Modern-day WWE has shied away from using gimmicked and cliched characters. However, in the past, WWE couldn't get enough of them. The Big Boss Man, I.R.S., and The Repo Man are just some of the notorious wrestling gimmicks of the WWE. While some of these gimmicks were actually widely popular among wrestling fans, such as The Undertaker, or Roddy Piper or Sgt. Slaughter, other gimmicks have not held up over time as well as others.
Almost every wrestler at some point has received a terrible gimmick in their careers. In fact, some gimmicks have actually ruined promising up-and-coming careers. However, most superstars receive their lousy gimmicks at the beginning of their career, and even a terrible gimmick can at least help them get their foot in the door of professional wrestling. If they're lucky, the superstar can then shake off their awful gimmick and incorporate a new one to help them catch on better with the fans.
Many of WWE's biggest names actually started off with dull or completely over-the-top gimmicks, but fans barely remember these characters. Many of these legends were still unknown at the time of these horrible characters, and most fans just remember the character that got the wrestler famous. Can you imagine Steve Austin portraying anyone other than Stone Cold? Or Dwayne Johnson being anyone other than The Rock? Many Superstars, including other legends, had embarrassing gimmicks before finding their niche. This article is about these superstars and their previous gimmicks. Here are 20 embarrassing gimmicks you forgot these superstars had before they were famous.
20 The Godfather (Papa Shango)
Many wrestling fans were surprised to see The Godfather inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, and I can’t say I blame them. The Godfather’s credentials are a little suspect, but at least Charles Wright wasn’t inducted as the pilloried Papa Shango.
Papa Shango was a voodoo witch doctor character who would curse opponents and carry a skull to the ring surrounded in smoke and eerie arena lighting.
One of Papa Shango’s infamous moments includes a high-profile segment involving Hulk Hogan in which he was late breaking up Hogan’s pin, forcing Sid to kick out of the Leg Drop which had never been done before. Another moment was Papa Shango hexing Ultimate Warrior causing him to projectile vomit, only for the angle to be forgotten completely. Needless to say, the Papa Shango character was an embarrassment to the company and to Charles Wright as well. Who knew portraying a pimp character would earn him more respect?
19 Dolph Ziggler (Nicky/Kerwin White's Caddy)
Not that randomly approaching superstars and introducing himself as “Dolph Ziggler” was a great gimmick, but at least Ziggler has made a name for himself. Ziggler is widely recognized by WWE fans now, but the man playing the Ziggler character, Nick Nemeth, wasn’t always so lucky. Nemeth had to endure two painfully embarrassing gimmicks before finally landing his Dolph Ziggler character.
The future Dolph Ziggler got his big break in professional wrestling as the caddy to Chavo Guerrero's universally panned and arguably racist “Kerwin White” character.
Thankfully, Kerwin White didn’t last long, but unfortunately Dolph would be sent back down to WWE's developmental territory until his return to the main roster with yet another embarrassing gimmick. As Nicky, the male cheerleader, Dolph would be a member of The Spirit Squad, which WWE never acknowledged until that fact was used by The Miz in a storyline to embarrass Ziggler. As underutilized as Dolph Ziggler is today, it could be much worse for him.
18 The Undertaker (Mean Mark Callous)
Amazingly, The Undertaker, before he was known as The Undertaker, wrestled in WCW and once again WCW let a future legend walk. In WCW, The Undertaker wrestled under the name "Mean Mark Callous." Although Mark Callous’ imposing height and athletic wrestling maneuvers for such a big man alone should have been enough to put him over, the WCW announcers built him up in terms of what they imagine a tough guy personality to be, such as housing pet snakes and listening to Ozzy Osbourne.
The Mean Mark Callous character would rest… in… peace… as Mark would jump ship to WWE and become the greatest professional wrestling character ever, The Undertaker.
WWE is notorious for its love of gimmicked characters, and while most are terrible, The Undertaker was a smash hit. With The Undertaker being one of the most beloved characters of all time, one cannot imagine him being the simple generic hoss he was in WCW.
17 John Cena (The Prototype/Rapper Gimmick)
John Cena was the face of “Ruthless Aggression,” the face of the unofficial “PG-Era,” and even the face of the entire WWE for a better part of a decade. When Cena says, “You can’t see me,” that’s literally and figuratively impossible because the leader of the Cenation was everywhere. While John Cena has assumed the role of the hero for a majority of his career, causing many fans to grow tired of his stale good guy persona, Cena wasn’t always the “Never Give Up” superhero still seen in WWE.
Cena started in WWE’s developmental territory as “The Prototype,” a generic musclehead with a bleached blonde flat top haircut.
