Agreed. Though he would really need to use (with permission) that amazing OSW version of the Bojack Horseman opening credits where it goes through a bunch of Ed Leslie's gimmicks!
It's one gimmick per episode so he'd need an entire series by itself. He's had more gimmicks than the entire current NXT roster combined. That said he was nearly unrecognizable as The Disciple in NWO. Is there anyone who's rode someone's coattails more successful than him in all of pro-wrestling history?
In the early 2000s, the small wrestling company in my hometown brought in Disco Inferno for a match. Disco took the time to learn the college mascot in order to make fun of it and get heat. I will forever respect him for that
He committed to his role, and would do his homework. He was a great heel. He always taunted, always looked so sure of himself, always made sure he was the most punchable guy in the room to earn his heat.
According to the Chris Jericho podcast, he had terrible diabetes and he had to eat every two hours. Harvey Wippleman would get called at 3 am from GG saying he needs turkey sandwiches right away.
Undertaker said he had no idea what to do at wrestlemania to fill the 15 minutes and deliberately made a very slow entry to eat into the match time, did it with Mabel as well then specifically asked for him to be in his ministry so he didn’t have to fight him after an earlier incident left him with a broken face.
Disco Inferno apparently got voted "Best Gimmick" in the 1995 awards from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. I'm not sure if that speaks for how over he was with fans or how dire the gimmicks of that year were
He was a comedy tweener that year. For example, struggling, in-ring, to figure out how to apply his submission finisher. He even had to write notes to himself, and draw a diagram.
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 Also the fact that he basically kept hyping it up as like... the most amazing finisher ever, you've never seen anything like this. It'll totally change the face of wrestling. .... And it's a figure 4.
He was a fun goofball comedy heel. His personal views and views of wrestling now are beneath contempt, but he wasn't meant to be a top guy so it's hard to say the gimmick was any kind of failure.
Disco Inferno was definitely an interesting and wacky gimmick, but I feel like Glenn played it like no one else could, if it was anyone else that played the character I feel like it would absolutely be forgotten to the sands of time.
It makes him being such an arrogant asshole these days all the more painful. If he wasn't so obsessed with being toxic in pretty much every possible way, he could be making easy money as a nostalgia act on shows like Joey Janella's Spring Break.
I absolutely agree. I don't know how I'd feel about Michaels as Inferno, but as messed up as Michaels got, he could probably make it work. You need someone who can be have a big personality and be over-the-top, while not be so much so that it doesn't work out.
Nah, Disco Inferno was a turn the channel moment every time he appeared, just embarassing. He'd fit in well in today's AEW, where such garbage is par for the course.
I wasn't really an ECW fan 20 years ago, but I remember seeing Mike Awesome on a episode of ECW on TNN and being incredibly impressed. He looked huge, but he was flying around like a cruiserweight.
Disco Inferno was cheesy, but played too well by Glenn to be on the list. Substitute anybody in the dungeon of doom except Giant, for an example of “worst gimmick”.
I mean, Glenn somehow was able to make a 70's disco dancer gimmick work in the late 90's. I think that in itself is commendable. Not to mention that he actually got super over with the gimmick at points.
Disco Inferno had enough elements of Glenn Gilberti's real personality that it made the character more likable. Because of that, everyone just knows him as Disco now. Great podcast with Konnan.
Nice touch with "...in the history of our great sport" at the beginning. I remember seeing Road Block on Saturday Night and pretty sure his entrance music was a bunch of car horns honking, making it the best entrance theme.
Robert Kellum worked dark matches for WCW as Gorgeous George III in 1997 and 98. The reason he stopped using the gimmick, was because Randy Savage bought the rights to the Gorgeous George gimmick. According to Kellum, the original intention was for Randy to give the Gorgeous George gimmick to his brother Leaping Lanny Poffo. Which Kellum says he had no issues with, as he believed Lanny would put as much effort into it as he did as The Genius, and Lanny had great respect for the original Gorgeous George. However when Randy brought his girlfriend Stephanie Bellars to TV and gave her the name, Kellum was upset and approached Eric Bischoff about it. Which is allegedly when they came up with The Maestro to get Kellum on TV.
Lanny Poffo was an underrated performer. He was a cruiserweight in a world of heavyweights! His performances as 'The Genius' were hilarious. But still, he was never able to step out of his brothers considerable shadow...
The next one. Yes - I also found Lanny extremely underrated. I might understand, that he wasn´t the guy with big muscles for Vince, but WCW payed him for quite some time - without using him on TV or houseshows...
Great call out!!! I was going to mention this but I decided to read the comment section first to see if anyone knew the real story, Thanks. The only part that was left out was that Rob was broken into the business to be GG 3 because of his lineage.
Everyone planning to say the same thing and the OG poster failed to mention that Kellum had gained some exposure working for Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling as Robbie Eagles and now and then for Jarrett Promotions USWA in Memphis.
I'll never forget when Asshole Man showed up on reliving the war, it was one of the first instances when the snark started to come through in your commentary. I'll say the gimmick ended well too, with him almost getting his legs broken by the 4 horsemen and no one tried to help him; what a way to go out.
I allways thought the bootyman was a disco gimmick like disco inferno, but the character was just about some guy who shaked his booty, and was Hogans budy.
The wrestlers didn't laugh their asses off. Patrice O'Neal, Bill Burr, Jim Norton and Anthony Cumia did laugh their asses off watching the Shockmaster debut.
I never realized Ed Leslie was the Disciple and I thought the Disciple actually at least looked quite good when watching WCW originally. Also Disco Inferno was indeed exactly that type of sympathy jobber that shouldn't work but did, in part to how he was portrayed.
There was only one gimmick that could get away with throwing frisbees into the crowd... And the fact that Leaping Lanny Poffo hand wrote a poem about his opponent for the match on them made each one truly a unique souvenir
Gimmicks like the Shark and Seven really showcased the dichotomy of the WCW creative at the time. That they could give someone a gimmick, recognize it was a failure, make the decision to pull it, allow the guy portraying the gimmick to publicly kill it to placate angry fans, then punish the wrestler for spitting on their creative team.
The Disco Inferno character wasn't created to be a main event player. It was a comedic character designed for the mid card, and it was a good character for that purpose. Glenn Gilberti was a good wrestler and made the character work.
