In professional wrestling, a gimmick broadly refers to a wrestler's in-ring persona, character, behaviour, attire, or other distinguishing traits while performing, which are typically designed to draw fan interest. Gimmicks often involve costumes, makeup, and catchphrases that the wrestler shouts at opponents or fans. Gimmicks are developed for good guys/heroes (babyfaces) or bad guys/villains (heel) depending on whether the wrestler is intended to be popular or hated by the audience. A tweener gimmick falls between the two extremes when a wrestler manifests both heel and face traits, such as Randy Orton's viper gimmick. A wrestler may use more than one gimmick over their career depending on the angle or the wrestling promotion they are working for.
Promotions may transfer a gimmick from one wrestler to another, occasionally taking advantage of a masked character, which allows the identity of the performer to be concealed. Razor Ramon was portrayed by both Scott Hall and Rick Bognar and Diesel was portrayed by Kevin Nash and then Glen Jacobs. Occasionally, a wrestler uses a gimmick as a tribute to another worker, such as Ric Flair's Nature Boy persona, which he took on as an homage to the original Nature Boy, Buddy Rogers . When a wrestler acts outside their gimmick, this is known as "breaking kayfabe", a term showing pro wrestling's linkages to theatre, where the terms "breaking the fourth wall" or "breaking character" are used; however, as wrestlers typically interact with a live audience under the pretense of engaging in a real combat sport, the concept of a fourth wall (a clear metaphorical boundary between reality and the fictional performance) is maintained to a lesser degree than in most forms of theatre.
Gimmicks are annually rated for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards by the publication's owner, professional wrestling journalists, and various industry insiders, such as Dave Meltzer, promoters, agents and performers, other journalists, historians, and fans. The two awards are given to the best and worst gimmick of that year.
History
Beginnings (1860s to 1940s)
Pro wrestling's history has been tied to the use of gimmicks from its infancy. From its circus origins in the 1830s, showmen presented wrestlers under names such as "Edward, the steel eater", "Gustave d’Avignon, the bone wrecker", or "Bonnet, the ox of the low Alps" and challenged the public to knock them down for 500 francs.
During the late 19th century-early 20th century, when wrestler Frank Gotch rose to prominence, the focus became on contests largely legitimate (see catch wrestling), which largely resulted in the abandoning previous character gimmicks.
Television era (1950s to 1970s)
It was not until the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the United States during the 1940s–1950s, when Gorgeous George created pro wrestling's first major gimmick. His heel character focused on his looks and quickly antagonized the fans with his exaggerated effeminate behavior, drawing jealousy to the fans. Such showmanship was unheard of for the time; and consequently, arena crowds grew in size as fans turned out to ridicule George.
Gorgeous George's impact and legacy on wrestling gimmicks was enormous, demonstrating how fast television changed the product from athletics to performance. Before him, wrestlers' gimmicks imitated "ethnic terrors"—Nazis, Middle Eastern Muslims (Arabs, Turks, Persians, Bengalis, Afghans, etc.), Japanese, Russians, etc.—but his success birthed a more individualistic and narcissist form of character.
He was one of the first pro-wrestlers to use entrance music, "Pomp and Circumstance" which always played as he made his way to the ring.
In Britain, television took British wrestling to the next level when in 1964, it went full-time as part of the World of Sport show.
The style of wrestling at the time was unique with strong emphasis on clean technical wrestling. Heels made up a minority of the roster, with most shows containing an abnormally high proportion of clean sportsmanly matches between two "blue-eyes" (as faces were known backstage in the UK). This would remain the case for several decades to come. Gimmick matches were a rarity, midget wrestling failed to catch on, while women were banned by the Greater London Council until the late 1970s.
Explosion (1980–present)
During the Golden Age of pro wrestling in the 1980s–1990s, a rise of cartoonish, outlandish gimmicks became popular with the increase of the World Wrestling Federation's popularity.
The WWF contributed to the explosion of gimmicks by becoming the most colorful and well-known wrestling brand because of its child-oriented characters, soap opera dramatics and cartoon-like personas. Most notable was the muscular Hulk Hogan, who marked the 1980s with his "Real-American" gimmick and made his main events into excellent ratings draws. His dominant role in the industry at that time led to this era to be also known as "Hulkamania". Around this time, wrestling became a form of entertainment rather than an official sport.
Other wrestlers from this era with similarly vivid and outlandish characterization include The Iron Sheik, Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, The Undertaker, Sting, Goldust, Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels, "Big Daddy Cool" Diesel, Kwang, The Bushwhackers, Big Boss Man, Tatanka, Razor Ramon, Sgt. Slaughter, Irwin R. Schyster, among many others.
Beginning with the Ruthless Aggression era following the Attitude era, the emphasis of gimmicks became more realistic with wrestlers portraying themselves or actual people without wild exaggeration, freakishness or fantastical qualities. It is also more common for the wrestlers to use their actual names. Wrestlers like Randy Orton, Batista, Bobby Lashley, John Cena, and Brock Lesnar are prime examples. All the said wrestlers are depicted as less-exaggerated average people.