While The Prototype would earn Cena an OVW Championship, the gimmick never made it to the main roster. Instead, Cena would debut against Kurt Angle in an open challenge match to a losing effort. This all came before Cena’s rapper gimmick, which was a parody of Vanilla Ice. As ridiculous as this gimmick was, it actually got Cena immensely over and became the catalyst that propelled John Cena to stardom.
16 Kevin Nash (Oz)
Every WWE wrestling fan remembers Kevin Nash on Raw as the former WWE World Champion and legendary Big Daddy Cool, Diesel, and every WCW fan remembers Nash as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, “Big Sexy” and leader of The Wolfpac. Diesel became well-known in WWE and grew even more popular in WCW as part of the New World Order faction. However, Nash’s “invasion” of WCW, with fellow Outsider Scott Hall, wasn’t his first stint in WCW.
Before he was “just too sweet,” an unknown Nash portrayed one of the worst characters ever conceived, Oz. Yes, as in The Wizard of Oz. Nash was tasked with bringing this abomination to life and was pushed heavily for a time. Thankfully, Ron Simmons quickly destroyed this character, and Nash would receive a different, albeit almost equally stupid character known as Vinnie Vegas. Luckily, Nash would depart from WCW, allowing WWE to save his career with Diesel.
15 Kane (Isaac Yankem)
“That’s gotta be, that’s gotta be, Kane!” Fans can’t think of Glenn Jacobs (Kane’s real name) as portraying anyone else other than the Undertaker’s little brother. The Kane character found massive success, gaining WWE Tag Team Titles and even a WWE and World Heavyweight Championship. However, Jacobs had to undergo two extremely embarrassing gimmicks before landing the role all fans know and love.
Before Jacobs portrayed The Big Red Machine, he debuted as the ridiculous Isaac Yankem.
Continuing the company’s love for absurd gimmicks, the character was portrayed as Jerry Lawler’s private dentist who showed of his rotten teeth. Thankfully, the gimmick wasn’t well received, didn’t last long and eventually faded away. Jacobs would then find himself as the critically panned "fake Diesel," who mocked Kevin Nash's character for jumping ship to WCW, before finally landing his successful and famous role as Kane.
14 Steve Austin (Stunning Steve)
“And that’s the bottom line, because Stunning Steve said so,” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Before Steve Austin was Stone Cold, he was known as "Stunning" Steve Austin in WCW. The gimmick was generic, bland and a far cry from the real Steve Austin. Stone Cold would find his character in ECW, bringing out an edgier side to his persona before heading to the wider audience of WWE. Had WCW seen the potential in Austin when they had him, the entire landscape of professional wrestling would have been drastically different.
WCW had Austin in their roster but couldn’t see what “The Rattlesnake” was capable of. Bischoff even went so far as to say that Austin wasn't marketable. Of course, Stone Cold Steve Austin would go on to be one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling history and one of the most popular wrestlers of all-time. Whoops.
13 The Rock (Rocky Maivia)
The Rock is a character that almost didn’t happen. Dwayne Johnson wanted a career in professional football before an injury kept him from the NFL. He turned to pro wrestling and entered WWE as Rocky Maivia. The happy-go-lucky “Blue Chipper” received a big push, but the fans were not smelling what Rocky Maivia was cooking.
It wasn’t until Rocky turned heel and became The Rock that he really started to catch on, and the rest is history for Dwayne Johnson.
With The Rock being one of the most popular WWE Superstars ever, as well as his success in Hollywood, it’s easy to forget just how much of a jabroni The Rock was when he started out in WWE. Even The Rock himself pokes fun at the ridiculous hair, attire and entrance of his character's debut.
12 Luke Gallows (Festus)
Though they’ve never looked like it in WWE, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were at one point the best tag team in the world. The “good brothers” made a huge splash when they debuted in WWE and sent wrestling fans into a frenzy. Unfortunately, not much has come from their arrival since. Despite their lackluster tenure in WWE thus far, Luke Gallows has to enjoy calling other superstars “nerds” as opposed to the series of gimmicks he previously worked.
Gallows wrestled in the WWE’s developmental territory and debuted his character “The Freakin’ Deacon,” a deranged character who carried around his beloved pet spider. Gallows would then taste the main roster scene by debuting as the “Fake Kane” before being repackaged again as the simple-minded Festus, who went from docile to ferocious with each ringing of the bell. Festus is definitely a character Gallows wants to forget and hopefully, Vince McMahon never finds out that Gallows and Festus are the same person.
