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 Vinnie Vegas
By 1992, Kevin Nash’s failed Oz gimmick was abruptly stopped by WCW management. While in between gimmicks, Nash said he started thinking of characters that might get over and were more relatable to his real personality. After watching the 1990 movie ‘My Blue Heaven’ starring Steve Martin and Rick Moranis, Nash got his inspiration to develop a pseudo mobster type of character based on Martin’s character in the film named Vinnie Antonelli.
The new gimmick for Kevin Nash ended up being ‘Vinnie Vegas.’ WCW immediately paired Vegas up with manager Harley Race to help guide the rather green wrestler and help him with promos and ring psychology. Vegas and Race were split up less than a month later and Vegas was paired with manager ‘Diamond’ Dallas Page, Scotty ‘Flamingo’ Levy and The Diamond Stud aka Scott Hall. Eventually Hall left the company to join the WWF and Flamingo would soon follow. Vegas and DDP formed a brief tag team called ‘The Vegas Connection.’
The Vinnie Vegas gimmick lasted roughly a year. The WWF came calling based on the company enjoying Nash’s Vinnie Vegas gimmick. He was of course repackaged in the WWF as Diesel.
You can read other Gimmick Table entries here