10 Worst Rebrands in Wrestling History | PartsFUNknown - video Dailymotion

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As time goes by, people change in different ways, but not quite as dramatic as the WWE rebrands! I mean who would've thought Mike Awesome would turn into Fat Chick Thrilla? You can't make this stuff up! Join Adam as he explores the 10 Worst Rebrands in Wrestling History!  What are some hilarious rebrands that you know that we didn't mention in the video? Let us know in the comments!  00:00 Introduction 01:56 #10 03:06 #9 04:12 #8 05:18 #7 06:14 #6 07:25 #5 08:33 #4 09:37 #3 10:29 #2 11:35 #1  SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/

Transcript

00:00NXT is dead. Long live NXT 2.0.

00:04So this list is being written after the first episode of the brand new rebranded NXT has hit our screens

00:09and it was fine and worrying and okay and all right.

00:15But oh lord, talk about looking at a wheel and thinking, you know what, this could use some corners.

00:20The dark and brooding NXT has been replaced with a family-friendly arts and crafts show

00:25sponsored by Crayola and wedding planners and whomever it is that decides how many Ks go in someone's name.

00:30We hope for the best for the future of WWE's developmental show, but let's talk about some rebrands, shall we?

00:35There have been some excellent character reboots in wrestling's past,

00:38from dopey haunted house and worms enthusiast Bray Wyatt becoming The Fiend,

00:42from dopey surfer Sting becoming The Crow, from Bradshaw becoming JBL,

00:47and Scott Steiner's journey from bland varsity wrestler to insane sex night arm lunatic and mathematician big pop-up.

00:55However, where's the fun in that?

00:56Let's talk about the times when wrestling companies had a pretty good thing on their hands

01:01and decided to explode that credibility with a rebrand that plummeted their stock like it was the Great Depression.

01:06I'm Adam Haling from Parts Fun Known, and these are the 10 worst rebrands in wrestling history.

01:12Well, you're here.

01:13Little fun fact, this channel used to be known as Screen Stalker,

01:16but we rebranded it as Parts Fun Known, and that's going pretty well,

01:20but you know what would make it even better?

01:22If you subscribed.

01:24So click that subscribe button and help us out in our journey to become a mathematician half as good as Big Pop-a-Pump.

01:32Honourable mention, Retribution,

01:34because obviously Dominic Dijakovic and Mia Yim and Mercedes Martinez used to be actual things,

01:40not budget sex thugs back up dancing in an off-Broadway musical called Bad Choices.

01:45Retribution is talked about too much already though,

01:47so we'll give you 10 others.

01:49Just, yeah, whenever there's a worst in the title of these lists,

01:52just assume Retribution is on there somewhere, lurking in the dark, weeping.

01:56Number 10, Mike Awesome.

01:57First of all, rest in peace, Mike Awesome.

01:59You did not deserve this.

02:01Second of all, back in 2000, Mike Awesome was a pretty big deal.

02:05He started the year as ECW champion,

02:07famed for being part of the most eye-wateringly brutal matches in that promotion's history,

02:12as well as executing the kind of ludicrously dangerous high spots that made Joey Styles go,

02:16oh my goodness gracious me, or something similar.

02:19In April 2000, he crossed over to WCW,

02:22made a big splash by laying out Big Daddy Cool,

02:24and a month later executing a Mike Awesome special by hurling Canyon off the triple cage at Slamboree,

02:31making a name for himself with a gimmick as the career killer.

02:34That is a cool gimmick.

02:36Randy Orton's looking at it thinking,

02:38hmm, way to go WCW, hope you don't do something silly.

02:41However, hoping for that is like hoping for the tide not to come in,

02:44as two months later he was rebranded as the Fat Chick Thriller,

02:49a man with a penchant for BBWs,

02:51and while good for you Mike Awesome, body positive for the win,

02:54but also, oh no Mike Awesome,

02:56the gimmick sank hard,

02:58and two months later WCW tried again,

03:00branding him as the 70s guy,

03:03and it's already broken.

03:05I'm sorry Mike.

