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WWE stars like Mark Henry, Chris Jericho, The Miz and more who lived their gimmicks.
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00:00I don't mean to alarm anybody, so calm down with this revelation, but if you saw me in the real
00:05world and you saw me in real life, I would still be bored. Because even though I have made this
00:11my gimmick, I am also living it, which very handily ties into today's list. Because hello,
00:16my name is Simon from WhatCulture. Please hit that subscribe button, otherwise somewhere a puppy
00:21dies. That's not true at all. I massively regret saying it. I am so, so sorry. This is 10 ways
00:26wrestlers prove their gimmicks outside of WWE. Number 10, Ric Flair literally lives his gimmick.
00:33I mean, go and read his book, listen to any of his friends, or just go and hear any interview
00:37Ric Flair has ever done. This whole jet flying, limousine riding thingamajig that he's been doing
00:42for the past, I don't know, 78 million years. That's just Ric Flair. He flubbing loves to pie.
00:48That means all the money and all the traveling and all the booze directly ties into what he was
00:53showing you when he was being a professional wrestler. And he's still doing it today,
00:58even though he has passed 70. And look, each to their own. It's his life. And he should be able
01:03to do whatever the hell he wants. My word, it can be a little bit scary. His peers definitely
01:08confirmed this too, because some people were like, look, I can't go out with the nature boy,
01:12because the next day I'll be lying in my bed going, oh, I'll never be able to move again.
01:16Whereas Ric Flair would get up at the crack of dawn, and he'd be on round 98. And this definitely did cross a
01:22line. We've made that more than aware recently. But when we are talking about gimmicks,
01:27there is no difference between Ric Flair, the performer, Ric Flair, the human being.
01:32Number nine, DDP is really positive. So this is kind of the same as Ric Flair,
01:36but going off in a totally different direction. Because I have had the pleasure of interviewing
01:40Diamond Dallas Page and go and talk to anybody else that has also sat down and done this.
01:45You can schedule in 20 minutes and one hour later, you'll still be having a chat.
01:50DDP is just the best. Dallas is just ridiculously positive about everything,
01:54which also ties into his DDP-wide business, which of course is also reflective of the gimmick
02:00that WWE gave him where he would smile and basically became a motivational speaker.
02:06What does he do outside of the ring? He gives motivational speeches.
02:10It's kind of wonderful, really, because he does practice exactly what he preaches.
02:14And think of the amount of people he has gone out of his way to help.
02:18I don't care, man. We don't love DDP enough. Everybody take your hearts and send it his way.
02:24Number eight, JBL is a financial expert. Mostly because John Bradshaw Layfield is really good
02:30with money. Amazingly, this happened before WWE did anything with JBL too. Because in 2003,
02:37Bradshaw bought out a book that was like, oh man, you want to get rich? Well, I know how to do it.
02:41Had a better title than that. You can look it up on Google right now.
02:44And obviously this made its way onto the desk of Vincent Kennedy, a man who said,
02:48ha ha, I've got an idea. This is why all of a sudden the beer swilling APA beating up warrior
02:54became the smart dressed John Bradshaw Layfield and look fair play to him. He did turn heel
03:00and just go watch anything from the mid 2000s. He got some serious heat.
03:03We got some million dollar man thrown in there for good measure. But the real genius here
03:07is that Bradshaw was still going on financial programs on Fox during this.
03:12So you could tune into SmackDown and go, oh yeah, what does he know? And then go over
03:16there and say, oh, well, he actually knows quite a lot. This made the character even easier to hate
03:20as well because you knew he was loaded. And that's just what we do as human beings. Just like,
03:25I would like your money. And as I don't have it, boo. Number seven, The Ultimate Warrior is just
03:31The Ultimate Warrior. Who knows which way around this went, but Jim Helwig definitely became the
03:35warrior and the warrior definitely became Jim Helwig. I mean, after a while, he even legally
03:40changed his name to warrior, which meant if he ever became like a HR assistant, you'd have to walk
03:46into the office in the morning and go, hi, warrior. He'd go, hello. And it'd be weird.
03:51It also led him to do a bunch of speeches about destructicity and the power of the spirit.
03:56And if you've ever seen an Ultimate Warrior promo, you know, this is the kind of flubbins he used
04:00to come out with. I mean, there was something captivating about it, which is why he did become
04:03the WWE champion. And as we do know now, a lot of the things he did say were way too controversial
04:09and should never come out of anybody's mouth. I do think that one of the reasons he was able
04:13to climb the mountain, though, is because he was essentially one of the same. I mean,
04:17when he was saying Hulk Hogan aliens are going to come and get you, nobody really knew what was
04:22happening. But he just believed it so damn much. You kind of did too. So really, we started to blur
04:27the lines between what was real and what was not real. And that included his own death,
04:32which he somehow predicted 24 hours before the fact. So he was a very interesting guy,
04:38was warrior. But once again, probably why it clicked. Number six, the Miz returns to reality TV.
04:45So this must have been somewhat satisfying because after conquering the world of reality TV
04:49in order to become a professional wrestler and a WWE superstar, which he did very well,
04:54the Miz then went back to reality TV as the massive famous person he always wanted to be.
05:00That sounds like success to me, especially because when he did first walk into a WWE locker
05:05room, a lot of the roster was like, I don't want to work with that guy. He shouldn't be here
05:10because they didn't like his way in. And what did the Miz do? He took this all on the chin.
05:14He overcame it, had an incredible WWE career to the point people at the USA Network,
05:20the Heirs Raw went, hey, Miz and your wife, Maryse, would you like a reality TV show? And of
05:26course he said yes. It's not like he's part of some ensemble cast. The title is literally
05:30Miz and Mrs. But again, all you got to do is go listen to anybody else that has worked with the
05:37Miz and Mike Mizanin. He's basically the exact same person you've seen on TV. You cannot fault him
05:43though because he worked his ass off and you love to see it. Five, Ken Shamrock wants MMA competition.
