Ranking the 5 Worst Gimmick Changes in WWE History

A lot of wrestlers have burned through gimmicks over the years.

Sometimes their old gimmicks run their course.

Sometimes they leave and are given a character that wasn't made for them.

Sometimes...who knows what they're thinking?

In no particular order, let's take a look at some of the worst (and sometimes goofiest) makeovers that WWE has given talent.

(Note: At least for the purposes of this slideshow, I tried to limit it to gimmick changes that were obvious to the average fan.  So no masked wrestlers returning unmasked and vice versa, no one who came from WCW and was given a worse gimmick, etc.)

The Narcissist -> "Made in the USA" Lex Luger

(Yes, one where the new gimmick was so boring that the video is of the old one.)

It's been forgotten, but in 1989, Lex Luger was arguably the best all-around performer in pro wrestling.  

After a year and a half as one of WCW's top babyfaces, everything really clicked when he turned heel.  Not only did he constantly have great matches and develop into a great talker, he looked like he was sculpted by God and was a smart guy (Jim Ross always stressed his 3.78 GPA in college) who represented the company well when doing media appearances.  He only cooled off because he needed to turn back babyface suddenly in 1990 to replace Sting when Sting suffered a severe knee injury.

He jumped to WWF parent company Titan Sports as part of the World Bodybuilding Federation in 1992 and started as a wrestler at the 1993 Royal Rumble as Bobby Heenan's promised "Narcissist."  Luger had a reputation for being self-centered (that played into his gimmick as a heel in WCW), so if he couldn't be "The Total Package" anymore, it seemed like a good fit.

While he didn't click immediately, these things can take time, and he was still adjusting after a major motorcycle accident during his time off.  Still, the WWF didn't wait very long.  Less than six months later, he turned babyface.

On July 4th, 1993, there was a special bodyslam challenge on the USS Intrepid in New York City. Various WWF wrestlers (all babyfaces) and other professional athletes each got one shot to be the first man to slam WWF champion Yokozuna.  They all failed, and all hope seemed lost when a helicopter appeared overhead.  It landed on the ship, and out stepped Luger in an American flag T-shirt.  You can guess what happened next.

Yes, that's all it took for the living embodiment of narcissism to become a good guy.

He was soon given a tour bus, "The Lex Express," where he would travel across the country on his "Call to Action Tour" to demand a title shot.  The appearances weren't well-attended, and he bombed on top.  He was just too artificial and aloof to be the "man of the people" babyface they wanted.

One Man Gang -> Akeem

One of the most underrated super heavyweights in wrestling history, The One Man Gang had floated around wrestling for years before adopting his signature look (mohawk/tattooed skull/black bodysuit/denim vest) and gimmick (a Chicago gang member) in 1985.  He moved on to the WWF in 1987 and was fairly successful as the latest giant for Hulk Hogan to kill.

In 1988, he disappeared for the better part of two months after Slick, his manager, promised that Gang would soon have a new look.  It should be pointed out to younger fans that Slick was, in fact, a jive-talking fellow sometimes implied to be a pimp.

On the edition of Superstars of Wrestling that aired the last weekend of September, we were presented with a special report from "Mean Gene" Okerlund.  Clad in his tuxedo as always, Gene was on location in what Slick told him was "Deepest, darkest Africa."  It was actually some sort of run-down, inner-city neighborhood.

Slick danced into frame carrying a boom box that was playing "Jive Soul Bro," his entrance music.  He explained that we were about to witness a transformation and switched out the tape in his boom box to African tribal music.  A bunch of tribesmen appeared and started dancing.  Slick, ghetto blaster in tow, started dancing with them.

This is already incredibly offensive and I haven't even gotten to the best/worst part yet.

As everyone danced around a burning trash can, Slick unveiled his newest protege: Akeem the African Dream.  Akeem was actually One Man Gang in a dashiki after growing out his hair and beard.  Gene pointed this out, only to be rebuffed by Slick.  Akeem then cut a jive-talking promo and left with Slick.  The "savage" tribal dancers menaced Gene as the segment cut away.

Yes, there was an actual reason for this, though not necessarily a good one: As legend has it, Akeem was a parody of Dusty Rhodes, then the booker of rival Jim Crockett Promotions (known as the NWA on television) as well as one of their top stars.

