'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Not every gimmick in the WWE can be a home run. In fact, not every gimmick can even work on the first try. Sometimes a superstar is given something to work with which is impossible, and are doomed from the beginning.
Sportskeeda is the one-stop destination for the latest WWE rumors and wrestling news.
It can take a while for a performer to find the right fit as sometimes a single wrestler can go through two, three or even more gimmicks, before they find the one that fits. These superstars were all at a point in their careers where they were playing a character for months and even years, before that same character nearly brought them down.
Thankfully, these lucky few would manage to bounce back with some help from the creative writers, or even the superstars themselves developing a new version of themselves to be reborn into a fresh new gimmick.
#10 The Miztourage Becomes The B Team
Back in June 2017, The Miz approached former Social Outcast members, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel, offering to make them 'stars', if they became his Hollywood entourage. Bo and Curtis accepted and remained with The Miz for almost a year before he was drafted to Smackdown in the Superstar Shakeup.
During their time as the 'Miztourage', Bo and Curtis picked up some victories here and there but were generally treated as a joke, who would always lose the matches that really counted. Following their split from The Miz earlier this year, they dubbed themselves "The B-Team", and have been on a winning streak since mid-May.
Most recently, they defeated Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt for the WWE RAW Tag Team Championship, and their push doesn't seem to be slowing down.
#9 Too Much Becomes Too Cool
Scott Taylor and Brian Christopher were literally thrown together as a tag team, just so both superstars would be able to compete on the card of WrestleMania XIV in 1998, in a tag team battle royal.
WWE liked how well they meshed together and decided to keep them as a tag team. Scott didn't have much of a gimmick at the time as he had been mainly used as an enhancement talent, while Brian was just an over-the-top arrogant loud mouth.
At times it kind of seemed like they were trying to play homosexual characters, but, possibly due to being uncomfortable with it, they never seemed to put much effort into it. It has never been confirmed if that is what their gimmick actually was.
Regardless of what it was, in June 1999, they were renamed "Too Cool", and given the gimmick of white boy bad hip-hop dancers, similar to The Public Enemy of ECW. However, as the months went by, the now renamed Scotty 2 Hotty and Grandmaster Sexy had all of a sudden become quite good at dancing, with Scotty most notably adapting 'The Worm'. They would also join up with Rikishi Fatu, and become a trio.
Over the space of a very short time, Too Cool went from no reaction to the roof nearly being blown off the building every time they entered. In 2000, they won the WWE Tag Team Championships and participated in feuds with The McMahon/Helmsley Regime and Edge and Christian. They remained incredibly over until Grandmaster was fired in 2001.
#8 Patrick Clark Becomes The Velveteen Dream
Former WWE Tough Enough contestant and standout, Patrick Clark, signed with WWE a few months following the season's end in 2015 and would make his NXT debut in the summer of 2016, with a loss to Austin Aries.
Patrick continued to make appearances on NXT for the next few months, that generally saw him on the losing side. After a few months of absence, Patrick returned to NXT TV in March 2017, where he picked up his first televised victory, but no one seemed to care.
Patrick would re-debut two months later with a new Prince-inspired character called the "Velveteen Dream". The Dream, although a heel, has gained quite the following ever since, and has participated in high profile feuds in NXT with Kassius Ohno, Aleister Black and Ricochet.
At NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, The Dream, at just 22 years old, wrestled a Wrestling Observer Newsletter 5 Star Match, with Adam Cole, Killian Dain, EC3, Ricochet and Lars Sullivan in a Ladder match.
#7 Husky Harris Becomes Bray Wyatt
A man called 'Husky Harris' was never going to be a star.
Originally competing on the second season of the reality version of NXT, Husky Harris debuted on WWE's main roster at the Hell in A Cell pay-per-view in 2010, aiding Wade Barrett in defeating John Cena. Husky, along with Curtis Axel who had debuted with him, joined the Nexus stable a few weeks later.
Husky only lasted 3 months on TV before he was written off in an angle, and sent back to FCW. Upon his return to developmental, he and the late Dusty Rhodes developed a new character for him, Bray Wyatt, a backwoods cult leader, similar to Max Cady of the 1991 film Cape Fear, and short-lived mid-90's WWE star Waylon Mercy.
The character, combined with Bray's agility for a bigger man and excellence on the mic led to a strong following from the NXT faithful. He made his main roster debut along with Luke Harper and Erick Rowan in 2013, and since then, has become the WWE Champion and held both RAW and Smackdown brands Tag Team Championships. Bray has also had many high profile feuds with The Undertaker, John Cena, Randy Orton, The Shield and any more.
While many don't agree with his booking over the years, he still has a strong following and would never have accomplished anything as successful if he remained Husky Harris.
#6 Bradshaw Becomes John 'Bradshaw' Layfield
After a forgettable run as one of the 'New Blackjacks' in 1997, Bradshaw would eventually join up with Ron Simmons to form the Acolytes, and later, the Acolytes Protection Agency, or APA.
After a brief break-up in 2002, the APA reformed on Smackdown in 2003 and would return to their regular segments, as they did before the brand extension, such as playing poker, drinking beer, and bribing superstars with their money.
The APA broke up again in 2004 after losing a stipulation Tag Team match to Rikishi and Scotty 2 Hotty, that saw Ron Simmons fired from Smackdown, but not Bradshaw. As Bradshaw had legitimately released a book on finance the previous year, WWE decided to give him a complete gimmick change into an arrogant businessman, complete with a suit and tie, a cowboy hat and a stretch limousine, and he became known as John 'Bradshaw' Layfield.
