With the staggering number of wrestlers that come in and out of WWE, the company has to continuously keep creating new and innovative gimmicks in order to keep the fans entertained and the product feeling fresh. Throughout the history of WWE, Vince McMahon and his creative team have made up countless gimmicks, some of which never even make it past the boardroom meetings, but some sadly do, even if the idea is terrible.

Even though there have been some great gimmicks such as The Undertaker and Mankind, others have been horrendous, often leaving wrestling fans questioning their own sanity and struggling to defend why they watch the product to their friends. A bad wrestling gimmick can ruin a persons career with many talented wrestlers not being able to recover from a shocking gimmick that the company saddled them with, while some have thankfully managed to reinvent themselves and switch things up.

It seems that for every great gimmick there are at least five bad ones and thankfully most don't make it to TV, but when they do the fans don't forget, even if they wish they could and therefore this list will look at 18 examples of bad gimmicks that made wrestling fans question their own sanity.

18 The ECW Zombie

There were a lot of things wrong with WWE's version of ECW with the show certainly not living up to the original ECW that fans knew and loved. One of those things that was very  wrong was the ECW Zombie. So bad that most fans probably don't remember him (thankfully), this was a ridiculous gimmick that just left wrestling fans questioning why they tune into the product each and every week.

With ECW airing on the SyFy Network, WWE saw an opportunity to make a quick link with this character, but it just made no sense at all to the actual show. Thankfully, someone had some sense and only allowed this character to last one week.

17 Kerwin White

Sometimes, WWE feels the need to repackage wrestlers as something different after they've been on TV for a while. This makes sense as the company is just trying to keep that talent fresh in the minds of fans. However, when the wrestler in question is Chavo Guerrero, the decision makes absolutely no sense at all.

As a member of one of the most historic wrestling families in history, nobody bought into him being Kerwin White.

All this despite him denying he was, or ever had been Chavo. With his hair bleached blonde, Kerwin would drive to the ring in a golf cart with a faux Frank Sinatra song blaring as his entrance in what was an utterly ridiculous gimmick that just insulted the fans intelligence.

16 Lord Tensai

It is amazing Matt Bloom managed to survive in the wrestling business to be in the position he is now as the head coach with NXT after the number of poor gimmicks WWE gave him throughout his time. If you thought him teaming up with Brodus Clay and dancing around was bad, his time as Lord Tensai was certainly worse. WWE decided to bring Bloom back after several years away and then position him as a major threat for all of about five minutes.

He returned pretending to be Japanese with words 'tattooed' all over him but it never worked as everybody already remembered him as Albert. Fans questioned their sanity over this one for sure.

15 Billy And Chuck

This is a case of two talented wrestlers being thrown together with a very questionable gimmick added on top. As a tag team, Billy and Chuck were good as both men could work and portrayed the gimmick very well. The decision to have them both play characters who were in love with each other was a bold one for WWE, but it worked initially.

The fans bought into it and both men really committed to the roles.

It went so well that the LGBT community outside of wrestling began to notice it with charities applauding WWE for its bold decision. This backfired though when their wedding segment revealed them to be lying the entire time, painting everyone involved in an incredibly bad light.

14 Mantaur

If this is where the list begins you can only imagine what awful gimmicks are still waiting for you, but this just shows how ridiculous WWE can be at times and gives you a slight glimpse into the crazy mind of Vince McMahon. At one point Mantaur was Goldust's bodyguard and that pairing was as oddly terrible as you would expect. The character did all things you could think of from charging, grunting and even mooing at its opponents.

The one thing this gimmick never did was entertain the fans. Not a single person who watched the product at that time thought this was a good idea, with the fans often falling totally silent when Mantaur would appear.

13 Repo Man

The period in time of WWE trying to ensure that nearly everyone on the roster had some form of 'real work' related gimmicks was a very odd time and the Repo Man was one of the worst out of a bad bunch.

Repo Man did exactly what you would expect him to do... he repossessed things from people who were late or failed to make payments. That's right, in WWE they decided this of all things was a good idea to make exciting television. Strangely enough, it wasn't. The sneaky heel character made zero impact and made fans do more than question their sanity. After all, who really wants to watch a repo man in a wrestling environment, truly awful.

12 Reverend D-Von

There's a reason Bubba Ray Dudley begged D-Von not to mention the Reverend gimmick during their Hall Of Fame speech and that is because it was awful, really awful, turning a well-known legend into a joke. For some reason WWE wanted to change up D-Von, despite everyone knowing him as the ECW star who smashed people through tables, he then became a spiritual advisor and nobody enjoyed it.

Walking around with a collection plate to take money from the fans, the only positive thing this gimmick did was introduce the WWE Universe to Batista, who also happened to be given a shocking gimmick.

11 Rocky Maivia

Not every gimmick on this list is going to be a wacky over the top character that just doesn't fit into a WWE setting, some gimmicks that the company created and thought were normal sucked as well. WWE brought in Rocky Maivia with high hopes and eventually that all worked out as he became one of the biggest stars in the world as The Rock, but it wasn't without a very difficult start.

Rocky was an over the top babyface who did everything and anything to please the crowd, yet the crowd wanted nothing to do with that. Rocky's efforts were instead met with "die, Rocky, die" chants, showing you exactly how the fans felt about the gimmick.

