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When WCW and the WWE competed for TV ratings during The Monday Night War, wrestling was one of the hottest programs on American television. Wrestlers hopping from one company to another was not uncommon. Hollywood Hogan and Chris Jericho became huge stars when they changed promotions in this era.
Although the WWE ultimately won the Monday Night Wars, a ton of wrestlers had much better gimmicks before their arrival. This list will examine ten superstars who had a great gimmick at WCW and a bad one in the WWE.
10 Konnan
Konnan was once a huge name at WCW. When he joined the nWo, he shined in the stable full of big-name superstars like Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. He also had a great wrestling background and could compete well with anyone in the ring. His entire gimmick in WCW was just an elevated version of himself.
Before arriving to WCW, Konnan spent time in the WWE under multiple awful gimmicks that included him as a cartoon robot and as a masked superstar with no back story.
9 Diamond Dallas Page
DDP was a late bloomer in the world of wrestling but became a big star at WCW. He was a world champion who was often a high point in the show during the down days of WCW. His arrival to the WWE had a ton of potential since he was one of the few babyfaces to jump to WWE from WCW.
Unfortunately, he debuted with a horrible gimmick. The former champion arrived as a person who stalked the Undertaker's (ex) wife, Sara. The gimmick was so bad his WWE career never took off.
8 Dean Malenko
Dean Malenko's "man of a thousand holds" was iconic. Jericho even performed one of the best promos of his career by mocking Malenko and reading his holds on Nitro. Malenko departed with the Radicalz to the WWE and had a below-average career. Along with being poorly booked, he had a horrible "ladies man" gimmick that did not fit Malenko.
7 Juventud Guerrera
Juventud Guerrera once had a mask as well known as Rey Mysterio. He always stood out among his cruiserweight peers and had a very memorable career at WCW. His WWE career was a huge waste of potential for Juventud.
He never had a feud that valued his skills as a performer and his time with the Mexicools (the group of Mexicans who drove lawn mowers) was awful. Guerrera went from an amazing Mexican performer in WCW to a Mexican stereotype in the WWE.
6 Ron Simmons
Way too many wrestling fans forget that Ron Simmons is the first Black person to ever win the WCW Heavyweight Championship. His time in WCW did not only make history, but he was one of the strongest forces at WCW in the early 90s.
Although he did have a few memorable gimmicks in the WWE, his first was awful. The former world champion was a manager dressed in a gladiator suit. He escorted Sunny, but luckily this didn't last long and he formed the Nation of Domination soon after.
5 Kanyon
Kanyon had a great WCW career. He was respected among his peers and one of the most underrated at the company. His run as Mortis and his WCW US title run were both high points of his career. His time in the WWE was average at best.
One of the low points was when he adopted a pirate gimmick and sung a Boy George song to the Undertaker. Not only was the gimmick useless, fans later found out Kanyon was gay, which makes the gimmick more distasteful in retrospect.
4 X-Pac
Before he was X-Pac, he was "1-2-3 Kid" in the WWE. Although Pac always had a ton of potential in the ring, the Kid gimmick did little to move the bar for the future WWE Hall of Famer. His high points as Kid were with Scott Hall who he followed to WCW. At WCW he adopted the Syxx gimmick, which was a huge upgrade for him. It led to "X-Pac" when he returned to the WWE.
3 Jeff Jarrett
Jeff Jarrett recently returned to the WWE as a Vice President. It seemed for decades that Jarrett had such bad blood with the company that he would never return. He had a great career in WCW, where he held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship four different times. His goofy dancing gimmick was awful, although it did help him get over. When compared to WCW Jeff Jarrett, it's a huge step down for the WWE Hall of Famer.
2 Terry Funk
Terry Funk was a wrestling star in the late 70s. His career was completely reignited in ECW, but he had some of the best matches of his career in WCW. He even wrestled against Flair in one of the few five-star matches (according to Dave Meltzer) of Flair's entire career.
In the WWE, Funk adopted the "Chainsaw Charlie" gimmick. Funk could make anything given to him look great, but "Chainsaw Charlie" was aimless and did little to add to Funk's amazing legacy as a wrestler.
1 Hollywood Hogan
Hogan's heel turn in WCW is one of the greatest evolutions in the history of wrestling. Going from the "Hulkster" to Hollywood Hogan added ten decades of main event stardom to Hogan's career. After WCW, Hogan returned to the WWE, where he adopted one of the worst gimmicks of his entire career, Mr. America. The gimmick not only diluted the legacy of Hogan but is one of the worst gimmicks of the entire Ruthless Aggression Era.