I say this in a lot of videos where he is mentioned: he would be looked at a lot more favorably today if he just shut up. Case in point, before he decided that the world needed to know his opinions, the same people who now call him a joke called him "an underrated gem" or things like that.
People like Disco Inferno are the perfect gimmick/character wrestlers that you often need (or even want) to have your fans stick to your program and become interest in every aspect of your company. Gilberti was good in the ring, solid charisma and was better on the mic then some bigger names. It's people like him who make the mid/undercard interesting and fun to watch while enjoying a snack (or beer) .
@@ChubbsTheCat And since he was still called "The Yetti" when he first started working as the SGN, that means that in WCW canon, the Dungeon of Doom hired a mummified abominable snowman that could also use ninjitsu (or that listened to the ICP).
I think why Disco worked is that not only is Glen a solid worker but he just seemed so darned earnest. He didn't seem like a guy suffering under a naff gimmick but one embracing it.
There's just certain gimmicks where, you look back at the gimmick and think, "This shouldn't work and it isn't going to work," and they get the correct guy for the job. I agree with Jim Cornette when he says that the reasons Mick Foley, Undertaker and Curt Hennig could get away with what they did was because they were the best guys for the Mankind, Dead man and Mr. Perfect gimmicks. Just couldn't have worked with anyone else. Disco is different in that Glenn, as you guys said, just felt in earnest and dedicated himself to the character. As WB said in the video, best to be in on the joke.
WCW had a bunch of bizarre characters didn't they. Disco Inferno was a gimmick that worked though up to more than one off. Hector Guerrero would have been good as Eddy and Chavo's partners.
Hector had a mini feud with Eddie, and I really liked their matches. I'd say he's one of the mmost underrated wrestlers of the 90's, and one of the main guys in my Boy Stable.
I always liked Vinnie Vegas when I was a kid. Liked it even more when many years later I heard Nash say in an interview that he based the character on Steve Martin's character, Vinny, in the movie My Blue Heaven, another thing I loved when I was a kid.
I actually enjoyed Barry Darsow's golfer gimmick. Sure it was one of those "occupation" gimmicks but it was kind of unique. He'd always bring out a mini golf set for his opponent to try, if they got a hole in one they get "the right to wrestle" Barry, but he'd always pearl harbour them anyways. OSW Boy Stable material.
@@anonamatronExactly. How a gimmick is used and what the wrestler brings to it are way more important than the actual gimmick itself. Lots of successful wrestlers’ gimmicks - Undertaker, Hurricane, The New Day, Val Venis, Bray Wyatt, to name a few - could’ve been on a list like this if used differently
@@jimbrown5091 I never saw Mean Mark. I was watching probably just around the time the Undertaker started.. probably slightly after, and saw WWF first. I just thought Hulk Hogan was cool and the Royal Rumble VHS covers with the absolute mob of colorful wrestlers marching into the foreground made me want to see that so badly. The first one I ever rented was one of the first Survivor Series. Whatever the one with Andre the Giant's team vs. Ultimate Warrior's team was. My parents were super against me renting that nonsense but I kept asking and asking. I'm sure I'd seen WWF tv a little bit at that point because I definitely knew who the big stars like Hogan and Andre and Ultimate Warrior were. Mean Mark was before my time, but Undertaker was a cool villain for me as a kid.
i always liked disco inferno. he was a fun character. that 70s dude was alright too. especially when he tried to pick up whatever girl he was interviewing on his couch and she just tried to get away from him. that part of his gimmick hasn't aged well, but it was still funny seeing him get shot down every time.
I’m a fan of the original Michael Wallstreet gimmick where he had a computer program that told him how to defeat opponents. I’d love to see a version of that nowadays where the winning strategy is always “hit your opponent with the laptop”.
Yeah, then he became a tax agent in WWF and the gimmick went to Terry Taylor, Ricky Morton, and Tommy Rich... And the three of them couldn't carry it off, even with the future Marlena(Terri Runnels as Alexandra York) as their manager...
@@BiggieTrismegistus That could be a brilliant gimmick! Imagine if their Titantron entrance video was AI generated images of them beating up legendary wrestlers and lifting non-existent titles.
The thing about Big Josh is that it wasn't necessarily the lumberjack gimmick itself that was the issue. Wrestling's had a ton of successful lumberjack gimmicks in the past, like the LeDuc brothers in the territorial days and John Nord & Scott Norton in the AWA. But they were big surly brawlers that had very 'street fight' style matches to go with their gimmicks. Matt Borne was a great wrestler and wrestled as such, which didn't really support a lumberjack gimmick.
Am I the only one that thinks The Big Show should have adopted a “Paul Bunyan” gimmick, complete with a big blue ox to escort him to the ring? Yeah? Ok, just checking.
I never comment on any wrestling review videos for any channel but I can’t stay silent: Disco Inferno was one of the most memorable characters of that era. He had the stage presence, charisma, and athletic ability to pull it off. I agree with you, I loved his character (even when I hated him).
It was a horrible gimmick that worked because of the wrestler. Unpopular opinion: the undertaker gimmick is as horrible as the Dungeon of Doom. Mark made that work. No one else could have
I liked him. His gimmick was fun but not overbearing. He was a guy who liked disco music and was fine in the ring. He wasn't a wrestler where the gimmick was so over the top it took away from the wrestler. Examples include the Red Rooster, Road Block, Skinner the Alligator man, Issac Yankem to name a few.
This is probably the only wrestling channel that doesn't mindlessly dump on Disco Inferno. Hell, even MarkyD123 takes shots at "Gifted" Glenn Gilbertti (how is he "Gifted"?!)
Right it's that the smarks online force narratives that anyone who didn't do all the moves and work rates somehow meant they weren't over The same ones who kept pushing Hbk wasn't a draw during the new generation era . I'm glad for a non smark channels like wrestling bros who can separate the truth from a talent he didn't care for and how over they are It's very refreshing
@@JH-so5kt Not up for debate? PMSL, you're trying to rewrite history. Disco was most definitely not over with many crowds, in fact, he had the wrong kind of heat often, the kind of heat where people just have no interest in watching your match .
The worst gimmick WCW has ever done was "Oklahoma" making fun of Jim Ross' Bells Palsy is a scumbag move. Worst gimmick WCW spent considerable money and time building up is Glacier.
