10 wrestlers who secretly hated their gimmicks

Cody Rhodes in his Stardust persona he used near the end of his WWE career.

#3 Saba Simba (Tony Atlas)

Tony Atlas as the Saba Simba character. The name means 'seven lions'

Tony Atlas was one of the biggest African American stars of the 1970s and 1980s. He was often in a tag team with Rocky Johnson--Dwayne The Rock Johnson's father -- but also found a lot of singles success. During his career, he racked up an impressive thirty-five championship reigns, including the coveted NWA North American title, which has recently been brought back for use in NXT.

Atlas was hired by the WWE in the early 1980s, and given his massive build and crowd favorite status, he seemed on the verge of the greatest success of his career. Indeed, he was being groomed to become the next Intercontinental champion.

However, a substance abuse problem led to him being unreliable, no showing a lot of dates. WWE would release him from his contract briefly.

Atlas managed to kick his drug habit, but the struggle took its toll on his body, and he had lost much of his impressive musculature by the time he made it back to WWE. Since the company thought he no longer looked like Tony Atlas, they gave him a new gimmick - Saba Simba, the African tribesman.

Atlas hated the gimmick for several reasons. For one, he thought it was a stereotype. For another, he knew little of African dances and rituals and poorly portrayed the character as a result.

Fans were confused, since most of them easily recognized Atlas even with a diminished physique. Eventually, Atlas was let go and returned to using his real name in other promotions.