Jim Cornette on If Wrestlers Can Turn Down Bad Gimmicks 

Million Dollar Man was a great gimmick because WWF paid for him to travel, stay, and eat in style to keep up kayfabe. Meanwhile everyone else is driving themselves around and eating at truckstops.

The Bastion Booger gimmick did lead to one of my favorite calls from JR ever. It was Booger vs. Rick Martel. The whole story was Martel didn't wanna lock up cause Booger smelled so bad, so he gets himself disqualified by gassing him with his "scent of arrogance" and JR exclaims: "HE'S TRYING TO DISINFECT THE BOOGER! "

"Puke is good. Puke is nice. I Iike Puke. It fits the WWF Attitude." Vince talking Droz into his gimmick.

Imagine this: if Glenn Jacobs had said “Naw, I’m not gonna play an evil dentist” or “Really?! A fake Diesel?! I’ll pass!”, he may have been booted from WWE and we wouldn’t have a Kane!

Vince is a nutcase. Imagine, Vince in his office "Well, think about it, an inebriated chiropractor who soils himself and his music is a droning loud gagging sound. It'll make millions!"

Vince treats his talent like action figures

The funny thing is, Shane Douglas legit was a substitute teacher around Pittsburgh for a bit. Couple buddies of mine had him for math class.

Undertaker and Kane best examples of what Jim talking about when discussing how to make or choise the right gimmick for the right person.

Jim really does print his emails out doesn't he

As a little kid, I loved Norman the Lunatic. I didn't think anything about how terrible the gimmick was at the time. I was 8 years old. I remember going to a TV taping at the Georgia Mountain Center in Gainesville, GA with my Dad and my uncle. We were sitting in some of the folding chairs at ringside. I'm not even sure who he was wrestling, but the action spilled out into the crowd. Most everyone scattered, except my uncle, who folded up his chair and tried to hand it to one of them saying "Here, hit him with this."

Remember Jim Herd wanted Ric Flair to do a Centurian gimmick and call himself Spartacus.

I still laugh at the the apparent fact that they wanted to call Stone Cold 'Chilli McFreeze'

Can you imagine the room Vince was in when Zack Gowen was brought up? "A one leg wrestler?! THATS GOOD SHIT! "

Glenn Jacobs as Isaac Yankem or fake Diesel come to mind. I also wish Owen had turned down the return of the Blue Blazer most of all.

There are conflicting stories but one is Mark Calloway turned down the Viking gimmick that was later given to Barbarian. Then Vince offered him “a old west mortician” based on a scene in a spaghetti western. Worked out well for him.

I'm surprised you even have a printer. I figured you still used papyrus.

I heard something about giving Bret Hart a cowboy gimmick, and Bret said where I'm from, you dont say you're a cowboy unless you really are a cowboy. In the days of multiple NWA territories plus AWA, you could always find work somewhere. That ended in the late 80s.

'Can wrestlers turn down bad gimmicks?' Sure. If they want to find themselves unemployed.

Terry Taylor's finisher as the Red Rooster was pretty scary to see for his opponent. It always looked like the guy's arm was about to break and fall off when seeing it as a kid. lol

it would seem to be more logical to allow the wrestlers some input into their gimmicks. That way, they might be able to emotionally invest in their gimmick so as to make it work

Bruce Pritchard has made such a point of denying that there was a "Box of Gimmicks" and one would be fished out and imposed on a random wrestler who lacked one, that he has made it a catchphrase and even a website. He always maintained that a gimmick was created and intended for a specific wrestler with the thought that it matched that man's look and personality. The Million Dollar Man was an exception

But "Norman" led to a classic and immortal line from Bobby Heenan, "I pick booger."

Makhan Singh and his group, the Karachi Vice, were stupidly over in Stampede. He had a great year-long feud with Owen Hart, and everybody in the area was thoroughly captivated by Owen's chase of the North American title.

Mike Shaw was very entertaining and a great guy in real life from what I heard. He has a rare interview on RU-vid before he passed away. Rip booger man!!