The best/worst part about the Maestro's "feud" with James Brown is that WCW did absolutely nothing to promote that James Brown was involved. They spent a ton of money to have him just show up at a PPV unannounced, so barely anyone even knew that Brown WAS there, let alone WHY he was there, and something that probably would have gotten them a ton of PPV buys went completely wasted.
I loved Roadblock all because he brought that barricade to the ring with a blinking hazard flasher on it, I also liked his finishing move where he got on the ring apron and clothesline flips inside the ring on his opponent
Near the end of his life he posted on the Wrestlecrap forums quite a bit and reminisced about some of his lame gimmicks and had fun with everyone about it all.
I loved Arachnaman back in 1990 ish on WCW Worldwide! (Very late night on ITV in the UK) And 'The Medic', who was usually to be seen getting squashed by Sting 😀
In 2001 after Road Dogg was fired from WWF, him and his brother (Steve Armstrong) opened a wrestling school and an indy promotion (Southern Pro Wrestling) in northwest Florida. I was one of their trainees. After I completed my training, Road Dogg pitched a gimmick to me where I would wear a skeleton mask and call myself "Skeletor." Being 6'7", 200 lbs at the time, I feel this may have been a rib on my size.
The highlight of Roadblock's career is that he had a chance to end Goldberg's undefeated streak. While Goldberg was still in his first half a dozen matches or so, Roadblock slammed him to the mat and had him dead to rights. He did not follow up with a pin cover, however, and Goldberg made a comeback and pinned him with a jackhammer a minute or two later.
It's also worth mentioning that ''Brad Armstrong'' and ''Matt Borne'' were second generation wrestlers. 1970s nostalgia was pretty big during the 1990s, which is one of the many reasons why the ''Disco Inferno'' gimmick worked. If it hadn't been for the fact that ''Glenn Gilbertti'' was a good wrestler and had such excellent mic skills.... The gimmick would not have lasted as long as it did.
Wow I never heard WWF made Awesome an offer in 2000. Seeing as how they didn't use him worth a damn in and after the Invasion I wonder if it would have been any different had he came earlier but imagining a competitive Awesome vs Kane or Taker match....damn.
Request: create a storyline of what could have happened if the Shockmaster’s debut went perfectly. No doubt fans would have flocked to a guy in a bedazzled storm trooper helmet.
I had a great experience many years ago when I got to have dinner with Barry Darsow and Bill Eadie after they'd worked a local indy show. During the late-90s they didn't speak for a few years before reconnecting, so Bill had never heard about any of Barry's WCW escapades, like Blacktop Bully, the "King of the Road" match, or "Hole In One" Darsow. I'd bring that stuff up and tell Barry I was just glad that WCW had him around on TV, and Bill would just shake his head and say "Man, I'm glad I missed all that!" 🤣 And Barry would be like "Yeah, that's when we weren't talkin' for a while," but he let me tell the stories and I could tell he got a real kick out of hearing a fan's perspective on it. And then he'd jump in with the stuff I didn't know, like him and Dustin getting fired for blading during the KotR match. Barry: "So they told us to get color, an' then they fired us for gettin' color!" Bill: "....Sounds like WCW." 🤣 Barry was cracking up when I mentioned the golfer gimmick. I told him that was the one gimmick of his I hated, and he started laughing so hard pretending to be surprised. "You HATED it?! That was my favorite gimmick of all time!" 🤣 He claimed it came about because he'd recently gotten into golf in real life and it gave him an excuse to show up to shows late and not have to get changed. "I'd just walk in and work in the stuff I had on, it was great!" Great memories, love those guys forever.
@@TheImapotato He was laughing when he said it so it was probably just a joke BUT either way it was a great story well-told. That night had a lot to do with me finally deciding to try and get into wrestling so it's a night I'll always remember fondly.
@@TheImapotato Way closer to the end of the ride than the beginning but I appreciate the support! That event was around 2008 and I broke in 2009 so a lot's happened since, nothing grand but it's been fun. Some of it's up on my channel, not including stuff that's been lost to time or I otherwise don't own the rights to. Never touched a pill yet!
I don't think Rob Kellum/The Maestro gets enough credit. Solid ring worker, he made that gimmick work and the fact that he was trusted to be in a segment with the legendary James Brown says a lot about him.
There’s a guy with a Pro Golfer gimmick at a local promotion I go to. He’s legit one of my favorites. He plays a Shooter McGavin type heel with a Caddy who cheats and everything. He’s also a great wrestler to boot. The man can make the gimmick
The bears pissed themselves because theyre animals being forced into a loud arena with screaming people and theyre freaked out. That sort of s**t pisses me off, abusing animals for some tacky gimmick, some wrestling promoter wanted a few extra bucks or sell a few extra tickets so they torment some animals for it.
as for maestro i understand he actually did play the piano in those scenes for real. he wasn't just moving his fingers in time with the music being played (which actually believe it or not is just as hard if not harder) so apparently he had some piano talent
One of the funniest things I saw on WCW TV was the Nitro Girls doing a routine in the ring and Alex Wright wandering into the shot doing his one and only dance.
I’m not sure about this but I heard the original idea for arachnaman was supposed to be some kind of promotion for an unmade spider man movie but marvel was in financial trouble after a failed movie attempt at Captain America, the movie was cancelled before it was even announced but someone at WCW decided to do something spider like anyway.
I was a young kid who had just begun watching wrestling when Big Josh was around, and he was one of my favorites at the time. I liked him so much as a kid that I became a total Doink mark when I found out that he was the one portraying him.
I'm a huge sucker for ridiculous gimmicks. I'd love to see a Yeti callback in a modern wrestling show in which a manager showed up week after week with a big old sarcophagus and teased whatever was inside. Eventually it would open to reveal "the Mum-Ay," a guy dressed in an Abominable Snowman costume. The Mum-Ay would then job out for a few weeks before being repackaged. No explanation or further reference to the character.
@@davidworden4470 Bischoff if anything Marked himself out spending millions on talent and not doing what they're supposed to with them, Bret Hart is a prime example
I actually found a signed and dedicated photograph of Kellum as Gorgeous George III from 1993 last year in a random hole-in-the-wall thrift store in North Carolina, lol. One of my coolest thrift store finds to this day.
Ed Leslie could be a whole episode all on his own.
