No matter how good your in-ring work is, to become a top WWE Superstar you need to have the right character gimmick to go with it. Today we are used to subtle personas as compared to the ones we got in the 1980s, but for the fans to care about how well you do in the ring, they need some idea of what makes you tick outside of it too.
While many Superstars failed to achieve success in the WWE due to poor mic skills, there are some that at one point in their career found themselves with a gimmick that had a lot of promise but had the rug pulled from them far too early. Here are 10 such examples of WWE gimmicks that should have been given more time.
#1 Dashing Cody Rhodes
In the WWE’s recent attempts to appeal to an audience that embraces reality over performative entertainment, Superstars rarely have monikers or nicknames like they used to back in the day.
The 1980’s saw talent such as ‘Nature Boy Ric Flair’, ‘Classy Freddy Blassie’, and ‘Rowdy Roddy Piper’. Perhaps I just come from a forgotten generation, but I always liked this about pro wrestling. It instantly made an individual stand out, and let the audience know what their character was all about.
Back in 2011 Cody Rhodes, went around calling himself ‘Dashing Cody Rhodes’. Cody has always been someone who liked to pay homage to the older generations of professional wrestling, not surprising given he is a second generation Superstar.
The ‘Dashing’ gimmick wasn’t just a simple add on to his name either, the whole thing was done with effort. You would get small vignettes of Cody backstage looking into the mirror and giving men a few grooming tips.
It was such an old-school heel persona that the audience used to genuinely boo the guy, as opposed to the ironic cheers heels usually receive today.
While the gimmick had a little bit of time, it could have been given so much more. Instead, Cody soon found himself becoming another yet another vanilla heel and was eventually future endeavoured. heel, and was eventually future endeavoured.
#2 The Dibiase Posse
Speaking of Cody Rhodes, one of his first roles in the company was as part of Legacy, a heel faction led by Randy Orton. Around 2012, his fellow Legacy member Ted Dibiase Jr. was tipped for great things and was even once rumoured to end the Undertaker’s streak at Wrestlemania.
The WWE made a huge error with Legacy, positioning Orton, who was already established, for a huge babyface push at the expense of the younger talent. Even when the WWE saw sense and turned Dibiase face, there was very little momentum behind him. Perhaps the best attempt at getting him over was the creation of the Dibiase Posse.
Effectively, this was the collective name for his fanbase, but he would often come to the ring and talk about how he liked to hang out and party with his fans, a little like The Lex Express in ‘93. The problem was, the gimmick didn’t go much further than this.
Surely it wouldn’t have done any harm to the character to actually show video clips of the Posse partying in the street together, hanging off the backs of buses, rather than just relying on Ted talking about his friends like he was making it all up in his own head.
If this gimmick had been given legs, this might have turned into a thing people wanted to join in real life. You could have had mini music concerts outside of the arena with Ted at the front receiving his due babyface adulation. Instead, the gimmick died before it had a chance, and with it, Ted’s career.
#3 The Divas of Doom
Long before the Women’s revolution took hold of the WWE, the Divas division was about two things: good looking women in 2-minute matches wearing next to nothing, and escorting the male competitors down to the ring.
Every now and then, however, you would get a genuine talent in the midst of it all.
In the Attitude Era you had Lita and Trish Stratus, who weren’t exactly immune to the aforementioned tasks of a female wrestler themselves, and later you had Beth Pheonix. There’s a reason Beth was a signature part of this year’s Hall of Fame ceremony, the woman could wrestle as well as the guys, and had a physique to make her stand out from the rest.
A little later, Natalya Neidhart joined the company and it wasn’t long before she and Beth joined forces to become ‘The Divas of Doom’. In a time where you’d rarely see matches that lasted longer than a toilet break, it was a real novelty to see a tag team form that had a real purpose and the ability to grab your attention through promo work.
The basic idea of the DoD was to show the other women in the division that they were nothing compared to the strong, athletic pro wrestlers standing across the locker room from them.
They had short feuds with Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres, but again were never really allowed the time and space to grow. The point of a dominant heel faction is partly to build convincing babyface characters around them. Instead, the WWE just relied on the same faces that hadn't proved themselves worthy of facing the pair in the first place.
This could have been an early precursor to the women's revolution, perhaps bringing in names from other companies to feud with Beth and Natalya. Sadly, however, we had to wait another few years before the McMahon family decided they really did care about women's wrestling.
#4 Post-Montreal Owen Hart
It's safe to say 1997/8 were tough years for Owen Hart. After seeing the company he worked for screw his own brother behind his back, and then witnessing the other members of his family depart for WCW, Owen was forced to stick around, partly due to contract requirements.
