When you stop and think about it, everyone has a gimmick. A persona that they're projecting to the rest of the world. In sports entertainment, a wrestler’s gimmick is everything. Their in-ring skill is obviously very important. But their ability to win the crowd, at least in the WWE is with some form of an engaging character.

Every great wrestler ever has gotten over more with their character than their skills in the ring. Does anyone ever talk about the technical prowess of Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold or the Rock. Or do fans think fondly of them for “Hogan must pose, pal;” Austin’s DTA attitude or The Rock’s trash talk?

It doesn't necessarily always work out that way though. There's exception to the rules both ways - some of our most beloved wrestlers were fantastic workers and that WAS their character. Other times, they couldn't get over worth a damn and couldn't make a bad gimmick work. What are some of your favorite gimmicks of all time? Who got over with bad gimmicks and made them memorable? Here are 15 Wrestlers Who Overcame Bad Gimmicks (And 15 Who Never Recovered).

30 Overcame - Natayla (Farting Nattie)

Natalya is the daughter of Jim The Anvil Neidhart, Stu Hart’a granddaughter and a proud graduate of the Dungeon. So let's book the rough and tough as nails savvy ring general with a third generation pedigree to be a very gassy, very smelly lady.

That screams money doesn't it?

Thank goodness this gimmick is way in the rear view. Natalya deserved better than a farting gimmick. Which is something that Stephanie McMahon realized when she began to revamp the division, supposedly it was her that called for an end to the gimmick.

29 Never Recovered - Terry Taylor (Red Rooster)

In the mid-80s, in the NWA, Terry Taylor was a young up-and-coming babyface technician. Naturally, when he had the chance to head to the WWE and make some serious bank, he took it. According to some people, Vince took one look at him and thought he was cocky like a…rooster. But he didn't want him to be an actual rooster, just that he was a cocky guy.

If you hear Taylor tell it, he reached into some imaginary “Box Of Gimmicks” around the same time as Curt Hennig and Hennig got Mr. Perfect, while Taylor got the Rooster. While it is his best known run in the business (York Foundation? No? Ok), the guy is still annoyed with the gimmick and has been known to ignore fans calling him Rooster or cawing at him.

28 Overcame - Dusty Rhodes (WWE Run)

Were the polka dots a rib or not? Similar to the tootsie pop’s center and the licks that it would take to get there, the world might never truly know. To hear Vince’s right hand man, Bruce Prichard tell it, it definitely was not a rib. Vince simply looked at the Dream on his way and thought he'd look great in polka dots.

But the always charismatic Dusty Rhodes made the most of it. The rest is history, and Dream was forever remembered for bright yellow polka dots. Just one more iconic aspect of the iconic Dream.

27 Never Recovered - Brodus Clay (Funkasaurus)

A giant dancing dinosaur, a Funkasaurus. If you're in the business to be on top (and if you're not trying to be on top then you're wasting everyone's time), then being a dancing fool shouldn't be your aspirations. But it's how Brodus Clay was packaged. For weeks we were promised a big monster. But something changed at the last minute and the dancing fool was born.

With Brodus no longer meant to be taken seriously, any hopes for a new spin on the old school monster factory fell by the wayside. 

Brodus’s sideshow dancing act quickly became a vehicle to debut Naomi and Xavier Woods.

26 Overcame - Luke Gallows (Festus)

As one of the Good Brothers, Luke Gallows had a heck of a career in New Japan, being part of the original Bullet Club. He came to WWE with Karl Anderson and together, they have been one of the more dominant and entertaining teams in the company. Some fans might realize that for Gallows, this is a true success story.

Gallows has even joked that he looks so different than he did when he was in WWE as Festus that Vince McMahon might not even realize they're the same person. Gallows went on to continue that he was hopeful it stayed that way, otherwise Vince would put him back in the awful dimwit gimmick.

25 Never Recovered - Nick Dinsmore (Eugene)

Nick Dinsmore, by all accounts is a heck of a worker and could have a great match with anyone. Considering he was able to mimic just about everyone else's mannerisms and move sets when he worked as Eugene, Dinsmore could have performed just about any type of character. But he got saddled with dimwitted Eugene.