Agreed. Though he would really need to use (with permission) that amazing OSW version of the Bojack Horseman opening credits where it goes through a bunch of Ed Leslie's gimmicks!
@Rich Smith And it's definitely lol-worthy
Can you remember Brute's Eddie's KKK gimmick scary
so that's where chavo's kerwin
white came from?
a year later he would bring it
back in WWE.😂
It's one gimmick per episode so he'd need an entire series by itself. He's had more gimmicks than the entire current NXT roster combined. That said he was nearly unrecognizable as The Disciple in NWO. Is there anyone who's rode someone's coattails more successful than him in all of pro-wrestling history?
In the early 2000s, the small wrestling company in my hometown brought in Disco Inferno for a match. Disco took the time to learn the college mascot in order to make fun of it and get heat. I will forever respect him for that
He committed to his role, and would do his homework. He was a great heel. He always taunted, always looked so sure of himself, always made sure he was the most punchable guy in the room to earn his heat.
"Keep in mind we're talking about the gimmicks here and not poor Brad Armstrong"
Seriously, I think it would be easy to do "10 ways Brad Armstrong was mistreated 1980-1995" and "10 ways Brad Armstrong was mistreated 1996-2011".
@@kyleolson8977 Top 20 Times Brad Armstrong Should Have Said No
Stro was a great talent. I actually enjoyed the piano and how different he was then the other gimmicks
so chavo did the golfer gimmick
before doing it in WWE?
gotcha.
Ric Flair always had high praise for working with Brad Armstrong
Fun Fact: Giant Gonzles AKA El Gigante was originally supposed to be The Yeti, but had to drop out due to health reasons.
According to the Chris Jericho podcast, he had terrible diabetes and he had to eat every two hours. Harvey Wippleman would get called at 3 am from GG saying he needs turkey sandwiches right away.
*FUN FACT:* If you kick Hulk Hogan in the ass, you will end up breaking Ed Leslie's nose...
I would have called in too.
Undertaker said he had no idea what to do at wrestlemania to fill the 15 minutes and deliberately made a very slow entry to eat into the match time, did it with Mabel as well then specifically asked for him to be in his ministry so he didn’t have to fight him after an earlier incident left him with a broken face.
Okay, but why was a mummy called Yeti?
Disco Inferno apparently got voted "Best Gimmick" in the 1995 awards from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. I'm not sure if that speaks for how over he was with fans or how dire the gimmicks of that year were
He was a comedy tweener that year. For example, struggling, in-ring, to figure out how to apply his submission finisher. He even had to write notes to himself, and draw a diagram.
@@juststatedtheobvious9633 Also the fact that he basically kept hyping it up as like... the most amazing finisher ever, you've never seen anything like this. It'll totally change the face of wrestling.
....
And it's a figure 4.
He was a fun goofball comedy heel. His personal views and views of wrestling now are beneath contempt, but he wasn't meant to be a top guy so it's hard to say the gimmick was any kind of failure.
I always liked Disco Inferno.
@@juststatedtheobvious9633WWEs ridiculous is old rouster in special womens rouster sasha raquel do drop shotsee pleas
When I was little I always thought Big Josh was supposed to be as if Al Borland got into pro wrestling.
Something that Binford tools would be proud to present.
@@MoabFricanI don't think so, Tim.
Arachnaman looks more like Shocker than Spider-Man 😅
🎯
Word
I think Brian Zane said it best when he said you call a guy The Demon so you don't have to call him Dale Torborg
Disco Inferno was definitely an interesting and wacky gimmick, but I feel like Glenn played it like no one else could, if it was anyone else that played the character I feel like it would absolutely be forgotten to the sands of time.
It makes him being such an arrogant asshole these days all the more painful. If he wasn't so obsessed with being toxic in pretty much every possible way, he could be making easy money as a nostalgia act on shows like Joey Janella's Spring Break.
Shaun Michael's was offered it 1srt
I absolutely agree. I don't know how I'd feel about Michaels as Inferno, but as messed up as Michaels got, he could probably make it work. You need someone who can be have a big personality and be over-the-top, while not be so much so that it doesn't work out.
Even though it's a goofy gimmick but I Loved it
Nah, Disco Inferno was a turn the channel moment every time he appeared, just embarassing. He'd fit in well in today's AEW, where such garbage is par for the course.
I wasn't really an ECW fan 20 years ago, but I remember seeing Mike Awesome on a episode of ECW on TNN and being incredibly impressed. He looked huge, but he was flying around like a cruiserweight.
That's what made him awesome.
Just imagine him Vs Brian Cage
Such an amazing time. Ecw was on another level.
@@yosefvargasx definitely was. Ordering the PPVs itself was a thrill and sense of accomplishment lol.
He had better gimmick in ecw as Mike awesome.
Disco Inferno was cheesy, but played too well by Glenn to be on the list. Substitute anybody in the dungeon of doom except Giant, for an example of “worst gimmick”.
I don't know about that. The "Son of" Andre The Giant comes off VERY farfetched... 🙄
Meng and Barbarian could at least be taken seriously, but aside from them, I would have to agree with you.
@@NattyIce100 True, the Faces of Fear are underated.
The Shockmaster entrance gets me every single time 😂
Anyone else still hear Sid in the back? LOL
Saw it live on the Clash of Champions. Shook my head in disbelief. Still can't believe it happened...
Of all people the one who tried to keep it together was the king of botched promos himself Sid. LOL
"I told ya! Oooh, God!" -Sidney Vicious
It's a miracle the guys there held it together as much as they did. I would have been on the ground in tears.
"... it's like your parents saying, we've got the ultimate warrior at home.... " lmao that's fn gold!
I mean, Glenn somehow was able to make a 70's disco dancer gimmick work in the late 90's. I think that in itself is commendable. Not to mention that he actually got super over with the gimmick at points.
I mean, 70s disco dancer as a gimmick does make a lot of sense in the 90s though because it's basically the ideal timeframe to latch onto nostalgia.
So much so he even held the TV Title for a breif period
Would have liked to see his Evil Architect character Bill Ding or Evil gym teacher Jim Nasium though.
Disco Inferno is a case where the gimmick got the perfect wrestler to do it.