After a short hiatus, post-Montreal, Owen returned to the WWE as a pissed-off babyface wanting nothing more than to get back at the people who had screwed over his family. He took shots at Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels, and in particular HHH.
The new character change had such a promising feel about it at the time. There were genuine, non-kayfabe, emotions at play, with WWF fans desperate to see some kind of resolution to the Screwjob itself. Bret and the other members of the Hart Foundation had left, and it was left to Owen to avenge his family’s honour.
Whether the company got cold feet, or there was just some good old-fashioned HBK politics going on in Vince’s ear, the gimmick fizzled out and became about Owen vs. HHH for the European title. Soon after this, Owen went back to becoming a heel, joining the Nation of Domination.
In a time when reality was being embraced, as the Attitude Era was slowly finding its feet, this could have been so much more than what it eventually became. Imagine seeing a match between Owen Hart and Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship at the Royal Rumble in 1998, with the Montreal Screwjob lurking in the background.
Perhaps this was just too much of a storyline for the company to handle, given the fact that a lot of people were still very angry about the whole affair. But who knows where that could have led if it were given time?
#5 Daniel Bryan the Anarchist
Daniel Bryan’s Pro Wrestling career can be summed up in three parts. First, there was his sensational independent scene run where he would delight fans all over the world with his wrestling talent, claiming the ROH World Championship in the process.
The last part saw him achieve the very highest prize in WWE, a World Championship victory in the main event of Wrestlemania.
However, in between these two phases, Bryan’s career became rather stagnant. His time in NXT (the original, reality TV contest version) was underwhelming at best. He did have some decent feuds with The Miz and CM Punk, but ultimately seemed destined for perpetual mid-card hell.
One saving grace about being a mid-carder in the WWE is that you are at least afforded the time to think up some new concepts for your character. You get to a position where you’re more likely to move down the card if you don’t keep things fresh.
This is why, in a match with CM Punk at Over the Limit, Bryan thought he would try and get his new gimmick over. Bryan would essentially become an unhinged Anarchist and even wore a green military style jacket to the ring to give fans an idea of the direction he was headed.
For those who have watched his DVD ‘Just Say Yes’, Bryan explains that he wanted to give a boost to his character and was under the impression that the Anarchist character was good to go. Instead, Vince McMahon pulled him up after the match and told him never to wear the jacket again.
It’s hard to miss the gimmick, seeing as we never actually saw it in any promos, but one would imagine a talent like Daniel Bryan would have made it work. The guy is pretty anti-establishment in real life anyway, choosing to live a vegan lifestyle and not getting too involved in the glitz and glamour of celebrity life.
He could have used this in the same way Punk used to berate people for drinking alcohol, claiming to be better than most people because of the kind of life he leads. Nevertheless, it’s not as if things didn’t turn out ok for The American Dragon in the end.
#6 Bo-lieve in Dallas
NXT has undoubtedly been responsible for making stars in the WWE. Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Roman Reigns, whilst all having some pre-WWE credibility in their own right, successfully used NXT as a way to introduce themselves to the WWE Universe and went on to become champions on the main roster.
But for every Seth Rollins, there is a Bo Dallas. After Bo’s NXT Championship run, and a brief feud with Wade Barratt at the Royal Rumble, it looked as though another future main eventer was coming our way. Dallas was initially given the gimmick of a motivational speaker who would tell you anything is possible if you just ‘Bo-lieved’.
It was a strange gimmick to get over, seeing as he had to be a heel in the process, and therefore nobody was really sure if he was asking people to believe in themselves, or in him.
One thing the gimmick did have going for it, however, was that his promo segments would normally lead to matches that he would win either accidentally or through underhand tactics. Bo would then do a victory lap around the ring and say he was 1 and Bo, or 2 and Bo, etc.
Like most of the other gimmicks on this list, there was real potential for stardom at work here. Bo was believable enough as a character to play the role well, and the audience seemed to care enough to at least react every time he’d come out.
Sadly, the whole thing ended on a throw-away episode of RAW when Dallas was defeated by R-Truth. This led to a short feud between the two and kicked the ladder completely out from Bo’s legs in the process.
#7 Daniel Wyatt
Back to Daniel Bryan and another gimmick idea that wasn’t given adequate time. Back in late 2013 when everyone was consigning themselves to the idea of Randy Orton and Batista headlining Wrestlemania 30 and Daniel Bryan being cast aside yet again, an interesting development took place when Bryan decided to join the Wyatt Family.
After a few weeks of the Wyatts stalking Bryan and goading him into joining them, he eventually gave in and spent a few weeks wearing a blue jumpsuit, mainly losing tag team matches against the Usos and the Rhodes Brothers.
