For those of you who don't now, Goldust returned to WCW in 1999 and had several vintages where he would wear full body makeup and stand outside a child's bedroom window, the child would then touch hands via the window with Seven and his eyes turned black, signaling possesion of the soul. He was a very dark and mysterious, interesting character. Much like an Undertaker character if done correctly.
When he finally made his debut on telivision, it was done perfectly, even for WCW standards which weren't all that good at that poitn of time. He really seemed like he could have taken the company by storm with the right storyline and feud. At least I think so.
But for those of you that remember, the minute he got to the ring he cut a promo, coming out of character, shooting on the crappy gimmicks and throwing it all to trash, confusing just about everyone and their mother.
After this he left T.V for a little while and just became Dustin Rhodes, not Goldust, not Seven, no crazy gimmicks, just himself. This left me and probably a lot of others wondering, what could have been with this chracter, that was so different, so interesting.
Rhodes returned to World Championship Wrestling in 1999, filming several vignettes for a fantastical, face-painted character named Seven. These vignettes contained ominous footage of Rhodes in full makeup standing outside of a child's bedroom window. The character was dropped after Turner Standards and Practices expressed concern that this gimmick could be misinterpreted as a child abductor. Upon returning to WCW television, Rhodes removed his costume and delivered a worked shoot in which he mocked unrealistic gimmicks as well as his time as Goldust in the WWF. After turning heel upon his return, Rhodes began wrestling as "The American Nightmare" Dustin Rhodes, with his nickname a reference to his father's nickname, "The American Dream".
It was certainly an interesting gimmick concept, but it always seemed to me like it was so unique and so out there that it didn't have any growth potential. The Undertaker comparison is accurate in theory, but Taker debuted in the early 90's when whacky gimmicks were the norm; this was 1999, and even then people just weren't buying into stuff like the Seven gimmick anymore. Even if Rhodes had kept it I think it would've stifled any potential advancement. In that sense I liken it to gimmicks like Funkasaurus.
I disagree, with many of the posters. I think "dark gimmicks" that are well played out can work regardless of era. Anyone in their right mind could take some notes from Kevin Sullivan in Florida. The promblem here had more to do with Rhodes than wih the gimmick itself.
Seven.
Seven.
