WWE changing gimmicks at end of careers

[anvilx8]

I was thinking about how WWE took some made superstars late in their careers and changed/altered their gimmick and made them basically look stupid, with no payoff at the end of the storyline.

Chainsaw Charlie - WHAT was the reason for this gimmick!? I'm SURE wwe could have just brough in TERRY FUNK and had him team with Foley and fight foley... this seemed completely pointless.

El Matador - Tito Santana was a former IC champ and a legend by the time the el matador gimmick was given to him. I understand it was around the time the WWE was pulling out any gimmick they could think of.. but still!

Blue Blazer (99) - Was it Vince "punishing" Owen, or just WWE being dumber than shit and thinking it was actually a good storyline!? Completely took Owen from potential main eventer after Bret left to very mid-card.

Mr. America aka Hulk hogan - Was this ALSO a case of Vince "punishing" Hogan for something, or what!? Haha... lets take the biggest star in the history of wrestling when he's at the tail end of his career and change his gimmick (even tho, yes.. I know Hogan would show his face all the time). it still seemed pointless.

Anyone think of any other cases of this!?

 

[I Heart Cena]

Blue Blazer was used by Owen at the beginning of his career as well.

Don't forget The Dragon for Ricky Steamboat. WWE pretended that the Dragon was a newcomer. Ugh, they directly insult us.

 

[GutCheck21]

Mr.America gimmick had my blood boiling. Stupid mask . Stupid attire. Stupid promos. I mean its Hulk freaking Hogan and your going to throw him in the ring looking like that. And would anyone say " OMG there goes Mr. America" hell no . Maybe I'm not making sense but it just kills me.

 

[justtxyank]

Vince loves gimmicks and hates wrestling. His favorite thing is getting a worker over with a new gimmick that he owns all rights to. The El Matador gimmick is one that is particularly stupid but is not even among the worst that the WWF has forced on wrestlers.

 

[justtxyank]

Mr.America gimmick had my blood boiling. Stupid mask . Stupid attire. Stupid promos. I mean its Hulk freaking Hogan and your going to throw him in the ring looking like that. And would anyone say " OMG there goes Mr. America" hell no . Maybe I'm not making sense but it just kills me.

That one was a little different actually. It wasn't really a change to Hogan's gimmick. It was part of a storyline. Vince was trying to get rid of Hogan and Hogan showed up under the Mr. America mask "pretending" to be someone other than Hogan. Everyone knew it was Hogan but unless Vince could prove it he couldn't fire him. This is a storyline that's been used throughout wrestling by many popular wrestlers.

 

[mvk]

I believe Owen wanted to use the Blue Blazer gimmick because he felt it was kid friendly. Think I read that in Bret's book. Also, wasn't Chainsaw Charlie actually Terry Funk's idea?

I think the only bad one listed was Tito Santana, el Matador. Santana was a pretty good wrestler in the WWF in the early to mid 80's, I remember his IC feud with Greg Valentine quite well, including a good cage match.

 

[Wolf Pac]

DDP's motivational speaker gimmick. Everytime I think of all those main event feuds that he could've had with guys like Austin (Stunner vs. Cutter), Rock (Peoples Champ vs. Peoples Champ), Jericho, Angle, HHH, and more before he decided to hang up the boots, I shake my head in disappointment. Vince could've booked the Invasion storyline and used DDP so much better, he didn't even get a proper one-on-one match with The Undertaker in their feud.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

I was thinking about how WWE took some made superstars late in their careers and changed/altered their gimmick and made them basically look stupid, with no payoff at the end of the storyline.

Chainsaw Charlie - WHAT was the reason for this gimmick!? I'm SURE wwe could have just brough in TERRY FUNK and had him team with Foley and fight foley... this seemed completely pointless.

It's not like they really hid that it was Terry Funk behind the pantyhose mask. I always saw that as an extension of the "3 Faces of Foley" gimmick that Mick was running at the time. Giving Funk a second "face" to show that he was a kindred spirit of Foley's.

El Matador - Tito Santana was a former IC champ and a legend by the time the el matador gimmick was given to him. I understand it was around the time the WWE was pulling out any gimmick they could think of.. but still!

Yeah was never a fan of El Matador (Tito Santana had always been a favorite of mine though), but they were doing shit like that with a lot of guys at the time... and the ones they weren't doing it with they were giving their walking papers to. El Matador sucked, but it probably did give Santana an extra few years of WWF paychecks.

