5 WWE character changes that flopped

In one of the most interesting angles on last night's Raw, Bray Wyatt finally returned to our screens, debuting his new character, a creepy television show host, in the process.

Wyatt's latest character has already proven to be incredibly divisive, with many fans finding the former WWE Champion's new look absolutely hilarious, while others, myself included, believe it could be just the kind of new start Wyatt has been needing for some time now.

Regardless of opinion though, the move is a big risk from the WWE and could prove to be one that backfires massively.

Character changes are never easy to pull off, and while some turn out to be a masterstroke (here's looking at you, Kane) others can turn out to be an absolute disaster.

So, in honor of Bray Wyatt's latest character change, let's take a look at five other fairly recent character changes that have backfired on the WWE.

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#5: Lord Tensai

Poor Matt Bloom. Despite having bags of potential, he could never quite get over in the WWE, no matter what gimmick the company lumbered him with.

His runs as both Albert and A-Train felt like generic big guy gimmicks but it was his gimmick as Lord Tensai that really put the nail in the coffin of his main-event hops in the WWE.

After being released from the WWE in 2006, Bloom signed with NJPW and wrestled in Japan for a total of six years, establishing himself as one of the strongest foreign competitors on their roster.

Bloom would then return in 2012 and the company made the decision to repackage him as 'Lord Tensai' presumably in some sort of misguided attempt to recognise his accomplishments in Japan.

Needless to say, the gimmick tanked and a little over a year after making his debut, Tensai was teamed up with Brodus Clay as part of a dancing act.

#4: Adam Rose

Adam Rose could have been a star on the main roster

In theory, this character change actually took place down in NXT, but such was the drastic and catastrophic nature of the change that it had to be included on this list.

Before he was a conga line leading jobber, Rose wrestled down in NXT as Leo Kruger and was a regular on the NXT Championship scene. He had also had a successful run down in FCW before NXT came to be, winning the FCW Championship on two occasions.

Sadly, it was the Adam Rose character that the company decided to call up to the main roster after WrestleMania XXX, and despite clearly being talented in the ring, Rose quickly become a comedy act who did nothing but put other performers over.

After briefly appearing as a member of The Social Outcasts alongside several other jobbers, Rose was released from his WWE contract in 2016, a little less than two years after making his main roster debut.

#3: Reverend D-Von

D-Von is better suited to tag-team wrestling

Oddly enough, D-Von's run as Reverend D-Von is remembered for introducing Batista to the WWE Universe, with the future World Heavyweight Champion making his debut alongside D-Von as Deacon Batista.

Unsurprisingly, that was the only good thing to come out of D-von's otherwise forgettable singles run in 2002.

Having split up from Bubba Ray during the brand-split, D-Von was repackaged as Reverend D-Von in a gimmick that was clearly destined to fail from the start.

Breaking up from one of the most successful tag teams in wrestling history is always going to prove to be difficult, and even more so when you are lumbered with such a DOA gimmick.

D-Von's run was quickly brought to an end though, with The Dudley Boyz quickly reforming and Deacon Batista turning his back on the church and heading towards a new light with the team of Evolution. The rest as they say, is history.

#2: Stardust

Cody Rhodes tried his hardest with the Stardust gimmick

There must be a small part of Vince McMahon kicking himself for allowing Cody Rhodes to leave the WWE and potentially start the first promotion to truly challenge the company for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Then again, all McMahon did with Cody when he had him on his books was mistreat him and book him as a cheap imitation of his older brother.

Back in 2013, Cody Rhodes and Goldust had an excellent run as a tag-team and the WWE botched it by having the duo go on a lengthy losing streak.

The end result of that streak was Cody effectively deciding to replicate his brother's gimmick and thus, Stardust was introduced to the WWE Universe.

Rhodes quickly got relegated to comedy/jobber status, despite giving the clearly ridiculous act all of his effort.

The gimmick is reportedly one of the big reasons why Rhodes requested his release from the company in 2016.

#1: Kerwin White

How did this ever make it to television?

Sometimes, the WWE puts out a gimmick that is so painfully bad, you have to wonder exactly how it managed to pass through their creative process without someone questioning it.

Such was the case with Kerwin White, Chavo Guerrero's racist, golf-playing middle-class American character who legitimately used to say the line 'if it's not white, it's not right' on television.

At the time, Guererro had just come out of a pretty successful run as Cruiserweight Champion and the decision to change his character was incredibly strange.

As White, Guerrero had a famously horrendous feud with Shelton Benjamin and also introduced the WWE Universe to Nick Nemeth, who of course, would later become Dolph Ziggler.

The gimmick was dropped fairly quickly by the WWE followed the unfortunate death of Eddie Guerrero but Chavo Guerrero never really managed to recover as a credible character in the WWE following this run.