Rocky Romero On The Success Of “Talk’N Shop,” The New Series “The Gimmicks,” Slick Rick & More
Earlier this month, Toonstar (a Web3 animation studio) and Sixth Wall (the digital arm of Mila Kunis’ Orchard Farm Productions) announced the launch of The Gimmicks, a cutting-edge Web3-enabled, community-driven animated NFT series powered by Solana. Billed as South Park meets WWE, the animated series for adults is about washed-up wrestlers trying to regain their status, as voiced by IMPACT Wrestling stars Luke “Doc” Gallows and Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson, nZo (former WWE Superstar Enzo Amore) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling star (as recently seen within AEW) Rocky Romero.
As written by “The Daves” — Dave Ihlenfeld and David Wright (Family Guy, The Simpsons) — The Gimmicks is reportedly the first series to embrace NFT technology in a way that gives fans a chance to participate in character and storyline development. At the end of each episode, a “choose your own adventure” option will be voted on by NFT holders, influencing future episodes and character arcs. NFT holders will also have the opportunity to interact with other fans via an on-chain social layer. This interactive social layer will connect to the holder’s NFT, and actions will be recorded on-chain.
Commented Mila Kunis in a prepared statement: “Toonstar absolutely gets the ridiculously fast nature of creating in Web3. They are able to make animation at unprecedented speed while also managing creative community elements; I can’t wait for people to come and engage in the fun.” Added Toonstar CEO and co-founder John Attanasio in another prepared statement: “We’re thrilled to see this The Gimmicks launch and are looking forward to giving other new voices an animation platform.”
On March 29, 2022, I had the pleasure of interviewing the aforementioned Rocky Romero again via Zoom, as embedded below. More on Romero — who also spoke with me about hip-hop, Slick Rick’s influence on his wrestling gear, and the success of his non-wrestling ventures in recent years — and the other stars of The Gimmicks can be found online by clicking here, here, here, here and here.
About the Author
Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal.Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."
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