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To succeed in the world of pro wrestling, it takes a ton of athletic ability, charisma, and presence. However, none of those are enough on their own to make an athlete a sports entertainment superstar.
You have to get yourself a gimmick!
Pro Wrestling gimmicks run the gamut from simple (World's Strongest Man, Mark Henry) to complex (Goldust) to the straight-up fantastical (The Undertaker.) Very few pro wrestlers in the modern era have worked without a clear cut character to portray.
However, it's not always easy to capture lightning in a bottle. Sometimes a wrestler has to be repackaged from their initial character into something new. This can work to the wrestler's advantage, and sometimes it can be quite detrimental and ruin a career for good.
Here are five of the worst character changes in pro wrestling, along with five of the best.
Worst Repackaging #1: The Red Rooster
Paul Worden Taylor III, better known by his ring name Terry Taylor, is a pro wrestling legend in the southern promotions. He has held over thirty wrestling championships, including the Mid South North American Heavyweight championship, that promotion's regional 'big belt.'
Taylor would also challenge Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight championship, albeit unsuccessfully. After enjoying a stellar career in the regional territories, he signed with the World Wrestling Federation in 1988.
Upon his debut, he called himself "Scary" Terry Taylor, but that didn't last long. WWF officials decided to repackage Taylor into a different gimmick. He was assigned to Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, who dubbed Taylor, the Red Rooster. Heenan played it as if he were graciously helping a poor, untalented schmuck who would find success through his genius.
Taylor hated the gimmick change both on screen and off. He would end up feuding with the Heenan family, culminating in a match against the Brain himself. Taylor then announced he would still call himself Red Rooster just to rub his success in the Brain's face. So far, not so bad.
But over time, he evolved into an actual anthropomorphic rooster, complete with a red cockscomb, chicken-like strut, and a 'cock a doodle doo!' that was just as ridiculous as it sounded. He would depart the WWF in 1990 and return to the regional circuit. However, constant chants of "ROOSTER ROOSTER" followed him the rest of his career.
Things worked out for Taylor, though; He currently works as a trainer for WWE's NXT brand.
Best Repackaging #1: John "Bradshaw" Layfield
When it comes to gimmick changes, John Bradshaw Layfield has had quite a few!
Initially, he was John Hawk, who was the kayfabe relative to the Windham brothers, Barry and Kendall. When he joined the WWE in 1995, he was re-dubbed Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw, who employed a generic cowboy gimmick.
Then he re-teamed with Barry Windham as the New Blackjacks, becoming a tag team wrestler. After Windham left for the WCW promotion, Bradshaw was left without anything to do for a time. He re-emerged as simply Bradshaw, wearing greasepaint on his chest with druidic symbols, and teamed with Farooq as the Acolytes, minions of the Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness.
Of course, once the Ministry of Darkness was no more, the Acolytes were themselves repackaged as the APA, short for Acolyte Protection Agency. They would keep this gimmick for several years, and it was quite successful and a fixture of the Attitude Era.
But still, Layfield remained mired in the mid-card or tag team division. It wasn't until he was repackaged as the JR Ewing-esque John Bradshaw Layfield that he was finally elevated to the main event, and multiple world title reigns.
Worst Repackaging #2: "Unmasked" Rey Misterio
The tradition of masked wrestlers is a long and glorious one, which includes such luminaries as Mil Mascaras, Kane, and Big Van Vader.
However, during the Monday Night Wars, many pro wrestling executives felt that a mask interfered with a wrestler's ability to resonate with the audience. In order to get fans emotionally invested in a character, they reasoned, the masked wrestler should be unmasked.
This led to several Lucha Libre stars losing their masks, such as Psicosis and Juventud Guerra. But while those two men managed to come out ahead by unmasking, one wrestling star wasn't so lucky; Rey Misterio Jr.
Rey had been a big star in the WCW Cruiserweight division. but the promotion wanted to elevate him to the heavyweight division. In order for this to happen, Misterio was told he would have to unmask. He put his mask on the line against Kevin Nash--in reality one of Misterio's friends backstage--and lost.
Unmasked Rey lost all of his mystique, and his babyface appearance made it difficult for fans to take him seriously as a threat to big men like Nash. When he made his debut for WWE, he had his mask back on.