11 Batista (Deacon Batista)
Speaking of deacons, Batista portrayed “Deacon Batista” in WWE who was the bodyguard of D-Von Dudley’s bizarre Reverend D-Von persona. Although D-Von would scream “Testify!” Deacon Batista didn’t do much with the gimmick beside wear sleeveless preacher outfits and tag with D-Von.
Eventually, Batista would move to Raw where the “Deacon” part of his name would be dropped completely.
As silly as Deacon Batista was, Batista would portray “Leviathan” even before that. Leviathan was some sort of gothic, gladiator-looking character who joined the Disciples of Synn stable, but was thankfully squashed by Kane shortly after. Amazingly, Batista would survive those two terrible gimmicks and move on to become a member of Evolution, to become one of WWE finest champions, and become Drax The Destroyer in Guardians of the Galaxy.
10 Bray Wyatt (Husky Harris)
Bray Wyatt must have followed the buzzards a long way because Windham Rotunda was totally lost before he found Sister Abigail. Before Bray Wyatt became the “Eater of Worlds,” he was known in WWE’s NXT developmental department as Husky Harris. Husky Harris would finally show up to the main roster and join Wade Barrett’s Nexus faction. While that was a nice taste of the main roster, the Husky Harris character wasn’t anything special and was eventually destroyed by John Cena and Randy Orton.
Bray Wyatt would return to NXT and “Run,” run as far away from the Husky Harris character as possible before devoting himself to Sister Abigail. Husky Harris would become the cult leader, Bray Wyatt, and lead the Wyatt family to the WWE. Despite Bray Wyatt captivating the fans with his rants, occasionally there remains a few “Husky Harris” chants echoing throughout the crowd.
9 Victoria (One Of Godfather's Lady Friends)
Every wrestling fan remembers Victoria, or Tara as she was known in TNA. Victoria definitely wasn’t the lady to mess with and was one of the greatest WWE “Divas” in WWE history. In fact, many would argue that Victoria was underutilized by the end of her WWE career. Still, Victoria accumulated quite a number of WWE accolades, becoming a two-time WWE Women’s Champion and getting to shave Molly Holly’s head bald at WrestleMania XX.
Victoria, along with Trish Stratus, played a huge role in turning around the WWE Women’s Division and paved the way for Mickie James, Melina and Beth Phoenix to carry the torch. So, how did the legendary Victoria get her start in WWE? As one of The Godfather’s… escorts, of course. Victoria without question belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame, but it’s just strange that such an amazing career had the start that it did. I guess you have to start somewhere though.
8 Kofi Kingston (Jamaican Gimmick)
Geography lesson: Kingston is actually the capital of Jamaica, which makes the name appropriate for someone portraying a Jamaican character. Kofi has been in the WWE for a long time, and while he has retained the name, his Jamaican gimmick has faded away completely.
Of course, the real Kofi Kingston isn’t Jamaican at all, he was actually born in Ghana and raised in the U.S.
Kofi subtly dropped his Jamaican accent, and its absence was even mocked by D-Generation X on Raw. Kofi now portrays his ridiculous, albeit very entertaining member of The New Day character, accent free. While eating Booty-O's, wearing unicorn horns, gyrating, and shaking his booty sounds insane, it’s still not nearly as bad as the Jamaican gimmick that Kofi quietly dropped. New Day themselves even mocked the gimmick during their “Time Machine” segment.
7 Road Dogg Jesse James (The Roadie)
“Oh, you didn’t know?” The Road Dogg Jesse James is without a doubt his most memorably gimmick. It fits him so perfectly many wouldn’t think he would have any other gimmick. Sadly, for Road Dogg, before he could enjoy the gimmick that made him a five-time “WWE TAG TEAM CHAMPION OF WORRRLD!” he had to endure a painful association with Jeff Jarrett.
WWE felt the need to create a storyline where Road Dogg would be Jeff Jarrett’s assistant called The Roadie. Eventually, the plan was to reveal that The Roadie actually produced the vocals to one of Jeff Jarrett’s singles “With My Baby Tonight” and spark a feud. To the dismay of no one, Jarrett would abruptly leave WWE scrapping those plans. The Roadie would become Jesse James and reveal himself to be “The Real Double J” which is almost just as stupid as being a roadie to a country singer who couldn't really sing.
6 JBL (Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw)
John "Bradshaw" Layfield never was the most well received heel in WWE. Sure, he got boos, but a lot of those boos were from fans who just wanted JBL to go away. Fans saw JBL as another one of Vince McMahon's favorite hosses, receiving an undeserved push to the WWE Title, whose Texas tycoon gimmick wasn't even that over. Still, as mediocre as JBL was, it benefited him far better than Bradshaw's former gimmick.
