Gimmick repackagings are fairly common in wrestling. Sometimes a performer needs a refresh or a character has run its course, so they disappear for a short period only to return with a new concept, look, and even a new ring name. The results, of course, may vary — sometimes it might yield a Bray Wyatt, while other times might result in all of Retribution.
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While it had its fair share of great gimmicks like Sting and the New World Order, World Championship Wrestling also had some notorious stinkers when it came to repackages. Let’s take a look at 10 instances where a wrestler got a new gimmick only for it to not work out.
10 Berlyn
German cruiserweight Alex Wright had been wrestling for WCW since 1994, portraying a young hotshot nicknamed “Das Wunderkind.” But in 1999, Wright underwent a dramatic repackaging, adopting an all-black look with facial hair and a mohawk to become Berlyn.
An industrial music take on a Eurotrash villain, Berlyn had The Wall as an enforcer, only for The Wall to break out as a singles wrestler. After some disappointing feuds, the Berlyn gimmick was dropped and Alex Wright reverted to his old dancing tag team with Disco Inferno.
9 The Booty Man
Ed Leslie, the former Brutus Beefcake, rode Hulk Hogan’s coattails from WWE to WCW, where he worked a number of gimmicks in opposition to the Hulkster, including The Butcher and the Dungeon of Doom’s Zodiac. However, after the Dungeon was done in 1996, Leslie adopted the frankly baffling gimmick of The Booty Man, a man obsessed with his own butt.
With The Booty Babe — a.k.a. Kimberly Page — as his valet, Booty Man mostly feuded with Kimberly’s real-life husband Diamond Dallas Page, and left the company later in the year only to return in 1998 as “The Disciple.”
8 “The Fat Chick Thriller” Mike Awesome
A fierce competitor with a devastating Powerbomb in his arsenal, Mike Awesome jumped ship from ECW to WCW in the year 2000. When he first arrived, Awesome worked a “Career Killer” persona and innovated the Ambulance Match and made it his go-to match type in WCW, but he was quickly given a goofy gimmick that curtailed his momentum.
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For a period, Awesome was given a gimmick based entirely around being attracted to large women, and was touted as “The Fat Chick Thriller.” Reportedly, this was some sort of political punishment, as Mike Awesome was distantly related to Hulk Hogan, who was recently on the outs with WCW.
7 “Mr. Hole In One” Barry Darsow
Better known as Smash of the legendary WWE tag team Demolition — and briefly, as The Repo Man — Barry Darsow came to WCW in October 1997 and mostly wrestled on the undercard. After about a year, however, he started working a random occupational gimmick — which had fallen out of favor by the end of the decade — becoming the pro wrestling golfer “Mr. Hole In One” Barry Darsow.
It unsurprisingly failed to get over, and after another year Darsow returned to being the Blacktop Bully, a gimmick he worked in WCW in an earlier run.
6 The KISS Demon
The rock band KISS is no stranger to licensing its iconic look to whoever’s willing to pay them for it, and in 1998 WCW was the latest entity to go into business with them. In addition to paying the band half a million to perform on Nitro, WCW also created a KISS-themed wrestler named The Demon based on the signature look of frontman Gene Simmons.
Another former Demolition member — this time Crush, a.k.a. Brian Adams — was tapped to take the role, but after a couple of appearances, the gimmick was given to someone else while Adams soon moved on to his tag team KroniK.
5 Oz
Before fans knew the name Diesel, one of Kevin Nash’s earliest appearances in a major wrestling promotion was as Steel, one-half of The Master Blasters tag team in WCW.
When The Master Blasters disbanded, Nash was given a new gimmick that was pretty much dead on arrival: the literal Wizard of Oz, complete with a big green robe and a fake elderly wizard mask. As Oz, Nash spent the latter half of 1991 losing to everyone in sight before getting mercifully repackaged yet again in early 1992 as Vinnie Vegas.
4 The Misfits In Action
In the spring of 2000, amid the big New Blood vs. Millionaire’s Club storyline, WCW boss and New Blood leader Eric Bischoff fired a group of wrestlers who weren’t part of the Millionaire’s Club but also weren’t entirely loyal to his group. This group included Booker T, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Hugh Morrus, Lash LeRoux, and Van Hammer, who clandestinely returned to action under Bischoff’s nose with new gimmicks.
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While the premise was fine, what really killed it for these guys was the presentation. As the military-themed Misfits In Action, these fired stars all had goofy names like Lt. Loco, Cpl. Cajun, and — worst of all — General Hugh G. Rection.
3 Disqo
Perennial midcarder Disco Inferno got a lot of mileage out of the world’s laziest gimmick, but in 2000 WCW decided Disco needed a remix.
In attempting to join Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr.’s faction The Filthy Animals, Disco decided to develop a new gimmick, becoming the hip-hop themed Disqo, which was an extremely timely play off of singer Sisqo of Thong Song fame. In the end, this ended up feeling more dated than the Disco Inferno gimmick.
2 Arachnaman
The son of the legendary “Bullet” Bob Armstrong, Brad Armstrong is no stranger to masked gimmicks, having spent a bit of time as The Fabulous Freebirds’ masked partner Badstreet. But in mid-1991, Armstrong received a new masked gimmick, becoming the blatant Spider-Man ripoff Arachnaman.
It should come as no surprise that Marvel Comics took issue with this gimmick, and WCW dropped it altogether in early 1992. After unmasking, Armstrong returned to wrestling as himself and performed in the company’s new Light Heavyweight division.
1 That ‘70s Guy
In the span of several months in the year 2000, Mike Awesome suffered two unfortunate WCW repackagings. A few months after “The Fat Chick Thriller” debuted, Mike Awesome evolved into That ‘70s Guy, a play off of That ‘70s Show and a strange choice because Disco Inferno was still on the roster.
Regardless, Awesome wore disco suits, drove a bus inspired by the one from Partridge Family, and hosted his own interview segment called The Lava Lamp Lounge. The gimmick vanished in early 2001 as he joined the heel faction Team Canada with Lance Storm.
