It is my opinion that for a successful career in the wrestling industry it takes several things: a gimmick that works, the ability to pull said gimmick off, and the faith of the creative team to let you "do your thing."
The shining examples of this are, of course, Steve Austin, Rocky Maivia, HHH and John Cena. Austin, hating the Ringmaster gimmick, evised himself an Evil Heel persona and ran with it -- while having the support of the creative and the fans. Rocky was turned heel, and he had the ability to make it work. HHH was given the ball by creative, and made it work. Cena made it work. Notice the key phrases here, please: they all had a "stellar" gimmick and the ability to make that gimmick work.
Of coruse, there is another thing that makes a wrestler successful: the fans' ability to buy into his gimmick, but that is very much a two way street. Why is a gimmick successful? Simple: because the wrestler makes it seem authentic. I looked at Austin and saw the beer-drinking, don't give a shit chaarcter. Rock was the arrogant s.o.b and God on the mic, and HHH was the degenerate and evil bastard he played.
The genuine portrayal of a unique character, or even for that matter any character, will show through and connect. But it is up to the worker to make it work. It is not up to creative to do so. It is up to creative to not hand out stupid gimmicks to those who cannot perform them, but even that's arguable.
It is a complex mashing of things that makes a wrestler successful. Is creative responsible? Surely. You can have the greatest gimmick, but if you're losing night in and night out, who will care? Whatever the reasons, creative doesn't have faith in you or the gimmick, so there's little you can do. At the same time, if a genuine portrayal strikes a chord with the fans, a fanbase will emerge and creative will jump on the wagon and make you unstoppable. It's natural: if I don't trust someone, they won't get my back-up. But if I do, or if I see something they're doing is working, I will be all over it to take credit and try and make it even better.
Sometimes lightning strikes twice, but more often it doesn't. The question is "Who else could've done what these guys did?" Could you see Haas doing what Cena does? Or HBK doing what Rocky did? Or HHH playing the Austin BMF character? No -- and why? -- because those characters were genuine parts of their personality, were genuinely portrayed and made to work. Creative just jumped on the wagon and made the right booking decisions, so to speak.
It's a balance, and one that does not always find itself. Some are given the ball too early because the gun is jumped, while others are given the ball too late because of little faith in the beginning. It's very much about timing and the ability of the worker at that time -- whether he still cares enough, the fans care enough, etc. But if it's a lie, if it's unnatural, the fans can tell and they won't support it, and that's why gimmicks fail. Creative merely further buries the worker, trying and scrambling to cover their ass.
