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 Buddy Rose’s ‘Blow Away Diet’
‘Playboy’ Buddy Rose was already a well established wrestler by the time he rejoined the WWF in 1990. A former star in various territories including Pacific Northwest, Mid Atlantic, Florida and the AWA. Rose was given one last “big run” with Vince McMahon and the WWF. According to Rose, he was paid handsomely by McMahon to put over bigger stars in his company.
Despite that, Buddy Rose wanted to try and create some sort of gimmick to attempt to become more than a glorified jobber to the stars. One evening, while hanging out a Denny’s, Rose and Jimmy Hart traded ideas for a gimmick for Rose to use. The two came up with Rose’s weight being the focal point of the gimmick. Rose would come out to the ring wearing a silk robe and carry a scale with him. Before each match, Rose would weigh in and always come out reading 217 pounds….even though he was well over 300 pounds by this point in his career. The scale was broken and would always read 217.
The second part of the gimmick, would have Rose advertise a diet called ‘The Blow Away Diet.’ A diet supplement that would have fans looking just like Buddy Rose. Hart went back to Vince with their idea and McMahon loved it. A series of vignettes for the Blow Away Diet were filmed by Bruce Prichard. The telephone number for the Blow Away Diet was actually the number for the Hershey Candy company as a joke. Hershey’s were so inundated with phone calls, the requested the WWF to change the number or not air it any longer. McMahon would often go talk to the roster and urge them to work out and stay active, but told Rose to stay exactly how he was and do nothing. Rose eventually left the WWF in 1991 and returned home to wrestle locally in Portland, Oregon.
To Browse other entries of The Gimmick Table…Please Click Here.