03:06Number 9, Paul Burchill,

03:07don't let my introduction fool you,

03:09in wrestling silly and fun are not dirty words,

03:12the hurricane, evil doink, luchasaurus, Toriano,

03:15silliness in wrestling can be a good thing,

03:16that goes double for pirate Paul Burchill,

03:19a nakedly obvious Jack Sparrow ripoff

03:21who had a bloody great finisher and a bloody great entrance,

03:24look at him go wee.

03:25Despite fun matches and a super fun feud with saucy wench William Regal,

03:29Vince was unhappy with the character,

03:31believing it wouldn't get him over as a fan favourite,

03:33so took him off TV and brought him back in 2008 with the gimmick of,

03:37drum roll,

03:38man who wants to f*** his sister.

03:40You're right Vince,

03:41that'll get him over like a f***ing ladder.

03:42He turned up on Raw with his sister Katie,

03:44strongly insinuated that they boned down,

03:47and boy howdy does Vince like an incest gimmick.

03:50Beaver cleavage,

03:51the fact that he wants pitch for Shane to be the father of Steph's kid,

03:54what thanksgivings the McMahons must have.

03:56Anyway,

03:56the company turned PG shortly after,

03:58and Paul Burchill,

03:59who could have made serious booty in the PG era as a jolly roger,

04:03instead was scuttled by wanting to give his sister's booty a jolly rogering.

04:06And oh,

04:07I hate us,

04:07oh,

04:08no,

04:08I'm not,

04:09oh,

04:10oh,

04:11sorry.

04:11Number eight,

04:12Kane.

04:12Maybe this isn't something the young fans will care about,

04:15but damn,

04:16this felt like a personal betrayal.

04:18When I was but a nipper,

04:19Kane was one of my favourite wrestlers ever,

04:21ever,

04:22ever.

04:22Properly scary,

04:23the hellfire and brimstone was endlessly cool,

04:25the mask legit gave me nightmares,

04:28what a gimmick.

04:28Over time,

04:29Kane saw his mystique crumble,

04:31first they yoinked his mask away,

04:32then they made him silly with Shane McMahon's testicles,

04:34then they made him silly with Daniel Bryan,

04:36and hey look,

04:37yes,

04:37that was silly,

04:38but at least Kane was still a monster in a fish out of water situation.

04:41I can get on board with that.

04:43What I cannot get on board with is slacks and slip-ons,

04:46AGM hosting,

04:47profit margin eyeing,

04:48boring ass corporate Kane.

04:51That was the final straw,

04:52the last vestige of the monster gone forever,

04:55reducing one of the most effective gimmicks of all time

04:58to a purposefully generic corporate yes man,

05:01just a man in bad trousers and bad shoes,

05:03a libertarian mayor where a monster once stood.

05:06Kane is still great,

05:08and will never not be a legend,

05:09but re-watching the 2015 Royal Rumble,

05:12what a f***ing fall from grace.

05:14Or I guess,

05:15the opposite when you really think about it.

05:17Number seven,

05:18Demolition Smash.

05:19Proof that tearing tag teams apart,

05:21only to rebrand one of them into a shallow grave,

05:23isn't a recent invention of WWE.

05:26Seeing Otis robbed of everything that made him Otis

05:28after the passing of Heavy Machinery was sad,

05:30but I can't claim to have ever been the guy's biggest fan.

05:32Getting a slightly rarer deal was Smash,

05:34who saw his run as part of Demolition

05:36be erased from people's minds as he was rebranded Repo Man.

05:41A little weasel with a Sly Cooper mask,

05:43shrill laugh,

05:44and a habit of nicking people's stuff,

05:46which is not what a Repo Man does.

05:48As Smash,

05:49his career peak was a 478 day run holding the tag titles,

05:53which stood as the longest in WWE history for a whopping 27 years.

05:58As Repo Man,

05:59his career peak was stealing Macho Man Randy Savage's hat.

06:02Again,

06:03Randy Savage was a rich man who could afford to buy his hat outright.

06:07He wasn't making payments on it,

06:09though that is not what a Repo Man does.

06:11From conqueror to clown in one easy move.

06:14Number six,

06:15Emma.

06:16Bloody hell.

06:16Where'd you even start?

06:17NXT 2.0 was a rebrand of an entire television series,

06:21which took less than a month.

06:23Emma being rebranded to Emmalina was a process that took

06:25five fucking months.

