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- Gorgeous George Created the Over-The-Top Wrestling Persona
- Gorgeous George defined the colorful heel in wrestling
There are several names of professional wrestlers that remain integral to the success of the business today. If it weren’t for names like Bruno Sammartino and Hulk Hogan, WWE could never have grown to the levels it did when Vince McMahon helped dominate the world of professional wrestling. However, for men like Hulk Hogan and superstar Billy Graham before him, there was one name in professional wrestling that paved the way for the entertainment aspects of World Wrestling Entertainment.
George Wagner was born in 1915 in Butte, Nebraska. The small town in the middle of the corn country only had 326 people living in it according to the 2010 census. Yet out of that small community came one of the biggest personalities in professional wrestling history. When Wagner joined the world of professional wrestling, he eventually became the superstar known as Gorgeous George. Everyone from Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair to Ultimate Warrior and “Macho Man” Randy Savage owe his entire career to the paths George walked during his 30-year career.
Gorgeous George Created the Over-The-Top Wrestling Persona
George Wagner dropped out of high school when he was 14 years old and began his career as a carnival wrestler. Cutting teeth on the carnival circuit slammed into the fact that wrestlers had to suck fans in and make them care. While some wrestlers like Lou Thesz accomplished this by being technically proficient, George took a different path. He started out with dark hair and was a normal guy fighting wrestling masters and giants, but he knew he needed something more. It was then that he met with his wife and came up with the concept of Gorgeous George.
Knowing the attitudes of wrestling fans in the 1940s, Wagner knew he could create a personality they’d hate to see. Loosely basing his character on that of Wilbur Finran, an Ohio native turned snobbish character named Lord Patrick Lansdowne, George went a step further. He bleached his hair blonde and came to the ring in fancy robes, acting snobbish and cocky as he toured an area of the country known for blue-blooded working men and women. He was an instant heel.
Gorgeous George defined the colorful heel in wrestling
Gorgeous George even incorporated his real life into his character, something that clearly rubbed off on men like “Nature Boy” Ric Flair. He enlisted in the army, but never ended up serving. Whenever his time came, the constant postponements kept him at home. This made many fans mad at George and hated him even more. This led him to work more on his more effeminate and cowardly actions in the ring, and fans began booing this man who wouldn’t fight unless he had cheated to gain an advantage.
That led to the origins of televised wrestling. By this time, Wagner had perfected his Gorgeous George trick, and it was the perfect time to go on TV. He went to big cities like Chicago and Los Angeles and started working for promoters with TV shows in major markets. Watching bored guys roll around a ring trading wrestling props wasn’t any more exciting in the 1960s than it is now. Fans needed a reason to invest in fighters. Thanks to the over-the-top, cocky badass persona of him with bleached blonde hair and colorful robes, Gorgeous George gave American wrestling fans someone they could hate. That made the heroes cheer for him even more. George even mastered self-promotion, informing the media about where he could be, and then going to a beauty salon. He used the music “Pomp and Circumstance” to get him into the ring, decades before “Macho Man” Randy Savage used it as his own entrance song.
It’s easy to believe that professional wrestling wouldn’t have remained a mainstay on television if it wasn’t for Gorgeous George. Other wrestlers adopted similar personas to keep up with him. He won several titles throughout his career, including two world championships, but having titles didn’t matter. He was one of the highest paid athletes in the world, earning even more than baseball and football players at the time. And then he was gone too soon. Gorgeous George died when he was 48 after a heart attack. However, his legacy lives on. Men like Muhammad Ali clearly took influence from what Gorgeous George did before him. In WWE, the colorful characters and entertaining TV shows wouldn’t exist if George hadn’t proven all those years ago that he was the path to the hearts of the fans.