10 Wrestling Gimmicks That Were NOTHING Like The Wrestlers Who Portrayed Them

Personality Crisis.

vader before and after
WWE.com

Stick a camera in the face of a WWE Superstar during talking head duties for a DVD documentary and they'll fart out the same platitudes every time. Amongst a "that's why he's one of the greatest of all time" for the mushy closing montage or the "nobody knew if he'd be the same after the injury" soundbite to build up to a heroic return, everybody from Steve Lombardi to Stephanie McMahon will unleash the company-mandated favourite.

"It was just who he was for real, but with the volume turned up".

It's odd that the company would champion such a philosophy so frequently. It undermines Vince McMahon as the all-conquering star-maker if he can take a performer and tell them just to ramp up their own personality. It undermines Vince McMahon the man-manager for insisting so many of his former charges portray something so different when the 'up to 11' formula is apparently so successful. Most of all, it undermines Vince McMahon the boss for not realising he's been undermined in his own productions.

It's obviously not as cut and dry as the squawking heads would have viewers believe, but out-there personas have had mixed blessings over the years. It takes a good performer to get any gimmick over. It takes a great one to thrive with a mismatched one.

10. Papa Shango

vader before and after
WWE.com

Charles Wright was one of the few performers to be given a persona almost perfectly in sync with the man he was in 'real' life - he just had to pretend to practice voodoo and mixed martial arts first.

Long before he cavorted with local pole dancers in preparation for owning his own gentleman's club in Las Vegas, Wright donned very early-1990s clobber as Papa Shango, a cartoonish force with an 'Ultimate' obsession.

Much-maligned due to some of the humorous-in-hindsight segments with the Ultimate Warrior following his 1992 return, Shango was himself cursed once their feud climaxed later that year. His voodoo was only powerful until it wasn't, with relentless losses to both the Warrior and WWE Champion Bret Hart signposting him as little more than a bothersome midcarder despite making his pay-per-view debut during the main event of that year's WrestleMania.

Wright nonetheless portrayed the character with convincing aplomb, committing to the opportunity with far more vim and vigour than he could muster as a hybrid fighter and/or Nation Of Domination also-ran in the subsequent years.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett