Most memorable gimmick/character change

[King Blitzkonic]

Can't believe anyone forgot these guys....
The Man's man Steven Regal to William Regal.
Steven Richards from lacky to leader of one of the best groups ever IMO, (an early SES, and would work now in the WWE) Right To censor.
Val Venis to Sean Morley, not a good one.
From a driver to Rhythm and Blues (The Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine), to a manger, to DDP to self help guru...I hated the last one.
Mabel to Viscera.
The Steiner Brothers: From Michigan Alum to the Big bad botty daddy on roids and the Dog Faced gremlin.
Hugh Morris to Gen. Rection

Oho Nice one on Regal and DDP, I take off my hat to you for those two.

A few "obscure" ones worth mentioning:
Heidenreich to LOD Heidenreich: Come on, I'm sure at least one reader marked out for THAT transformation!
Lance Storm going from "BORING" to dancing and such (definitely not a good one)
Dean Malenko from Iceman to Ladies Man (a ROYAL insult IMO. SN: Did you know Malenko's first ECW theme was "What a man"?)
Kevin Thorn to Mordecai (and later back): Ah Mordecai, yet another example of booking failure.

 

[boozinjedi]

I got one for pure funniest ever!!
Adorable Adrian Adonis!!
Went from a biker-type tough guy to full fledged drag queen,which then led to The Flower Shop.

As a kid...it had me in stitches!!

 

[harrythem]

I'm going to pick my most memorable, all for the wrong reasons though:

LOD Hawk to drunken bum Hawk. Talk about a complete 180 character change. Also gave the added bonus of not having to see his shitty matches anymore too!

Also from Kurrgen the Interrogator to Kurrgen the massive dayglo wearing freak, talk about destroy a potential monster.

Tommy Dreamer Hardcore dude to Tommy Dreamer, puke eating Jackass wannabe.

Phineus Godwin to naked Mideon...man that was evil.

El Gigante to Giant Gonzalez, complete bollocks.

Mae Young. Comedy type to hand birthing tit flashing erection destoryer.

Rick Rude to the Halloween Phantom back to Rick Rude.

Big Boss Man to The Boss then Ray Traylor

Medusa to Alundra Blaze, womens wrestler, to Medusa big chested ****e type.

Also can't ever forget Ric Flair to The Black Scorpion then back to Ric Flair....dark days but soo couldn't stop watching.


Every single one of them was dreadful but, my god, I still remember them with fondness (especially Mae, for when I want to keep my jiggy lasting a bit longer)

 

[californiachef84]

Miz going from the guy nobody thought would amount to anything, to the possible future of the company

Dude, seriously... Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but come on... The Miz is the biggest douchebag EVER!!! I would rather watch Brother Love, Doink the clown, or Snitsky!!! If Miz is indeed the future of the WWE, then I guess the ratings will have to drop even further than they currently have because I WILL NOT WATCH!!! I have already been turned off by guys like R-Truth, Swagger, and Nexus... The Miz makes me physically angry to see him...

Anyways, best character switch would either have to be Sting, from blond haired surfer to the Crow gimmick... Or The Immortal Hulk Hogan to Hollywood Hogan...

 

[Adalam]

Well, I'm only able to comment on what I've seen so that I'm not talkin out my ass, but I honestly like the AJ Styles gimmick change to 'The New Nature Boy' and Samoa Joe going from some punk leading the Nation of Violence back to the chaotic, in your face and kick your ass before you know it Samoan Submission Machine. Truth be told the second one is my overall favorite due to Joe being completely unpredictable this way while as the Nation of Violence guy he was a little too generic somehow. Don't ask how, but I dunno... Just felt off for some reason.

