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 Isaac Yankem D.D.S.
In 1995, Glenn Jacobs was wrestling for Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling when he was offered a WWF developmental contract. Jacobs was flown from Knoxville, Tennessee to New York City where he was picked up in a limo and brought to Stamford, Connecticut and Titan Towers (WWF Headquarters). Jacobs first met with the WWF’s Head of Talent Relations JJ Dillon who warned Jacobs that Vince McMahon can be a very intimidating person. When Jacobs went to Vince’s office and met with him, the two began a little small talk. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, McMahon randomly asked Jacobs “Have you ever been afraid to go to the dentist?”
Not knowing where Vince McMahon was going with the question…Jacobs simply replied “No sir, I have not.” Vince then immediately went into his pitch of having an idea for a character based on an evil dentist named Isaac Yankem. Vince then said to Jacobs…”You get it? I…Yankem!” McMahon started laughing as Jacobs just sat there stone faced. As crazy as an idea as it was, the truth of it all was that the idea came from a joke that McMahon had heard. The person who told the joke, was Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan a few years earlier. During a meeting, Bobby Heenan cracked a joke that he couldn’t stay long because, “I’ve got an appointment to see my dentist. I. Yankem.”
Vince never forgot that wisecrack and based an entire gimmick off of it. He wanted an imposing wrestler to portray the character and found it with Glenn Jacobs. Vince McMahon detailed every aspect of the Isaac Yankem gimmick from his rotted teeth to his entrance music which would just simply be the sound of a dentist’s drill. The gimmick lasted a year, before ultimately being scrapped and Jacobs went on to play other gimmicks including a fake Diesel and of course…the big red monster known as Kane.
To browse other entries of the Gimmick Table…Please Click Here.
David Fullam
Truly the Dark Ages of WWF gimmicks.