There are some great wrestlers out there in the UK Scene, but they are let down by a bland gimmick, or they are not portraying themselves in the right way. No I am not going to point these people out, it’s an unfair thing for me to do especially as it is really up to them to do something about it.
First of all though I have some apologising to do, I have quit smoking since Friday and I am suffering withdrawal symptoms from Nicotine, this leaves me, feeling sick, disorientated and very, very grumpy. I am not offering excuses, just apologies, especially to one person (You know who you are GGG) who spent all night calmly listening me rant on about totally unimportant things as though they were the biggest crime in the world.
I also apologise if I seem to be having a rant here as well.
I’m not a person who thinks that promoters should give people their gimmicks, with some people that’s fine, but it’s always better to let the wrestler get away with who they want to be for a while as their ego grows into a character. It usually takes about 6 months before that character has been developed.
The thing I do agree with is promotions constantly reminding wrestlers to have a gimmick that is a bit more than “He wears black and he’s a bit hard”. I guess if you are Spot wrestling and entertaining teenagers then that’s going to be fine, but the world of wrestling is a hell of a lot more than teenagers screaming at the latest phat move of death!
At some point in an independent career, a wrestler is going to be asked to do things that he has never done before and perform in front of an audience, who could have differing wants and needs to entertain them. Ok, you have your Spot Monkey teenagers, but what if the audience was all under 5? Or a family? Would you be swearing, making obscene gestures and generally causing probable offence? I’m pretty sure the promoter would be asking you never to return if you did.
So perhaps a little flexibility with your gimmick is needed, however also with this an extensive wardrobe is needed to and would probably be a product of serious investment into your shows in both time and effort. This isn’t for some, but I quite enjoy trying to find out how many ways a pair of baggy lycra trousers can cover as many gimmicks as possible.
To me it is easy to fall into other gimmicks for other promotions, as my dream really isn’t to get my name about and hopefully end up on the wrestling channel one-day as a big star, then move onto WWE. I have discovered it is all about camaraderie, showmanship and the fans for me. However, even those wrestlers that do have that dream and chased it would agree that sometimes you have to do quite a lot, be it strange or not, to get your name about, even if it is spending a few months being SPANKO the wrestling dummy, or some other strange gimmick.
I’m going to be playing a Russian called Ivor this week and I will be beating on the wonderful and talented Marcus Kool, it is a great honour to fight the guy, he is a class wrestler and big things will come from him, especially as he is starting to grow.
Well apologies if I seem like I have no point, I do somewhere, but it’s lost at the moment I think with about 40 other concerns people are burdening me with. Hopefully I shall be a little less fluffy headed next tenet.
Speak to you soon,
Saracen