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 Disco Inferno
In the very early 1990’s, Glenn Gilbertti was struggling to get noticed on the independent circuit. He had an array of what he calls “very generic” wrestling gimmicks early in his career. Gilbertti had made friends with wrestlers like Jake Roberts, Diamond Dallas Page and Scott Levy. Gilbertti credits Levy with helping him develop a gimmick that would stand out and get noticed. It was Levy who recognized that one of Gilbertti’s favorite wrestlers was The HonkyTonk Man and thought of a gimmick similar to his. Instead of being an Elvis Presley wannabe, Levy made the gimmick of a wrestler infatuated with disco music and its culture. Levy showed video tapes of a wrestler that had a similar gimmick named Dr. Johnny Holliday who wrestled in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling and used that as the foundation to the new disco character. Levy and Gilbertti collectively came up with the name of ‘Disco Inferno’ based on the popular disco song of the same name performed by The Trammps.
It was Levy who got Gilbertti a job wrestling in the USWA to work on the character back in 1993. Gilbertti patterned the Disco Inferno gimmick after Tony Manero from the movie Saturday Night Fever and his in ring mannerisms like The Honkytonk Man dancing while wrestling. Gilbertti admittedly said he did an awful job initially with the character and would never have hired himself to a major promotion…but with his connections, got a job with WCW. When he first debuted with the company, Disco Inferno wore traditional wrestling tights. Gilbertti said that Steven Regal pulled him aside after a match and told him to start wearing more disco inspired clothing to help get it over. Regal suggested wearing bell bottom pants instead of tights and it really helped the gimmick get over.
The Disco Inferno wasn’t the biggest wrestler and was pushed somewhat as a cruiserweight in that division. Gilbertti said that he hated that style and wrestled more like a heavyweight…as he was trained at the beginning of his career. The Disco Inferno gimmick evolved throughout the years in WCW and lasted a little while after WCW folded. He used the gimmick on the independent scene and for a wrestling promotion based out of Australia called World Wrestling All Stars.