Line #40 Wrestling/GeorgeWagner


1	[[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gorgeousgeorge_2066.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Get your filthy hands off me!"''
4	-->-- '''Gorgeous George'''
5
6	''The'' FountainOfExpies in ProfessionalWrestling.
7
8	George Raymond Wagner (March 24, 1915 – December 26, 1963) was an American {{Professional Wrestl\|ing}}er under the name Gorgeous George. Trained by Farmer Burns, he started his career in 1932 on the carnivals circuit under his own name. He was inspired to develop a flamboyant image by reading an article in ''Vanity Magazine'' about the wrestler Lord Patrick Lansdowne who would come to the ring wearing a velvet robe accompanied by two valets. He started dressing like that and [[LineOfSightName heard some women in the crowd call him "gorgeous."]] He took it and ran with it, creating the first truly great [[TheGimmick gimmick]] in pro wrestling, one of the the first gimmicks that wasn't a generic "athlete," a farmer or a ForeignWrestlingHeel. He helped sell a lot of televisions in that industry's early years. As for his in-ring achievements, he was a 1x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/newengland/awa/ma-awa-h.html AWA (Boston) World Heavyweight Champion]], a multiple-time [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/pnw/wac/pc-lh.html Pacific Coast (Portland) Light Heavyweight Champion]], a 1x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/al/gc/gc-h.html Gulf Coast (Alabama) Heavyweight Champion]] and a 1x [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/ga/nwa/ga-south-h.html NWA Southern (Georgia) Heavyweight Champion]]. He was inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2002, the ''[[Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter Wrestling Observer Newsletter]]'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and into the Wrestling/{{WWE}} Hall of Fame in 2010.
9	----
10	!! George Wagner is the {{Trope Namer\|s}} for:
11	* GorgeousGeorge
12	!! "Read my tropes, you peasants!":
13	* AgentPeacock: He may have spent a lot of time brushing himself, even in the ring, wore feathers and other gaudy outfits while calling himself "gorgeous" but he was still seen as a legit competitor once the bell rang.
14	* AlliterativeName: Gorgeous George
15	* AmbiguouslyGay: Well to have the trope take his name, he had to be. He was not the first ambiguously gay professional wrestler in the country, citing Lord Patrick Lansdowne with his two valets and velvet robes before him. George set out to be less on the ambiguity and more on the gay though, only taking one valet, a ''male'' valet in Jeffries, and acting much more effeminately.
16	* AsHimself: In 1949's ''Alias The Champ''.
17	* {{Biography}}: 2008's '' Gorgeous George: The Outrageous Bad Boy Wrestler who Created American Pop Culture'' by John [=Capouya=].
18	* CampStraight: The Gorgeous aspect of his gimmick was just that, a gimmick. In real life, he was completely straight, as far as anyone knows.
19	* CheapHeat: Unusual example, as he would toss bobby pins to the fans, which normally would be strictly baby {{face}} cheap pop behavior.
20	* {{Delinquents}}: He was one as a child, though this lead him to professional wrestling as they would stage matches in the YMCA, so it was not all bad. Yes, his career was initially sold as a feel good story.
21	* DirtyCoward[=/=]CombatPragmatist: George was once the model good sport, though looking at his more well known matches it is hard to imagine. Safe to say his mysterious sexuality was not the only reason he was a heel.
22	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: How many people do you think could get away with that finishing move today, especially without a NameOfPower?
23	* FaceHeelTurn: He started out as a good, clean wrestler but his wife told him he would not make any money that way. So he turned on his heels so hard he became the architect of ''two'' different {{heel}} archetypes.
24	* TheFightingNarcissist: Is responsible for several of these, who (somehow) missed the ambiguously gay aspects of his gimmick or did not want to incorporate them into theirs.
25	* FinishingMove: Hiptoss
26	* GameBreakingInjury: Retired in 1962 after being diagnosed with a serious liver condition.
27	* GimmickMatches: He had a match against the Masked Marvel that was held at the Seattle [=Aquatheater=], where the ring was surrounded by water.
28	* IWorkAlone: He was in several tag matches over his career, but he wasn't very successful in them and so stuck to going single...[[FromACertainPointOfView if you ignore]] Jeffries.
29	* LargeHam: He could easily make himself heard without a microphone and was well known for his [[MilkingTheGiantCow exaggerated visual messages.]]
30	* LegacyCharacter: As mentioned below under WrestlingFamily, his son and his great-nephew would take up his mantle in their careers. Wrestling/LannyPoffo was also slated to have a run in Wrestling/{{WCW}} with the Gorgeous George name and character, but it never happened because... well, because WCW, so the name was instead used by Wrestling/RandySavage's then-girlfriend Stephanie Bellars.
31	* PrejudicedForPecs: His success in professional wrestling was the biggest argument ''against'' this trope during his time period besides maybe Wrestling/ElSanto and definitely among promoters in the United States. Only 5'9 and 215 lbs and not even freakishly athletic. Didn't matter, because despite his apparent sissy persona, he was tough and could wrestle very well. So his lack of physical intimidation ended up helping him after his heel turn.
32	* RealMenWearPink: Beyond calling himself gorgeous, he also frequently wore pink bathrobes, dresses, gowns and other "girly" outfits. He also had a purple spotlight. Despite this, he was a lot less of a gimmick wrestler than many of his later imitators.
33	* RedBaron: "The Human Orchid," "The Toast of the Coast," "The Sensation of the Nation"
34	* StartMyOwn: He had a turkey ranch in Beaumont, CA and had a cocktail lounge in Van Nuys named "Gorgeous George's Ringside Restaurant."
35	* TraumaticHaircut: He lost a hair versus mask match to Destroyer, and had to endure the shaving of his "precious" locks. He lost another hair match to Billy Watson.
36	* TropeMaker: He basically ''invented'' the idea of professional wrestling as a grandiose spectacle rather than just a sport, and was arguably the first true {{Heel}}. If not the ''actual'' Trope Maker (although it'd be hard to find an earlier example), then he was undoubtedly at least the TropeCodifier.
37	* WrestlingFamily: His adopted son Gorgeous George Jr. and his great-nephew Rob Kellum, who wrestled in Memphis as Gorgeous George III, in Wrestling/{{WCW}} as the Maestro and in various independents as the Stro.

Context Wrestling / GeorgeWagner