Brian Damage
A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality, whatever the case may be…some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not so favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.
Today we browse the gimmick of The Repo Man
By 1991, Vince McMahon felt that the team of Demolition had run its course and decided to break up the once popular tag team. McMahon still wanted to use Barry ‘Smash’ Darsow as a singles competitor with a different gimmick. At first, Vince suggested that Darsow take over the role of Doink the Clown…but Darsow balked at the idea. He wanted to try something completely new and different. So McMahon asked Darsow what did he have in mind and Darsow said he used to repossess cars before becoming a professional wrestler…maybe that could be a new gimmick? Without hesitation, McMahon agreed and seemed to love the new gimmick and immediately started calling Barry Darsow…the Repo Man.
Despite Darsow wearing face paint as Smash, Vince McMahon was worried that fans would quickly pick up who the Repo Man really was and suggested that Darsow wear a full mask to hide his identity. Darsow agreed, but did not want to don a full mask as he was uncomfortable wearing one while wrestling and suggested a smaller mask like the Lone Ranger wore. The character of the Repo Man had a couple of dark match tryouts at WWF TV tapings to gauge the fans reactions to him. McMahon then requested he take some time off for fans to start forgetting about Demolition. During his time away, Darsow lost over 50 pounds and decided that the Repo Man wrestle a completely different style than he did as Smash.
The fans reaction to the gimmick was mostly positive and with that, Darsow started to incorporate more comedy into his routine to get the fans behind him. Darsow wanted the Repo Man to become a babyface because that was where the real big money was at with merchandising. Darsow even suggested that the way he can turn babyface was to steal the Million Dollar title away from Ted Dibiase. Vince wasn’t onboard with the idea and told Darsow that The Repo Man will never, ever be a babyface in the WWF. That is when Darsow put in his notice and quit the company.
You can read other Gimmick Table entries here
Ring the Damn Bell 
Repo Man was underrated. I liked that character.
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If I remember correctly he stayed a heel in WCW as a bully and a bad golf gimmick. So he never got the run as a face he wanted in a major promotion. Should be in the HoF fast part of Demolition but the lawsuit was probably the reason they aren’t. Hopefully HHH changes that in the coming years and puts them in.
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Not sure this is all accurate. Repo man debuted in late 91 so how could vince first have suggested he have taken over as doink when doink didn’t exist until late 92 and mat borne lasted in the orignal role until late 93?
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I hear what you are saying. This came directly from Darsow, maybe he got his timeline a bit off? Unless, Vince wanted him to be Doink from the very beginning and instead went with Borne later?
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At the time, I didn’t realize Repo Man and Demolition Smash were the same guy.
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Hey, I liked it.
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