06:2917 weeks.

06:30I wish I was kidding.

06:31Emma was taken off TV and the first clip of,

06:33ooh,

06:33debuting soon,

06:34Emmalina,

06:35ooh,

06:35sexy,

06:36ooh,

06:36aired on the 3rd of October,

06:382016.

06:39The vignettes kept airing,

06:41and airing,

06:42and airing,

06:43and airing,

06:45and airing.

06:462016 turned into 2017,

06:49still no Emmalina,

06:50and Dave Meltzer confirmed the vignettes were actually just a running joke at this point.

06:53And finally,

06:54after 17 weeks of quote unquote teasing,

06:57on the 13th of February episode of Raw in 2017,

07:00over five months since the first vignette,

07:03Emmalina walked out,

07:04said,

07:04hello,

07:05then said,

07:06now you'll see the makeover of Emmalina,

07:08to Emma,

07:09and then walked away,

07:11as the crowd released a few confused and insignificant boos.

07:15Five months of a talent's life,

07:17pissed away in a single joke that probably popped the writers room,

07:19but left everyone else just feeling sorry for Emma having the prime years of her career wasted.

07:24And speaking of dumb jokes,

07:25number five,

07:26one man gang.

07:27I mean,

07:28listen,

07:28one man gang wasn't exactly Hulk Hogan,

07:30but he had a few accolades under his belt.

07:31He was a reliable heel gimmick,

07:33convincingly portrayed by a tough looking son of a bitch,

07:36main evented against Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage.

07:38His team won the first ever Survivor Series main event.

07:41He got to the semi-final in the WrestleMania 4 championship tournament.

07:45He won the unofficial first ever Royal Rumble,

07:47came second in the first official Royal Rumble.

07:49All in all,

07:50a pretty good upper midcard heel you got there.

07:53No,

07:53no thought Vince.

07:54You know what'd be even more money?

07:55A white guy from South Carolina,

07:57pretending to be African,

07:59replete with accent,

08:00oh no,

08:01air quotes,

08:02traditional dress,

08:03oh no,

08:04and dancing,

08:05the oh-est of oh no's.

08:06So was born,

08:07Akeem,

08:08the African Dream.

08:09A different time.

08:10To make matters worse,

08:11the whole thing was an inside joke for creative,

08:13designed to ridicule the American Dream,

08:15Dusty Road,

08:16right down to his dance moves.

08:18Fun fact,

08:19WWE creative would get the chance to ridicule one of the pillars of the NWA,

08:22directly a year later,

08:23when Dusty Rhodes debuted at Vince's company,

08:26and they put Mr. Hard Times in bloody hell no really polka dots,

08:29in yet another example of Vince stamping money to death in the name of banter.

08:33Number 4,

08:34Terry Taylor.

08:35Bit of context needed for this one.

08:36Prior to 1988,

08:37when he signed with the WWF,

08:39the global leader in sports entertainment,

08:40lest we forget,

08:41Terry Taylor was a city on the grow.

08:43He had been a rising star in the NWA and Mid-South,

08:46where the handsome athletic lad was being groomed to become one of their biggest stars,

08:50even defeating Ted DiBiase for the North American Heavyweight Championship.

08:54Vince snapped him up,

08:55and in an act of career homicide worthy of its own true crime podcast,

08:59rebranded him as the Red Rooster.

09:02A man who,

09:03if he didn't literally think he was a chicken,

09:04at least acted enough like a chicken for irreparable damage to be done to his credibility as a top draw.

09:10He wore a sparkly red jacket,

09:12gelled up his hair in a dyed red mohawk,

09:14that even the Miz circa the mid-2000s would look at and say,

09:16that looks clucking stupid.

09:18Not only that,

09:19but he was actively repackaged as an inexperienced jobber who needed hand-holding to win a match.

09:24The Red Rooster's career highlight is beating Bobby Heenan at WrestleMania V.

09:29Good job, chicken.

09:30You beat that manager.

09:31The guy was young,

09:32had a good look,

09:32and could actually swap holds with the best of them,

09:34but no one will ever remember that.

09:36They just remember the f***ing chicken.

09:37Number three,

09:38Chad Gable.