Not only was Eugene the kind of gimmick that had a short shelf life, there was just no way to come back from and be taken as a serious competitor. Unfortunately without a real good plan for repackaging that also means that even a talented performer like Eugene would have a short shelf life as well.

24 Overcame - The Rock (Rocky Maivia)

Take a chia pet hairdo, “traditional island garb,” a million-dollar smile, and what do you get? The Most Electrify Man In All Of Entertainment?” Actually you get WWE’s hot bar babyface debuting in Madison Square Garden to a chorus of boos.

The creative consensus was while the fickle NYC crowd jeered him out the building the rest of the country would love him.

Eventually, Vince was proven right (at least as far as The Rock's potential went) and Rocky Mavia became The Rock as the rest is history. But first he had go overcome an awful looking outfit that was supposed to be a throwback to his ancestry, but instead fell flat.

23 Never Recovered - Simon Dean

Put a comma in between Simon and Dean and one might think this entry is about Dean Malenko. While that's pretty inside, someone must have been thinking about the Iceman when they repackaged the former Hollywood Nova as an annoying fitness guru, even riding to the ring on a Segway.

While Dean probably wouldn't have gone very far on the big show with either gimmick, perhaps pairing up with the Hurricane as either arch-nemesis or the WWE’s Dynamic Duo would drawn a lot more money than the health guru character that seemed like a rejected idea for Rico than an idea for Mike Bucci.

22 Overcame - Becky Lynch (Dancing Gimmick)

How over is the Lass Kicker? The crowd has little to no interest in booing her as a heel. After all, she's been pushed as a super over underdog babyface, and no one wants to boo the wrestlers who is always fighting from underneath to finally eke out a win. While the turn has not been a complete bust, it's also not the worst Becky Balboa has had to endure.

She got her start in NXT as a prickly gig-dancing gal. Because why not do the stereotypical thing when it comes to ethnicity? It's worked in wrestling for years. But thankfully, she developed the Steampunk gimmick and Triple H realized that stereotypical ethnic gimmicks no longer work in today's climate, and the Becky Lynch we all know and love was born.

21 Never Recovered - Rick Bognar (Fake Razor)

Back during the early days of the Monday Night War, WWE has attempted to stop WCW from having Nash and Hall act like their prior WWE characters on WCW tv.

In order to show ownership of Diesel and Razor Ramon, they simply recast the roles. Kane played Diesel and Rick Bognar worked as Razor.

While Fake Diesel was able to wear a mask and get over, Bognar was not afforded the same opportunity and will forever be known as the Fake Razor Ramon. While he had moderate success elsewhere, thanks to the power of WWE, that’s all good ol’ Rick Titan will do down for.

20 Overcame - Steve Austin (The Ringmaster)

While he would go on to become the biggest star of the nineties, Stone Cold Steve Austin had been given a pretty bad gimmick when coming in from WCW and ECW. The guy showed he could work in WCW and towards the end of his run and in ECW was good on the stick as well.

So let's put him with The Million Dollar Man and demand that he not say a word. Thankfully, the eventual Rattlesnake had the gumption to have a conversation or two with Vince McMahon and asked for a character change and after offering some suggestions, Stone Cold was born.

19 Never Recovered - Fred Ottman (The Shockmaster

Never before or since has a more infamous moment ever happened in the sport of professional wrestling. The unveiling of the WCW’s newest, big bad babyface, the indomitable and unstoppable; the Shockmaster! That is more or less what the Stinger said about he and Davey Boy’s tag team partner before the former Tugboat tripped and plummeted into wrestling history.

To be fair, the guy wearing some fur vest with a sparkling stormtrooper helmet, and Ole Anderson dubbing the voice probably wasn't going to get over anyway. But Typhoon doing a header into the Flair For The Gold set firmly established that Tugger’s days were numbered.

18 Overcame - The Undertaker

The stalwart of the WWE has been taking souls now for nearly thirty years. He's had countless alterations to his character and has taken down everyone the company has put in his path.

Millions upon millions of the WWE have a profound love and respect for The Undertaker…but you have to admit, on paper this is a really bad gimmick.

He's a dead guy who buries his wrestlers. He's slow and plodding, which could have made for boring and bowling-shoe ugly matches. But the skill and ability of Mark Calaway was able to not only overcome, but was able to basically make a Zombie a compelling and popular superstar.