Blue Blazer (99) - Was it Vince "punishing" Owen, or just WWE being dumber than shit and thinking it was actually a good storyline!? Completely took Owen from potential main eventer after Bret left to very mid-card.

Owen's idea. He hated the racy storylines and this was his idea to avoid having to be involved in one.

Mr. America aka Hulk hogan - Was this ALSO a case of Vince "punishing" Hogan for something, or what!? Haha... lets take the biggest star in the history of wrestling when he's at the tail end of his career and change his gimmick (even tho, yes.. I know Hogan would show his face all the time). it still seemed pointless.

Nothing of the sort. Go look up the Midnight Rider gimmick that Dusty Rhodes ran in both Florida and later JCP. Mr. America was just a copy of that gimmick.

 

[GameOver]

DDP's motivational speaker gimmick. Everytime I think of all those main event feuds that he could've had with guys like Austin (Stunner vs. Cutter), Rock (Peoples Champ vs. Peoples Champ), Jericho, Angle, HHH, and more before he decided to hang up the boots, I shake my head in disappointment. Vince could've booked the Invasion storyline and used DDP so much better, he didn't even get a proper one-on-one match with The Undertaker in their feud.

DDP became a motivational speaker and a yoga teacher aswell as a small films director when WCW was done ie b4 he came to WWE. he is noteable for managing Scott Hall and Kevin Nash and Mr Perfect b4 they went to WWF and became household names Vince didn't create that character, DDP was just being himself

Hulk Hogan was storyline forced to sit out the rest of his contract at home so he had to make a return under disguise Der!!!! very little different to when Owen went back to the Blue Blazer gimmick and they kept hinting it was him but he denied it. but it was short lived because Marvel were gonna sue WWE over the similarity to Captain America aswell as the Hulk Hogan names similarity to the Incredible Hulk which has been ongoing since day 1 of him taking that name.

Owen Hart started in WWF as the Blue Blazer and he made an immediate impact then only went up from there. He was just returning to his roots for a fresh start

as for Tito and Ricky Steamboat, it didn't hurt there careers, they were generic wrestlers b4hand nearing the end of there WWF term all Vince did probably with there acceptance was flash them up abit to get some more exposure, presonally prefered Steamboat as the fire breathing dragon and who can forget Brains comment about Santana at WrestleMania 8. Wooo he's chanting to his sister Ariba McIntyre..

Terry Funk was already retired when he made his WWF debut as Chainsaw Charlie gimmick which was his idea as a copy of Leatherface was just to further get the Catcus Jack/Mankind/Mick FOley characters over and they temporarily formed a team in one of the weirdest Tag Title matches of all time facing the NAO at WrestleMania. he dropped the gimmick soon after and teamed with Bradshaw going after the tag titles but retired in a match against Scorpio/Farooq which eventually led to Bradshaw going heel and forming the APA with Farooq

So who else you got?

 

[Rabbid Wolverine]

blue blazer was cool to me, i didnt mind it, same with chainsaw charlie, at that time in the attitude era it waas fun to have some whacked out characters like that running around. Did it hurt terry funk, hell no, everyone just thought he was a senile old man running around with a chainsaw!

i'm going to say smash of demolition, he came back as the repo man then in wcw he might have been using his real name but he was this golfer character that would only wrestle on sat night on tbs.

 

[EastCoastFan]

Tito Santana tried to make the "El Matador" gimmick work, but when he found out they had no plans for promoting or merchandising the character, he walked and then retired.

The rumor I heard about Owen Hart resuming the Blue Blazer was that Vince Russo originally planned an adultery storyline between him and Debra, but Owen refused to do it (he didn't want to have to explain it to his kids) and the Blue Blazer was his punishment for saying no.

I have no idea what they were thinking when they turned Terry Funk into Chainsaw Charlie. Everybody knew it was Funk.

As for Mr. America, that was a rehash of the classic "fired wrestler returning under a mask" trope that has been done so many times over the years, the most famous one being the times Dusty Rhodes became the Midnight Rider.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

The four you named have been pretty well discussed. How about Tony Atlas 'embracing' his African roots as Saba Simba. Not sure if there was a story behind it but it was an insulting joke as far as I am concerned.

