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 Bertha Faye
Rhonda Sing was a dominating force in women’s professional wrestling all over the world. Mostly known as ‘Monster Ripper,’ Rhonda wrestled in places like Canada, Puerto Rico and Japan. She signed with the World Wrestling Federation in 1995, at the request of Alundra Blayze (Debra Miceli). Alundra worked with Rhonda in Japan and wanted to add her to the WWF’s growing women’s roster. She made her debut on an edition of Monday Night Raw attacking Blayze after defending her title against Bull Nakano.
The original plan was for Rhonda to come in, “injure” Alundra Blayze sidelining her for a couple of months and feud with Bull Nakano over the WWF women’s title. Plans suddenly changed when Nakao was fired after being caught with cocaine. Vince McMahon did a 180 on how he was going to present Rhonda Sing in the company. Vince felt that Rhonda resembled Bull Nakano a little too much, so he changed Rhonda’s gimmick into a more comedic character named ‘Bertha Faye.’ Her hair was put in pigtails, dressed in bright pastel colors and was deemed the Trailer Park Princess.
She was given Harvey Wippleman as her manager/lover and she captured the WWF women’s title. Bertha Faye was forced to alter her wrestling style, because the men in the company were doing her moves like the powerbomb. Rhonda hated the gimmick and did not get along well with Wippleman behind the scenes. She credits wrestling in Madison Square Garden the one true highlight of her WWF tenure. She requested and received her release from the company roughly a year later.
You can read other Gimmick Table entries here