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The Gimmick Table: The Origin of The Missing Link

The Gimmick Table: The Origin of The Missing Link

Posted: Oct 16th 2025 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.com

A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality. Whatever the case may be, some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not-so-favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.

Today we browse the gimmick of The Missing Link

Dewey Robertson was a semi successful professional wrestler who began his career in the early 1960’s. His clean cut image and grappling skills made him a fan favorite. The problem was, Robertson wasn’t getting the main event level pushes from promoters. Robertson tried to turn his character heel, but still never made it out of the mid card. The breaking point in his career came when he tried to find work with Fritz Von Erich’s World Class territory and was denied work.

Robertson saw other wrestlers with less mat skills than him find success and opportunities. He began to realize that his old school mentality was being phased out in professional wrestling. Gone were the days of wrestlers being pushed based on their in ring technique, but rather the outrageous characters many were playing. Robertson talked to his friend Gene Petit, who was wrestling in World Class as ‘The Mongol’ and started picking his brain about how he reinvented himself into a different type of character. Petit told him it wasn’t just about wrestling under a specific gimmick, but to create a complete backstory and live the gimmick 24/7.

Dewey Robertson went to work on reinventing himself. He decided to shave his head, only leaving small patches of hair. He grew facial hair and painted his face green and black. Robertson gave himself the name of Max the Missing Link. Dewey created a backstory where he was discovered living in the mountains inside of a cave and was the missing link between ape and man. A modern day caveman of sorts that could not talk…only grunt and groan. He also changed his wrestling style from being scientific and technical to a brawling style. The character of Max the Missing Link made its debut in 1983 and became an instant success.

To further the believability of the gimmick, Dewey kept up the character outside the ring whether it was in the locker room or out on the streets in public. Freebird Buddy Roberts who was friends with Dewey, once said that he didn’t initially recognize his friend under the new gimmick and thought that this Missing Link wrestler was legitimately crazy. Eventually, the promoters dropped the Mx from his name and he only competed under the Missing Link name. He wrestled successfully throughout various territories including the WWF. Dewey Robertson kept the gimmick for the remainder of his wrestling career, up until his retirement in 2004.

 

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