Other than the gimmick being naturally despised by the fans, JBL was also in the right place at the right time as far as the main event push went, as his ultra-snobby gimmick came at a time when Smackdown desperately needing a new top heel, due to Brock Lesnar leaving WWE and Kurt Angle being inactive due to a neck injury. JBL filled the void and became WWE Champion, and helped fill that position for 9 months. He remained a main event player for the majority of his in-ring career.
#5 Matt Hardy Becomes 'Broken Matt Hardy'
After some time spent climbing through the ranks in TNA, Matt Hardy won the World Heavyweight Championship in 2015. He would vacate it shortly after, and win it a second time from EC3 in January 2016, turning heel in the process.
Matt's heel run was decent, but didn't really offer anything in a heel, that we hadn't seen previously, especially with him having similar traits to EC3. It almost seemed like Matt was becoming a little washed up, until he took a huge risk and did something crazy. Like, actually crazy.
Matt proclaimed himself to be a 'Broken' man, blaming Jeff Hardy for breaking him. Matt bleached part of his hair blonde and spoke with a strange sophisticated accent. Matt then introduced us to The Final Deletion. His goofy, b-movie antics and acting would not only turn him into a babyface but make him, perhaps, the most talked about wrestler in all of 2016.
Even to this day, WWE has allowed Matt to have a WWE version of the character, 'Woken' Matt Hardy, which hasn't been as entertaining, but still has time to repeat the incredible success he had in TNA.
#4 Fake Diesel Becomes Kane
The man who went on to be known as Kane had a really rough start in WWE. Glenn Jacobs made his first television appearance with the company as Isaac Yankem, DDS, Jerry Lawler's private dentist. This gimmick was to last just under a year, before being dropped.
He would be reintroduced to WWE TV in September 1996 as Fake Diesel, an impostor version of Kevin Nash's character. Apparently, Vince McMahon loved the Diesel and Razor Ramon characters so much, that he thought the characters themselves would work without Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, and boy was he wrong.
The universally hated gimmicks lasted until the Royal Rumble 1997. He would be re-introduced once more at Bad Blood 1997 as Kane, the long lost brother of The Undertaker. The Kane gimmick was only designed to last for 6 months, but here we are more than 20 years later and we are still treated to returns of the Big Red Machine.
Kane has had an incredible career, including being WWE Champion, World Heavyweight Champion, WWE ECW Champion, Intercontinental Champion, Hardcore Champion and a multi-time Tag Team Champion.
#3 Hunter Hearst Helmsley Becomes Triple H
Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a "Connecticut Blueblood", made his WWE debut in 1995. Helmsley wore a tailcoat suit and carried a traditional atomizer perfume bottle to highlight how snobby he was.
Although he had some success during this as the WWE Intercontinental Champion, he spent a large portion of it as a 'jobber to the stars', due to his involvement in the famous 'Curtain Call'. Over time, he quietly dropped his English accent and started to team up with real-life best friend Shawn Michaels, on screen, where they formed D-Generation X, and the rest is history.
Following Shawn's first retirement, Triple H took over as DX leader, and as we all know, went onto become a 14 time World Champion, as well as countless other accolades, and becoming WWE COO. Not bad for someone who was nearly fired from WWE in 1996.
#2 Rocky Maivia Becomes The Rock
Dwayne Johnson made his WWE debut at the 1996 Survivor Series under the name 'Rocky Maivia', a combination of his father and grandfather's ring names.
Rocky wasn't necessarily booked in any kind of antagonizing way, but fans still chose to hate him, despite being a babyface who always smiled and greeted everyone, and bombarded him with chants of "Die, Rocky, die!" and "Rocky sucks!".
All this led to Rocky turning heel in 1997 and joining the controversial faction, the Nation of Domination. During this time, he refused to acknowledge the Rocky Maivia name, instead referring to himself in the third person as The Rock, though he would still be billed as Rocky "The Rock" Maivia until 1998.
Although Rock was shining more as a heel, it still didn't seem like a career saving move at the time, due to the racial controversy surrounding the gimmick. Despite this, Rock made it work and soon won the fans back with his incredible charisma. The Rock became arguably the most popular superstar in WWE history.
Rock would become a 10 time World Champion, and of course, left WWE to become, as of 2018, the fifth most highest paid celebrity entertainer in the world.
#1 The Ringmaster Becomes Stone Cold Steve Austin
Steve Austin made his WWE debut in 1995 under the name 'The Ringmaster'. He was managed by Ted DiBiase and carried the Million Dollar Championship with him.
Nothing about the gimmick, and especially the name, made Austin feel right. WWE granted Austin's request for a change, and after turning down the names Otto Von Ruthless, Ice Dagger, Fang McFrost and Chilli McFreeze, a cup of tea would literally give him the name 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin.
Austin shaved his head bald and grew a goatee, and was allowed some creative freedom in contributing a lot of what Stone Cold said and did during matches and segments. About a month following his King of The Ring victory and 'Austin 3:16' speech, Austin would climb the ladder to become WWE's biggest star. The move would change WWE history forever and gave us possibly the greatest superstar of all time.
Do you love to play crosswords, Wordle or other exciting games? We'd like to connect with you. Fill the form here!
