Times WWE Repackaged A Wrestler (& Ruined Their Career)

The presentation of a WWE Superstar is often what leads a wrestler to become immortalized in sports entertainment’s hallowed halls. Attire, booking, and skillset all factor into this, but above all else is a wrestler’s character. Cody Rhodes, for instance, would never have toppled Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 had he been painted like Stardust.

10 Current Wrestlers Who Have Had Tons Of Gimmick Changes

Quite a few active wrestlers have had a plethora of character changes, for better or worse.

Sadly, for many could-be big-timers, WWE’s mishandling of certain elements of a character can severely derail their momentum and, ultimately, sway them away from any potential success they may encounter elsewhere. From potential headline attractions down to the lowest spot on the card, these WWE wrestlers felt the wrath of the company’s poisonous pen.

Leo Kruger

He Transitioned Into Party Animal Adam Rose

Leo Kruger excelled in NXT with a slightly deranged character.
His career took a sharp turn downhill when he became Adam Rose.
Kruger was never the same when he began sucking on lollipops.

WWE’s relaunch of NXT in June 2012 from a tacky game show to a must-see developmental league pulled the curtain back on some intriguing characters that had been brewing in Florida Championship Wrestling. Among them was Leo Kruger, a tactical South African mercenary who wrestled several excellent matches, namely against Sami Zayn.

Strangely, in 2014, he was randomly repackaged as Adam Rose, a fun-loving party animal complete with an

entourage of party-goers that featured some future familiar faces
. This sudden change of heart was fun at first, but it had a short lifespan on it and restrained Rose’s in-ring capabilities, and by the end of the year, he was feuding with a man (rumored to have been Justin Gabriel) dressed as a bunny. That speaks volumes to how much WWE valued him.

Chavo Guerrero

His Success Was Thwarted When He Became Kerwin White

Chavo Guerrero enjoyed immense success when he moved from WCW to WWE.
He was a two-time Tag Team Champion and a four-time Cruiserweight Champion.
In changing his name to Kerwin White, his success was halted.

Coming from a wrestling family as glorified as the Guerrero clan, Chavo Guerrero should have had no issues in getting over – and he didn’t. ‘The Mexican Warrior’ was a celebrated cruiserweight in WCW and was a memorable feature of The Misfits in Action, and continued on a similar path when he jumped to WWE, even winning the WWE Tag Team Championship with his uncle Eddie.

When Chavo was rechristened Kerwin White, though, Chavo’s career was in the mud. Backed by his caddy – the future Dolph Ziggler – Chavo portrayed a classical conservative white male, a character that wasn’t going to get him much in the way of success. The character, though, almost went in a darker direction, as Guerrero detailed a pitch for him to dress as a Ku Klux Klan member in an interview with Chris Van Vliet:

I told Vince [McMahon} at the end of the day, I want to come out in a white sheet. He was like, ‘Oh yes, I love it.’ Now, we never ended up doing that. It got too risque, a little too racist for a network. […] I grew up in the time of wrestling where the more heat, the better. I wanted to fight my way back to the dressing room every night. I wanted to have to sneak out the back window. I wanted to be in the streets and [have] people yell, ‘We hate you’ because that’s heat. (h/t WrestleTalk)

Keith Lee

Lee Was Coming Off An Electric NXT Run

Keith Lee was the Ace of NXT in 2020.
He held the NXT and NXT North American Championships simultaneously.
Lee was doomed from the minute he was called up to the main roster.

NXT, in 2020, saw Keith Lee emerge as the black-and-gold brand’s focal star following his electric Survivor Series performance the previous year. Holding both of the brand’s male singles titles simultaneously and producing a slew of must-watch matches every week, Lee became a WWE megastar, though his main roster call-up that summer quickly halted that.

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Keith Lee has been out of action in AEW for months. It is also, unfortunately, not the first time he hasn’t been cleared to wrestle.

Debuting in a hula skirt and with new, generic theme music, WWE had no plans for their latest NXT graduate within a month of him arriving on Monday Night RAW. A 2021 rebranding as Keith ‘Bearcat’ Lee was also needless, as it wasn’t so much a character switch as it was an empty moniker. He was let go from the company in November of that year, for the best.

Piper Niven

The Scotswoman Became A Sidekick With A Horrid Name

Piper Niven, the former Viper, remained dominant in NXT UK.
Ascending to the main roster, she became Eva Marie’s bodyguard as Doudrop.
The role ruined her WWE career before she could properly get started.

Upon reports surfacing of Eva Marie making an unwarranted return to WWE, further rumors indicated that the former ‘All Red Everything’ would be returning alongside a new sidekick, with Mercedes Martinez and Piper Niven being the frontrunners. Niven was chosen and arrived alongside Marie on RAW in June 2021 – but she wasn’t Piper Niven: she was Doudrop.

While the role saw Niven remain somewhat dominant in her matches, it wasn’t the right fit for ‘The Vixen of Violence’, hence why she and Marie went their separate ways within three months. Piper’s career, though, remained derailed as she retained her newfound moniker for another fifteen months, during which time she barely appeared on WWE programming, and whenever she did, she was card-filler.

Tony Atlas

The Saba Simba Character Wouldn’t Have Worked In Modern Times

Tony Atlas has been crucial to the representation of black wrestlers.
He and Rocky Johnson became WWE’s first black champions in 1983.
As Saba Simba, Atlas was a shell of his former self.

