10 Worst WWE Gimmick Ideas You Won't Believe Almost Happened
Behold, the mother lode of terrible character ideas.
WWE's Creative department have an unenviable task.
There are over 200 wrestlers on the company's books at the moment, with more dozens coming and going every year. The writers are charged with devising interesting, unique personas that will help each of these performers stand out on their own, and while they often strike gold, the sheer volume of wrestlers (and Creative's lack of quality control) means some horrors inevitably slip through the net.
From Battle Kat to Isaac Yankem, WWE's bookers and writers have been responsible for some of the most abominable gimmicks in the sport's history. It's not as big a problem today, when characters are expected to feel like actual human beings rather than caricatures, but you need only look at Mike & Maria Kanellis to see the problem still exists. WWE have served up a lot of dross over the years, but the ideas left on the cutting room sound even worse. Some of these gimmicks never made it past the planning stages, while others came dangerously close to materialising.
Either way, each of the intended subjects dodged a bullet, as their careers would surely have tanked, had these bad ideas come to fruition...
10. Justin Gabriel: Werewolf
He was with the company for six years, but former Nexus member and three-time WWE Tag Team Champion Justin Gabriel was given few opportunities to get over as a singles act. His final year with the company saw him compete as a lower tier babyface who'd occasionally moonlight in NXT, before donning a bunny suit and joining Adam Rose's Exotic Express in his last few months.
Recognising his career wasn't really going anywhere, the South African pitched a new gimmick idea to Vince McMahon towards the end of his run. As revealed on Talk Is Jericho, Gabriel proposed a werewolf/daredevil hybrid character, in which he'd not only sprout fur, claws, and fangs, but film a series of vignettes indulging in surfing, sky diving, and other high adrenaline pastimes.
The wolf part of the gimmick sounds atrocious, but the daredevil side was based on Gabriel's real-life thrill-seeking ways which have, unfortunately, caused him a number of serious injuries over the years. Vince apparently loved the idea, but Triple H did not.
The gimmick was rejected as a result, and while we're yet to see Gabriel go full lycanthrope on the indies, he has since taken on the 'Darewolf' nickname.