Dusty was the American Dream, so Akeem was the African Dream.  Dusty considered himself one with his black fans, Akeem actually thought he was a black dude.  And so on.  This came a year after Ted DiBiase's black manservant/bodyguard was named "Virgil," Dusty's real first name.

Anyway, as much as many of us enjoy Akeem (and he did indeed get a renewed push for a while), the gimmick was fairly offensive, not a good idea on paper, and seemingly done solely out of revenge.  Oh, and Dusty Rhodes came to the WWF within a year, which was...awkward.

"Redneck Messiah" Jamie "By God" Noble -> One Half of the Pitbulls

Jamie Noble was awesome.

A late-period WCW cruiserweight, he went to WWE when they bought WCW in 2001.  After about a year in developmental, he was called up as the redneck, trailer-park-dwelling boyfriend of "Tough Enough" winner Nidia Guenard.  The pint-sized West Virginian was about as perfect for the role as anyone can be.

He had great matches, especially when paired with other cruiserweights, and knocked all of his promos, angles, and skits out of the park.  His skits when he inherited money from a dead relative were as great as his matches with Rey Mysterio.

He was fired in 2004, but returned about a year later.  Instead of picking up where he left off, he was teamed with Kid Kash, who had anchored the cruiserweight division in Noble's absence.  For some reason, after they teamed together a few times, they were branded The Pitbulls.  The same name and gimmick had been used in ECW by Gary Wolfe and the late Anthony Durante, who teamed elsewhere as the American Bulldogs and the Pit Bull Dogs.

I don't know if someone wanted to use a dormant ECW trademark for fun, or thought it would be fun to give a gimmick used by short, jacked guys to short, jacked guys, or what, but it didn't work.  They were a good team, but wearing dog collars and chains, barking, crawling around, etc. didn't suit them.  Worse, it was a huge step down from Noble's previous greatness.

It wasn't as outright bad as the other entries in this list, but the gimmick it replaced was so great that it belongs.

Chavo Guerrero -> Kerwin White

In 2005, Chavo Guerrero was drafted to Raw shortly after being attacked by the Mexicools on SmackDown.  The ambush, combined with his need for a fresh start, led to him announcing that he was renouncing his Mexican heritage and embracing white America.  I guess we were supposed to ignore that while not an anglo, he's still technically white/Caucasian.

To really hammer the message home, he "legally" changed his name to Kerwin White and had the catchphrase "If it's not White, it's not right!"

He dyed his hair blonde and started embracing every rich WASP stereotype you can think of.  He was basically a really racist, Billy Zabka-character in an '80s movie with a punny name to boot.  Oh, and Dolph Ziggler was his caddy.  There wasn't much substance there.

The gimmick lasted about three months as he dropped it when his uncle Eddie passed away, never to be spoken of again.

"Bad Ass" Billy Gunn -> Mr. Ass

When "Bad Ass" Billy Gunn and "Road Dogg" Jesse James dominated the tag team division as the New Age Outlaws, Road Dogg would sometimes refer to them jokingly as "Mr. Dogg and Mr. Ass" in promos.  When they split up, someone decided to extend a throwaway joke into a new gimmick for Billy Gunn.

Gone was the "Bad Ass."  He was now Mr. Ass.

Yes, MISTER ASS.

His gimmick was that he loved his asses.  Women's asses, his own ass, asses all around.  He got entrance music with lyrics about how great asses are.  How this was supposed to translate into him becoming a main eventer, which was supposed to be the idea, I have no clue.

At SummerSlam '99, he faced The Rock in a "Kiss My Ass" match.  You can figure out the stipulations, but during the show, there was a swerve.  You see, since The Rock was not good enough to kiss Mr. Ass's ass, he brought out a "designated" ass, who was referred to as "that large woman."  As in, when the match ended, Jim Ross screamed "The Rock just shoved Billy Gunn's face in that large woman's ass!  I just said that, King!"

That was the beginning of the end of Mr. Ass.  The Outlaws reformed a few months later, he was injured a few months after that, and when he returned he lost a match to Right to Censor where he had to stop being "Mr. Ass" due to a pre-match stipulation.  That paved the way for "The One" Billy Gunn, who was better for ass-related reasons but worse in every other way.

David Bixenspan has been Bleacher Report's WWE Team Leader and a contracted columnist since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @davidbix and check out his wrestling podcasts at LLTPod.com.