The nature of wrestling, and particularly WWE, is that it requires changes in the roster on a fairly regular basis. Even the best acts can lose their edge after they have been featured too prominently for too long, and in other cases there’s the risk a gimmick growing stale and no longer being over when it runs past its expiration date.
In the old days of the territory system, most wrestlers would routinely rotate throughout different territories, both honing their craft, and freshening things up in front of a different set of fans after a few years, or even months. Nowadays, no wrestling promotion can really compare to WWE’s money, resources, or exposure, which makes it more difficult for talent to justify moving unless they really don’t like working for WWE, or WWE doesn’t want them.
In some ways, WWE has recreated the feel of the territories in running separate brands—most notably Raw and SmackDown, but also NXT and 205 Live. These separate shows and rosters offer additional opportunities for talents to shift what they’re doing and the audience they’re working for. Nonetheless, there are those acts that struggle across time. Consider Bray Wyatt, who wasn’t all that over as Husky Harris, reinvented himself as an early NXT project in his current gimmick and since worked on the main roster for five years, including runs on both brands, but still wound up feeling played out and uninteresting after enough time had passed. He’s a talented worker with a unique character, but it nonetheless feels like something’s got to give—which may involve a gimmick change.
This article looks at 20 WWE stars who have completely different gimmicks from five years ago. Sometimes that included going from another promotion to WWE, and other times it involved a complete character change within the WWE system. Still other times, more subtle shifts rebuilt someone under the same name, but they’ve nonetheless arrived at very different characters.
20 AJ Styles
In 2013, AJ Styles was in the late stages of his time as the face of Impact Wrestling. He had gone from a young buck there to an established main event level star.
He spent his last year or so first playing a gimmick something like Sting in the Crow era, standing up against the Aces and Eights stable as Sting had done against the New World Order.
From there, he transitioned to something like 2011 CM Punk, threatening to leave the company with its world title.
Many fans thought Styles would never make the ultimate jump to WWE, but he did in 2016. While he goes by the same name and has shown flickers of personas past, his character is a fair bit different from 2013. Today, he’s a straightforward face star whose focus is squarely on wrestling excellence and, as of press time, honorably defending his WWE Championship.
19 Andrade “Cien” Almas
In 2013, Andrade Almas worked as La Sombra, a face masked luchador who starred for Mexico's CMLL promotion, in addition to working periodically for New Japan. When he signed with WWE, the mask came off and he was rebranded as Almas—in and of itself a big shift. However, the fullest gimmick change came when he turned heel and aligned himself with Zelina Vega.
As a heel, Almas became NXT Champion and established himself as one of the best acts in developmental en route to the main roster. Today, Almas is on SmackDown, where he’s still finding his footing. Nonetheless, as a fast-paced, vicious heel who isn’t above bending the rules, he has a well defined character and has reportedly caught Vince McMahon’s eye as a potential future main eventer.
18 Paige
Coming from a wrestling family, Paige started her career in the ring quite young and was starring for NXT before her 21st birthday. In developmental, she capped an outstanding rivalry with Emma by beating her foe to be crowned the first NXT Women’s Champion. She spent the remainder of 2013 into 2014 as a game face champion.
Five years later, Paige has been through a lot. She moved up to the main roster and flip-flopped face and heel roles a few times over before getting forced into an early retirement due to injuries. Where she was once a game youngster with talent beyond her years, she has now taken on a veteran warrior’s voice—no longer working matches, but now serving as the general manager for SmackDown.
17 Dean Ambrose
Dean Ambrose is a newly minted heel toward the top of the card on Raw. Interestingly enough, despite working the majority of his main roster run as a face, Ambrose was a five years ago, too.
The difference is that five years ago, Ambrose was a committed member of The Shield faction.
Though they’d briefly tease dissension, they were also on the cusp of a face turn that would further elevate them and set all three up for big singles runs. By contrast, now Ambrose is a heel with major heat for having betrayed Seth Rollins on the same night Roman Reigns was forced to go on leave.
16 Eric Young
Today, Eric Young plays the eccentric heel leader of Sanity. It’s a stable that enjoyed some success, but has struggled to find its footing—or much TV time—on SmackDown.
