(30 Jun 2014, 6:15 pm)marxistafozzski wrote WWE seem to like Stereotypes...Off the top of my head
Wrestlers from Eastern Europe: Always characterised as Soviet Sympathisers, look at Rusev and Lana today, Russian Sympathisers and there not even Russian...He is Bulgarian and she is from Florida
To be fair, most wrestling promotions have portrayed wrestlers supposedly from Eastern Europe/Russia in a similar manner. Off the top of my head, there's only Vladimir Koslov (Lithuanian - although Lithuania was part of the USSR when he born) Alex Koslov (Moldavian - same deal as Lithuania) Nikolai Volkoff (Croatian) and, of course, Rusev who actually have some sort of Eastern European background. The rest (e.g. Ivan and Nikita Koloff, Krusher Khruschev, Boris Zukhov, Boris Malenko etc,) were all portrayed by Americans. Although Rusev gimmick is very 80's in a cold-war sense, I don't have a problem with thinking that they're superior to Americans because they're from another country. But you're right, it would be nice if he was actually from Russia and not Bulgaria.
Who remembers Mohamed Hassan, played a shadowy terrorist type with Daivari managing him, at a time when 9/11 was still fresh in our minds...
The initial concept of Muhammad Hassan gimmick was actually quite unique as it concentrated on the prejudices that Americans held towards Muslims and Arab-Americans at the time. When the gimmick inevitably turned towards Hassan/Daivari portraying characters who were essentially terrorists was when gimmick went down-hill so to speak. The fact that the now infamous 'piano-wire' incident occurred a few days before the 2005 London Bombings didn't help either.
Talking about wacky gimmicks...Look no further than the Gobbledygooker and Doink the Clown, 2 of the most absurd gimmicks ever, one of those gimmicks that should not work but somehow does, absurd enough to the point of being so stupid that it becomes funny
The Gobbledygooker, while utter shite and totally pointless, only lasted for one night before it was rightly binned. I actually loved the original heel version of Doink the Clown. Matt Bourne was awesome in the role and brought a real sense of creepiness to the character. It was when Doink turned face and acquired Dink as his sidekick that killed the character for me. But by then Matt Bourne had been fired and Doink was played by a different wrestler.
BTW...Becky Lynch is quite fit...But I don't think much of her Riverdance impression
Yeah, her Riverdance fighting-jig was pretty shitty. It makes me cringe to think what WWE have in store for her trainer, Prince Devitt, when he lands there in August.