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 M.I.A. (The Misfits in Action)
In the Spring of 2000, World Championship Wrestling was struggling both creatively and financially. WCW’s upper management wanted to “cut bait” with several wrestlers on the roster that they felt were making good money, but were not contributing and in some cases were deemed as being lazy. Lash Leroux recalled him and a few other wrestlers like Chavo Guerrero Jr, Hugh Morrus and Booker T having a closed door meeting with Vince Russo.
According to Laroux, Russo informed the group that WCW wanted to release them. Russo said he had an idea to keep them employed and give them more TV time. Russo was inspired by the 1981 movie called ‘Stripes’ starring Bill Murray and wanted to incorporate that story into a gimmick. The movie was about a bunch of ragtag misfits that joined the United States Army. The group obviously agreed to the idea and were given a military gimmick.
Booker T was given an old gimmick he had earlier in his career called ‘G.I. Bro.’ Hugh Morrus was named Captain Hugh G. Rection aka Captain .Rection. Lash Laroux became Corporal Cajun, Chavo Jr became Lieutenant Loco, also added were General Pops, Tylene Buck as Major Gunns, The Wall as Sgt. AWOL and Van Hammer as Private Stash. Hammer supposedly complained to Russo about being a lowly Private and was changed to Major Stash.
Hugh G. Rection was eventually “promoted” from captain to general when WCW’s Standards and Practices balked at the idea of the announcers calling him Capt. Rection. The new faction was named the Misfits in Action or M.I.A. for short. They lasted for about 9 months before the faction was ultimately disbanded.
You can read other Gimmick Table entries here
James
Major Stash was eventually fired in July 2000 and was replaced by The Wall, who they dubbed Sgt. A-WALL.
Dan Wray
I remember the GI Bro gimmick although I never knew that Booker had been deemed lazy by management. That just astounds me