There are tons of stock gimmicks in wrestling. There are at least two Doinks in each census region of the U.S. At least one of those two Doinks will wrestle this weekend. One of my favorite wrestling gimmicks is the simple but somewhat problematic wild Samoan or wild savage.
Wrestling Gimmicks and The Suspension of Belief
This is a hold-over from the carny days where you usually had a wrestler of color or a tanned white wrestler with menacing, wild features.
Think of the Italian-American wrestlers and actors who played Native Americans. A booker would look at them and think “With those features, I could bill you as a war chief. Put on this headdress and get out there Chief.”
Or hey, what about an Italian-American wrestler playing an Arab-American wrestler in the 2000s?
Also, as an unwritten booking rule, a booker can make anyone anything. There’s always that high chance that a particular gimmick won’t take because of a wrestler’s race.
For example, Black, Latino, and Samoans have always ran the gangsta gimmick extremely well. From WWE to the local outlaw mudshows you can find one of us running the gimmick.
Or, if a wrestler is Native American, they are usually a Proud Native American and it’s 99-percent likely they’re a face. Hundreds of gimmicks, a new century and you still see the same gimmick since before Chief Jay Strongbow and Wahoo McDaniel.
The suspension of belief from the crowd isn’t stretched until a wrestler fails to put in the minimum amount of effort and acting to make it work.
It’s why Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge had to hustle to make Public Enemy work while the Gangstas came into ECW with the same gimmick and it was like “Yeah, I can see these two being gangstas from South Central.”
The Wild Samoan in Wrestling
That’s why I love the wild Samoan gimmick. It’s simple but also problematic because it’s always been most successful with Samoan wrestlers and before that Black wrestlers.
If you’re critical of any art or sport you enjoy, you’re going to ask “Why was that?” or “Why is this still effective?”
To a degree, it’s because generations in a wrestling family or other wrestlers of the same ethnic background have been successful with the gimmick. It could also be that the gimmick isn’t hard to pull off.
Whether built like Jimmy Snuka or like Rikishi, with a Samoan Drop, a Splash, a Diving Headbutt, and some at least decent brawling the wild Samoan gimmick can be run successfully—with the undefeated forehead.
We will never run out of Wild Samoans…or Samoan gangstas.
Why It Works Perfectly
Even one else dropped the wild savage gimmick for the most part because of the negative connotation that came with it before wrestling. I mean you still have a few like Kongo Kong. Beyond that, you have a couple of wild men in wrestling.
However, that’s where my love for the wild Samoan gimmick comes from. I like things that work and are hard to mess up. The gimmick is so simple in what is needed that it’s hard to mess it up and you don’t have to be great in-ring to run it.
Hell, most of the time a wrestler can even have someone speak for them so a wrestler could also suck on the mic and the gimmick works. Is this the ultimate wrestling gimmick? I don’t believe so.
Is it the most bulletproof? It’s definitely the closest thing to bulletproof for a wrestling gimmick. There’s more upside than anything with the role.
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