09:39The life and times of Shorty G,

09:42a gimmick that was dead on arrival,

09:43and somehow managed to get more dead as the months went on.

09:46To this day,

09:47I cannot tell if it was a legit attempt to harness youth interest with as much ambition as a man with no hands trying to harness sand,

09:53or if it was just a running joke because lol,

09:55look how short this outrageously talented Olympian is.

09:58F*** me.

09:59He looks like a background character in an episode of Scooby-Doo where Mystery Inky are investigating a haunted basketball court.

10:04No, no,

10:05said WWE.

10:06He's calling himself Shorty G.

10:08It's empowering.

10:09And sure,

10:10having the free will to make the bold decision of shooting yourself in the penis would also,

10:15I guess,

10:15be empowering to some degree.

10:17Chad Gable,

10:18one half of the excellent American alpha,

10:20one of the best pure athletes on WWE's books,

10:22and the poster child for wasted potential,

10:24lived with Shorty G for a full calendar year.

10:27There aren't enough apologies in the world.

10:29Number two,

10:30Chavo Guerrero.

10:31Hispanic wrestlers really have had the raw end of the deal for the longest time in North American wrestling,

10:35at least in the top two promotions.

10:37ECW helped guys like Juventud Guerrero,

10:39Psychosis and Super Crazy make a huge splash in the big leagues.

10:42WWE replied,

10:43hey,

10:43thanks for that,

10:44now hop on these lawnmowers,

10:45you're a bunch of silly gardeners,

10:46lol,

10:47eyes crossed emoji.

10:48The worst treatment though has to be Chavo Guerrero being rebranded as a Caucasian man called Kerwin White.

10:54Literally,

10:54WWE booked the guy to renounce his heritage,

10:56sure,

10:56no money to be made with that surname,

10:58I suppose,

10:58and become a golf club carrying wasp who probably have invested hard in red caps circa 2016.

11:03Actually,

11:04that's not entirely fair,

11:04he didn't carry his own clubs,

11:06that'd be Dolph Ziggler,

11:07hello Dolph,

11:08a bafflingly clumsy gimmick that attempted to be a satire on white conservative America with Cohen saying,

11:14Shelton Benjamin is not one of us,

11:17if it's not white,

11:18it's not right,

11:19and I'm just saying what you all are thinking,

11:21but all everyone was thinking was actually just,

11:23please go away,

11:24what did you do with Chavo's body?

11:26WCW fared better with its Hispanic talent,

11:28although let us never forget that Eric Bischoff booked Rey Mysterio to lose his mask,

11:32in one of the worst ideas in the history of merch sales.

11:35And number one,

11:36DDP,

11:37he's such a nice man as well,

11:40Diamond Dallas Page spent a full decade of his life in WCW,

11:44working himself up from manager,

11:46to TV champion,

11:47to US champion,

11:48to finally,

11:48a three-time WCW heavyweight champion,

11:51all while being one of the only WCW talent to never join the NWO,

11:55because he's a nice man.

11:57He's such a nice man,

11:57that when WWF bought WCW,

11:59he was one of the few to accept a buyer of his AOL contract,

12:02unlike many who preferred to stay home and collect checks.

12:05DDP was ready to come to work for Vince,

12:07straight away.

12:08Vince's way of saying thanks,

12:10by turning former WCW main eventer DDP,

12:12into a sleazy stalker,

12:13with a borderline masochism fetish,

12:15and a kink for being made famous,

12:16by repeated squashings,

12:17at the hands of the worst version of The Undertaker.

12:19Biker Taker,

12:20don't you worry,

12:21this list sees you.

12:22Over the course of a few months,

12:23from King of the Ring to SummerSlam,

12:24DDP was effectively marketed as no talent scum,

12:28and as has been proven time and again in the last few years,

12:31the man deserved better.

12:33And that's our list.

12:34What do you think is the most heinous rebranding in wrestling history?

12:38Let us know in the comments.

12:39Don't forget to like and share this video around if you enjoyed it.

12:41And make sure you subscribe to Parts Fun Known

12:43for more silly wrestling content.

12:45Jam that jam.

12:52I'll see you next time.

10 Worst Rebrands in Wrestling History | PartsFUNknown

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