10 Spirit Squad

When it comes to the worst gimmicks in wrestling history, the Spirit Squad are always brought into the conversation and rightfully so, because it was terrible. A group of male cheerleaders who danced around were who WWE wanted the fans to take seriously. And the company wonders why people get mocked for watching professional wrestling.

The group were a joke and that's exactly how they were treated during their run where they became the whipping boys for DX.

While some of the moments of that feud are still talked about and shown on replays today, very little of what Spirit Squad did was memorable and it is no surprise that only one member managed to actually have a lengthy career.

9 Paul And Katie Lea Burchill

There are certain things in pop culture that just don't blend well with the world of WWE and pirates is one of them as the company quickly found out when it introduced Paul and Katie Lea Burchill. The siblings debuted in WWE as pirates and while they did the best they possibly could with such a terrible gimmick, it was never going to put them in a main event spot or even keep their jobs for very long.

WWE then made things worse (somehow), by deciding to seriously tease a relationship situation between the Burchills, which is something that nobody wanted to see on a WWE show as it was just weird.

8 Adam Rose

When it comes to NXT a lot of the time things are overlooked or given a free pass simply because of how good the show is and the number of incredible talents that the developmental system has created. But sometimes you have to call a spade a spade and admit when something isn't good and the Adam Rose gimmick was an example that not everything from NXT is brilliant and that somethings simply don't work.

The idea that WWE wanted fans to get behind some guy who just partied all the time and had a bunch of strangers following him around was odd, with one of the most exciting elements being someone dressed as a bunny. It is no surprise that he never fully made it.

7 Jason Jordan

The fact WWE threw such a horrendous gimmick onto someone as talented as Jason Jordan just made everything about this even worse. Fresh off of his American Alpha run, the company decided it was time for something new for Jordan. With Kurt Angle back in the company and as Raw general manager, the creative team decided that him being Angle's illegitimate son was the best way to go with him and they couldn't have been more wrong.

Not a single member of the WWE Universe bought into the idea of Jordan actually being his son.

After all, the power of social media now is too strong and fans are not that stupid, which then made them go against everything Jordan did, stopping his momentum.

6 Funkasaurus

When you have someone the size of Brodus Clay on your hands the obvious idea is to turn him into a major monster, have him run through the entire roster and became a big heel that someone will eventually overcome. That is what everybody was expecting WWE to do when they debuted him, but it is far from what fans actually got, with WWE deciding after weeks of teasing to simply turn him into a comedy character.

Coming out singing and dancing, Clay turned into the Fuknasaurus in what was one of the worst gimmicks in recent history. None of it made sense and while it provided a few laughs it got tired incredibly quickly and eventually faded out.

5 Heidenreich

The only thing most people tend to remember about Heidenreich is the incredibly creepy moment was he grabbed Michael Cole in the washroom, reading creepy poetry and then who knows what else. A total psychopath of a character, he was not as dominant as he should have been and therefore was incredibly forgettable. While the idea of his gimmick on paper wasn't a bad one, the execution was poor.

When you add in the fact that he wasn't very talented between the ropes, things just never really took off and what could have been potentially interesting just turned into a disaster zone.

4 The Dicks

That's correct, it isn't a typo, you read that right. WWE decided to have a tag team whose name was actually 'The Dicks.' And you thought 'The Bar' was a bad name. What was going through WWE's mind when they came up with this nobody will ever know but it was an awful idea. The pair were supposed to be Chippendale dancers and were heels who sprayed lotion on their opponents' eyes, just to really shove the entire idea of what their gimmick was down your throat.

Thankfully, this gimmick was very short lived so most people have forgotten it. Considering WWE's PG product nowadays, don't expect to hear anything about them ever again.

3 Festus

When you take a look at what Luke Gallows has been able to accomplish in his career since ditching this dreadful gimmick, it makes you question why WWE thought it was a smart idea to create it in the first place. WWE gave him the gimmick of a wrestler who was mentally challenged. He couldn't talk and barely walked around but when the bell rang he transformed into a monster and could destroy anybody in his path.

However, when the match ended and the final bell rang he would return back to his old state. It was ridiculous. While Gallows did the absolute best he could to try and turn it into something, it left the fans simply wondering, why?

2 Eugene

It might be a character that is fondly remembered by fans, largely because of the brilliant work Nick Dinsmore did in portraying Eugene, but the gimmick itself wasn't a good one. It especially made little sense in the world of professional wrestling. Eugene was supposed to be the mentally disabled nephew of Eric Bischoff, so straight away fans question why they want to see him fight if they are being conditioned to the fact he has mental problems.

While that was questionable within itself, everything about the gimmick was just tough to get behind and take seriously and while there is always room for comedic roles, the fact Eugene rose to the point of facing main event stars was a problem.

1 Isaac Yankem

It is an absolute miracle that Glen Jacobs managed to have the career he has had after having to portray Isaac Yankem for a portion of his career, with a gimmick this bad you would have expected it to finish the man portraying it.

Instead, Jacobs went on to actually work as Kane, one of the best gimmicks of all time where he has created a Hall Of Fame worthy career for himself, something that deserves a lot more credit than it gets. Portraying Yankem, who was a dentist, fans quickly began to question what they were witnessing. While job gimmicks were popular at the time, having a mad dentist was just a stretch too far.