3 of Vince McMahon's worst character ideas and 2 of his best

#2. Worst - Dr. Isaac Yankem

The story behind this is hilarious

Back to Glenn Jacobs, it's a real miracle that he managed to become a legend of that caliber. But that's a power of a good gimmick. The power of a bad gimmick, unfortunately, isn't very flattering and Jacobs learned it the hard way when he was Dr. Isaac Yankem, an evil dentist.

Kane even recalled the absolutely hilarious story behind how Vince McMahon pitched Isaac Yankem to him. In an appearance on The Steve Austin Show Podcast, Glenn Jacobs recalled the meeting.

“Everything is going well [in a meeting] and then Vince asks me, ‘Glenn, have you ever been afraid to go to the dentist?’ and I think this is one of those things where I’m going to a personality test or something. I’m like, ‘No, sir’ and he’s like, ‘You know, I’ve always had this idea for a wrestling dentist: Isaac Yankem… I yank ’em!’ and then he starts doing the Vince laugh, right? I’m looking at this one individual in this business to break into the big leagues and I’m sitting there with a blank face trying not to react. He says, ‘I think you’ll be great for it’ and then he walks out! I’m sitting there and I went from on top of the world to feeling the world has fallen on top of me. Because I’m like, a wrestling dentist?! How am I gonna pull this off?!”

One can only imagine his reaction to that pitch.

The gimmick lasted for less than two years without making much of an impression with the stakeholders. It was when Jacobs donned the role of Kane, the Undertaker's half brother, that his career took off. The big red machine is one of WWE's greatest gimmicks that struck a chord with the WWE universe.

Jacobs, on a personal level, achieved the status of both a Triple Crown champion and Grand Slam champion with the Kane gimmick. Something a dentist might have found hard to do.