LMFAO the Shockmaster's Debut was absolutely hilarious 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Disco Inferno had enough elements of Glenn Gilberti's real personality that it made the character more likable. Because of that, everyone just knows him as Disco now. Great podcast with Konnan.
if john Travolta became a wrestler.😂
I always like Disco the character. Glenn was solid in the ring worker
@@bclautz My favorite is the Filthy Animal version...........Disqo. 😂
Nice touch with "...in the history of our great sport" at the beginning.
I remember seeing Road Block on Saturday Night and pretty sure his entrance music was a bunch of car horns honking, making it the best entrance theme.
I remember him from his pre-WCW days in IWCCW as "Rochester Roadblock"
@@kurtpaulsen6579 Ooooh, nice! He's been around.
@@kurtpaulsen6579 I met the Roadblock. It was at the Marriott in Rochester. He was at a friends wedding. Super nice guy!
Robert Kellum worked dark matches for WCW as Gorgeous George III in 1997 and 98.
The reason he stopped using the gimmick, was because Randy Savage bought the rights to the Gorgeous George gimmick. According to Kellum, the original intention was for Randy to give the Gorgeous George gimmick to his brother Leaping Lanny Poffo. Which Kellum says he had no issues with, as he believed Lanny would put as much effort into it as he did as The Genius, and Lanny had great respect for the original Gorgeous George.
However when Randy brought his girlfriend Stephanie Bellars to TV and gave her the name, Kellum was upset and approached Eric Bischoff about it. Which is allegedly when they came up with The Maestro to get Kellum on TV.
Lanny Poffo was an underrated performer. He was a cruiserweight in a world of heavyweights! His performances as 'The Genius' were hilarious. But still, he was never able to step out of his brothers considerable shadow...
Damn, I was gonna make pretty much the same comment! I got a lot of that same info from Wrestlecrap's book The Death of WCW. Cheers man!
The next one. Yes - I also found Lanny extremely underrated. I might understand, that he wasn´t the guy with big muscles for Vince, but WCW payed him for quite some time - without using him on TV or houseshows...
Great call out!!! I was going to mention this but I decided to read the comment section first to see if anyone knew the real story, Thanks. The only part that was left out was that Rob was broken into the business to be GG 3 because of his lineage.
Everyone planning to say the same thing and the OG poster failed to mention that Kellum had gained some exposure working for Jim Cornette's Smokey Mountain Wrestling as Robbie Eagles and now and then for Jarrett Promotions USWA in Memphis.
I'll never forget when Asshole Man showed up on reliving the war, it was one of the first instances when the snark started to come through in your commentary.
I'll say the gimmick ended well too, with him almost getting his legs broken by the 4 horsemen and no one tried to help him; what a way to go out.
Don't forget the nWo murdering him later in the week at Sturgis.
Mike Awesome was amazing. I hate that he is no longer with us. He should have been a top star!
Brad Armstrong was also Candy Man as well, wasn't he?
Yes, he was also Badstreet, and probably some other masked igmmicks too.
The Gotdamn Candyman
Yes he did that gimmick sucked too
@@iangreenhalgh9280 Badstreet was a great gimmick for him. He did great as a heel.
The worst one was Buzzkill!!!!
Bro, this was an awesome video.
Can't wait to see what PT. 2 brings.
Really appreciate the time and effort you put into these.
I allways thought the bootyman was a disco gimmick like disco inferno, but the character was just about some guy who shaked his booty, and was Hogans budy.
Disco had a lot of fans, he played that gimmick as well as it could be done. I thought he was legit hilarious some appearances.
The wrestlers didn't laugh their asses off. Patrice O'Neal, Bill Burr, Jim Norton and Anthony Cumia did laugh their asses off watching the Shockmaster debut.
I never realized Ed Leslie was the Disciple and I thought the Disciple actually at least looked quite good when watching WCW originally. Also Disco Inferno was indeed exactly that type of sympathy jobber that shouldn't work but did, in part to how he was portrayed.
I too never knew the disciple was beefcake. Lol
Here I was hoping LaserTron was part Laser Tag and part Tron. Throwing a glowing disc frisbee into the crowd at every show!
There was only one gimmick that could get away with throwing frisbees into the crowd... And the fact that Leaping Lanny Poffo hand wrote a poem about his opponent for the match on them made each one truly a unique souvenir
I’ve said it many time, Disco was absolutely a fan favorite
Before I watch the video, I’m gonna say: ITS THE YETAAAY
Gimmicks like the Shark and Seven really showcased the dichotomy of the WCW creative at the time. That they could give someone a gimmick, recognize it was a failure, make the decision to pull it, allow the guy portraying the gimmick to publicly kill it to placate angry fans, then punish the wrestler for spitting on their creative team.
I feel like Disco Inferno was WCW's version of Doink. Yeah, he was a goof, but he knew how to wrestle.
Disco was over as hell .I loved him as a kid
I always compared him to Owen Hart. Skilled in the ring but I couldn't care less about the boring character.
I was devastated when the Boogie Knights broke up 🕺
I've always liked Disco Inferno. He was such a fun character, and one of my favorites from back in the day.
The Disco Inferno character wasn't created to be a main event player. It was a comedic character designed for the mid card, and it was a good character for that purpose. Glenn Gilberti was a good wrestler and made the character work.
I always chose him on the old WCW games as a kid. I thought he was sick
I say this in a lot of videos where he is mentioned: he would be looked at a lot more favorably today if he just shut up. Case in point, before he decided that the world needed to know his opinions, the same people who now call him a joke called him "an underrated gem" or things like that.
People like Disco Inferno are the perfect gimmick/character wrestlers that you often need (or even want) to have your fans stick to your program and become interest in every aspect of your company. Gilberti was good in the ring, solid charisma and was better on the mic then some bigger names. It's people like him who make the mid/undercard interesting and fun to watch while enjoying a snack (or beer) .
Agreed. He was a relief after too much NWO. If he was around now he would have a cult following also.
can't give WCW credit for trying to do
what WWF did.
over on WWF we have repoman
an eric knuckleball running around.
nobody but Disco could pull off Disco
Super Giant Ninja needs to be on this list
He was, real quick, it's the same guy that was the yeti
@@ChubbsTheCat Poor Ron Reese.
@@ChubbsTheCat And since he was still called "The Yetti" when he first started working as the SGN, that means that in WCW canon, the Dungeon of Doom hired a mummified abominable snowman that could also use ninjitsu (or that listened to the ICP).