Best Repackaging #2: The Road Warriors
Hawk and Animal were always called the Road Warriors, but believe it or not when they debuted there were no spikes, no face paint, and no wild haircuts.
Instead, the Road Warriors were meant to portray 1% biker gang members, and came to the ring dressed like the 'leatherman' from the Village People.
However, the best possible thing happened; Mel Gibson released the second in the Mad Max trilogy of films, the Road Warrior. The movie was a huge international hit, and deeply influenced other films, music, and culture during the 1980s.
Since Hawk and Animal were already calling themselves the Road Warriors before the film hit, there were no copyright issues. Hawk and Animal adopted the outlandish post-apocalyptic look of the Gibson film, and never looked back.
Worst Repackaging #3: Golga (John Tenta)
John Tenta Jr. was a Canadian amateur wrestler and football player who studied the art of Sumotori, or Sumo Wrestling, in Japan.
He was one of the few Gaijin, or westerners, to become a successful Sumo wrestler. Tenta won twenty-two matches in a row while in Japan, and became quite popular with the Sumo wrestling fandom, who dubbed him the Canadian Comet.
However, his success rankled the traditional Sumo community, who didn't like the fact that a westerner was defeating so many of their native countrymen. Also, his tiger tattoo was forbidden, and in order to advance to the highest ranks in Sumo Tenta would have been forced to remove it via skin graft.
Tenta returned to North America, where he would be trained as a pro wrestler. He wrestled as Avalanche before signing with the WWE, who dubbed him Canadian Earthquake and teamed him up with Dino Bravo. Tenta made his debut as a 'plant' in the crowd, chosen because of his size.
Ultimate Warrior and Dino Bravo were supposed to have a push-up contest with Tenta on their back. Bravo did ten push-ups, but when it was Warrior's turn Tenta attacked him in his vulnerable state. Bobby Heenan, who was on commentary, would claim that Warrior 'must have said something to make him angry.'
Tenta wrestled as a heel, until he teamed up with fellow big man Tugboat Thomas, who was re-dubbed Typhoon. As the Natural disasters, they were unlikely but beloved babyfaces and enjoyed a tag team title reign.
Tenta left WWE for WCW for several years, and lost a lot of weight in the interim. When he returned to the WWE in 1998, Vince McMahon believed he was too light weight to be Earthquake anymore, and he was given a gimmick of a man with a disfiguring bone disease called Golga.
Tenta would join the Oddities stable, who are best known for their association with the Insane Clown Posse, but Golga never caught on the way Earthquake had.
Best Repackaging #3: Matt Hardy
When the Hardy Boyz joined WWE in 1997, they quickly became one of the most popular tag teams of the Attitude Era. Their TLC matches against Edge/Christian and the Dudley Boys were not only legendary, they spawned a new match type and PPV name.
However, as seems to happen with many successful tag teams, management wanted to split them up and utilize them as singles stars. Jeff Hardy was the aerial daredevil, and was considered to be more 'handsome' and therefore more marketable by the WWE. Jeff Hardy was pushed to the main event level, while Matt Hardy was a certified mid-carder at best. The closest to winning a 'big belt' for Matt Hardy was when he captured the ECW title during that brand's brief revival under WWE ownership.
Jeff Hardy became a world champion, while Matt was constantly frustrated in his attempts to move up the card. Even when Matt joined other promotions, he was seen as the 'lesser' Hardy.
That all changed when Matt Hardy was given full creative control of his character by TNA/Impact wrestling. Hardy developed the "Broken" Matt Hardy persona, and also created concepts like the Lake of Resurrection and using a drone to record matches from unique angles. The gimmick was so successful, his 'better' brother Jeff was repackaged as Brother Nero. For the first time ever, Matt Hardy was considered a bigger star than his brother.
WWE hired the Hardys, and Matt was able to keep the Broken gimmick because it was his intellectual property, though WWE re-dubbed it "Woken." Hardy's Ultimate Deletion match was a huge rating and critical success, and now Matt Hardy as a big belt champion in WWE isn't so far fetched.