The Saba Simba character was borderline racist. Supposedly conceived by James J. Dillon of Four Horsemen fame after he took a trip to Africa, the character, portrayed by Tony Atlas, was a barefooted tribal African warrior who pranced around the ring before matches. Needless to say, it wouldn’t be acceptable to put on modern television: it wasn’t acceptable when it happened, of course, but such is Vince McMahon’s propensity for greenlighting terrible ideas.

Its only redeeming quality is that it saved Tony Atlas’ life. Speaking on the Right After Wrestling podcast, Atlas recalled being homeless and addicted to drugs at the time McMahon gave him another opportunity:

“In the early ’80s, I went to LA. It was my decision to get involved in drugs, which screwed me up at the beginning of my career. I became homeless in 1989. This lady saw me sleeping in the park in Maine, didn’t know who I was. I had been homeless for a year and [a] half. I slept on the park bench. That day, it was 22 below zero, and she invited me into her home. When Vince tried to get a hold of me, he didn’t know how to reach me. Vince didn’t know how to get a hold of me, so a policeman told me he had a number of someone who wanted to reach me, so I called Vince and he told me about the idea of bringing me back as Saba Simba.” (h/t prowrestling.net)

Giant Bernard

The Former Albert Had Been Dominant In Japan

The real-life Matthew Bloom has had numerous guises in WWE.
He left the company in 2004 to begin a successful career overseas.
As Giant Bernard in NJPW, he was a New Japan Cup winner and two-time Tag Team Champion.

There have been

several instances of released WWE wrestlers thriving in New Japan Pro-Wrestling
, but perhaps the most surprising was Giant Bernard, who had wrestled as Albert and A-Train in WWE. In Japan, his 6’7″, 331-pound frame made him a perfect fit for the stiff style utilized by Japanese wrestling groups, while his Bad Intentions pairing with Karl Anderson put them both on the map.

Returning to WWE in 2012, his career resurgence was undone when he became a stereotypical Japanese warrior named Lord Tensai. Though the 2006 New Japan Cup winner was briefly treated as a major star, with pinfall wins over CM Punk and John Cena, this was dropped within a month of his return, and by the following year, he transformed into a dancing buffoon and was tricked into wearing lingerie.

Brodus Clay

He Could Have Been WWE’s Next Top Giant

Brodus Clay was convincing as Alberto Del Rio’s bodyguard.
He required further development, but the tools were there for success.
Instead, he came ‘The Funkasaurus’.

A 2022 Chris Van Vliet interview saw Brodus Clay delve deep into how ‘The Funkasaurus’ came to be, a gimmick that he believed to be a punishment. Per Clay, he was being eyed up to become WWE’s next monster heel, but a backstage revelation that he liked to crack jokes meant becoming a babyface for the first time in his career: specifically, a dancing babyface, complete with Ernest Miller’s Somebody Call My Momma entrance theme.

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WWE always loved big men, but not everyone gets pushed to the moon. The company eventually gave up on these monsters and turned them into a joke.

Though the character was somewhat popular for the time, which continued after he paired up with Lord Tensai as Tons of Funk, there was a low ceiling for ‘The Funkasaurus’, and after a brief heel turn, he was let go from WWE in 2014, becoming a dull heel in TNA and the NWA.

Smash

The Demolition Great Became The Slimy Repo Man

Alongside Ax, Smash formed half of Demolition, an all-time great tag team.
They were three-time WWE Tag Team Champions.
When the group disbanded, Smash donned a mask to become The Repo Man.

The Golden Era of WWE was a treasure trove for wacky gimmicks
, as Vince McMahon developed a fascination with debuting occupational characters: among them, The Repo Man. Portrayed by Smash of Demolition, the character was memorable, as he was involved in storylines with higher-ranking talents like Ted DiBiase and The British Bulldog, but the character itself was a lower midcard act at best.

For the real-life Barry Darsow, he is considered more memorable to WWE fans as The Repo Man than as Smash, as he donned the gimmick once more in 2007 for the RAW 15th Anniversary Battle Royal.

Terry Taylor

The Red Rooster Character Negatively Impacted His Career

Terry Taylor signed with WWE in 1988 after rising through WCW.
He became the Bobby Heenan-managed Red Rooster shortly after debuting.
The character damaged his long-term career.

WWE has concocted some horrendous in-ring monikers throughout the years, from Chad Gable becoming Shorty G and Pete Dunne being Butch, but there is perhaps none worse than Terry Taylor becoming The Red Rooster. Complete with red ring attire, Taylor would style his hair to be like a rooster’s and would comically strut around the ring.

Terry was never the same after this. Wrestling in various promotions post-Red Rooster, Taylor struggled to return to the person he had been previously, and ultimately transitioned into a behind-the-scenes capacity.

Emma

WWE Didn’t Know What To Do With Her

WWE promoted the makeover of Emma into Emmalina in 2017.
When debuting her new character, the Aussie star immediately reverted to being Emma.
The booking was all over the place as WWE reportedly had no plans for her.

Taking to X, the former Twitter, the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that the Emmalina vignettes that began airing in late 2016 were an “inside joke” and that there was “no spot” for her on Monday Night RAW. When Emma did return to debut the new character, which was to be a throwback to a character like Sable and The Kat, she instantly denounced her makeover, becoming Emma again.

10 Bizarre WWE Gimmicks That Lasted Less Than A Month

Over the years, WWE had a bad habit of constantly changing gimmicks to see what worked. It resulted in the following short and bizarre gimmicks.

The Aussie star has been treated as an afterthought ever since, including in two TNA stints and during a second run in WWE, and revealed in 2023 that she wasn’t sure if she would ever wrestle again. It’s an understandable reaction given the treatment displayed towards someone who was a crucial part of the Women’s Evolution in NXT.