@@tafua_a I can't see SJN and not think about all those shifty LJN video games..or their rainbow logo that Jackass stole.
@@ChubbsTheCat I made a typo anyway lol
I think why Disco worked is that not only is Glen a solid worker but he just seemed so darned earnest. He didn't seem like a guy suffering under a naff gimmick but one embracing it.
I really admire anyone that shares William Regal's philosophy of making their gimmick work so they can wrestle.
Never had an issue with Disco. He was fine during the war. Hell one of the few casualties of it.
There's just certain gimmicks where, you look back at the gimmick and think, "This shouldn't work and it isn't going to work," and they get the correct guy for the job. I agree with Jim Cornette when he says that the reasons Mick Foley, Undertaker and Curt Hennig could get away with what they did was because they were the best guys for the Mankind, Dead man and Mr. Perfect gimmicks. Just couldn't have worked with anyone else. Disco is different in that Glenn, as you guys said, just felt in earnest and dedicated himself to the character. As WB said in the video, best to be in on the joke.
Play his theme song backwards lol
He wasn't "suffering under" a gimmick he was assigned to--he came up with it and was using it in the USWA and Georgia indies way before WCW.
WCW had a bunch of bizarre characters didn't they. Disco Inferno was a gimmick that worked though up to more than one off. Hector Guerrero would have been good as Eddy and Chavo's partners.
Hector had a mini feud with Eddie, and I really liked their matches. I'd say he's one of the mmost underrated wrestlers of the 90's, and one of the main guys in my Boy Stable.
A man obsessed with disco in the 90’s is no worse than a 50’s rock n roller in the 80’s tbh.
Honky Tonk who?
The greatest Intercontinental champ
A man obsessed with disco in the 90s is no worse than a 50s greaser in the 2000s, too.
I always liked Vinnie Vegas when I was a kid. Liked it even more when many years later I heard Nash say in an interview that he based the character on Steve Martin's character, Vinny, in the movie My Blue Heaven, another thing I loved when I was a kid.
Fun Fact: Vinny from My Blue Heaven was based off of Henry Hill of Goodfellas fame.
@Rockhound6165 funnier fact, Vinnie Vegas was Henry Hill's uncle
I actually enjoyed Barry Darsow's golfer gimmick. Sure it was one of those "occupation" gimmicks but it was kind of unique. He'd always bring out a mini golf set for his opponent to try, if they got a hole in one they get "the right to wrestle" Barry, but he'd always pearl harbour them anyways. OSW Boy Stable material.
Yes! Can of coke for you!
Question ..... What Bar is Lazor-Tron?
It was a stolen gimmick that they gave to Barry, sorry.
@@korywilliamsO.G.1A stolen gimmick in wrestling?!
@@BiggieTrismegistus IKR Sounds ludicrous. lol
“It wasn’t spider man it was man spider”
-from the year Frank Reynolds ran WCW
"That's nice, desist and cease"
- an unnamed Marvel lawyer
can't fool them guy's.
even if it was the punisher they'll
still sue.
We went back to my station wagon and gave each other…
The Trash Man was the best WCW TV champion from that period.
they did this to fill up there time
slots.
I always found it odd how Big Josh wasn't especially big.
Almost turned into a reverse Little John character.
gimmick characters have existed forever and seeing disco inferno work it well proves the wrestler can make the gimmick work
How about Undertaker?
That's honestly a shitty gimmick, but clearly it worked. Disco is also another great example, I agree.
Disco would probably be super over in the indies if he was born like 15 years later
@@anonamatronExactly. How a gimmick is used and what the wrestler brings to it are way more important than the actual gimmick itself.
Lots of successful wrestlers’ gimmicks - Undertaker, Hurricane, The New Day, Val Venis, Bray Wyatt, to name a few - could’ve been on a list like this if used differently
@@anonamatronUndertaker was promoted as a star, but it was a huge turnoff for me as compared to Mean Mark Callous.
@@jimbrown5091 I never saw Mean Mark. I was watching probably just around the time the Undertaker started.. probably slightly after, and saw WWF first. I just thought Hulk Hogan was cool and the Royal Rumble VHS covers with the absolute mob of colorful wrestlers marching into the foreground made me want to see that so badly. The first one I ever rented was one of the first Survivor Series. Whatever the one with Andre the Giant's team vs. Ultimate Warrior's team was.
My parents were super against me renting that nonsense but I kept asking and asking. I'm sure I'd seen WWF tv a little bit at that point because I definitely knew who the big stars like Hogan and Andre and Ultimate Warrior were.
Mean Mark was before my time, but Undertaker was a cool villain for me as a kid.
I'll never forget the Shockmaster moment. I was watching that segment with friends and we were laughing for over an hour over it.
i always liked disco inferno. he was a fun character. that 70s dude was alright too. especially when he tried to pick up whatever girl he was interviewing on his couch and she just tried to get away from him. that part of his gimmick hasn't aged well, but it was still funny seeing him get shot down every time.
I’m a fan of the original Michael Wallstreet gimmick where he had a computer program that told him how to defeat opponents. I’d love to see a version of that nowadays where the winning strategy is always “hit your opponent with the laptop”.
A combo of armbar, chin lock, leg drop, rest hold for the win!!
Yeah, then he became a tax agent in WWF and the gimmick went to Terry Taylor, Ricky Morton, and Tommy Rich... And the three of them couldn't carry it off, even with the future Marlena(Terri Runnels as Alexandra York) as their manager...
Now you could have AI tell the wrestlers how to win.
@@BiggieTrismegistus That could be a brilliant gimmick! Imagine if their Titantron entrance video was AI generated images of them beating up legendary wrestlers and lifting non-existent titles.
The thing about Big Josh is that it wasn't necessarily the lumberjack gimmick itself that was the issue. Wrestling's had a ton of successful lumberjack gimmicks in the past, like the LeDuc brothers in the territorial days and John Nord & Scott Norton in the AWA. But they were big surly brawlers that had very 'street fight' style matches to go with their gimmicks. Matt Borne was a great wrestler and wrestled as such, which didn't really support a lumberjack gimmick.
Am I the only one that thinks The Big Show should have adopted a “Paul Bunyan” gimmick, complete with a big blue ox to escort him to the ring? Yeah? Ok, just checking.