Worst Repackaging #4: Papi Chulo
During the Monday Night War era, one of the major selling points of WCW was their Cruiserweight division. The cruiserweights were intended to entertain the 'pure' wrestling fans in the audience, who preferred technical wrestling over some of the outlandish gang warfare perpetrated by the NWO.
Seeing that there was an audience to be wooed, WWE tried its own attempt at the cruiserweights, dubbed the Light Heavyweight division. Several notable lighter wrestlers were hired, such as Taka Michinoku, and El Aguila, a lucha libre star of some renown.
For a variety of reasons, the light heavyweight division never really took off or gained the prominence of rival WCW's cruiserweights. WWE thought that a Lucha Libre star wasn't in keeping with their WWF Attitude, and unmasked Aguila and re-dubbed him Papi Chulo, which translates as 'pimp daddy.' Yes, years before the Godfather the WWE tried the wrestling pimp gimmick.
To say it was a failure is an understatement. Aguila wasn't glib enough to carry the gimmick, and eventually transitioned into Essa Rios and was managed by Lita at this time. Yet another example of unmasking a Luchadore that didn't work out.
Best Repackaging #4: The Rock
He's the highest paid movie star in the world, flexing his considerable muscle in everything from the Tooth Fairy to GI Joe to the Fast and Furious franchise.
He's Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, one of the most celebrated wrestling stars of the Attitude Era, and one of the reasons WWE won the Monday Night War. However, that almost didn't happen.
Because Johnson is the son of legendary wrestler Rocky Johnson, and the grandson of the also legendary High Chief Peter Maivia, WWE decided to play up his heritage. He debuted as 'Third Generation blue chipper' Rocky Maivia. His pastel-hued ring gear and perpetual smile didn't catch on with fans. No matter how hard WWE tried to push him as a babyface, fans still chanted "Rocky Sucks" and "Die Rock Die."
But then Rocky Maivia joined the heel Nation of Domination faction, and was re-dubbed The Rock. The Rock was arrogant, rarely smiled, and had a penchant for referring to himself in the third person. Even though he was a villain, his charisma caught on with the fandom, and he wound up being an edgy babyface for the rest of his WWE career before moving on to Hollywood stardom.
Worst Repackaging #5: The Ringmaster
When he made his pro wrestling debut, Steve Williams, who would later become Stone Cold Steve Austin, was advised to change his last name, since there was already a Steve Williams wrestling in the NWA territories (Dr. Death Steve Williams, RIP.) Since he was from Texas, he chose the name of the state capital, Austin, as his ring name.
As Stunning Steve Austin, he enjoyed a great deal of success in WCW. He won the World Television Title, the United States title and the tag team title with partner Brian Pillman as the Hollywood Blondes.
However, when he was forced to lose cleanly to novice wrestler the Renegade, he chose to leave WCW and joined WWE. Since they couldn't use the 'stunning' gimmick, he was re-dubbed the Ringmaster and assigned Ted DiBiase as his manager. Ringmaster didn't speak, was the 'Million Dollar Champion,' and used Dibiase's finisher, the Million Dollar Dream.
The fans were pretty much silent during the Ringmaster's matches, and no one much cared about him. That's why it's a good thing he was given a new gimmick, which we will cover in the next slide.
Best Repackaging #5: Stone Cold Steve Austin
Sometimes, the process of trying to get a wrestler over with the fans has been referred to as 'throwing s**t at the wall and seeing what sticks.'
When the Ringmaster didn't stick, the WWE tried a new approach. They kept Stone Cold Steve Austin as a heel, and his ex-wife gave him his new designation by accident, telling him to drink his tea before it became "Stone Cold."
As Stone Cold Steve Austin, he was supposed to be the 'bad guy' of the WWE, feuding with born again Christian Jake Roberts. During this period, Roberts would often quote Bible verses, in particular, John 3:16. After defeating Roberts in a match at King of the Ring, Stone Cold would utter the famous line "Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your A**!"
Both the line and the gimmick appealed greatly to the Attitude Era audience. During a match with Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 13, Austin turned face by refusing to give up while bleeding profusely and stuck in Hart's Sharpshooter finisher. He passed out from pain, meaning Hart was declared the winner, but in the process became a hero.
Stone Cold would go on to be one of the biggest reasons WWE won the Monday Night war, and is possibly the most popular world champion in the company's history.
