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The Gimmick Table: The Origin of The Berzerker

Posted: Oct 25th 2024 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.Wordpress.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 Berzerker

John Nord was a wrestler who competed in various territories including Mid South, the AWA and World Class. He was heavily sought after by Vince McMahon and in February of 1991, Nord finally joined the WWF. It was Bruce Prichard who decided on a Viking gimmick for Nord. The Viking gimmick had already been created and was originally rumored for Mark Calaway…aka the Undertaker until a last minute change of plans.

Nord received the gimmick, in part, because Prichard said he hailed from Minnesota which was a heavily Scandinavian populated area. Nord was given the very generic name of ‘The Viking’ and was given a horned helmet, sword and shield to fill out the gimmick. Nord’s name was eventually changed to ‘The Berzerker’ which defined meant an ancient Norse warrior who fought in a wild frenzy. The Berzerker was then paired with heel manager Mr. Fuji.

According to Prichard, John Nord…who was a real life protégé of Bruiser Brody…decided to pattern the Berzerker character off of Brody. Nord adopted all of Brody’s facial expressions and mannerisms into the Berzerker, much to the dismay of Vince McMahon. Vince supposedly repeatedly asked Nord to tone down the Brody impressions and play the gimmick a different way, but Nord ignored the requests and Prichard said that led to McMahon turning away from pushing the gimmick. Add to that, Nord allegedly no showed several shows and was unreliable and reportedly was involved in the physical altercation Nailz had with Vince McMahon all led to the gimmick’s downfall.