@@epicproportionsmediaproduc6697 . Great idea.😅
Well, it WAS the Jim Herd era... Good thing he didn't think of this one, as the dancing bears were painful enough...🤣👍
I never comment on any wrestling review videos for any channel but I can’t stay silent: Disco Inferno was one of the most memorable characters of that era. He had the stage presence, charisma, and athletic ability to pull it off. I agree with you, I loved his character (even when I hated him).
It was a horrible gimmick that worked because of the wrestler.
Unpopular opinion: the undertaker gimmick is as horrible as the Dungeon of Doom. Mark made that work. No one else could have
I liked him. His gimmick was fun but not overbearing. He was a guy who liked disco music and was fine in the ring. He wasn't a wrestler where the gimmick was so over the top it took away from the wrestler. Examples include the Red Rooster, Road Block, Skinner the Alligator man, Issac Yankem to name a few.
This is probably the only wrestling channel that doesn't mindlessly dump on Disco Inferno. Hell, even MarkyD123 takes shots at "Gifted" Glenn Gilbertti (how is he "Gifted"?!)
Disco had periods when he was as over anyone else in WCW at the time. He was a great go to for WCW, stick him on, crowd perks up.
Right it's that the smarks online force narratives that anyone who didn't do all the moves and work rates somehow meant they weren't over
The same ones who kept pushing Hbk wasn't a draw during the new generation era .
I'm glad for a non smark channels like wrestling bros who can separate the truth from a talent he didn't care for and how over they are
It's very refreshing
@@Chuck_EL Nah, Disco wasn't over at all, the tiny crowds WCW had at those Tv tapings asaide.
I saw him accidentally win a battle royal because he wouldnt touch anybody because he didn't want to mess his hair up. He was hilarious at times.
@@iangreenhalgh9280was that sarcasm? Disco was over and it's not up for debate. He always got reactions and WCW sometimes ran dome shows for Nitro.
@@JH-so5kt Not up for debate? PMSL, you're trying to rewrite history. Disco was most definitely not over with many crowds, in fact, he had the wrong kind of heat often, the kind of heat where people just have no interest in watching your match .
The worst gimmick WCW has ever done was "Oklahoma" making fun of Jim Ross' Bells Palsy is a scumbag move. Worst gimmick WCW spent considerable money and time building up is Glacier.
I loved Disco Inferno. I loved him back during the Monday Night wars and I STILL love him!
I hated Glacier the most. What an intrusive gimmick just because Mortal Kombat was popular. That is never the way to write characters.
Wasn't expecting this.. Nice surprise! Love the content as always
The best/worst part about the Maestro's "feud" with James Brown is that WCW did absolutely nothing to promote that James Brown was involved. They spent a ton of money to have him just show up at a PPV unannounced, so barely anyone even knew that Brown WAS there, let alone WHY he was there, and something that probably would have gotten them a ton of PPV buys went completely wasted.
The cardboard cut out of Flair on the shockmaster segment is beyond funny
Right? Wtf were they trying to accomplish with that? 3 more seconds of Flair air time? I never understood...
@@at0micwerew0lf WCW was a law to itself. It's fantastic
I loved Roadblock all because he brought that barricade to the ring with a blinking hazard flasher on it, I also liked his finishing move where he got on the ring apron and clothesline flips inside the ring on his opponent
This definitely needs a part 2. This was a good one.
The Ding Dongs? The Ding. Dongs. You must be kidding?! I have never heard of this team, that is unreal! 😅
Dude I miss Earthquake. He seemed like such a nice guy
Near the end of his life he posted on the Wrestlecrap forums quite a bit and reminisced about some of his lame gimmicks and had fun with everyone about it all.
A pro golfer as a wrestler? What's next, a university administrator?? Oh wait...
I loved Arachnaman back in 1990 ish on WCW Worldwide! (Very late night on ITV in the UK) And 'The Medic', who was usually to be seen getting squashed by Sting 😀
19:10 Mark Curtis let those guns fly! Always entertaining to see!
I miss the days of really crappy gimmicks in wrasslin!
Yeah, now everyone is just really crappy and no fun.
Shock master is by far the BEST gimmick in sports and entertainment!
They should have doubled down. Have him fall though a prop wall with pyro as his entrance! ^_^
He fell on his f'n arse.
-Davey Boy Smith
In 2001 after Road Dogg was fired from WWF, him and his brother (Steve Armstrong) opened a wrestling school and an indy promotion (Southern Pro Wrestling) in northwest Florida. I was one of their trainees. After I completed my training, Road Dogg pitched a gimmick to me where I would wear a skeleton mask and call myself "Skeletor." Being 6'7", 200 lbs at the time, I feel this may have been a rib on my size.
I think Disco could come back with a new gimmick he was a good actor and still built great.
Proud to say that the Disco Inferno was one of my favorites at the time and the crowd goes pretty wild when he comes into the ring.
Disco Inferno is a legend
The highlight of Roadblock's career is that he had a chance to end Goldberg's undefeated streak. While Goldberg was still in his first half a dozen matches or so, Roadblock slammed him to the mat and had him dead to rights. He did not follow up with a pin cover, however, and Goldberg made a comeback and pinned him with a jackhammer a minute or two later.
I agree Disco Inferno gimmick is ridiculous on paper but Glen did it well. I loved it as a kid and played the character alot in the WCW N64 games.
I saw him accidentally win a battle royal because he didn't want to mess his hair up.
It's also worth mentioning that ''Brad Armstrong'' and ''Matt Borne'' were second generation wrestlers. 1970s nostalgia was pretty big during the 1990s, which is one of the many reasons why the ''Disco Inferno'' gimmick worked. If it hadn't been for the fact that ''Glenn Gilbertti'' was a good wrestler and had such excellent mic skills.... The gimmick would not have lasted as long as it did.
You seem to be the only one in the comments besides me to realize the truth about '70s nostalgia in the '90s, and how everybody loved it at the time.
Wow I never heard WWF made Awesome an offer in 2000. Seeing as how they didn't use him worth a damn in and after the Invasion I wonder if it would have been any different had he came earlier but imagining a competitive Awesome vs Kane or Taker match....damn.
Request: create a storyline of what could have happened if the Shockmaster’s debut went perfectly. No doubt fans would have flocked to a guy in a bedazzled storm trooper helmet.