The storyline did end with a memorable moment when Bryan saw the light and single handedly destroyed all three members in a steel cage match. He had the entire arena doing the YES! chant with him to close the show in scenes we still remember fondly to this day.
Daniel Bryan’s success at WrestleMania 30, despite being a feel good moment for his fans, did feel a little rushed and reactionary. Not only were management worried about their main event for ‘Mania going down like a led balloon but CM Punk had also recently left the company, leaving HHH without an opponent.
Without all of this, perhaps Bryan’s involvement with the Wyat family could have lasted well into 2014. Bryan even admitted that the boots he wore at Mania were originally made for him to complement his look as part of the Wyatts. Something put a premature ending to this gimmick, and we’ll never know how much of a success it would have been.
#8 The Narcissist
Nothing epitomised 1993 WWF like Lex Lugar. He stood as a representation of the company’s attempts to transition itself from steroid induced cartoon-like animation, towards a more serious, socially responsible product.
After Hogan left the company and the investigations into McMahon’s involvement with steroids started to pick up speed, it was up to guys like Lugar, Bret Hart and Yokozuna to try and carry the company along until they could figure out what was best for the long term.
One effect of this transition was the placing of Lugar at centre stage, in a bid to remain pro-Americana. He had initially been attempting to get himself over as an arrogant, self-obsessed heel called ‘The Narcissist’.
Introduced by Bobby Heenan, Lex would pose in front of a mirror, flexing his muscles and grimacing at others below him. The gimmick kind of worked, as the WWF were still in their cheesy, homoerotic stage, and Lex clearly had something to offer to the business as a heel, facing guys like Bret and Mr Perfect.
Unfortunately, Vince soon became obsessed with the idea of filling the Hogan shaped void with someone he thought looked the most American. The All-American Lugar character would soon fade away, however, after a cool response from the fans, and Lex would go on to do great things with WCW instead.
Perhaps the Narcissist gimmick could have made Lugar the star Vince wanted him to be, but we shall never know.
#9 Bad New Barrett
After winning the first series of NXT, an accomplishment that promised Barett a future World title shot, and then becoming the leader of the NEXUS, quite possibly the most exciting faction since Evolution, the future really did look bright for the former bare-knuckle brawler.
Things started to go seriously downhill though after the NEXUS lost to team WWE at Summerslam 2010 – a result that still irks the minds of WWE fans across the globe. The group itself never really recovered from that, and the title matches Wade was involved in were always tied up with strange stipulations like John Cena’s career being on the line.
It was very difficult to take the guy seriously as a championship contender.
After being made to fend for himself, Barret soon stumbled across a gimmick that looked like it would transition him back to the main event scene. Wade would come to the ring and basically inform the audience that what they wanted to happen, wasn’t going to happen, and began each promo with ‘I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news’.
From there, the Bad News Barret gimmick was born. This was a great example of a gimmick getting over unexpectedly, the audience loved to hear the Englishman drone on about something negative, bashing his hammer into the desk as he spoke.
Others in the company even started impersonating him, leading to scenes in which HHH and Stephanie would attempt awful English accents.
Sadly for Wade, it was an injury that put a premature end to this gimmick, rather than a quick change of plans by management. However, there was no reason he could not have continued it upon his return. He was once in contention to break the Undertaker’s streak too, which says a lot about his potential.
Wade would soon find himself as a generic heel again, struggling to make himself relevant. It all seems rather bizarre considering it was never his in-ring work that let the guy down, all he needed was that one engaging gimmick to make him a star, and by the looks of it, he had found just the one.
Instead, he was put into the ‘League of Nations’ and was soon shown the door for good.
#10 Un-Dashing Cody Rhodes
And we end this list with the guy who started it all. The Dashing Cody Rhodes gimmick looked to be a great success until plans were changed unnecessarily (see above). In kayfabe terms, Cody was forced to stop calling himself dashing after being hit in the face with a 619 from Rey Mysterio.
This led to Rhodes getting facial reconstruction surgery, hiding behind a dark hood and a face mask.
Cody, being the talent that he is, also made this gimmick work tremendously well. Out of the two, it was probably this Phantom of the Opera like, demented character that worked the best. It showed a darker side to someone the audience previously thought of as either a lapdog or a pretty boy.
The mask itself even became an unofficial weapon, helping Rhodes to many victories.
A lot of work was put into his vignettes, the music and even the images on the screen behind him as he came out for a match that showed newspaper headlines reporting on his disfiguration. It’s a wonder sometimes why the WWE pulls the plug on gimmicks they seem initially so keen to get over.
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