 

[HBsam31]

Harley Race going from pretty much just a no gimmick tough guy in the NWA winning 8 titles to King Harley Race in WWE. I wouldn't say he was a joke, but his past was never mentioned which Vince tended to do in those days and even now. He could have been a nice vetern addition to the roster, but instead they made him into a glorified jobber. It always seemed dumb for me to bring a guy in with such a storied past only to throw a crown on him and have him feud in the mid card at best. He later returned to WCW to be a manager, and his time as King Harley Race is pretty much forgotten.

 

[WallsofZakku]

DDP's motivational speaker gimmick. Everytime I think of all those main event feuds that he could've had with guys like Austin (Stunner vs. Cutter), Rock (Peoples Champ vs. Peoples Champ), Jericho, Angle, HHH, and more before he decided to hang up the boots, I shake my head in disappointment. Vince could've booked the Invasion storyline and used DDP so much better, he didn't even get a proper one-on-one match with The Undertaker in their feud.

I too cringe at the fact that Vince seriously dropped the ball with DDP, I mean c'mon the dude could wrestle, had charisma, and was one of WCW's top guys.
Like you said, he could've had some great matches and fueds with the WWE's top guys but instead Vince couldn't pull his head out of his own ass to make it happen.

 

[lil bitch Kid]

I too cringe at the fact that Vince seriously dropped the ball with DDP, I mean c'mon the dude could wrestle, had charisma, and was one of WCW's top guys.
Like you said, he could've had some great matches and fueds with the WWE's top guys but instead Vince couldn't pull his head out of his own ass to make it happen.

You are remembering DDP far too fondly. DDP was at best a mid card guy who got title runs because of the lack of options. I put DDP in the same category as Booker and Steiner. DDP had a really good feud with Savage, I'll give him that, but come on, it was with Savage. I could have been in a feud with Savage and would have been made to seem credible. DDP, Booker and Steiner all got pushed to the moon at a time where WCW needed to put the belt on someone. It really wasn't because they SHOULD HAVE HAD the belt.

 

[WallsofZakku]

You are remembering DDP far too fondly. DDP was at best a mid card guy who got title runs because of the lack of options. I put DDP in the same category as Booker and Steiner. DDP had a really good feud with Savage, I'll give him that, but come on, it was with Savage. I could have been in a feud with Savage and would have been made to seem credible. DDP, Booker and Steiner all got pushed to the moon at a time where WCW needed to put the belt on someone. It really wasn't because they SHOULD HAVE HAD the belt.

Well you never know until you try right? i think DDP was great, then again this is my opinion as you have yours. DDP was one of the best guys WCW had. And no im not counting the Eddie Gurreros or the Dean Malenkos, etc because we all know that in WCW they never had a shot at that title.
What was WCW going to do? keep the title on guys like Sting or Flair the whole time?

 

[justtxyank]

You are remembering DDP far too fondly. DDP was at best a mid card guy who got title runs because of the lack of options. I put DDP in the same category as Booker and Steiner. DDP had a really good feud with Savage, I'll give him that, but come on, it was with Savage. I could have been in a feud with Savage and would have been made to seem credible. DDP, Booker and Steiner all got pushed to the moon at a time where WCW needed to put the belt on someone. It really wasn't because they SHOULD HAVE HAD the belt.

I actually agree with you about Booker T. To me he was always a guy who was good in the ring and fun to watch, but only as a mid-carder. I never bought him as a main eventer.

However, you are dead wrong about DDP. DDP did get his push largely because of his friendship with Bischoff, but there was nothing forced about the way the crowds embraced him. Beginning with his Diamond Cutter on Scott Hall when they wanted him to join the nWo, he went on a wild ride until the end of 1998 where he was one of the three or four most popular men in the company with Goldberg, Sting and Hogan. There was a reason they wanted DDP involved in the Leno/Rodman/Malone stuff. DDP had become a HUGE hit with the crowds. He was so over that when he faced Goldberg at Halloween Havoc I was SURE he was going to win the belt. (And didn't want it to happen!) I was there live and remember the crowd being very pro-DDP (there was also an "I BANGed Kimberly" sign that I will never forget!).

Steiner, same way. Steiner was a legit main eventer. His heel heat got off the charts after becoming Big Poppa Pump. Had he been in the WWF there is no doubt he would have been pushed as a main eventer as well. It just came too later. His ring work was falling apart because of the roids and then he got seriously injured when he was brought into the WWF and made to look a fool.