Friday, March 29, 2024
NewsSimon Gotch On Why The Vaudevillains Did Not Work On The Main...

Simon Gotch On Why The Vaudevillains Did Not Work On The Main Roster, Who Created The Character, More

3,481 views

Former WWE superstar Simon Gotch was a recent guest on Vince Russo’s “The Brand”  where they discussed numerous topics including why The Vaudevillains gimmick did not succeed on the main roster. You can listen to the full podcast here:

Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

Who Was Most Responsible For Simon Gotch’s Character:

“It was really a group effort honestly. Dusty obviously had a lot to do with it. Part of the ‘Communication Skills’ class that Dusty lead us with, well the goal was you had to pop Dusty if you can make Dusty laugh or smile. Me and Bull Dempsey did a promo one time, we actually did a silent movie. We did the whole bit where I pull out a sledgehammer, he pulls out a fairly larger sledgehammer, we do the whole thing and ultimately the whole promo built, we did around 4 or 5 of them where Bull is shaking his finger at me like he’s mad at me and I point to the sky, he looks at the sky and I put him in a choke hold. So he goes out and I try and grab his body out of the way, but I can’t so I grab a chair and sit on top of him and tip-toed out. The whole idea was to get Dusty to laugh. The entrance came up was Triple H’s idea. The day we debuted on TV, and right after WrestleMania the following year, Triple H told us that we would be a team now. We literally came up with our entrance the same day we debuted.”

On Why The Vaudevillains Didn’t Work On The Main Roster:

“I think a lot of it is when you go from NXT to the WWE it all just depends on how you are integrated into the system. Sometimes you are woven in well and other times it doesn’t work. There are some guys it works well with, like look at Baron Corbin for example. They did the whole thing with him winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, who wasn’t even one of the announced guys, he was just a big guy who was in there, so when he wins the thing, he’s a name already. Similarly look at Apollo Crews, he’s being used in a full capacity at the time or not, you look at him and know that he is going to be a big star. He’s in great shape, super athletic, can work like a cruiserweight at 250 lbs, which not a lot of people can do. I do feel that we needed a little more explanation but at the same time, it’s like, well, we are kind of off and running. You can’t undo something; once you start with what you are given you work with it. They told us that, look, you are called up and have done everything you can in NXT and we want to call you up to the main roster and you will just have to work with it. With the example of Nakamura, who just debuted on SmackDown. You didn’t have to do vignettes with Shinsuke, but immediately once he goes out you are drawn to his personality. He has all this energy when he is moving that you can put him out there and the audience will be drawn to right away. There are some guys where they are a little more cerebral where, just like us, you needed a little more thought into what you are given, so you just work with what they give you and you go with it. Like I said about the call-ups, sometimes you are in the position because they need you. They need a heel team for the New Day to work with, we have the Vaudevillains coming up, okay great, how do we get them there? Well, we have to do this because we have to get them up against the New Day by this point. It’s one of those things where you have to put it together after you figure out what they are going to do with you, so you have to figure out how you are going to go from A to B you just have to fill it in.”