrated, Dinsmore was considering leaving OVW and wrestling in Japan. It was then that OVW trainer Rip Rogers suggested that Dinsmore try to develop a character based on his son. Rip Rogers son was autistic, but at the same time considered to be a genius. Dinsmore based his new persona on Rogers son and by watching the movie Rain Man. Dinsmore would portray a character that was mentally challenged, yet a pro wrestling savant. Initially, when Dinsmore pitched the gimmick to several people in developmental and WWE creative…he was met with a lot of resistance as nobody wanted to touch the idea and thought it was way too offensive to put on television.
It wasn’t until he sat down in a meeting with Vince and Stephanie McMahon and pitched his idea to them that it took off. Vince wanted to bring back character driven wrestlers back to WWE and was intrigued by Dinsmore’s pitch. It was eventually greenlighted and put into motion. The name of ‘Eugene’ was used by Dinsmore in honor of a WWE ring boy who worked in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area named Eugene Palermo. Palermo suffered from Down’s Syndrome, but was a big wrestling fan who was connected to WWE from his father Bucky Palermo who worked or the company for 30 years. Nick Dinsmore would make the character of Eugene the nephew of Raw General manager Eric Bischoff.