The gimmick of a wrestler can make or break them. Every wrestler wants to have a great character that can thrive and grow into a big star. Even the established stars often undergo gimmick changes. Hulk Hogan turning heel to become Hollywood Hogan and Steve Austin ditching The Ringmaster for Stone Cold shows just how positive gimmick changes can be for wrestlers with the right spots. There are discussions about wrestlers changing gimmicks and developing new characters quite often in the wrestling business. It is important to continue changing things up or it could get stale for a wrestler relatively quickly.
We will look at some of the WWE gimmick changes that never happened. These gimmicks were reported online that the company was toying around with. Some came close to reaching television as they were pitched in backstage meetings. Others were just on the rumor mill and showed no signs of becoming official. The ideas ranged from fascinating ones that could have improved the wrestler they were about to terrible ones that luckily did not happen. History shows just what fans expected to see when it came to rumors about the wrestlers in play here. Find out what character differences we might have seen if the reports were true about your favorite WWE Superstars. These are 20 rumored gimmick changes in WWE that never happened.
20 Cody Rhodes as heel Tony Stark
Cody Rhodes wanted to ditch the Stardust gimmick badly towards the end of his WWE run. There were a few pitches from Rhodes about what the future of his character should be. One of the ideas would have seen Cody adopt an arrogant heel persona based on Tony Stark in the Iron Man movies.
A promo was even filmed with Cody and his wife Brandi playing up the heel side of their wealth and stature. The gimmick clearly was inspired by Cody’s strong love of the superhero and comic book world. WWE did not have any interest in bringing this to television, but the promo did leak online to give fans a glimpse.
19 Paige, Summer Rae, and Anya as the female Shield
Another leaked promo featured an idea formed in the Performance Center. Three of NXT's top female prospects – Summer Rae, Paige, and Anya – decided to bond together in this idea of becoming the female version of The Shield. There was interest from the fanbase in both the male and female divisions having a Shield faction.
Each woman here had huge potential in the eyes of WWE, but the company did not want to risk hurting the momentum of The Shield by creating another faction with the same gimmick. Paige became a huge success on the main roster, Summer had a good run, and Anya unfortunately never made it.
18 Christian as mystery attacker of Jeff Hardy
The WWE return of Christian in 2009 following his Impact Wrestling run as a main eventer almost brought him back in grand fashion. Edge was involved in a feud with Jeff Hardy that featured someone trying to seriously hurt Jeff by doing dastardly actions to him in and outside of the ring.
Christian was rumored to be the man responsible, as he would have reunited with Edge. The gimmick would make Christian a sadistic heel that went above and beyond to damage his enemies. WWE instead changed plans and had Matt Hardy turn on his brother. Christian returned on the ECW brand, but the role as the attacker may have been better, given how each story played out.
17 Neville as Mighty Mouse
Neville's smaller size always made it harder for him to get momentum from the creative team. Vince McMahon usually does not believe in the smaller wrestlers until they prove they are a top draw, like Daniel Bryan and Rey Mysterio. This led to the writing team scrambling with ideas on how to book Neville.
Despite having a great run as NXT Champion, there was talk of Neville changing his gimmick to become a Mighty Mouse character. Neville was going to act and dress like the character from an old cartoon. It would have destroyed him. Luckily, the gimmick did not see the light of day, and Neville had a few solid years before leaving WWE by choice.
16 Scott Hall as GI Joe
Scott Hall’s career took off in WWE when he portrayed the Razor Ramon character. The gimmick was based on Tony Montana from the movie Scarface. Hall did a tremendous job with the gimmick to find huge success, but it wasn’t the first gimmick that was presented to him.
Vince McMahon initially came up with a character like GI Joe to play into Hall’s background as an army kid. The gimmick never made it to television and Hall became Razor Ramon instead. Booker T would play a character in WCW called GI Bro which was a huge flop and showed why WWE was smart to not make Hall a GI Joe figure.
15 Mr. Kennedy as Vince McMahon’s son
One of the most high-profile instances of a reported gimmick/character change not happening in WWE featured Mr. Kennedy almost becoming the long-lost son of Vince McMahon. There was a long storyline that featured Vince having a child on the WWE roster that he was not aware of.
Kennedy was expected to be the reveal due to his great potential and WWE wanting to make him a main eventer. There were reports that Kennedy was going to be in a huge WrestleMania match against Triple H. Kennedy would get suspended after violating company policies and lose his push afterward. Hornswoggle would get the gimmick instead for comedic segments with Vince since there was no strong backup plan.
14 Justin Gabriel as the Darewolf
Justin Gabriel’s peak in WWE came as a member of Nexus. The in-ring work of Gabriel was entertaining and made him stand out as one of the best wrestlers in the faction. Gabriel would deliver high-flying moves but never had much of a character.
One idea he pitched to WWE almost led to him playing a werewolf daredevil. Gabriel would be revealed as a werewolf that loved to do dangerous activities like sky diving and bungee jumping. He claims Vince McMahon liked the idea, but Triple H was the one to argue against it. Darewolf might have saved Gabriel’s WWE career.
13 Mark Jindrak as Evolution protege
Mark Jindrak is currently a star in the Mexican wrestling world, but he almost had a golden opportunity to break out in WWE. The young star showed great potential in WCW for the Power Plant. Jindrak made the move to the WWE when they purchased WCW and they found something special.
WWE considered giving Jindrak the push of a lifetime by having him join Evolution as the fourth member with Triple H, Ric Flair, and Randy Orton. The members of Evolution preferred Batista over Jindrak and WWE went that route. Jindrak would not last long in WWE after missing out on the Evolution character as the future of the company.
12 Dolph Ziggler as amateur wrestling stable leader
There were rumors in recent memory that Dolph Ziggler was going to lead a new faction of WWE stars with a stable. WWE considered having the amateur wrestling group of Ziggler leading fellow wrestlers with similar backgrounds.
Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin were the wrestlers that would have united with Ziggler. There is still a chance this could become a reality, but it remains to be seen if they’ll ever go through with it. Ziggler instead united with Drew McIntyre for a short-term tag team and is back at square one trying to figure it out. The gimmick change would have helped him out.
11 Christopher Daniels as the Higher Power
Christopher Daniels has been wrestling since the late '90s on the independent circuit. There were a few small opportunities in ECW and WCW due to his momentum building, but WWE considered him for the biggest role. Vince Russo wanted Daniels to join WWE and get the gimmick of being the Higher Power.
Someone was controlling The Undertaker and Shane McMahon for the inception of the Corporate Ministry faction. Daniels was known for the Fallen Angel gimmick and Russo felt he would play the Higher Power. Vince felt Daniels was too small for the role. As we now know, Vince was revealed as the Higher Power, leading to the biggest disappointments in WWE history.
10 Sable as The Undertaker’s love interest
Sable was the biggest female star in WWE history during the Attitude Era. The fans started to cheer Sable over most of the male wrestlers. Vince McMahon had an idea to use her popularity to take part in a storyline with another huge star.
The character change of Sable was going to see her become the love interest of The Undertaker. Both wrestlers were going to start dating as the power couple of WWE. It was meant to start showing the human side of 'Taker rather just the "The Deadman." The Undertaker’s wife was uncomfortable with the angle and he turned it down, though fans would later see that more human side when 'Taker launched his biker gimmick a few years later.
9 Kevin Nash as the Anonymous GM
Kevin Nash has always been on WWE’s radar for a few different angles throughout the years. One interesting would have featured Nash getting revealed as a character already established. WWE had the long storyline of an anonymous General Manager running Raw via emails sent to Michael Cole to read.
The character was meant to be a heel that often stacked the deck against the face wrestlers. Nash was rumored to be in discussions with WWE to sign as the GM. It never worked out and WWE instead just dropped the angle with no reveal. Hornswoggle was named as the anonymous GM years later, but Nash was the one rumored to get the gimmick when it existed.
8 Steve Williams as an unbeatable shoot fighter
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams was supposed to be a huge star for WWE in the late '90s. Jim Ross was a close friend of Williams and wanted to create a huge storyline between him and Steve Austin. Vince McMahon was set to give it a chance with the hopes of Williams winning the unscripted Brawl for All.
