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Wrestling and gambling have always had a history together. AEW currently uses its casino ladder match as one of its main events. Yet before this, WWE had their own RAW roulette bringing out elements of chance to pair up matches between the roster. With this link, it stands to reason that many stars have used gambling and its imagery as a way to win over the fans.
Some may have been forgotten, while others went on to great things. Below are our top three pro wrestlers who used gambling as their gimmick.
These days, gambling is easily accessible. Due to healthy bonuses, you can log in to an online casino wherever you are in the world and play for very little deposit. Online gambling is just becoming available in many US states and Europe, you can use services like Bonusfinder Denmark to find the best offers. This allows you peace of mind when choosing the right one. But this transparency was not always the case.
Gambling and casinos were not viewed like this in the past, and the perception of those taking part was that casino goers were all high-rolling risk-takers. This attitude led to Jeffrey Gann taking up the moniker of Jeff Gamble when he signed for WCW in 1990. Training at the infamous Power Plant, he then set about a series of matches as a jobber.
A short stint in the USWA was then undertaken to build upon his character, and he returned to WCW. By now, he had a fully formed gimmick that would see him pull a set of playing cards from his jacket and parade them to the audience as he walked out. His first win was to Scott Stud, and he did get a title shot against Jim Duggan but lost. Apart from this, he would be an enhancement talent for the company before he departed in 1999.
Kevin Nash is one of the greatest wrestlers of the attitude era. It would not have even taken place without him. Yet before fame called, Nash had a run of terrible gimmicks in his first stint with WCW. A punk and a wizard were two of them before he changed to Vinnie Vegas.
Vegas further enhanced this look by joining a stable known as ‘The Diamond Mine’ with Diamond Dallas Page, later changing to a tag team known as ‘The Vegas Connection.' WCW did not know what to do with him at this point, and luckily in 1993, he departed for bigger and better things in WWE.
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Aces and Eights were one of the most influential stables in TNA wrestling. A biker gang, they took their name from the famous poker hand. Often known as the dead man's hand, it would be incorporated into their gimmick, and the cards were used as a warning before they would attack other wrestlers.
They originally arrived wearing masks in 2012, going straight after the big names of Hulk Hogan and Sting. They would then go on a rampage, setting their sights on the biggest stars, both face and heel. A dominant factor in the company's storylines, they would play a similar role to that which NWO did in WCW, with their roster swelling as the years went on. Over the years, they had a host of top-class talent on their books, such as Devon, Tazz, Bully Ray, and Mr. Anderson.
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