17 Never Recovered - Perry Saturn (Moppy)

One would think with his pedigree as a real-life Army Ranger, a guy not to be trifled with, and like Triple H; a fellow graduate Killer Kowalski’s would have had a slightly better opportunity to succeed. But instead they gave the tough man a mop to fiddle around with. After coming over with the Radicals, ECW and WCW had always presented him like the tough guy he was.

But instead, creative thought he would be good with a mop and Moppy was born. Mr. Socko, Moppy was not. Terri Runnels got jealous of Saturn’s affections towards the mop and had Raven heave it into a woodchipper. After getting a gimmick like this, Saturn had no chance of being taken seriously in WWE.

16 Overcame - Alexa Bliss (Fairy)

Sometimes, superstars just need to get pushed far out into the ocean to see if they will sink or can they swim with the sharks. That's how it seemed when it Alexa Bliss was first called up to SmackDown. At the time, she was primarily a manager for NXT team, Blake and Murphy. She came up and thrived and is thriving now as the Goddess of WWE.

But first she had to shed the saccharine, Disney-inspired gimmick that she was trying in NXT. She was a fairy, complete with dousing the crowds with a whiff of pixie dust. That might sound like a good idea on paper, but in reality wrestling Disney princesses just aren't in demand.

15 Never Recovered - Barry Darsow (Repo Man)

Holy cantankerous cackling cads, Batman! How on Earth did creative think this idea could work is an affront to the old adage of “can you see him main eventing WrestleMania?” Krusher Khruschev? Possibly. One half of the Demolition? 100% certainly. But the flippin’ Repo Man?! Who did Barry Darsow upset to get stuck with this?

Thankfully, his run in Demolition and to a lesser extent his stint in the NWA as the Krusher is what Barry Darsow will be remembered for.

Because this gimmick was the beginning of the end of his relevancy in the WWE.

14 Overcame - Santino Marella

There's always room for comedy in wrestling. But being a constant comic foil and bumbling fool in the wrestling world puts your career in the very limited side of the tracks. No matter how talented you really are. As he was coming up in OVW, Paul Heyman was allowing Santino Marella to be the kind of tough man shoot fighter that the real guy was.

But pretty much the instant he got to the main roster, Vince didn't want a sawed-off shoot fighter, Vince wanted a comedy act. Not only did Vince get one, Santino wound up with a pretty decent career and was able to get over doing all kinds of antics.

13 Never Recovered - Lance Storm (Every WWE Gimmick)

What a stereotype to have when you're a wrestler from north of the border - you're tough-as-nails with amazing technical prowess, and nine times out of ten, you're a graduate of Stu Hart’s Dungeon. Lance Storm, who does seemingly have the charisma of mustard but also was the best non-Hart graduate of the Dungeon had all of this celebrated when he was in WCW. The guy won just about every title there was.

Once he came over to WWE, the guy unfortunately got buried underneath a sea of colorful characters and Vince not only thought Storm was boring, but decided to make that his character as well. If we can be serious for a moment, that's just the seal of un-approval for Storm.

12 Overcame - Emma (Emmalina)

It's a shame what happened to Emma. She is great in the ring and one of the stalwarts of the early women’s movement that has swept up the entire wrestling world. A blond bombshell that could work circles around her opponents in the ring.

Creative took all of this and crafted a new character for Emma, Emmalina.

Seemingly, Emmalina was supposed to be everything Emma is and her character already was – a level 11 vixen. But for whatever the reason, Vince wasn’t happy with the presentation. Thankfully, Tenille Dashwood has done far better on the indies since her release, and perhaps a WWE return with her current gimmick could be in the cards one day.

11 Never Recovered - Paul Burchill (Pirate)

Sometimes, even the briefest of runs can give you a certain amount of fame. Paul Burchill, who looks like a cross between Edge and Val Venis. Good looks and decent ring ability are a nice way to get you to the main roster. But once you're there, staying there requires a memorable gimmick.

Even then, a memorable gimmick is just laughable and memorable for all the wrong reasons. Burchill adopted a pirate gimmick, and the Ripper ripped off Jack Sparrow. He even swung his way to the ring. Things got even stranger when the bit was dropped in favor of a weird storyline with his kayfabe sister, Katie Lea.