I remember hearing Bill Eadie telling how Vince Sr wanted him after getting over in Georgia and MidAtlantic as Masked Superstar but wanted him to be a Cowboy ?

Xavier Woods mentioned the New Day Gimmick was envisioned by Vince as an old timey gospel gimmick, nothing near what they are today.

Don’t lie, you know you want to see Spartacus Ric Flair.

Mick's 1st WCW run, I agree. Not the 2nd, when you're in a title program with the hottest heel in '92-'93: Big Van Vader.

Whatever Taka will still always be remembered for that insane spot at Wrestlemania in 1998!

I thought Cornette was going to tell the "Manson the Mutilator" story.

Friar Ferguson was supposed to be like Friar Tuck, i.e. the big fat "merry monk" who liked to drink and wrestle.

Hahahah the pope in the spirit squad would be like having the token black guy in a 90s film

Bastion Booger was awesome! The twist of the gimmick was that his odor rendered him practically invincible - anyone wrestling him would be overcome. Rick Martel did an amazing job selling for him.

Didn’t Vince want Scott hall to be an army man and hall sold him on the Scarface gimmick.

"You print them out?" "Well YES!" ".......Ok"

Honestly when thinking about this topic I immediately think of Jim Herd wanting to book Ric flair as Spartacus and Ric's like fuck that and goes to the WWF with the WCW world title

"You print them out?" 😂😂😂

RVD turned down the Glacier gimmick.

"They wanted to do cowboy Bret Hart and Im kind of scared of horses" - Bret Hart

I mean.... AEW wouldn't exist if Vince would have listened to Cody and allowed him to drop the Stardust character and do his own thing.

I remember when Mick Foley was Hobo Joe in WCW 😂

When I think of bad gimmicks, I tend to think of Mike Awesome in WCW. That 70s Guy and The Fat Chick Thrilla. Man, 2000 WCW was so trash.

12:55 I feel like this is the same conversation we'll be having about Otis years from now 😔

Tales from the tour bus is done by Mike Judge. It's an amazing collection of stories for anyone who hasn't seen it.

I'm sure Johnny Curtis decided that the idea of pouring milk on himself would be a great way to get him over instead of choosing to veto the idea.

One of the more silly gimmicks that I can’t help being fond of was IRS.

Did Adrian Adonis have the chance to turn down the flower shop angle? I bet he did it to keep his job.

Tales From The Tour Bus was great

Isn’t there an old wise tale about Bret Hart turning down a cowboy gimmick. Good choice

Trucker Norman, Yacht Captain Mike Rotunda and Babyface Abdullah the Butcher!! Ha ha!

Vince is the Charlie Manson of wrestling. Talking people into doing things.

While in University, I worked briefly as a security guard at the Victoria Pavilion in Calgary during the mid-1980’s. Mike Shaw was an extremely good heel as Makhan Singh. And he was an extremely nice man. He was always very kind and pleasant to everyone backstage in the dressing area. I always rooted for him to be a huge success on the ‘Big Stage’ - if he had of been permitted to bring the Singh character to WWE or WCW I think he would have been a star heel. Died way too early. Great guy.

Mike Shaw was great. He played the top heel character so well in a Stampede territory that produced so many legends. Shame what they did to him on the big stage.

Sabu once said he was offered a job in the WWF but he would have to change his name to “The Sultan” and have Iron Sheik as his uncle. Sabu turned it down because he felt it was insulting to his real uncle, the original Sheik. Vince later gave The Sultan gimmick to someone else. Sabu said it shows that Vince didn’t really want him; He just wanted a body to fill a gimmick.

10:10 Best line I ever heard!

