8 TNA Impact Gimmick Changes That Lengthened Careers

TNA: Trying New Angles. And sometimes, they struck gimmick gold in America's #2 promotion.

Broken Matt Hardy 2
Impact Wrestling

Gimmick changes can be a treacherous undertaking. For every successful shift from Thurman "Sparky" Plugg to Hardcore Holly, there are dozens of Kerwin Whites, Beaver Cleavages, and Big Daddy V's.

And yet, when executed properly, a gimmick change can be a literal lifesaver, rescuing a drowning man from an albatross of a gimmick and granting him a second chance to connect with the fans, prove himself in the squared circle, and thrive on his own merit. The ultimate example of this is, of course, The Ringmaster becoming Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Plenty of wrestlers reinvented themselves during their time in TNA/Impact Wrestling, and many of those changes were not for the better. Whether it was Knux's Menagerie, Joker Sting, Cute Kip, Black Reign, or James Storm's Revolution (or James Storm's DCC, for that matter), careers floundered under weak, poorly-conceived gimmick changes.

But that hasn't always been the case.

Sometimes, experiments in TNA yielded impressive results, allowing all-too-familiar faces to engage the audience in new ways. Whether it was a carefully considered career move or a Hail Mary to restore a falling star to the heavens above, some gimmick changes served as resurrections in body and spirit...

8. Brutus Magnus

Broken Matt Hardy 2
Impact Wrestling

Tagging anything as "modern day" is never a good start in wrestling. We've had modern-day greasers, modern-day vaudevillians, and even modern-day togas at WrestleMania IX, and they all sucked.

So, naturally, TNA gave us Brutus Magnus, the Modern-Day Gladiator.

It wouldn't have worked for Ric Flair as Spartacus, it didn't work for Ron Simmons as Faarooq Asad, and it wasn't going to work for Nick Aldis either. Thankfully, Doug Williams (and to a lesser extent, Rob Terry) were there to swoop in and save Magnus by forming The British Invasion, one of the few foreign invader acts in TNA that was ever worth a damn. (I'm looking at you, World Elite.)

Without The British Invasion, it's hard to imagine Aldis would ever have been TNA champion (a man who made Sting tap out, no less!) or the NWA champion.

He very well could've ended up another Jessie Godderz.

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