The entire concept was created for Williams to destroy the other wrestlers in the real fight to become an unbeatable heel. Austin was going to have a long program with Williams for the WWE Championship. Williams losing in the Brawl for All to Bart Gunn ended the idea of the huge push and gimmick.
7 Emma as Emmalina
One good that did make it to television but never truly started featured Emma attempting to become Emmalina. Most of Emma’s time in WWE featured her being quite underrated. Despite having great talent in the ring, Emma failed to get any momentum or a strong character.
The new gimmick of Emmalina was the biggest opportunity for her, and it was a Vince McMahon idea. Emma was going to play a modern version of Sable’s heel character playing up her looks. Unfortunately, Emma showed no interest in playing an old-school Diva character. WWE realized she would not be able to pull it off and canceled it. This likely played a role in Emma getting released not too shortly after.
6 Cody Rhodes, Tye Dillinger, and Tyler Breeze as handsome heel faction
Cody Rhodes had a strong faction idea when trying to convince WWE to let him give up on the Stardust gimmick. The idea was going to see Rhodes unite with Tye Dillinger and Tyler Breeze together on the main roster. There were some promo pictures taken together for them to show management, in hopes of getting the idea approved.
Dillinger was still going strong with the Perfect 10 gimmick, Breeze was still portraying the male model gimmick, and Rhodes was known for his prior Dashing character. The three wrestlers wanted to play an arrogant faction of handsome heels. WWE turned it down, Rhodes left, and the other two are still struggling to get any main roster time.
5 Bob Holly as NASA employee
One of the strangest ideas from WWE featured a new concept for Hardcore Holly. WWE wanted Holly to have a relevant role in the ECW brand. It was on SciFi Network and they wanted characters that were over the top. WWE considered having Holly return from a long absence away from WWE as a NASA employee.
The gimmick change was going to see Holly return after a while working for NASA. WWE wanted Holly to dress in a space suit and attempt wrestling in it. The idea would get canceled as it seemed unlikely Holly could pull off the idea easily.
4 Kalisto as The Miz's hairdresser
Kalisto is still trying to make his name on the main roster. Between his time on the 205 Live roster and the Raw tag team as the Lucha House Party, Kalisto is still a part of the company looking to break out. A prior gimmick idea before his call-up to the main roster could have seen him playing a completely different character.
Kalisto was pitched to become the hairdresser of The Miz. The mask would have been removed and he would have been the sidekick of Miz to start his WWE career. Kalisto avoided it and has continued wrestling with his mask throughout the years.
3 Goldust as GTV
One of the biggest unsolved mysteries in WWE featured the GTV angle of wrestlers being filmed without knowing it. The camera would catch wrestlers in embarrassing situations and further other storylines. Fans waited to find out who was the person operating the GTV camera.
Goldust was reported as the person behind it with the plans of a new gimmick. WWE gave up on it and canceled the storyline altogether, due to Goldust leaving the company. No one else would get the opportunity of being the person of GTV. It would have been a cool reveal for Goldust to get the GTV push, but we sadly did not get it.
2 John Cena as top heel
There have been rumors going for years that WWE would turn John Cena heel at some point. Cena was the face of the company from 2006 to 2016 playing the most family-friendly face. Former writers have revealed that the closest instance of Cena turning heel came ahead of his WrestleMania XXVIII match with The Rock.
The idea was that The Rock as the face and Cena as the heel would have been ideal for the storytelling. Vince McMahon turned down the gimmick change due to a scheduled merchandising deal with Kmart. Cena would never turn heel and some fans are still hoping it happens before he retires.
1 Dean Ambrose and AJ Lee as twisted couple
A strange idea could have seen WWE history change forever. Former writer Kevin Eck revealed one of the storylines of his that almost made television. This storyline would have seen Dean Ambrose and AJ Lee becoming a couple after meeting in vignettes in a mental asylum.
Lee was struggling to stand out on the main roster and Ambrose was hoping to get any character at all for a call-up from developmental. AJ turned it down due to not her wanting to make light of mental illness, given the prior issues in her family life. This worked out best for both, as Lee became one of the most successful women in WWE history and Ambrose found huge success with The Shield.