I think the fact that Mike Shaw was able to do anything with the Norman gimmick just shows how good he could be. Mahkan Singh could have worked in WCW, I think. Have him come out, and talk about how he always wanted to fight. Couldn't amateur wrestle because he was too big to make weight. Didn't play football because football is boring when you're a lineman. So he traveled. Moved around the world. Found a place in Pakistan where you could fight. No weight classes. No rules. Two guys, one winner. Found a guru, and that guy took him under his wing. When the time came he gave him his new name, Mahkan Singh. Mahkan Singh didn't cry when his father died, but when he was given the honor of that name, he cried. Now his guru has sent him back to America, a place that doesn't feel like home anymore. Gave him just one order, "Fight them our way". Give him the Asiatic Spike or something similar, have him get DQed a lot. Two on one matches where he squashes both guys and gets the DQ for going crazy. Post match interview is something like, "The announcer said I lost. What do your eyes say?" I think you could have gotten some good uppercard matches out of a guy like that.

Just when I thought I had watched every Cornette Drive-Thru , I must have missed this one because I don't remember it . But I cant complain about unfound Corny treasure I haven't seen yet 3 years later !!!

How am i going to keep my emails if I don’t print them? Wtf

jim cornette becoming head coach of the chicago bears--------a breath taking concept.

Beer City Bruiser is 2020s Bastion Booger

What didn't help Terry Tailor in WWE was before the Red Rooster gimmick. Was when Mr. Perfect debuted 3 months after Tailor. Mr. Perfect was squashing him at house shows all across the US. And when I say a squash match. 3 minutes 1 way squashes with 0 offense by Tailor ending in a clean Perfect plex. I witnessed it at a MSG house show. The next week at Nassau Colliseum. And 3 weeks later on WWE Prime Time at some other arena in the US.

grew up in Stampede territory, i remember Makhan Singh not really for any wrestling, but for one promo Karachi Vice made in my hometown shot upstairs at what used to be an infamous strip club/hotel called 'The Park' ... that was the day i learned what strippers do ;)

Jim and brian, keep up the great work!!!👍

I remember when Mike Shaw did commentary on Raw once. Very entertaining. Good shit pal.

Some guys are so good they could make a terrible gimmick good: Dusty Rhodes w/ polka dots, Mike Rotunda w/ IRS, but just like anything else in life-you have to earn your way to influence yourself into better opportunities. Your physical presence; work on promo skills-Razor Ramon & Austin influenced their way into successful gimmicks. Getting a rub from right guy-Diesel & Hunter Hearst Helmsley into HHH w/ Shawn in DX. Glen Jacobs has no chance with bad gimmicks but being big & working hard made Kane work. This is life people-how you get promoted and the same principle applies. Influence based on creating greater value for yourself

Hurricane is a great example of what Jim was talking about at the end.

Mike Shaw was fantastic in Stampede Wrestling. Waste of talent.

In regard to the Red Rooster AKA Terry Taylor I think it was Jim Duggan who once said on a shoot "Terry was one of those guys who if he could have either the bread, or the belt, he'd take the belt." I also heard Terry Taylor was a bit conceited so I wonder if the Red Rooster gimmick was a punishment. Heenan himself said he was was embarrassed by the angle but as a favor to Vince went a long with it.

18:22 to the end cracked me up. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Vince McMahon circa 1996 "Fang McFrost, it's such good shit!"

Didn't Kamala say that he didn't make that much money? That he was always getting screwed over with paychecks, which is the reason he reached out to Vince for a bit of help only for Vince to refuse.

REST IN PEACE MIKE SHAW Gamma Singh and Makhan Singh had a faction called The Karachi Vice. Announcer Ed Whalen started calling Makhan Singh Toilet Bowl. In the Stampede Territory he was called Toliet Bowl. Mike Shaw was a great worker a multi time North American and International Tag Team Champion. At his weight Mike Shaw could dropkick like Owen Hart. After he left WWF I saw Mike Shaw in a Capital One Commercial that had Vikings in it.

Man Jim printing his emails is hilarious, of course he does, I love it.

Boogeyman and Blue Blazer has to be two of worst gimmicks from two of the best performers ever.

Let's take a 6'9" guy who wrestles like a cruiserweight and turn him into a zombie mortician!!

Jim archiving the whole internet with physical fucking paper! Love it ❤

I just listened to Bastion Booger's theme tune thanks to Cornette's description. Nearly shed a tear laughing.

