The Gimmick Table: Who

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 Who

In 1996, Bret Hart was being pushed as a top singles star in the WWF. That left his longtime Hart Foundation tag team partner Jim ‘the Anvil’ Neidhart with no real direction. The feeling from Vince McMahon was that the Anvil character had become very stale. Jim Ross stated that McMahon was loyal to certain wrestlers with Neidhart being one of them. Vince wanted to keep using Neidhart…just not as his usual self.

Bruce Prichard was heavily rumored to be the one to come up with the masked ‘Who’ gimmick for Neidhart. It was apparently a play on the old Abbott and Costello comedy routine, ‘Who’s on first?’ During who matches, Vince McMahon and Jerry ‘the King’ Lawler did their own little skit to the amusement of themselves mostly. While Who defeated other low card talent, he was mainly used to put over the bigger named stars of that era.

While the company guys like Jim Ross and Bruce Prichard stated that the reason for the Who gimmick was to give the Anvil a sorta “fresh coat of paint,” Neidhart had a different take. According to him, the Who gimmick was nothing more than a punishment by Vince McMahon. Neidhart said he was caught with drugs and McMahon suddenly came up with him wearing a mask and jobbing to other wrestlers. Neidhart hated wearing masks while he wrestled and Vince knew this. Whatever the reasoning for the gimmick, Who did not last very long…only three months total.

You can read other Gimmick Table entries here