Posted on by bdamage1
Tom Casola and Brian Damage
These can be wrestlers, ideas, gimmicks, promotions that were hyped up and heavily advertised, but simply did not deliver as were expected by either the fans, wrestlers or promoters themselves.
Tom
5) UWF (Herb Abrams) – Founded in 1990, Herb made the same mistake all other promoters made. He tried to out Vince the WWF and return wrestling back to it’s roots by using all former WWF talent. These wrestlers wanted big money to do little work – and it showed. Herb tired doing to PPV, and both were flops. In the end Herb’s “habits” got the best of him, and the UWF folded in 1994.
4) Giant Gonzalez – time for wrestling math quiz … Former Argentinian Basketball Player + serious knee injury x airbrushed muscle/fur outfit – talent ÷ realism = …
3) Brawl For All – take undercard professional wrestlers put them in a boxing match and let them go at it and what do you get .. BORED!! This concept is a no-win concept from the start. Even if the toughest of tough were involved, there is always chance a top star would get their head handed to them. And if they didn’t, then it turned out as it was expected. Many believe this was Jim Ross’ idea to get Dr. Death Steve Williams over. But when that did not work out, there was no real “out”. In the end a real boxer (Butterbean) came in to fight the Brawl For it All “champion” (Bart Gunn) and in 35 seconds people knew the difference between a boxer and a wrestler. Bart’s career was over the moment he hit the canvas.
2) Mae Young’s hand – a terrible plot and a terrible payoff. Whoever actually came up with the idea to have a big black strongman impregnate a 77-year-old white woman and get her pregnant has to have their head examined. It is so wrong on so many levels, and there are a lot of undertones that I am surprised weren’t picked up by censors.
1) Gobbledy Gooker – probably the worst idea ever. Just because it was so hyped, that everyone expected a wrestler to appear. What they got is a was a cross between a dodo bird with a pinata head
Brian
5. TNA’s August 1 Warning – The year was 2013 and TNA wrestling was starting a bad downward trend with fans and critics. For weeks, a series of vignettes were aired heavily hyping a mysterious person to debut on TNA’s Impact show. It was called the August 1 Warning. Who could it be? What were they in TNA for? What kind of “impact” would they have on the promotion. After weeks of speculation, it turned out to be none other than MMA fighter Tito Ortiz. As you could imagine, the groans from an obviously disappointed fan base and then ultimate silence when he was revealed was the fans August 1st warning to TNA president Dixie Carter that they weren’t buying into this crap.
4. Brakkus– A German bodybuilder turned pro wrestler Achim Albrecht was perhaps one of Vince McMahon’s biggest and most expensive personal wrestling projects. After signing with the WWF with absolutely no prior wrestling experience, Albrecht was given every opportunity to learn and develop from the best. He was trained by the likes of Dory Funk Jr, Tom Prichard and The Hart Family Dungeon. He was sent to places like the USWA and ECW to help further his development. Finally, after years of training a series of vignettes aired hyping his WWF debut. He was known as Brakkus and after he debuted…you could see that all the time and money spent those years in development did nothing for him. Brakkus was quickly scrapped after that.
3. Glacier– WCW spent a lot of time and money hyping this gimmick up. Glacier was a spin on the very popular Mortal Kombat video game. Unfortunately, the gimmick came at a time in wrestling where more realistic characters were getting over. The Glacier gimmick was one of WCW’s bigger flops considering all that Eric Bischoff invested into it.
2. Master P and the No Limit Soldiers – Another big WCW flop with Eric Bischoff trying to attract more casual viewers and a younger demographic by signing Hip Hop artist Master P. He was given his own faction called The No Limit Soldiers and even had stars like Konnan and Rey Mysterio be a part of it. Not even Mysterio and Konnan could save this gimmick from tanking.
1. The New ECW – I have to admit, I had really high hopes that when WWE announced that they were reviving Extreme Championship Wrestling. I know, I know, WWF/WWE has had a long history of taking a great idea and turning it into something completely not what was expected. This time, I thought it would be truly different because the WWE had done such a tremendous job with their One Night Stand pay per view. Instead of getting classic ECW…we were subjected to guys like the Big Show and Vince McMahon as ECW champion. Many WWE developmental wrestlers (who didn’t fit the ECW mold) got their start on the ECW brand. It just wasn’t all that good and ultimately flopped.