Although rare, colorful and cartoon-like characters remain in the WWE, such as Shinsuke Nakamura (a wildly random, erratic mixed martial arts enigma, emotionally charged by the sound of violins) and Matt Riddle (a stereotypical carefree, barefoot surfer Valley boy). Outside WWE, some wrestlers have made names for themselves on the crowded independent circuit by adopting absurdist comedy gimmicks intended to be understood by post-kayfabe fans as purely fictional characters. Two such wrestlers whose independent-scene popularity got them noticed and eventually signed by the internationally televised promotion All Elite Wrestling are Orange Cassidy, an emotionless slacker who puts as little effort as possible into his matches and frequently wrestles with his hands in his pockets; and Danhausen, a demonic but somewhat-bumbling figure in horror face paint who claims to be "very nice, very evil" and attempts to put curses on his opponents.
Common gimmicks
Related to origin Exaggerating the characteristics of a wrestler's (on occasion fabricated) origin is one of the most commonly exploited gimmicks, in which overarching characteristics of a character play up to clichés and stereotypes.
A long list of wrestlers in this category includes: Arab: The Sheik, The Sultan, Muhammad Hassan African: Kamala, Abdullah The Butcher, Akeem American: The Patriot, Hulk Hogan, 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan, Jack Swagger Australian: Outback Jack, Nathan Jones Austrian: Gunther Bulgarian: Rusev Canadian: Team Canada (TNA), Team Canada (WCW) Chinese: Xia Li, Boa Cuban: Razor Ramon English: William Regal, Lord Alfred Hayes, Gentleman Jack Gallagher French/Québécois: La Résistance German: Fritz Von Erich, Baron von Raschke Hawaiian: Crush, Leilani Kai Indian: The Great Khali, Jinder Mahal Iranian: The Iron Sheik, Ariya Daivari Irish: Finlay, Sheamus Italian: Full Blooded Italians, Santino Marella Jamaican: Kofi Kingston Japanese: Yokozuna, The Orient Express, Mr. Fuji Mexican: The Mexicools Native American: Chief Jay Strongbow, Tatanka New Zealander: The Sheepherders Nigerian: Apollo Crews Pacific Islander: Jimmy Snuka, The Wild Samoans, The Headshrinkers Puerto Rican: Carlito Colón, Primo and Epico Polish: Ivan Putski Russian: Ivan Koloff, Nikolai Volkoff, Lana Scottish: Drew McIntyre, Roddy Piper Swiss: Claudio Castagnoli
Masked
Masked wrestlers made their appearance in Europe (Theobaud Bauer in France, 1865) and the United States (Mort Henderson as "Masked Marvel" in 1915) considerably earlier than in Mexico, but it was the latter that popularised the use of masks. This, in some cases to signify a high-flyer style, influenced by Mexican professional wrestling style know lucha libre.
A specific masked gimmick may be used by more than one wrestler at a wrestling company's request since their identity can be permanently concealed. This is the case of Mexican Sin Cara and Japanese Tiger Mask. Masks also allow a wrestler to perform as more than one character for a variety of wrestling promotions. In Mexico, a masked wrestler's identity is often not even a matter of public record, and being unmasked, usually as a stipulation of losing a match, is considered a great humiliation. It is a major taboo for a Mexican wrestler who has lost his mask to start wearing one again, though this has occasionally been violated, as in the case of Rey Mysterio.
Other wrestlers who have used masks in their performances include: The Masked Superstar, Mexican-American Kalisto, Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik, or Japanese legend Jushin Thunder Liger.
Sports A high number of wrestlers who start their careers in another sport incorporate their athletic abilities as part of their act. That is the case for Olympic medallist Kurt Angle, who previously competed in freestyle wrestling and alludes to it in his attire and wrestling style. Brock Lesnar is also an ex-amateur wrestler, NFL player and UFC champion. Welsh wrestler Mason Ryan is also a former Gladiator and football player. English wrestler Wade Barrett was also a former bare-knuckle fighter as well as Elijah Burke who is also a former amateur boxer. Former MMA fighters Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler also uses their MMA background as part of their characters as well as former American Ninja Warrior competitor Kacy Catanzaro, former kung-fu fighter Xia Li, and Matt Riddle, who always wrestles barefooted during matches, presuming that he had an MMA background career in the past before debuting in WWE along with Mojo Rawley's "hyperactive" wrestling style due to being a former NFL player before debuting WWE as well as the stable The Four Horsemen.
Superheroes, supervillains and other comic-based characters
The theatrical nature of professional wrestling easily blends with comic hero and villain characters, made popular in the 1980s by Ultimate Warrior and Sting, whose character was inspired by the 1994 movie The Crow, based on the comic book of the same name.
Other wrestlers with superhero and supervillain gimmicks include late WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes' sons Gold and Stardust, Big Van Vader, Bam Bam Bigelow, Pierre Carl Ouellet, Dr. Luther, the magician Phantasio, Icarus, Super Eric, Dexter Lumis, Samoan Rosey during his "the Super Hero in Training" (the S.H.I.T.) phase and his tag-team partner The Hurricane and valet Super Stacy, Earthquake/Avalanche and his tag-team partner Typhoon in The Natural Disasters stable, and most recently, Ember Moon, and tag-teams The Road Warriors, Demolition, KroniK, The Assassins, The Super Assassins, The Machines, and most recently, The Ascension, and The Viking Raiders/War Machine.