I guarantee Glenn Jacobs didn't want to be an evil dentist or fake Kevin Nash. But finally he got the character of Kane. He probably would not of got that chance if he complained about the ridiculous characters.

How did he get through this without mentioning the Ding-Dong's or Hunchbacks? 😁😅🤣😄

As a child I really liked the Red Rooster.

I remember watching Stampede when TSN was a specialty channel and saw Mike while he was white hot. Frankly, I think he'd rather be the monk than anything else he went through down south 🙄

It's weird how many Canadians were almost cowboys. Both Jericho and Bret were told to be cowboys at one point.

Wondering about the decrease in audio quality then realized this is from an older episode.

I like the fact that Jim mentioned Terry Taylor being turned into the red rooster and totally derailed his career, I always thought he could have been the next Ric Flair

mike shaw was hilarious in stampede wrestling, he was cutting a promo on bill kazmaier (former strong man turned wrestler) and said "the way they elect the mayor of regina, is they round up all the homeless bums and give them all a dry piece of cow manure, whoever throws it the farthest gets to be mayor, kazmaier got disqualified because he threw a wet one" a masked tag team called the viet cong express were standing behind him and gama singh who is from pakistan was beside him and they were all laughing hysterically, just for your own information regina is in the province of saskatchewan and it's about an 8 hour drive east of calgary and it's one of the cities they went to regularly, imagine having to drive that far in -40 below weather he had such a great heel voice too, it came off as aggressive and snivelling at the same time he was a 6'1 400 pound hairy heel with wild hair and he could keep up with all of the 220 pound wrestlers like ben bassarab, chris benoit and biff wellington he had a classic feud with owen hart, owen won his first north american heavyweight title against makhan singh, but unfortunately was at a house show and they only showed the ending which was owen diving off the top rope for the win, then they showed a music video tribute of owen's career so far in stampede wrestling and i'm sure they used eye of the tiger for the music mike shaw could have easily gone into wwf or wcw as himself and would have gotten heat, between his look and the way he talked the people would have been booing him and throwing garbage everytime he spoke and he knew how to work as a big man, no stupid flips or top rope moves, his finisher was a simple splash, but he knew how to cheat so it got a lot of heat from the crowd but it didn't insult your intelligence mike shaw was easily the heel of the decade for stampede wrestling and the only guy who could compare to him was bad news brown but he didn't have any long stints in calgary where he could truly dominate i saw mike shaw's shoot interview with rf video, he came as a well spoken great guy and a good family man, between owen, mike and bad news i miss watching stampede wrestling at 4 pm on saturdays

Jim's computer know-how ended in the 90s

From what I've heard. When Bryan Clark picked Adam Bomb. One of the other options was "the ringmaster". Which was offered to at least one other person.

I honestly thought the thumbnail was Eugene another bad gimmick for a good worker

Looking at the workers in the Spirit Squad - it's criminal that individually all 5 of those guys could've made good mid-card money and props to Dolph for getting more than that.

Makhan Singh was an amazing gimmick....no need to ruin it. Mike Shaw could make it work...maybe anywhere....As for gimmicks that sound bad BUT...Doink the Clown (Matt Bourne).

I can tell you what McMahon was thinking. Kids will love it.

I like jim in his mind its still 1985/86. I remember Vince chewed him out on raw when he had the rock n roll express out there,"he said get rid of that 80s crap"

I grew up near mike shaw. Hes probably the only pro wrestler from the upper peninsula of Michigan to make it to WCW/WWF. I remember my cousin getting pissed off n wanting to fight him one night when he carded him while he was working as door man at a Bar.

Printing emails. This is why we haven't gone paperless and probably never will.

VINCE McMAHON was snorting ROGAINE instead of COCAINE

Thumbnail shouldve had Jim as bastion booger

Lol Sugar Bear! 😁 😅

I loved Norman the lunatic! One of the best WCW gimmicks ever imo.

Karachi Vice was a great angle in Calgary ...it would have got over if given the chance even in the South

The reason why the Friar Ferguson gimmick was killed off was due to a series of complaints from the Catholic/Christian community who found the idea of an alcoholic monk to be offensive.