More Real World Examples?
I have a post saved from here a while back that had a couple of real world examples for each of the gimmicks—but most of them were from well past the time when I was actively watching wrestling, Anyone have a similar list for the 80s?
And for those of you who have been watching Lucha Underground, how do you see the Gimmicks falling out there?
I’ve only seen one LU episode so far, but I’m curious what others have to say!
I’d say Blue Demon would be Veteran. Prince Puma is Golden Boy. Johnny Mundo for High Flyer. Son of Havoc is Jobber. Mil Muertes a Monster, with Catrina as a Manager. Chavo Guerrero seems like Provocateur. I can’t seem to find something I think fits just right for Big Ryck.
My own pretty solid guesses were Son of Havoc as a Jobber (he deserves better!) and Cage as a Monster. Everything else gets a little murky for me.
Hmm, that is actually a bit earlier than I was watching. I remember them as cartoons and special guests. I would probably peg Hulk Hogan as a Golden Boy, Andre the Giant as the prototype of The Giant, “Macho Man” Randy Savage as a Provocateur (Managed by Miss Elizabeth), “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as a Heel Clown, George “The Animal” Steele as The Monster, The Ultimate Warrior as a Technician, Jake “The Snake” Roberts as The Wasted, and The Iron Sheik as the Gatekeeper.
80s WWF (keeping in mind that a lot of wrestlers could inhabit many different Gimmicks over their career, but I’m keeping with the broad picture):
(Basics)
Golden Boy: Hulk Hogan
Technician: Bret Hart, Mr. Perfect, Ricky Steamboat
Monster: The Ultimate Warrior (think about it!), Big Boss Man, One Man Gang
High Flyer: Jimmy Snuka, arguably for the time I’d actually put Macho Man here
Manager: So many managers at this time! Bobby Heenan, Miss Elizabeth, Jimmy Hart, Mr. Fuji, etc
Veteran: A lot of the older territory guys, but I think “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan is a good example. Dude was so popular!
Jobber: Hillbilly Jim, maybe? Cowboy Bob Orton?
These ones are more drawn from the 90s, but:
Wasted: Jake “The Snake” Roberts, possibly Rowdy Roddy Piper
Anti-Hero: This is a very Attitude Era Gimmick, but paranoid champion Macho Man could be this, especially in the Mega-Powers Explode storyline
Hardcore: WWF didn’t really feature this style of wrestling in the 80s, did it? Older stuff would be, like, Abdullah the Butcher and Bruiser Brody.
Oh man, so much coming back to me now. Jake the Snake was at the tail end of my wrestling watching, and the stuff about his substance abuse hadn’t come out yet (at least not to us kids).
You know what would be great for people like me? A YouTube playlist of the best examples of each archetype. “You want to know what a Hardcore is? Watch this match with Mankind” or “this right here is the inspiration for move X”.
The other thing about that is showing different takes on the same gimmick. Like, Rowdy Roddy Piper’s Clown vs. Foley’s, or Jericho’s Provocateur versus Goldust’s.
If people want to add examples to Dev’s in-progress Suggested Clips document, please do!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g0lP-xSmGVhI0vaSpmbXOWGoZaLKi8f53vQ8E_B548g/edit
I was really introduced to wrestling at the end of New Generation/beginning of the Attitude era(s) time frame. I’d have to say, at that time, they relied heavily on Anti-Heroes, Hardcores, Monsters, and Golden Boys. Obviously, though, there are some that stand out.
The Dudley Boyz were both Veterans
Jeff Hardy is a Wasted, while Matt Hardy is a High Flyer
Undertaker debuted as a Monster, transitioned to a Anti-Hero (Biker Taker), then to a Veteran (Start of Ruthless Aggression)
Rikishi (grats on the HoF) always seemed to be a bit of a Clown
Oh, I’d forgotten about that document! Thanks, Nathan Paoletta and Dev Purkayastha!
So… what gimmick would you apply to Bam Bam Bigelow? Monster?
Total Monster.
Bam Bam was a Monster who used an advance to steal a High Flyer move.
Which is scary, honestly…
I’ve cleaned up the doc, and had a dedicated section for building up mappings. I do have one strong opinion about this!
Its easy to get caught up in mapping wrestlers to gimmicks, and it’s undoubtedly fun, but I’ve also seen people get caught up in “oh, this does not map 100% to important wrestler X”.
To borrow language from other Apocalypse Engine games: only your character is the Hardcore. There may be other hardcore non-player wrestlers in your fed, but there is only one that is the Hardcore.
I also think of it as: these are the archetypes within the World Wide Wrestling organization and its affiliated feds. This doesn’t need to encompass every story in other wrestling feds in your world. In your World Wide Wrestling, at your table, these gimmicks are the ones you’ll be grappling with.
but that said hey i’m filling out the doc even more as we sepak so i get the appeal
That’s a good point, maybe a better phrasing would be “what wrestlers should you look to as inspiration for playbook X”?
Google Docs just changed had a red line under “Andrew the Giant”. It suggested “Andrew”. It just knew.
I agree with Dev Purkayastha !
How I think about it is that you can map a Gimmick to a real wrestler, but by the time we see wrestlers they’ve already customized themselves, right? Every big name wrestler has “Custom Moves” out the wazoo so they’re not going to fit neatly into categories.
I see the doc also has a secret teaser for one of the Season 2 playbooks!
DEV YOU AND YOUR SECRETS
(GOAT should be a new Advanced Role tbh)
Goat…?
GOAT is an acronym for Greatest Of All Time. Goat is a farm animal.
I was just thinking that Edge and Christian during their epic three way feud for the tag titles with the Dudleyz and the Hardys fell mostly under the Clown gimmick. Probably stole moves with their advances from High Flyer or Hardcore.
Also on the topic of Christian, during the singles push he got early/mid 2000s (in both WWE and TNA), he had his buddy, Tyson Tomko, as a Gatekeeper.