Five years ago, Young was still in the thick of his run with Impact Wrestling, where he had worked a variety of gimmicks. Young went from a member of Team Canada, to a cowardly face who found courage in a comical super hero guise. Around this time five years ago, he arguably peaked as a face champion whose underdog style and bushy beard led some pundits to accuse impact of trying to rip off Daniel Bryan.
15 Sheamus
Sheamus has spent most of the last two years in a successful tag team with Cesaro. The two have grown synonymous enough with one another that it feels like a different career when Sheamus was a consistent world title threat.
In some ways, the point in Sheamus’s career five years ago set up foundation for his transition to becoming a tag team wrestler. He moved out of the World Heavyweight Championship picture into working with different teams in unsuccessfully challenging the upstart Shield. He spent the months to follow in mid-card programs before being sidelined for a few months. While the intervening years would include one more world title reign and serving as the de facto leader of the League of Nations, he struggled to be taken seriously any higher than the upper mid-card, before a good rivalry with Cesaro gave way to a better team.
14 Drew McIntyre
Today, Drew McIntyre is a rising star heel, backed by the credibility of a terrific indie run and reign as NXT Champion.
Interestingly, about a decade ago, he found himself in a somewhat similar spot as a blue chip bad guy whom Vince has publicly anointed as a star.
Five years ago, though? The bloom was well off the rise for McIntyre’s first WWE run and he had been demoted to supporting role in the heel comedy faction, 3MB. McIntyre now stands out as a prime example of the kind of guy who is better off getting released by WWE to have time to find himself and come back the better for it.
13 Finn Balor
Finn Balor arrived in NXT in 2014. He has always been a face in WWE, though he’s a had. Along and winding road from being the face of developmental, to the first Universal Champion, to spending most of his run to follow, to date, locked up in the mid-card shuffle.
Five years ago, Balor May have donned his demon style body paint for big matches, but was otherwise playing a very different character in New Japan where he starred leading the Bullet Club faction. Now, the main complaint about Balor is that he's too much of a smiling babyface, whereas his dark side has usually been seen as the more interesting version of him.
12 David Otunga
Today, David Otunga is a regular presence on pre-show panels for WWE but hasn’t really played a well defined character, or worked a match in quite some time.
Five years ago, Otunga was taking his last gasps as more of a character within the WWE Universe.
Despite his look, charisma, and a personal resume that included Harvard Law and a partnership with Jennifer Hudson, he was never much of a wrestler, and WWE transitioned him from a wrestler to a heel legal adviser for a spell. That didn’t stick either, setting him up for a more generic, character-less role at the broadcast booth and on panels.
11 Shinsuke Nakamura
In 2013, Shinsuke Nakamura was emerging as one of the brightest stars in all of wrestling, based in New Japan, but also working tours of Mexico. It was this era of his work that purportedly caught WWE’s attention. He’d come to the States and pick up playing essentially the same face character for NXT and then the main roster.
WWE decided to shift directions with Nakamura at WrestleMania 34 with a heel turn. Opinions are split and the jury ultimately remains out on whether this was the right move to make for the King of Strong Style. Regardless, his still relatively new heel character with a penchant for low blows is less like Nakamura five years ago, and more like the kind of wrestler he would have feuded against.
10 Cesaro
Five years ago, Cesaro and Jack Swagger were a tag team, under the tutelage of Zeb Coulter. The team was confounding for both of its members seeming to have the potential for so much more, in Swagger’s case, he’d at least had a couple spins in the World Heavyweight Championship picture, whereas Cesaro felt more chronically under utilized in a losing tag team.
Flash forward five years, and Cesaro is again in a tag team with a guy who’s out of main event opportunities. The difference is that, rather than the team feeling forced and consistently losing, The Bar has gelled into a great modern team with a distinctive identity. While WWE really still ought to do more with Cesaro, at least this team offers him something to make his WWE legacy worth remembering.
9 Matt Hardy
Matt Hardy’s career has been a long and winding road. 2013 mostly saw him working in Ring of Honor as part of the featured heel stable SCUM, for which he was a fringe main event talent.
Hardy spent the early part of this year tweaking his Broken gimmick from Impact and the indies to WWE, where he was billed as Woken.
All indications are that Hardy is now retired from the ring, though his eccentric character remains on the landscape, including, most recently, his WWE Network Halloween special. Hopefully, the WWE continues to use Hardy's brilliant mind going forward.
