10 Bizarre Times WWE Stars Experimented With Their Gimmick

9. Seth Rollins - The Visionary

Cody Rhodes
WWE.com

Seth Rollins should take the biggest victory lap of his career for getting hundreds of thousands of people to sing his theme song enough that his position as WWE's "top" Champion not-named-Roman Reigns was nailed on from the moment Triple H introduced the belt in May 2023.

Whatever on earth the gimmick is at this point really started to take shape during his WrestleMania feud with Cesaro in 2021. He'd developed a god complex in 2019 but couldn't really take on an audience of followers for the fat end of a year thanks to the pandemic. This - if we're trying to tether all of this together in a way WWE never did - probably drove him insane enough to want to take Rey Mysterio's eye on and, having wreaked havoc on a family and been one of the few not to lose to 'The Tribal Chief' in his original rise, sent him mad enough to do the whole psycho preacher bit without requiring a congregation.

Enter the sermons, increasingly wackier suits/gear and an even more deranged heel gimmick that ultimately got too over to stay on the dark side. Rollins is Mr Reliable (if not always Mr Awesome or Mr Electrifying) out there, but the last year's been the first since his epic 2015 where he's actually belonged at the top of the card too.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 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 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, 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