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 Headbangers
Jim Cornette first met Chaz Warrington and Glenn Ruth at an NWA show on the east coast run by Cornette’s good friend Dennis Coralluzzo. Warrington and Ruth wrestled under masks as ‘The Spiders.’ The team asked Cornette about coming to work for him down in Smoky Mountain, but Cornette was not thrilled with their gimmick nor did he have a spot on his roster at the time. That all changed when the Gangstas left Smoky Mountain in 1995 and Cornette was in need of a tag team to replace them.
Cornette reached out to Warrington and Ruth who were wrestling for the USWA and other smaller indie promotions in the South and offered them an opportunity to wrestle for SMW. As mentioned, Cornette was not a fan of their masked Spider gimmick, but had an idea of his own. Back in 1994, a financial backer to Smoky Mountain was a music producer named Rick Rubin. He invited Cornette to attend a concert in Knoxville, Tennessee headlined by Glenn Danzig. While not a fan of that music, Cornette wanted to oblige his money man , so he attended.
It was at this concert, that Cornette saw the opening act which was a man dressed in makeup, piercings and wearing a skirt with combat boots named Marilyn Manson. During his performance, Cornette was backstage and watched people in the audience slamming into one another, spitting on each other and other wild acts in what Cornette said was like a “legal riot.” While watching all of this unfold, Cornette said to himself that there had to be a wrestling gimmick in all of this somewhere and that is when he came up with the Headbangers gimmick.
A year later, when Warrington and Ruth were coming into SMW…Cornette gave them that gimmick. According to Glenn Ruth, they were originally named Mosh and Slasher…but Ruth pointed out to Cornette that there was already a rock guitarist named Slash and that might cause problems, so he was renamed Thrasher. Cornette handed them a Slayer and Metallica t-shirt and told them to start reading up on headbanger culture. Both Warrington and Ruth started to grow their hair out, but Ruth was balding and instead decided to shave his head bald…Warrington soon followed him and shaved his head that gave them their trademark look.
Jim Cornette booked them as heels because in that area, many considered their gimmick and look to be “satanic.” When Smoky Mountain Wrestling folded, Cornette was working for the WWF and recommended the Headbangers to Vince McMahon. Vince didn’t get the gimmick, but his son Shane McMahon did and loved it. The team were signed to part time contracts in 1996. They remained with the WWF until 2000 and briefly returned in 2016.
To Browse other entries of the Gimmick Table…Please Click Here.