- 13 hours ago
Cult classic gimmicks and personas that never got proper first chances, let alone seconds or thirds.
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00:00Even the greatest TV shows can have character arcs that go nowhere.
00:03For example, I don't know, Breaking Bad and Marie's Kleptomania.
00:07What was that all about?
00:09And being that wrestling is a TV show without an off-season,
00:12this kind of thing can happen all the time.
00:14Whether it's gimmicks that go on too long and fizzle out,
00:17or indeed those that get ripped off of our screen too soon
00:20and die before they hit their stride.
00:23Let's talk about some of them, because I'm Si, this is What Culture,
00:26and here are 8 Amazing Wrestling Gimmicks That Died Too Soon.
00:308. Ron Killings
00:32The firing of R-Truth in June 2025 was truly shocking,
00:36one of the most shocking moments of the year, and no, I'm not kidding.
00:40Not only does he have tenure, and in fact a great reputation with several generations of fans,
00:45his recent output in The Judgment Day, and to a lesser extent part of the reunited Awesome Truth,
00:51saw him on arguably the best form of his entire career.
00:54It was a blunder for the ages that, in hindsight,
00:57was one of the first cracks to appear in the post-Vince WWE era.
01:02When there was a unanimous global outcry about the ridiculousness of Truth's termination,
01:06it was rightfully reassessed by the company, and news broke that Truth had been rehired.
01:11The next time we saw him on our screens after his shocking return,
01:14Truth climbed the announce desk and cut his dreads off live on television in an impassioned rage.
01:20He stunned the world by announcing that R-Truth was dead, and that his name was Ron Killings.
01:27And then it went nowhere, which is a real shame, because fans were so used to Truth's cuddly persona,
01:32that the intimidating figure that Killings cut in his promo was shocking and refreshing in equal measure.
01:37It was genuinely uncomfortable to see a character who's usually so happy be this rageful.
01:44The drastic character change showed enormous promise,
01:46but it disappointingly only lasted a few weeks before Truth was back to his wacky antics.
01:51And he's great at that, but the fact that the Ron Killings character didn't even really get a chance to
01:56do anything
01:57will always be kind of a missed opportunity.
02:00Number 7, Bad News Barrett.
02:02Weird Barrett has become a cornerstone of WWE as part of its announce team,
02:07but as a wrestler, he felt terminally involved with the company's mid-card.
02:11He was perpetually involved through the 2010s in meaningless feuds,
02:15and just kind of chucked the Intercontinental title between him and The Miz for a little while, it felt like.
02:20However, this all changed when his new catchphrase and the Bad News Barrett gimmick arrived,
02:24suggesting that he had many more strings to his bow.
02:27Carrying a gavel and eventually getting his own podium that would slowly rise out of the stage,
02:32Barrett would arrive to announce,
02:33I'm afraid I've got some bad news.
02:36I'm afraid I've got a bad impression.
02:38It was a catchy one-liner used to further his own feuds,
02:41make announcements on behalf of whoever that week's authority figure was,
02:45or goad live audiences about the shortcomings of their local sports teams.
02:49It worked, and it raised Barrett's profile to a place that was much more befitting of his talent.
02:54For a gimmick that is so well remembered that you probably went,
02:56Ah yes, of course, when the entry came up in this video,
02:59Wade's run as Bad News actually only lasted 18 months less, in fact,
03:04at which point he won the King of the Ring 2015 and became King Barrett.
03:08All of this to say, it's a shame,
03:10because Bad News Barrett had a great blend of silliness and savagery
03:13that should have seen him create many more memorable moments as part of the main roster.
03:18Number 6, Rusev Day.
03:20After an initial run that included facing John Cena at WrestleMania 31,
03:25Rusev found himself a Bulgarian brute without any discernible direction.
03:29Losing three pay-per-views in a row to Cena didn't help his trajectory,
03:33and his stint in the aforementioned doomed League of Nations faction
03:36began two years of mid-to-lower card nothingness
03:39that saw him essentially become nothing more than a jobber with a generic foreign gimmick.
03:44What made it worse was that Rusev would constantly deliver brilliant flourishes
03:48to his characters, even while clearly being out of favour with the creative team,
03:53which was a very irritating, frustrating state of affairs.
03:56And the absolute peak of all of this came when the Bulgarian brute
03:59delivered his masterpiece with Rusev Day.
04:02Declaring every day as Rusev Day, he nailed wrestling fan humour perfectly,
04:06especially when delivered with a stony-faced seriousness
04:09that only highlighted the comedic silliness of the whole thing.
04:12Former member of the Vaude Villains, Aiden English was added to the mix,
04:16but the whole package's enormous popularity with fans
04:18was never translated into the kind of push that it deserved.
04:22Considering this constant ignoring of how over the catchphrase was,
04:25it was no real surprise when WWE let Rusev go,
04:28no matter how unjust it felt.
04:31Every day is still Rusev Day in my heart.
04:35Number 5, Elite Hunter Frankie Kazarian.
04:38SCU's gimmick of saying every place that they visited apart from Southern California
04:42was, quote, the worst place they've ever been to,
04:45led to them being one of the most popular acts on the indies.
04:48Even though Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian were crowned the first ever AEW Tag Team Champions,
04:54the pair and indie legend Christopher Daniels found it hard to gain that same momentum
04:58as part of the beginning of AEW.
05:00Sphere of Thoughts for Frankie Kazarian and his Elite Hunter gimmick though,
05:04as the Elite turned heel and added the Good Brothers to their ranks,
05:07they began taking out several members of the roster that they had previously considered friends.
05:12When their attention was turned to Christopher Daniels and they put him on the shelf,
05:15Frankie Kazarian adopted the cigar-smoking badass character called the Elite Hunter.
