10 Hilariously Awful Career-Killing WWE Gimmicks From The 2000s

These poor guys never had a chance, did they?

By Lewis Howse /

WWE could be a weird place at times during the 2000's. Well, even weirder than usual, that is. After the successful and cutting-edge Attitude Era, WWE felt free to experiment with gimmicks and characters. Some of them, like Edge's Rated-R Superstar, were very well-received. That particular gimmick, stemming from Edge's real-life affair with Matt Hardy's girlfriend Lita, set him on the way to main event stardom. But not everyone was as lucky as Edge, and some gimmicks had the opposite effect, being so terrible that they effectively ended the wrestler's career. For the majority of people who make it to the main WWE roster, that's all they've ever wanted to do with their lives. They've paid their dues and sacrificed a lot in order to make it there. Once they do make it, all the hard work seems worth it: they are finally WWE superstars. How crushing must it be, then, when you finally make it and you're told that you have to wrestle in a dress? Or that you need to portray a xenophobic racist? Sure, WWE is entertainment and you are, at the end of the day, just doing a job. But given people's hopes of WrestleMania main events and World Title runs, it must completely suck when you're given a gimmick you know has no chance of succeeding. The gimmicks on this list finished off what could have, at one point, been promising careers.

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