Wendi Wheels

STATUS: Face.

WRESTLING: Wendi is actually one of WOW's better wrestlers. She seems to be one of the more polished and stronger members of the crew. Her finisher, the "Blowout", is a pretty good one. Combine all that with her excellent ability to take bumps, and you have a solid performer.

CHARACTER: Wendi hasn't spoken much, and when she has, it's gimmick-related phrases like "I'm gonna put you up on blocks" or "I'm gonna run you down." Umm, I just made those up -- I can't remember what the hell she actually said -- but I bet you that's close, if not actually right. It's hard for her to help how lame that dialogue sounds, but she can help her horrendous in-ring charisma. Her "Rev It Up" gesture is the most annoying non-McLane-related thing in WOW. She gestures to the crowd after every successful move...and of course, while she's doing it, her opponent just stands there, but if her opponent does the same thing, Wendi takes advantage. Not only does it look fake, but it really makes you hate her. Rule 1 of wrestling is that if you constantly showboat, you're a heel. Anyone knows that!!!

LOOKS: As you can see from this photo, Wendi has a freaky face. She is voluptuous, and the consensus seemed to be that she looked better in her new PPV costume. It'll be a very hard sell for me. I think she's scary.

COMMENTS: Wendi's current character (not to mention her face) annoys me so damn much that is tough for me to admit this...but she is one of the better in-ring workers in WOW, and she deserves better than this lame gimmick. Especially if they want to push her as much as they have. No matter how many times McLane told us that she is "America's favorite garage pin-up girl", the recent Wendi-Riot feud was doomed not to generate much heat because Riot has charisma and Wendi in her current incarnation has none. If you got her into a less silly gimmick, though, you might really have something.

UPDATES:

3/4/01 (show #22):
- This week showed me the first evidence that Wendi's wrestling skill might get her over even despite the bad gimmick. She fought crowd favorite Summer and still had the crowd behind her, putting on a pretty decent match even despite Summer's limitations. I still am far from convinced that she can completely overcome this gimmick. I was especially disappointed that she didn't come out in the T-shirt she wore at the PPV. I'm sorry, that full mechanic's outfit is hella stupid.

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