Creativity Block

I am currently reading the book The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heels, in the introduction an excerpt from a Greg Gagne interview was inserted. He tells the complete truth of the development of new characters from WWE Creative. Last year, Gagne was given a job as a trainer/agent for World Wrestling Entertainment. An agent's job is to provide advice, give pointers, train, and develop new talent. Gagne claimed that he was told by Stephanie McMahon, heiress to the company and head of the Creative Department, to make some new characters out of the young talent in the WWE training territories. He was shocked by the order because he felt that a young aspiring talent shouldn't be told to do this that, but rather they should use the color of their own character that they were born with. For example, he was particularly shocked when WWE Creative ordered to make Paul Birchall, who had already once been a regular on Smackdown, to take on a pirate persona. He and his colleagues were put in the position to send Birchall form Ohio Valley Wrestling, a developmental territory, to WWE as a full-fledged scallywag. Not long after being promoted to Smackdown, the character was deemed a failure and he was sent back down. Gagne's point of view is that WWE's young talent is often fired or demoted because their given persona doesn't work out with audiences. He believes faith is lost in the wrestler, but the blame is wrongly placed on them. The writers should be blamed as well as Stephanie McMahon for such absurd ideas. It has taken Birchall nearly two years to work his way back up to the big leagues after the sea-savvy character was scraped. That two years could have been added on to his career which had a very bright future. He had a short run in 2005 in WWE as a British heel which is what he returns as this year. It turns out in real-life he is really British and feels comfortable as a heel. So in reality, WWE shouldn't shy to far from a wrestler's real-life personality for their in-ring personality. A pirate doesn't impress the fans. Neither does a garbage man, a dentist, or a striking baseball player (all former WWE characters.) When these characters are written into T.V. today, WWE returns to the way it was in the early-90s, writing in awful gimmicks and boring angles. The period in which gimmicks were the core of the roster in WWE, 1993-1996, was the worst period for WWE financially. Don't people learn from the past? All this is driving at is there is no reason for senseless gimmicks. Take The Rock for example. He is arguably the most famous WWE star in history. His first character in the business was he wouldn't constantly smile under the name of Rocky Maivia. After a while, the gimmick was getting booed by fans even though he was a face. He quickly realized reactions and made WWE aware of his desire to be himself. Once he made the change, he was an instant success. The moral to the story is WWE and wrestling companies all over the country, more times than not, reality trumps fantasy.