There’s an old Japanese proverb that says “the nail that sticks out gets hammered”. When you think about it, it’s really true. Even to this day in our evolved society, we are more prone mock those who are noticeably different than us. We make fun of the guy with weird hair and weird glasses who watches weird wrestling shows (which is usually me : P ).

But those who mock behind our backs forget to notice one thing – they are talking ABOUT US. They noticed us. We made a impact. It’s because we are different. Hate on me all you want, but words cannot express how much I’d rather be strange than boring. I’m happy being who I am.

Let me bring that personal and philosophical rant back to the world of wrestling. As a fan and analyst, I watch new gimmicks come and go. You know what the most successful ones are? The ones we haven’t seen before. The strange ones. The Funkasauruses of the world. Because we talk about them. Who wasn’t buzzing, positively or negatively, about Brodus Clay’s re-debut the day after it happened? Who didn’t discuss Joey Ryan’s pervasive nature the night after his gut check match?

While the shelf-life of these outlandish personas is a whole other debate, there’s no doubt that they may be the best way to introduce someone to a new audience. Not only that, but one major reason we watch wrestling is for the characters.They keep us excited, interested, and at times annoyed. Which is a lot better than being just plain bored for a few hours. So with that being said, I’m going to add a little bit to that old Japanese proverb: “The nail that sticks out gets hammered. But if no nails were hammered, we would never have a house.”

-Tom Lahdnuh

Feel free to reach out on Twitter to discuss some strange gimmicks or anything else pro wrestling (https://twitter.com/sswtom).

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