True. Without the mess up, it would never be remembered.
I had a great experience many years ago when I got to have dinner with Barry Darsow and Bill Eadie after they'd worked a local indy show. During the late-90s they didn't speak for a few years before reconnecting, so Bill had never heard about any of Barry's WCW escapades, like Blacktop Bully, the "King of the Road" match, or "Hole In One" Darsow. I'd bring that stuff up and tell Barry I was just glad that WCW had him around on TV, and Bill would just shake his head and say "Man, I'm glad I missed all that!" 🤣 And Barry would be like "Yeah, that's when we weren't talkin' for a while," but he let me tell the stories and I could tell he got a real kick out of hearing a fan's perspective on it. And then he'd jump in with the stuff I didn't know, like him and Dustin getting fired for blading during the KotR match. Barry: "So they told us to get color, an' then they fired us for gettin' color!" Bill: "....Sounds like WCW." 🤣
Barry was cracking up when I mentioned the golfer gimmick. I told him that was the one gimmick of his I hated, and he started laughing so hard pretending to be surprised. "You HATED it?! That was my favorite gimmick of all time!" 🤣 He claimed it came about because he'd recently gotten into golf in real life and it gave him an excuse to show up to shows late and not have to get changed. "I'd just walk in and work in the stuff I had on, it was great!" Great memories, love those guys forever.
that's hilarious if true about Barry working a hobby into doing less work
@@TheImapotato He was laughing when he said it so it was probably just a joke BUT either way it was a great story well-told. That night had a lot to do with me finally deciding to try and get into wrestling so it's a night I'll always remember fondly.
@@RikkiRoxxNWS damn... well quick wit on Barrys part & good luck on your career...THC for pain, stay away from pills
@@TheImapotato Way closer to the end of the ride than the beginning but I appreciate the support! That event was around 2008 and I broke in 2009 so a lot's happened since, nothing grand but it's been fun. Some of it's up on my channel, not including stuff that's been lost to time or I otherwise don't own the rights to. Never touched a pill yet!
I don't think Rob Kellum/The Maestro gets enough credit. Solid ring worker, he made that gimmick work and the fact that he was trusted to be in a segment with the legendary James Brown says a lot about him.
There’s a guy with a Pro Golfer gimmick at a local promotion I go to. He’s legit one of my favorites. He plays a Shooter McGavin type heel with a Caddy who cheats and everything. He’s also a great wrestler to boot. The man can make the gimmick
Name?
When he wins he should shove a golf tee up his opponent's urethra and then hit a golf ball off of it.
The bears pissed themselves because theyre animals being forced into a loud arena with screaming people and theyre freaked out. That sort of s**t pisses me off, abusing animals for some tacky gimmick, some wrestling promoter wanted a few extra bucks or sell a few extra tickets so they torment some animals for it.
If Glacier is on this list I'm going to cry.
Not 'ol Frostyballs!
as for maestro i understand he actually did play the piano in those scenes for real. he wasn't just moving his fingers in time with the music being played (which actually believe it or not is just as hard if not harder) so apparently he had some piano talent
In all fairness to the Disco Inferno Gimmick, 90's America was in the full grips of 70's nostalgia, and Disco music was making a comeback in the U.S.
What I never got about That 70s Guy Mike Awesome was that WCW already HAD a 70s Guy in Disco Inferno
This should have been Episode 11 of WCW Blunder.
When they changed Alex Wright to Berlin. That was peak WCW
Alex Wright and Disco inferno were actually two of my favs in WCW. They sold their gimmicks and they were actually great wrestlers.
One of the funniest things I saw on WCW TV was the Nitro Girls doing a routine in the ring and Alex Wright wandering into the shot doing his one and only dance.
“If you were a big Ding Dongs guy or you thought the Yeti was nothing but a waste of potential…..” 😂😂😂 thanks! I needed that more than you know!!
I always liked Disco Inferno.
Glen Gilberti really sold the mess out that character & you can tell he had fun doing it.
I’m not sure about this but I heard the original idea for arachnaman was supposed to be some kind of promotion for an unmade spider man movie but marvel was in financial trouble after a failed movie attempt at Captain America, the movie was cancelled before it was even announced but someone at WCW decided to do something spider like anyway.
Loch Ness needs to be in a follow up video
Mentioning Mike Awesome, I’m still disappointed we never got an Awesome vs RVD feud. That would’ve been dope
I was a young kid who had just begun watching wrestling when Big Josh was around, and he was one of my favorites at the time. I liked him so much as a kid that I became a total Doink mark when I found out that he was the one portraying him.
Disco Inferno was funny as hell. I used to play him in the video games 😂😂😂
I'm a huge sucker for ridiculous gimmicks. I'd love to see a Yeti callback in a modern wrestling show in which a manager showed up week after week with a big old sarcophagus and teased whatever was inside. Eventually it would open to reveal "the Mum-Ay," a guy dressed in an Abominable Snowman costume. The Mum-Ay would then job out for a few weeks before being repackaged. No explanation or further reference to the character.
Arachniman reminds me more of The Shocker than spiderman.
Also Spider-man gimmick is a great idea! He beat Bone Saw!
that's just because Bone Saw wasn't quite ready
@@TheImapotato BONESAW IS READY!
I love that you have the jobber track from WCW NWO Revenge playing.
WCW was it's own worst gimmick in the end.
Eric being a mark for Hogan didn't help
Like wwf wasn’t any better in the mid 90s
Thank Russo for that
@@dwaynejpeterkin I totally agree
@@davidworden4470 Bischoff if anything Marked himself out spending millions on talent and not doing what they're supposed to with them, Bret Hart is a prime example
I actually found a signed and dedicated photograph of Kellum as Gorgeous George III from 1993 last year in a random hole-in-the-wall thrift store in North Carolina, lol. One of my coolest thrift store finds to this day.
The Maestro was my favorite as a kid, that gimmick could've worked in WWE
Yep! That or he would've been allowed to be Gorgeous George III over there.
i liked it, very Grenwich Snob Hunter Hearst Helmsley Vibes
love the n64 wcw/nwo revenge match music in the background. man that takes me back! 😅
Glacier😂😂
Man... Repo Man truly was Barry's best gimmick after Demolition.