 

[CraigThe13th]

Nice one to Adalam. Putting one that he knows and has witnessed rather than, as he so eloquently put it, talking out of his ass like a fair few of you lot have done. I mean some of them are not even correct, like you have had a scan through wikipedia and still got it wrong. Biggest face palms go to the n00bs who put Justin Credible to Aldo Montoya and Whoever said Kane was the fake Undertaker. Please for fucks sakes KNOW YOUR FACTS and comment what you know rather than just posting to try and impress as knowledgeable fans see right through noob bullshit *Rant over*

I have a good few on topic which I have really liked over the years some of these when I was younger I didn't even know they were the same person till later on.

Demolition Smash - Repo Man, was a long while till I figured this one out as it was quite drastic, gimmick never went anywhere but fun enough.

'The Natural' Dustin Rhodes - Goldust, When I was 13 was impressed with myself figuring this one out When I first seen Goldust I thought it was Dusty, then watched some wcw I had, seen he was more Dustin's size. Drastic change which defines Runnels career.

My favourite two have already been mentioned Sting from surfer to crow. Taker to the american bad ass. Both were just what they needed to freshen themselves up at the time. I for one wish Taker would end his career in as the ABA as it feels more like what I imagine the real Mark Callaway is.

 

[CyDeez]

Honorable mention to all of Brutus Beefcake's characters... From "The Barber" to "The Disciple" is pretty epic. lol

It's so hard for me to choose a clear winner on this one. All 3 that I am thinking of, I can't decide which is better because they all have an impact beyond those of most types of impact.

The 3 I am thinking of aren't nobodies that could change gimmicks by week and people wouldn't notice because they have no idea who they are.

In fact, ALL 3 are former World Champions. AND they are 3 of the biggest names in the history of the business.

Sting - From the baby kissing, blond flat top, bright happy makeup wearing, "AAAWWWOOO" screaming, do gooder. To the baseball bat toting, rafter lurking, Crow-style makeup wearing, long dark hair, silent, vengeful assassin!

Undertaker - From The Deadman to The American Badass. Lost a gimmick most people would have been stuck to for the rest of their life. Became more of who he is and it was riveting.

Hulk Hogan - Red and Yellow, Face, to Black and White, Heel... NWO... Hollywood... Need I say more?

I consider all 3 of those HUGE! Because they changed everything that was going on around them basically, and they were already MASSIVE STARS and World Champs with their previous "gimmicks".

To go by what the OP wants my response to be, I'll choose one.

On impact to the business, alone, I give the overall edge to the Hogan turn. Not only did it effect everything, it put a company ahead of another and changed the literal "face" of wrestling!!!

 

[The Brain]

A lot of good names have already been brought up and it’s not surprising to see the bigger names in the business mentioned. Hogan, Taker, HHH, Rock, Sting etc. are all expected and rightfully so. JBL was a good one too. I took a quick glance and didn’t see my guy mentioned.

Bob Backlund. When Backlund returned to the WWF in 1992 he was Mr. goody goody. He didn’t really have a gimmick or even much of a personality. He trained hard, was always polite to people, and quietly tried to be a role model. What he became was irrelevant and forgotten. Then after losing a random championship match to Bret Hart on raw in 1994 he snapped. Backlund showed a very uncharacteristic lack of sportsmanship by attacking Bret when the match was over. He then went on to tell anyone who would listen how he got screwed out of the title in 1983 and was the rightful champion. He became very critical of the new generation and would often talk down to them claiming they had no morals or respect. The once mild mannered Backlund became a raving lunatic screaming at everyone in sight. I thought this was a very interesting character change and it worked pretty well. It’s a great example of the WWF getting the most out of what they had. They were kind of short on heels in 1994 and they took one of their forgotten faces and transformed him into the challenger for Bret Hart at Survivor Series. I thought it was very well done.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

the problem with most of these is they are inter company or over so long a period of time that they are not worth considering...

I think the true best is Brian Pillman... his change was almost overnight from Horseman to lunatic... there was no messing around, no ease in to see how the gimmick took... one day he was a Horseman the next he was crazy and calling "Bookerman" and the next pulling his thing out or at least trying to in ECW...

I don't think anyone has ever pulled of such a quick, 180 gimmick change than that...