Honestly, a guy coming to the ring with a snake could have been quickly forgotten if Robert's wasnt the amazing story teller and character he was. Most evil man in PW, and it possibly is one of the greatest overall gimmicks ever, in fact the snake in the bag was ultimately an afterthought after all the promos and underhanded way of thinking, the warped view that seemed oddly more in line with reality and survival of the fittest. Took the right guy to pull all of it off.
I look at a guy like Aleister Black today, and I know the promos are scripted, but if not for the awesome entrance and in ring work, a guy like Black looks like a pussycat with these weird promos and knock on my door shit. People can day what they want about Bray, and the Fiend costume is stupid, but he has done good work with the Firefly Funhouse bits and makes a guys who SHOULD be terrifying (Black) look like a pussycat primarily because the ability to cut a real and devoid of any sanity type of promo really makes the difference.
I never got how the evil and supernatural gimmicks got over, but Robert's was destined to be over as anyone in business, and if you saw all of them on the same show watching a wrestling program for first time in your life, no promos just entrance and matches, youd think guys like Taker and Black and Wyatt were fucking monsters and Robert's a guy with a snake for some reason.
In AEW 75% of roster is some evil, mentally depraved, or supernatural gimmick, kinda starting to look a little weird tbh, and now coincidentally you have Robert's introducing his client who is the dark side coming to AEW, and some exalted one who is gonna lead the dark order who lost all heat imo and honestly had huge spots as a tag team an now just play the dirty cheater roles to look more evil when they look like idiots.
I agree with Mankind, too. Should have been a short lived gimmick, went much further.
I never got the Dudleys, but enjoyed them none the less, the new age outlaws was terrible but they went far, RVD came off like a JCVD knockoff on drugs but look where he got... no idea why Goldberg was so over, but the guys they tried the same with weren't. Goldberg not even real, beat up by Jericho and manhandled by Regal who misunderstood a direction to make their match close affair...
Razor Ramon too, I mean... as far as I can tell his gimmick was thug/coke dealer/criminal, but for some reason competing professionally in tights for the prestige of being best. Another example of a dude who made it work and work well.
The current crop of wrestling talent around the globe is outstanding, the inring work is so evolved, but what lacks in wwe is the power of the promo, what lacks in aew is a little of that and a serious imbalance with the roster and the gimmicks, starting to look like a halloween party, and NJWP seeming like only place where anything is sacred, although AEW still young, just too many WCW like pitfalls imo.