05:21Clat in a leather jacket, the idea was that no matter where they went or what they were doing,
05:25the Elite Hunter was going to be a one-man thorn in their side,
05:29hell-bent on taking down AEW's premier group.
05:32Of course, this ended after just a few weeks when Doc Gallows flattened Kazarian
05:36and the whole gimmick was dropped like it was just a figure of our imagination.
05:40Number 4, Damian Mizdow.
05:42Damian Sandow was always a talented member of WWE's main roster,
05:47playing an academic in a robe who cradled his mic in his hand like it was a delicate wine glass.
05:52He was a perfect blend of condescending, but also able to wear an egg on his face magnificently.
05:58A member of the intellectual elite might not have been a natural bedfellow for The Miz,
06:02but this duo was captivating for their entire time together.
06:05Sandow dropped his pretentious stick to be enamoured with The Miz during his Hollywood phase,
06:10even changing his surname to Mizdow.
06:12He would mimic Miz's movements during promos,
06:15mirror his gesticulations during his entrances,
06:18and generally look at his cohort with hearts in his eyes.
06:21It was glorious and became even more endearing when Miz would take his anger and frustrations out
06:26on his lovable partner.
06:28The slow burn of Mizdow seeing Miz for the mean-spirited abuser that he was was perfect.
06:33He would eventually turn on Miz at WrestleMania 31 in the Andre the Giant Battle Royale
06:38to a monster pop from the crowd,
06:40only to then be dumped out by the Big Show in one of the most Vince McMahon bookings in history.
06:44It killed the Mizdow momentum as soon as it began,
06:47and he would never recapture that spark again.
06:493. Tyler Breeze and Fandango as the Fashion Police
06:53The tidal wave of TMZ-style programming that clogged up US television
06:57like an unflushable turd in the 2010s was as unavoidable as it was disgusting.
07:03It is Pro Wrestling's duty to reflect the current zeitgeist,
07:06and the team of Tyler Breeze and Fandango did an excellent job
07:09of transitioning from their decent Breezango team
07:12to parodying the mean-spirited commentary of people's appearance
07:16with their Fashion Police gimmick.
07:18This gimmick would come into its own during their Fashion File skits.
07:22Aping the fonts and themes of shows like Law & Order SVU,
07:25Breeze and Deputy Dango would endeavor to take down members of the roster
07:29based on their fashion faux pas.
07:31It was spectacularly over the top, but it wasn't just goofy hijinks.
07:36It was genuinely well written comedically,
07:38and of course the timing of both was mwah, chef's kiss.
07:42But of course at the time the line stopped with Vince McMahon,
07:45a man whose idea of culture was about 40 years out of date
07:48and whose sense of humor is questionable.
07:51Let's call it questionable.
07:53And so the Fashion Police died before they really got an opportunity
07:56to spread their wings by taking advantage of everything
07:59that could have been in front of them on the main roster.
08:02God damn, this one hurts the most.
08:03Number 2, MJF in the Hurt Syndicate.
08:07MJF is one of the most consistent acts in pro wrestling.
08:10Over the course of AEW's lifespan,
08:12he has made almost everything thrown his way work
08:14and been relentlessly entertaining as both a face and a heel.
08:18His 2025 run as an honorary member of the Hurt Syndicate
08:21was something of a curveball, but yet again,
08:24turned it into solid gold.
08:25MVP and his Hurt Syndicate were turning into one of the most popular acts
08:29on the AEW roster,
08:30with their We Hurt People entrance music garnering an electric reaction
08:34at every show.
08:36Being the snake that he is,
08:37MJF wanted in on the group
08:39with his sucking up to Bobby Lashley in particular,
08:41making for great television.
08:43And eventually he got his way
08:44and things were just going great.
08:46So it's a mystery then
08:47as to why it only lasted around eight weeks
08:49in the summer of 2025
08:51before MJF was booted from the group
08:53in a spectacular and emotional speech from MVP.
08:56The impending threat of Lashley coming for Maxwell
08:59because his selfishness threatened the fabric
09:01of the Hurt Syndicate was engaging
09:02and had bags of potential,
09:04but MJF entered a feud with Mark Briscoe instead
09:07before disappearing from our screens entirely.
09:10And again, MJF does amazing with everything that he's given,
09:13including this,
09:14even the short spell that it was,
09:15but you can't help but think
09:17that there was just meant to be more to this.
09:19At number one,
09:20bum-ass Baron Corbin.
09:22Over the course of his 12 years with WWE,
09:25Baron Corbin demonstrated a serious amount of range.
09:28From a lone wolf to being commissioner of Monday Night Raw
09:30to being part of a great tag team with Bron Raker
09:33to being happy Corbin and even King of the Ring,
09:36WWE creative asked an awful lot of Baron
09:38and for the most part, he delivered.
09:40There was one particular gimmick
09:41that really worked to charm though,
09:43and that was bum-ass Baron Corbin.
09:45A truly unique gimmick in the world of pro wrestling,
09:48this character saw Corbin being the antithesis
09:50of the flashy lifestyle that superstars usually portray.
09:53No designer suits, no fashion brands,
09:55and absolutely no fancy walk into the arena,
09:58Corbin was a disheveled and pitiful sight to behold.
10:02In a world where everything feels like it's been done before,
10:05this cut through.
10:06In interviews,
10:07Corbin confessed later
10:08that this character change
10:09was only intended to last two weeks.
10:12Nevertheless,
10:12it's a character that was generating
10:13a lot of sympathy and attention from the crowd,
10:16and it threatened to push Corbin
10:17into full babyface status
10:19before it was egregiously cut off in its prime.
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