10 WWE Wrestlers Who Won Championships With Multiple Gimmicks
Different characters, same success.
With thousands of men and women lacing up their boots every single night, finding success in professional wrestling is difficult to say the least. Winning a championship in the largest pro wrestling company on the planet is some achievement as a result and all those who manage it should be applauded. Forging a successful career in WWE is hard enough without having to think about championships.
Special praise should therefore be reserved for those who managed to find success in the shark-infested waters of WWE numerous times over - those who managed to do it whilst working under different personas. A change of gimmick is as likely to kill a career as it is to resurrect it, so rebuilding a character and once again winning gold is a mighty rare happening.
Some are obvious and others less so, but WWE history is full of individuals who changed everything about their persona yet still found themselves in possession of prestigious championships.
10. Curtis Axel - Michael McGillicutty
For someone with his talent and wrestling pedigree it is strange that Curtis Axel will forever go down in history as one of the more disappointing third generation athletes. His father was none other than 'Mr. Perfect' Curt Hennig, a former Intercontinental Champion and arguably the one who comes to mind when fans think of the glory days of that championship.
For whatever reason, Axel wasn't given the Hennig name when he made his televised debut in NXT, instead going by the regrettable moniker of Michael McGillicutty. Despite this albatross-like name, McGillicutty found himself added to a flagging faction that still had enough heat to justify attempted reboots in the shape of Nexus.
It wasn't until the Nexus faction was all but dead that championship glory came to McGillicutty in the shape of the WWE Tag Team Championships, which he won with David Otunga. When McGillicutty became Curtis Axel and subsequently a Paul Heyman Guy in the summer of 2013 it seemed as though the worm had turned for the son of Mr. Perfect.
Axel soon won the Intercontinental Championship but a mixture of cold booking and the McGillicutty days meant the crowd were somewhat unwilling to fully take to him. Despite this, Axel managed to win championships with multiple personas, even if the successes don't exactly stick long in the memory.