Nick Dinsmore Talks About If He Was Worried About Offending Anyone With His Eugene Gimmick

One of the memorable characters in the WWE from the early to mid 2000s was Eugene. Long time WWE developmental talent Nick Dinsmore was finally called up with this character and was thrust into big time segments and storylines involving William Regal, Triple H, and The Rock. Chris Van Vliet recently interviewed the longtime journeyman and they discussed the character.

Eugene was clearly a character that was special needs, and portraying that on television can be a fine line to tread. Representation has always been important, but when the person portraying the character isn’t special needs, there’s a lot of ways the portrayal could go south quite quickly. Dinsmore and Van Vliet discussed if he had concerns over this and whether or not fans would think he was mocking disabled people with the gimmick.

“I thought about that going in but it was my opportunity but I was either going to sink or swim on it. But I had got so much positive affirmation afterwards. So many people said to me, ‘My brother has special needs and he told me that he can do anything because Eugene did it’. I heard that more times than I heard, ‘You’re making fun of people’. No, instead I heard ‘You’re giving them a voice’ or ‘Oh my God, there’s someone like me’. That’s what I want to be. That’s what WWE should be a representation of every type of person that there is around the world.”

Dinsmore’s view was clearly an optimistic take on the matter, and what he did was able to give not only disabled people a platform, but at least he was able to hear that he gave them someone to be proud of when it came to their portrayal on television. You can watch more with Van Vliet and Dinsmore below.

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