To show off his versatility before portraying his evil businessman gimmick, the Texas-born JBL portrayed a rough and tough cowboy/mountain man.
Justin "Hawk" Bradshaw would debut in WWE with a mountain man gimmick who would brand his opponents (with ink, not hot iron). So, if anyone complains about the JBL character, just remember fans could have had a cowboy caricature instead of "a wrestling...GOD!"
5 Xavier Woods (Apollo Creed Ripoff)
Xavier Woods always showed potential on the mic when he first came into WWE, but he just didn't quite have the gimmick to make it work. When The New Day formed, Woods emerged as the major mouthpiece of the group, although Kofi Kingston and Big E also grew into their roles.
Before WWE though, Woods had a stint in NWA Anarchy (then eventually TNA) where he had a gimmick that shockingly didn't spark a lawsuit from Sylvester Stallone. That's because Woods basically had a gimmick that was a complete ripoff of Apollo Creed from the Rocky films. While Woods actually had the mannerisms down pretty well, it was a pretty cheap attempt at ripping off an iconic movie character.
4 John Morrison (Johnny Nitro)
John Hennigan, who is best known to WWE fans as John Morrison, has had so many names in wrestling who knows what his name will be come next year. The "Shaman of Sexy" got his start in WWE as a winner of Tough Enough and debuted on Raw as Eric Bischoff's assistant, "Johnny Blaze." Morrison would change his name to "Johnny Spade" and before finally landing "Johnny Nitro," which made a lot more sense as Bischoff's apprentice. In case fans still didn't get the message, Johnny Nitro would even come out to the theme of WCW Monday Nitro.
While still using the "Nitro" name, Hennigan would form the successful stable MNM, winning him the WWE Tag Team Titles three times and the Intercontinental Title twice. Not bad for someone who started out as Bischoff's assistant, losing to Bischoff's "nephew," Eugene.
3 Braun Strowman (Rosebud)
What third portal of hell did we fall into where Braun Strowman is a dancing groupie for Adam Rose? The unknown Braun Strowman started as one of Adam Rose's "Rosebuds," but the only one "getting these hands" was Adam Rose whenever the Rosebuds would catch him during his crowd surfing entrance.
Braun Strowman, the Rosebud party-goer, was really only used as an extra for Adam Rose and certainly wasn't over like Rose or even the most famous Rosebud, The Bunny. (Who turned out to be lower-carder Justin Gabriel in a rabbit suit.) However, Strowman's appearance as a Rosebud is pretty hilarious considering how he's portrayed as a "Monster Among Men" today. Braun definitely isn't finished with anything yet, as his future in WWE looks very bright at the moment, but his past as a Rosebud wasn't nearly as intimidating.
2 Raven (Scotty Flamingo/Johnny Polo)
"What about Raven?" The question should be "What happened to Raven?" Raven was a ECW Original and one of wrestling's most critically acclaimed characters. Raven was brooding, gothic, psychologically sadistic and easily Scott Levy's greatest character. Despite not having the same success in WWE, and only limited success in WCW, Raven is light years better than Levy's ridiculous gimmicks he had prior.
Levy had been in wrestling for a couple of years before the Raven character ever debuted. He worked in WCW as Scotty Flamingo, a surfer gimmick where he would bring a surfboard to the ring. Levy would then leave WCW after creative differences (I wonder why) before joining WWE where he created the equally bizarre Johnny Polo character. The preppy manager for Adam Bomb would be a prelude to the spoiled brat Raven he would portray in his latter days of WCW. Thankfully, he went to ECW and said, "Nevermore" to those gimmicks.
1 Becky Lynch (Irish Dancer Gimmick)
While WWE is a global company reaching countries around the world and acquiring a very diverse group of wrestlers, McMahonland hasn't always had the best track record when it comes to portraying these diverse characters. Rusev had to be this pro-Putin character, Muhammad Hassan (who was actually Italian-American) had to be the evil Muslim character, and Fit Finlay had to "love to fight" along with his Leprechaun "son" Hornswoggle. So, of course, the Irish-born Becky Lynch would be provided an Irish dance gimmick where she would dance on the entrance stage and inside the ring at NXT.
Thankfully, Becky dropped the dance routine and changed her look which helped her enter the main roster after a critically acclaimed match against Sasha Banks.
Becky may be from Ireland, but that doesn't mean she needs to use any Irish stereotypes in her character. Becky Lynch is undoubtedly over on her own, and the Irish jig from her days in NXT look pretty cringy today.