05:50When Ken Shamrock joined the then WWF in 1997, the UFC wasn't the entity it is today. In fact,
05:57that's one of the reasons Kenny did come across. He wanted to get paid. Everyone knew how best to
06:01present him though, hence why he was dubbed the world's dangerous man because he had literally fought
06:06people in a cage and beaten them to a bloody pulp. When he came out all like, you're like,
06:12guys crazy. Problem was, this itch never left. And when Ken Shamrock did leave the WWE in 1999,
06:18after a very underrated run, he decided to prepare to return to MMA, which he did in 2000.
06:25He and Shorty got himself booked in a pride fight as critics told him, well, you're too old to do this.
06:30And afterwards, he went on to have a pretty good second run. Now look, did he win every single one of
06:35his fights? Of course he did not. But this completely backed up the Ken Shamrock we had
06:40seen in World Wrestling Federation. He wanted some competition and to tap people out with ankle
06:46locks. He was going to do it no matter what. He soon returned to TNA as well. And all of this helped
06:51even more because it was like, oh my gosh, that guy may actually kill someone. I still kind of feel
06:58that way now. Number four, CM Punk takes aim at WWE. Obviously, I mean, just go and listen to any of
07:04the stories that CM Punk wants to tell about the WWE. And really, the big takeaway is thank
07:09goodness he got out of there when he did, because it was the best for his mental and the best for
07:13his physical health. We all know that his persona before he left, though, was that he was anti the
07:18company. And this is basically carried on in his real life and for good reason. I mean, never forget,
07:23he was given his walking papers on the same day as his wedding. While WWE has said this was a
07:30coincidence, well, I'll just leave the information with you. This is why when he did pop up on WWE
07:36backstage, everyone was like, well, how the flub is this happening? Although Punk was very quick to
07:41tell us that one, the tab was being picked up by Fox and also two, that he wasn't going to go hold
07:47back. And actually, to be fair to him, he was very balanced on the show. But I tell you, when he didn't
07:52like something, shots fired. Number three, Brock Lesnar dominates the UFC. From day one, WWE has told us
07:59Brock Lesnar is a prime athlete and whatever sport Brock Lesnar wants to go into, he would
08:04absolutely destroy. So after a few years of being on the top of the card, he did decide to leave
08:09pro wrestling. And what did he do? He went to UFC and he became the flipping world heavyweight champion.
08:14As soon as he had defeated Randy Couture, you kind of knew eventually he would go back to sports
08:18entertainment. And when he did, good grief. This character was already written way back in 2002.
08:24It's just like, do you remember Brock Lesnar? Well, he went out and he beat some people up to
08:29real. So now he is basically our end of level boss. I mean, there is a reason he was chosen as the dude
08:35to end the Undertaker streak, because everybody can look at him and say, well, I totally believe that
08:39dude is real. I mean, he has just been such a successful gimmick. And I've said it before,
08:43and I'll say it again, to the point I truly believe Brock Lesnar to be one of the best wrestlers
08:49ever. That's right. Go get mad in the comments. Number two, Mark Henry is a strong man. When Mark
08:54Henry signed a lucrative developmental deal in 1996, he was pegged for good things.
09:00Because of course he was. Look at the man. He is absolutely ginormous. As we know, that didn't
09:05click as soon as some people had hoped. Although to be fair, his tag team with D'Lo Brown is vastly
09:09underrated. And there were rumors in 2002 that Vince McMahon had enough and was actually thinking
09:15of letting Mark Henry go until reality stepped into play. That same year though, Henry entered
09:20the Arnold Strongman classic and good grief. He was absolutely ridiculous. Especially if you were
09:25a wrestling fan and you tuned into this, you'd be like, oh my gosh, that's Mark Henry. And he is
09:30throwing around a log like it's a flipping pillow. I mean, you can see this kind of stuff on YouTube
09:34and it will blow your mind. And when this information has ever got back to Vince McMahon,
09:38he was like, oh man, well, we better hold on to Mark for a while and see what we can do. And of
09:43course, a few years after this, we got the legendary Hall of Pain run. So this was absolutely
09:49the right decision. It also goes to show too, that you don't have to be a wrestling savant
09:53right out the blocks. Sometimes we just have to be patient because goodness is around the
09:58corner. Number one, Chris Jericho is a rock star. When Chris Jericho started calling himself
10:02a rock star in the late nineties, it made perfect sense. I mean, not only did he wear his inspirations
10:07on his sleeve, but go and look at that haircut. I mean, I don't care what you say. That is pure
10:12eighties metal. This then continued when he decided to start a cover band called Fozzy that
10:16originally was kind of a comedy group. When all of a sudden one day he woke up and said,
10:21well, we do have a fivesome here. I like music. Why don't we write our own? This is when they
10:26became a real band to use a terrible, terrible term. And look where they are today. Not only does
10:32Chris Jericho tour the world playing his own songs, but he even walks to the ring to his own
10:38theme music. I mean, I don't care who you are. That is living a dream. This crossover is well
10:41known now, no matter what gimmick Chris Jericho has portraying. This has always been at the core
10:46of all of them, which could be why he's had the crazy longevity that he continues to have.
10:52Not many other wrestlers that prove their gimmicks outside of WWE. Make sure you let us know in the
10:56comments below and don't forget to like the video, share the video and subscribe. Then head over to
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11:03We have a ton of other videos, a literal ton, if we can weigh them, which we can't go and watch one.
11:10My name is Simon for WhatCulture. Thank you for joining me as always. I appreciate you and I
11:13appreciate your time and I will see you soon.
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