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Whilst in 2018, most WWE acts perform under their real names or close approximations of them, such as John Cena (John Felix Anthony Cena) or Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson) the 20th century WWE, particularly the 1980s and 1990s were filled with gimmick performers up and down their cards.
During the mid-1990s in particular, it seemed as if nearly every wrestler had a day job.
WWE superstars during this time period included a Tax Inspector (IRS), Repo Man (the imaginatively monikered Repo Man), a Garbage Man (Duke "The Dumpster" Droese) and a Prison Guard (Big Boss Man, who incidentally had worked as a Prison Guard in real life).
Then, there were even more outrageous gimmicks that were not of this world such as the Voodoo Practitioner, Papa Shango and Mantaur, half man, half bull, based upon the Greek legend monster, The Minotaur. For every successful gimmick such as the undead Zombie, The Undertaker, there was an embarrassment like The Red Rooster.
The Red Rooster character was given to Terry Taylor, who was an excellent worker and had been a serious performer throughout his career in the decade prior to joining WWE for a large array of promotions such as Mid Atlantic, World Class and many others, winning Championships in all.
However, curiously for some strange reason, Taylor was portrayed as a novice in WWE who had to be led through his matches by manager, Bobby Heenan. Eventually, he would style his hair upwards like a rooster and begin clucking around the ring. It was a senseless burial of a performer who could have been a major player in the company under a different persona.
Red Rooster buried Taylor's career but for many other performers, unsuccessful gimmicks can be nothing more than seasoning until they hit upon a successful formula.
In the following slideshow, SK looks at five performers who overcame their first WWE gimmicks to enjoy success in the promotion.
#5 Stone Cold Steve Austin (The Ringmaster)
Stone Cold Steve Austin was famously fired by WCW boss, Eric Bischoff in 1995 during his recovery from a torn triceps injury. Although Bischoff, as per the terms of the contract was entitled to let Austin go, the heartlessness of the move cut the future Stone Cold deep.
After a brief run in ECW, wherein Austin knocked Bischoff and Hulk Hogan in memorable promo's he resurfaced in WWE under the nondescript gimmick of The Ringmaster.
Managed by 1980s relic, Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase and saddled with Dibiase's 80s gimmick Million Dollar belt, Austin struggled to gain traction with the audience.
Austin detested the persona, recognising it as the mid-card act it was and was keen to reinvent his character as an ice cold ruthless killer, inspired by a documentary he had watched regarding serial killer, Richard Kuklinski who had famously frozen his victims in an industrial freezer to disguise their time of death before disposing of them.
Austin was fascinated by the mentality of someone who could become so cold and heartless and wanted to play a character with those traits. When he told the WWE office of his ideas and wish to change his gimmick, he was faxed potential new character names such as Chilly McFreeze, Fang McFrost and Baron Von Ruthless.
The company didn't get it but thankfully Austin's then-wife Jeannie did and it was she who stumbled upon the moniker "Stone Cold" when she told him to finish drinking his cup of tea before it got stone cold.
The rest, as they say, is history. With his new character, Austin became the most successful drawing card in the history of wrestling.
#4 Road Dogg (The Roadie)
Brian James's WWE career began inauspiciously as "The Roadie" character. In storyline he was Jeff Jarrett's (who had a gimmick as a southern country singer) tour manager/roadie.
Despite the act screaming mid-card, there were some plans in place for James as The Roadie. His charge, Jarrett was to be exposed as not the legitimate singer of his hit song, "With My Baby Tonight" and it was scheduled to be revealed that James was instead (which was true).
However, before those plans were followed through on television, Jarrett abruptly left unhappy that the storyline could harm his career and in a show of loyalty, James followed Jarrett out of the door.
That was a colossal misstep for James as unknown to him, he was set to win the Intercontinental Championship in the eventual Jarrett-Roadie feud.
