The various character changes and gimmicks in WCW had mixed results throughout their tenure. Some missed the mark, but quite a few reached deeper levels of providing discomfort. WCW wasn’t afraid to take some bold risks for better or worse. The most ridiculous gimmicks lacked the consistency or logic to make it work in the long run.

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WCW wrestlers usually couldn’t make the uncomfortable characters work if there wasn’t a real intent or storyline attached to it. The ideas couldn’t connect, and talents would luck out if they could change things with a better character afterwards. Unfortunately, some names just couldn’t rebound from a poor gimmick. The one constant for the wrestlers in question is their gimmicks being uncomfortable in World Championship Wrestling.

10 Johnny B. Badd

Johnny B Badd

WCW gave Marc Mero the character of Johnny B. Badd that was inspired by a legendary musician. Mero had a resemblance to Little Richard and WCW wanted to go all-in with that. The gimmick was essentially a flamboyant face character meant to strike comparisons to the singer.

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Mero did a good enough job creating his own identity, but the gimmick was still too much to handle at times. Mero changed his look up when leaving for WWE, even though he didn’t find much success there.

9 The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iaukea

Prince Iaukea

The in-ring work of Prince Iaukea was strong enough to have runs as the Cruiserweight Champion and WCW Television Champion during his run. WCW tried to revamp him under the moniker of The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Iaukea.

Legendary musician Prince changed his name to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince to spark the WCW idea. Prince Iaukea started dressing like Prince and added former Nitro Girl Sharmell as his manager, but it just felt like a desperate attempt to rip off a celebrity.

8 The Yeti

The Yeti

Ron Reis was tasked with playing one of the dumbest character ideas in wrestling history. Halloween Havoc 1995 was a train wreck with the main event finish of The Giant beating Hulk Hogan for the WCW Championship via DQ.

The Dungeon of Doom members' war on Hogan would see The Yeti debut after breaking out of a block of ice. Reis walked to the ring dressed as a mummy and was part of a double bear hug on Hogan. The angle was so bad that WCW quit on The Yeti right away by dropping the character after three appearances.

7 Glacier

Glacier

Eric Bischoff viewed the concept of Glacier as a game-changer when he was inspired by the Mortal Kombat video game franchise. The months of hype for Glacier created a buzz due to the mysterious vignettes.

Glacier couldn’t live up to the hype when debuting with the strange set-up of a dark entrance with artificial snow falling from the rafters. Fans were more confused than anything else and it led to WCW changing plans by keeping him in the lower mid-card.

6 The Zodiac

The Zodiac

Another Dungeon of Doom character to provide an uncomfortable gimmick was former WWE star Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake becoming The Zodiac. WCW struggled with a few awful characters for Beefcake with this among the worst.

The face paint meant to make him look intimidating just came off silly to help turn the group into a bigger joke. WCW eventually wrote Beefcake out of the character by claiming he was infiltrating the group on behalf of Hulk Hogan due to their real-life friendship.

5 The KISS Demon

The KISS Demon

WCW started to make desperate moves in the final few years when dropping in the ratings and losing the Monday Night Wars to WWE. Eric Bischoff made a huge mistake paying the legendary rock band KISS huge money to perform for little results.

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One of the odd contract requests of KISS was to have a wrestling character based on them. The KISS Demon was the attempt at that, and it was a huge disaster. Fans realized it was soulless marketing and the character was viewed among the most cringe-worthy in wrestling history.

4 Vampiro

Vampiro Monday Nitro

The late WCW character of Vampiro was meant to make fans feel uncomfortable by nature when he feuded with Sting. Vampiro channeled his inner Ozzy Osbourne when threatening to bite the head off of a crow and spit it on Mike Tenay during a backstage interview.

The dark tone was set moving forward with Vampiro crossing the line by lighting Sting on fire or taking him down with a bloodbath from the rafters. Vampiro did his best to keep the audience on their toes, but nothing was working for WCW at the time.

3 Mike Awesome

Mike Awesome as That 70s Guy

WCW signing Mike Awesome felt like a big move for the former ECW Champion. Awesome had an underrated skillset that could have fit into the bigger wrestling promotion, but WCW booked him with two absurd gimmicks.

That '70s Guy saw Awesome living life like it was the 1970s with his fashion and lifestyle choices. Awesome also played The Fat Chick Thrilla as someone with an attraction to plus-size women. Both gimmicks made television uncomfortable whenever Awesome was on the screen.

2 Oklahoma

Oklahoma in WCW

WCW was already struggling when Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara joined the company as the new lead writers. Russo came up with a terrible idea to mock Jim Ross due to having issues with JR following his WWE departure.

Ferrara played the character of Oklahoma as a disrespectful and offensive parody of Ross. Oklahoma delivered the quotes of JR on commentary and even mocked his facial paralysis from having Bells’ Palsy. Ross revealed that his kids cried after seeing the Oklahoma character on WCW television.

1 The Renegade

The Renegade

Relatively unknown wrestler Rick Wilson was selected to play one of the most ridiculous characters in WCW history. Hulk Hogan revealed he was going to have some backup to help him out with implications that it was The Ultimate Warrior.

WCW instead introduced The Renegade gimmick that essentially ripped off the Warrior. Wilson had no chance of making it work since WCW built expectations. Everything about Renegade came off poorly and provided uncomfortable television until the gimmick was scrapped.

NEXT: 10 Moments You Forgot Happened On WCW Saturday Night