People who shed lame gimmicks and become amazing

[Trill Co$by]

Throughout wrestling history, there have been people who started out or was given a gimmick that was complete and utter crap. In the ring, these people were talented and could easily be a big draw, but until the shed that gimmick they couldn't be anything. This is a thread to get opinions on who you think was able to shed the "lame duck" gimmicks and become a talented athlete.


Kicking things off, I'm going to give my first one to Gregory Helms. In 2006, Helms did the unthinkable when he went from being the Hurricane to being himself and capturing the WWE Cruiserweight championship. Now to most people, this may have meant nothing, but Helms found a way to kick energy into his reign as Cruiserweight Champion. Holding it for over a year before losing the title, Helms quickly became a prime time hit on Friday nights. During his reign, he even saw Survivor Series main event light as he teamed with Team Rated RKO to come up short to Team DX... In my opinion, it's not everyday where a person with a Super-Hero gimmick can simply become a huge ratings booster... but some how, some way, Helms found a way to do it.


Following him, I'll put on the list Kenny Dykstra and Dolph Ziggler, or as they're known from their previous gimmicks Kenny and Nicky of the Spirit Squad. After leaving the Spirit Squad, Kenny was undoubtedly one of the hottest people on the Smackdown roster. He was fast, exciting to watch, and had a unique style that not many on the Smackdown roster had. And at the time, he would have made a dominant United States champion. Unfortunately, he was given the future endeavored letter and has since then been on the indy circuit.

As for Nicky? Well to me if you go from male cheerleader side kick to being someone that a lot of fans pull behind known as Dolph Zigg;er, you're doing something right. And after going toe to toe with the best that WWE has had to offer, Ziggler finally captured the IC title. He's a perfect mid-carder and can easily transition into another tag team with damn near anybdoy, should he need to. He's fun to watch in the ring, and the way WWE has given him the Sleeper hold as a finisher just lets me know that they guy is amazing.

Following this, I would have to go to TNA and say that Eric Young's transition from idiot to World Elite leader and Global Champion was rather nice to see. The guy has decent talent, and he's not somebody you see on a street corner everyday. His voice gives off a unique sound which in no way can be considered cookie cutter. His time in World Elite was cut short because of lousy TNA booking, but his time there was pretty wicked.

So I ask, who do you think are some people who after shedding lame duck gimmicks went on to become memorable or at least better wrestlers than before.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

There are an almost uncountable number of these cases in wrestling history...

Triple H debuted as Terra Ryzing and moved onto being the French accent using Jean-Paul Lévesque that ultimately lead to the "Blue Blood" Hunter Hearst Helmsley before it all eventually gave way to "The Game" and "The Cerebral Assassin".

Kevin Nash debuted as an orange-mohawked character named "Steel", which was one half of a tag-team known as "The Master Blasters", which eventually gave way to him being repackaged as "Oz"—a pathetic Wizard of Oz-type character— which eventually gave way to Vinnie Vegas—a horrible wisecracking pseudo-mobster based on Steve Martin's character in the 1990 film My Blue Heaven—which gave way eventually to Diesel, which eventually simply became Kevin Nash.

The list goes on and on and on...

 

[ABMorales787]

Steve Austin springs to mind. From his Hollywood Blonde days to the Steveamaniac to The Ring master and finally, the legendary "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Quite the transition. Especially as Ringmaster.

Another guy would have to be AJ Styles. He was a goof from 2007 to 2008. Then he feuded with Angle and all of the sudden, he was the greatest thing on television and once again the face of TNA.

 

[The Unforgiven]

I think the Rock made a huge change. When he first debuted he was called Flex Cabana or some carp like that. Then he was baby face cookie cutter Rocky Maivia. Then finally to thee Rock.

 

[One to Remember]

Rocky Maivia turning into the arrogant Rocky Johnson who would morph into the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, the Rock. I definitely prefer Raven to Johnny Polo. When the Giant no longer had to rely on speculation in WCW that he was the bastard son of Andre trying to avenged his father.. Then there is when John Cena transcended WWE's four hundredth attempt to make one of its wrestlers Marky Mark..

oooh, and when Mark Henry dumped his geezer fetish and became a serious competitor and athlete..

Taz used to be some tarzan from the bronks type monster. The Diomond Studd becoming Razor Ramon.

Blackjack Bradshaw becoming Bradshaw and then becoming JBL.

G.I. Bro reclaiming the name Booker T. and winning the WCW World title soon after.

 

[Tha Wolfpac]

Im gonna go with somebody recent. Cody Rhodes with his stupid and un-explained Un-Common gimiick he had going on for a little while, and then graced Friday Nights as Dashing Cody Rhodes, quite a drastic change. He had on personality until he started oozing charisma.

 

[CyberPunk]

One that comes to my mind is Dr Isaac Yankem DDS the dentist....to fake Diesel.......to Kane
Also if I am not mistaken...Undertaker was Mean Mark Callous before joing WWF/E.

There are so many examples like The Rock, SCSA and so many more.........we can go on and on

 

[Buster]

Air Styles.

1 half of the tag team Air Raid.

I don't quite understand whether the gimmick is Top Gun or Michael Jackson.

For either the entrance theme should have been bit different and not the generic heavy rock tune they had, maybe "Highway to the danger zone" would have been more appropriate.

Anyway as we all know A.J goes on to become 'himself' and numerous World Champ and wrestler of the year 2010.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Stone Cold Steve Austin was stuck with the appalling "Ringmaster" gimmick when he joined the WWE, with no personality or mic time.

Once he dropped Ted DiBiase as his manager and was able to be himself, well know what happened.

Sometimes its better to let a perfomer be themself, rather than sticking them with a gimmick, in my opinion.

Other examples are Triple H, (as Terra Ryzing in WCW and the blue blood gimmick in WWE), and The Rock (Flex Kavana in MCW, and the smily happy-go-luck Rocky Maivia on his WWF debut)

 

[Super Strudel]

Off the top of my head, the best example is Deacon Batista, the Reverend D-Von's right hand man during the Dudley Boy's attempt at a singles career on Smackdown.
One quick trip to Raw later, and coming under the wing of Ric Flair, and Deacon became Dave and a part of Evolution.

 

[CyDeez]

I don't like Jeff Jarrett at all. But, his Country Music singing gimmick was lame as anything I have seen basically, and he has come a long way since.

He won the WCW World Title numerous times and has held mid-card titles EVERYWHERE.

He is in a position of some power in TNA, where he has won The TNA/NWA World Championship multiple times.

 

[save_us_222]

Im gonna go with somebody recent. Cody Rhodes with his stupid and un-explained Un-Common gimiick he had going on for a little while, and then graced Friday Nights as Dashing Cody Rhodes, quite a drastic change. He had on personality until he started oozing charisma.

this is spot on i reckon, his new gimmicks amazing - he was pretty faceless in legacy - like neither him or dibiase would ever have won at mania against orton as their gimmick was pretty much being in that team. Now i think hes one of the main reasons to watch smackdown.