That never came to pass and when Roadie returned to WWE it was in a glorified jobber role and he was saddled with 1980s star, The Honky Tonk Man and his future New Age Outlaws teammate, "Rockabilly" Billy Gunn in embarrassing segments.
With Gunn, James was repackaged as The Road Dogg and the underutilised pair teamed up as The New Age Outlaws and quickly defeated the legendary Legion of Doom to become Tag Team Champions towards the end of 1997.
In spring 1998, the tandem joined D-Generation X and became major players in the promotion and racked up a then record five Tag Team title wins.
Road Dogg would also have singles success as Hardcore and Intercontinental Champion before personal issues cut his WWE career short in early 2001.
The New Age Outlaws reunited on WWE television in 2014 for a short run as Champions before both men moved into backstage roles in the company.
#3 The Godfather (Papa Shango)
Charles Wright knows all about bad gimmicks. His first WWE run was a total embarrassment.
Saddled with the character of Papa Shango which was based upon the Voodoo Priest characters seen in 1973 James Bond film, Live and Let Die, Wright was forced to pretend to be in a trance as his opponents would writhe around in agony many yards away from him or even vomit.
It was asinine and literally two decades behind the times. The Shango character was a massive embarrassment to the industry.
The persona was deservedly pilloried from all around the wrestling world and was scrapped a year after its debut in early 1993.
From there, Wright was given the moniker of Kama, who was based upon Hawaiian MMA star, Kimo, who was famous in UFC at the time. This gimmick went nowhere either, though it had much greater sticking power than Shango, lasting several years before Wright gradually changed his persona into that of The Godfather.
The Godfather was a pimp who brought his girls out to the ring with him for his matches. Massively over with the fanbase, Godfather achieved modest success in the mid-card and even reigned as Intercontinental Champion.
So fondly remembered is Wright's most famous creation, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.
#2 Batista (Deacon Batista)
Those people who best know David Bautista as a movie star in such hits as Guardians of the Galaxy and Spectre and his headline run in WWE may not remember the debut gimmick of wrestling superstar, Dave Batista.
Debuting on main roster WWE in early 2002, Deacon Batista was partnered with mid-card comedy heel, Reverend D'Von and was instructed to carry around a church collections box and act as interference runner in D'Von's matches.
Batista detested the gimmick and after playing a serious albeit supernatural character, Leviathan prior to his call up could not believe that WWE were not taking his career seriously.
When the Reverend D'Von character was scrapped, so too mercifully was Batista's ridiculously one dimensional act.
Batista was fortunate to join headline stable, Evolution where alongside Randy Orton, he learned from the best in the business in stable mates, Triple H and Ric Flair and eventually developed into a main event act, winning six World titles between 2005 and 2010.
#1 Kane (Isaac Yankem DDS)
It is a name that haunts many longtime WWE viewers to this day. For a generation of fans the name Isaac Yankem DDS awakens long, better-buried memories.
It was one of the most nonsensical gimmicks of all time. Portrayed as comedy heel Jerry Lawler's psychotic personal dentist, Yankem was tasked with ridding WWE of Lawler's arch nemesis, Bret Hart.
Yankem contested awful matches at Summerslam and Survivor Series 1995 before he was demoted to a jobber role and retired as a character.
The duff gimmicks didn't end there for Jacobs. He was subsequently saddled with the fake Diesel character which was WWE owner, Vince McMahon's petty way at sticking it to the original Diesel, Kevin Nash, who had bitterly upset McMahon by leaving his company for WCW earlier in 1996.
After flopping once more, Jacobs was thankfully given the character of the long lost brother of The Undertaker, Kane.
Portrayed as a supernatural monster with greater powers than his older brother, Jacob's new act was a smash hit and eight months after his debut, Kane became WWE Champion, defeating Stone Cold Steve Austin at the infamous King of the Ring 1998 pay per view.
20 years after that title win, Kane is still a major character in the promotion, despite Jacob's juggling his wrestling career with his full time job as Mayor of Knox County.
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