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 Adam Rose
Raymond Leppan was a South African pro wrestler signed to a WWE developmental deal. He began in Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) under the gimmick of a crazed, sadistic character named Leo Kruger beginning in 2010. By 2013, Dusty Rhodes pulled Leppan aside and informed him that Leppan was on the chopping block to get released and needed a new gimmick to present to Triple H. They only had two weeks to develop a new character.
In that time, Leppan and Rhodes came up with the character of ‘Adam Rose.’ It was based on the character of Aldous Snow from the movies Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek. Aldous Snow was an out of control rock star who battled addiction, was involved in high profile relationships and partied all day and night. The original concept for the Adam Rose gimmick was to be a much darker character that would simply come to the ring from his tour bus with an entourage of sexy women, wrestle a match, then leave and return to the bus with his women in tow. There would be several teases of Adam Rose doing drugs and boozing before and after matches.
The idea was presented to Triple H, who admittedly felt that the gimmick would be a hard sell to Vince McMahon, who didn’t keep up with pop culture. Despite Triple H’s reservations on the gimmick, he gave it the green light with a few alterations. Adam Rose would still be a grown up party boy, but instead of just having women as his entourage, it would include a bevy of men and women dressed in weird outfits. The gimmick had gained traction after he debuted in March of 2014. Adam Rose was eventually called up to the main roster and as Triple H had predicted, Vince McMahon was a bit confused with the character.
Ray Leppan said that the gimmick was heavily watered down in the PG era of WWE to nothing more than a Sesame Street character. Adam Rose remained with WWE until 2016 when he was released.
You can read other Gimmick Table entries here