Gobbledy Gooker a Major Part of Thanksgiving Holiday for WWE Universe
By Bryan Heaton
On Thanksgiving Eve, 1990, one of the strangest WWE Superstars of all time debuted. Since then, the Gobbledy Gooker has become a cult favorite among the WWE Universe.
If you caught 205 Live this week, you saw Drew Gulak make an appearance in a weird turkey costume. He called himself the “Gobbledy Gulak-er,” and it might not have made any sense if you’re not versed in WWE history. So why, besides the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, would Gulak put on such an outfit?
Longtime WWE fans know that he was dressed as the infamous Gobbledy Gooker. All the way back at Survivor Series in 1990 – back when the show was held on Thanksgiving Eve – the big attraction was a giant egg poised to hatch. This is, of course, the same show that featured the debut of The Undertaker – but a huge egg was the bigger deal.
For months, the then-WWF had been hyping this eventual hatching. Who – or what – was in the egg? A bird? Dinosaur? Strange person? No one knew. So when Survivor Series came around and the egg started to crack, the potential for a huge impact was there.
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Instead, a turkey-looking thing popped out, and the crowd was not happy. Despite Hall of Fame broadcaster “Mean” Gene Okerlund’s best efforts, the Gobbled Gooker was not particularly well received. Originally meant to be a semi-regular character, the character instead danced around with Okerlund to “Turkey in the Straw” (fitting) before disappearing roughly a month later.
Underneath the costume was Hector Guerrero – Eddie’s brother, Chavo Jr.’s uncle, and famed wrestler in his own right. Hector maintains to this day that the Gooker was a good idea that came around at the wrong time. To him, it was something meant for children, not the adults in the audience. Trouble is, at Survivor Series, there were a lot of adults voicing their displeasure with the gimmick.
It took over 10 years before Guerrero would return to the WWF as the Gooker. At WrestleMania X-7 in 2001, he participated in the Gimmick Battle Royal. Not a bad gig, considering many (including us here at Daily DDT) fell WrestleMania X-7 is the greatest show in the event’s history. Though the Gooker didn’t win the battle royal, it introduced him to a new segment of the fanbase.
Since that WrestleMania appearance, the Gobbled Gooker has become something of a cult hero. Different superstars have used the costume for a variety of reasons for random appearances through the years. The Boogeyman, Maryse, and Xavier Woods are among those to don the attire in the past decade. Heck, the Gooker even had his own T-shirt on WWE Shop for a time!
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As everyone sits down for their dinner and offers their thanks this holiday season, keep WWE’s greatest Thanksgiving tradition in your minds. The Gobbledy Gooker may have been an abject failure on his debut, but in the years since it’s become a staple of Thanksgiving shows. It just goes to show that there’s hope for just about any gimmick out there if given enough time.