10 Gimmicks That Could Only Exist During The 90's

The 90's man what a time. As a 90's kid I look back at that decade with fondness, such a simpler time but honestly anytime you didn't have to worry about bills and other adult things is a simple time. The 90's had a lot of good things and bad things to occur in that decade. The same rings true for events in the world of wrestling.

From cartoonish characters to pioneers of the crash TV energy of the attitude era. Wrestling had some wild persona's during the 90's. Over twenty years later looking at some gimmicks, good or bad, love or hate them. They could only exist in the 90's, here are the top ten gimmicks that could only exist during that time.

10. OZ

This one is honestly sad and should have never happened. A young Kevin Nash was given the role of OZ based on the Wizard of OZ book. Legend has it Turner Broadcasting having recently acquired the TV rights to The Wizard Of OZ movie (Do they still air it every Thanksgiving by the way?). In a cross-promotion effort, someone decided a wrestler based of that franchise was a good idea. It didn't last long and is a reminder of the cartoonish and silly ideas that existed in the world of wrestling back then. 

9. The Oddities 

During the Attitude era WWF debuted some side show freaks known as the Oddities. Rumor has it, the group was inspired by Howard Stern's Wack Pack.

Every male member in the group was insanely tall. Golga wore a mask that insinuated he was deformed and he carried a Cartman doll around. Which around that time in Pop Culture it was WWF, South Park, and Jerry Springer in no particular order.

Luna Vachon was their valet, for a small length of time they were accompanied by Sable and occasionally rap duo Insane Clown Possee would rap their entrance to the ring.

The group served no real purpose other than to be presented as freaks different from the rest of the roster.

8. Disco Inferno

Nostalgia is a very powerful tool, I will admit I am a very nostalgic person and love reminders of my childhood from the 90's and early 2000's. Nostalgia also is a 20 year cycle, right now we are still riding the tail end of the 90's nostalgia wave, with the 2000's nostalgia slowly creeping up. Back in the mid-late 90's, a wrestler by the name of Disco Inferno started appearing on WCW TV.

Complete with bell bottoms, a disco ball above the ring for his entrance, and John Travolta "Saturday Night Fever"dance moves. Disco Inferno was a character for the 70's inspired wave occuring at that time. Since nostalgia operates in cycles and is usually dependent on what generation is coming into their own at that time, the disco dancing gimmick was one tailor made for the 90's. 

7. Issac Yankem D.D.S.

Honestly this one could be filled in by any mid-90's "occupation" wrestler in the WWF. During that time they had a tax collector, hockey player, trash collector, and race car driver as occupational gimmicks. Issac Yankem makes the list played by the future Kane. His vignettes and the gimmick were so cartoonish and over the top. It was made just for the 90's and would not work in any other era 

6. 3 Count

This one I debated about since the group really took in 2000, but they debuted in 1999 so here we are.

In the late 90's the pop music scene was overrun with boy bands. You had the heavy hitters N'Sync and Backstreet Boys, followed by 98 degrees. Then there was a host of copycat boy bands all throughout the industry. Boy Bands were so popular MTV even had an original movie and TV series about a fictional boy band called 2Gether . 

Jimmy Hart decided to come up with a pastiche of the Boy Band craze 3 Count. Exciting young wrestlers Shannon Moore, Shane Helms, and Evan Karagis were assigned the duties of lip synching and pretending they could dance. They even had two theme songs "Can't Get You Out Of My Heart" and "Dance With 3 Count".  In hindsight it actually was a genius move creating the boy band group, but it definitely was a product of it's time. For that I think if the boy brand craze ever returns it won't be anywhere the level it was in the late 90's.

5. Glacier

The legend of Glacier is well explained by this point. Seeing the popularity and craze of Mortal Kombat and similiar video games, Eric Bischoff decided to create aka rip-off that franchise with his own creations. Enter The Blood Runs Cold angle, Glacier (clearly a Sub-Zero ripoff) and later his partner Ernest "The Cat" Miller frequently faced off against Wrath and Mortis led by James Vandenberg. 

A lot of hype went into Glacier, from his vignettes to his entrance complete with blue lights and falling snow. Unfortunately that's where it all stopped, there was no real backstory to Glacier, he wasn't a good talker, and just a OK wrestler. The Mortal Kombat craze died down, even though the video game franchise is still beloved to this day. Companies today are fine with wrestlers paying homage via gear but a clear video game ripoff like Glacier is one of a bygone era.

4. Raven

The 90's was grunge and grunge was the 90's. No one in wrestling was more grunge than one Raven. Always sully and brooding, Raven's entirw mission was to rage against the machine basically. 

His promos always bought up society ills or other injustices that affected him. His Raven's Rules matches particularly in WCW could be perceived as going against the grain simply because they were hardcore matches and that was not a WCW staple at the time he initially joined.

The Raven character was the epitome of a 90's Gen X adult floating by his own rules to get back at the system however he saw fit.

3. D-Generation X

D-Generation X was basically grown man stuck in teenage/young college adult mindsets, and what a hell of a ride it was. They were crass and juvenile, but did not give a damn as they were anti-authority at all cost. They got probably an insane amount of kids suspended doing their crotch chops and yelling "suck it", but they are legends for a reason. That crassness is what the 90's was all about, why do you think Jerry Springer was so popular?

Their spoof of Presidential state of the union addresses, to their sexual innuendos. The pranks they played on competition. They played by their own rules and won lots of gold and fan adoration along the way. Legends of the attitude era, they represented 90's culture and mindset which along with Stone Cold was screw authority. It's a reason they are still loved 25 years after their inception.

2. The Godfather

Now that I'm older and I go back and watch old Raw's, it's apparent The Godfather always appeared in the 2nd hour and for good reason. Hopefully most impressionable kids may be in bed at that point (I sure wasnt), and the Ho Train and talk of 4:20 and rolling a phat one could be talked about freely.

Other than maybe the mid 2000s which a fella by the name of Magic Don Juan was considered a pop culture icon. The mythical art of pimping and being a pimp was at it's heights in the late 90's. Complete with a cane and bowl bat, The Godfather was the personification of a pimp. His weekly collections of Ho's looking back were hit or miss, but that's beside the point. No matter how edgy companies try to be now, none of them will touch a wrestling pimp.

1. Val Venis 

This one is pretty straight forward during the Crash TV style of the Attitude era, comes a former porn star known as Val Venis. With a top rope splash known as "The Money Shot", which completely as it should have went over my preteen/teenager head. Val Venis is also famous for the angle of getting his privates "chopped" off for sleeping with Miss Yamaguchi-San the wife of the manager of Kai en Tai.

With his sexual innuendos, vignettes with famous porn stars like Jenna Jameson and sensual theme music. Time's have changed and today's world just may not accept the gimmick of a porn star wrestler, it is the epitome of a gimmick that could only exist in the 90's.