8 Naomi
Naomi is one of the more popular women in SmackDown nowadays, working her Feel the Glow gimmick as a fun loving, super athletic face. WWE also openly acknowledges her real life marriage with Jimmy Uso, which has positioned her as his mixed tag team partner and an occasional ally to his tag team with his brother.
Five years ago, Naomi’s role was that of a fun loving face, but that’s more or less where the similarities end as she and Cameron were cast as The Funkadactyls—dancing sidekicks to Brodus Clay and his Tons if Funk tag team with Tensai.
7 Heath Slater
Heath Slater is seen sparingly on WWE television nowadays, but still has a reasonably well defined comedic gimmick as a poor guy who lives in a trailer, and wrestled to feed his kids. The gimmick started with heel leanings but he became a lovable face, particularly after finding some success in his tag team with Rhyno and capturing the SmackDown tag titles.
Slater’s character from five years ago paved the way for this one. After more serious booking as a member of The Nexus and then The Corre, Slater took on a silly, self-deluded One Man Band gimmick. It got over enough to justify building a comedy stable around him, casting fellow directionless mid-card heels Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre as his partners in crime.
6 Sami Zayn
After spending years on the indies, mostly working under a hood as El Generico, Sami Zayn got his start in NXT where he played a never say die underdog face.
If for no other reason than how convincing he was in the role, many fans suspected Zayn would remain a face in perpetuity.
He stalled out on the main roster, though, and WWE gave him a whirl as a heel, partnered with old on screen rival and real life friend Kevin Owens. Though Zayn is out injured now, he’ll presumably return in this bad guy role—an annoying spin on many of his old face mannerisms that made him a surprisingly effective heel.
5 Titus O’Neil
These days, Titus O’Neil has something of a player-coach role as mostly the manger to, but also an occasional tag team partner for performers under the Titus Worldwide banner. The general consensus is that the role is built to take advantage of his big personality while ceding the fact that he’s a pretty mediocre worker between the ropes.
Five years ago, WWE was still trying to make it work with O’Neil as a full time wrestler. He spent most of this era in his Prime Time Players tag team with Darren Young, though he’d eventually get a heel singles push when he turned on his partner.
4 Mickie James
Five years ago, Mickie James made like a lot of former WWE stars as she worked the independent circuit as a talent for hire. His meant regularly flip flopping her face or heel alignment as the angle or even the single night she was working demanded it.
Today, James has a more stable spot as a heel veteran on Raw. While some would argue she deserves to be featured better, she is working in the ring steadily in front of a national audience and helping to mentor young talents—a decent enough spot for any talent to aspire to.
3 Jinder Mahal
Five years ago, Jinder Mahal palled around with Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre as a comedic heel stable with its component members just waiting for their releases after disappointing singles runs.
(Slater would be the only member of 3MB continuously employed by WWE.)
Little could anyone have predicted that Mahal would get in phenomenal shape during his time away and get rewarded with not only a new contract, but a WWE Championship push. Mahal’s main event days are behind him now, but he remains a serious mid-card heel with the credibility of that title reign behind him.
2 Fandango
Fandango debuted on the main roster with a push that seemed to exceed his gimmick. Despite the relatively lightweight character of a ballroom dancing heel, which looked to have a pretty low ceiling over it, he got to start his run by beating no lesser star than Chris Jericho at WrestleMania. From there, his theme song briefly caught fire and caused him to come across like a bigger deal than the actual wrestler was.
Fandango came back down to earth. After an extended stretch of struggling to find TV time, he enjoyed a career renaissance teaming with fellow wayward main roster talent Tyler Breeze as the comedic face pair known as the Fashion Police.
1 Xavier Woods
Xavier Woods got off to a rough start in the WWE main roster as he was mostly used as cannon fodder for mid-card heels on the rise, and thrown into oddball tag teams.
Little could anyone have guessed how things would turn when WWE teamed him up with Kofi Kingston and Big E, and put a microphone (and a trombone) in Woods’s hands. He became an unlikely sensation during New Day’s original heel run and has since become one of the company’s most likeable underdogs and comedy acts who can nonetheless go bell to bell. It's been quite a run for him.