10 Crazy Wrestling Gimmicks That Should Have Never Worked (But Did)

5. John Cena

When John Cena began his WWE tenure, he didn't have a gimmick to speak of; just a new guy in wrestling trunks, basically. But then something strange happened. During a Halloween edition of Smackdown, Cena appeared at the backstage costume party dressed up as none other than Vanilla Ice, cutting loose with some freestyle raps. As a one-off occurrence, it could very well have gone forgotten, but something-- at least at the time-- magical happened.

Fans seemed to eat it up, and the following week Cena rode the spark ignited by his tricky treat. Though the blatant Vanilla Ice aspect was toned down (if not done away with entirely), Cena kept up the gimmick of appearing as a white rapper who would perform freestyle to cut down his opponents and rivals. During this time, as the then-heel Cena came around to become a fan favorite, he won the United States Championship, whose belt he replaced with a spinning variation which better represented his own gimmick. He would then go on to win his first WWE Championship, and gave it the very same treatment (much to the chagrin of fans years later).

Like him, love him, or hate him, there is no denying that John Cena is one of the biggest superstars in WWE, or the wrestling business at large. He's toned down the "thug life" rapping aspect of his character, yet the gimmick still remains largely unchanged. The cap isn't backwards, and the padlocked chain around his neck has been replaced by dog tags, but Cena is still Cena, and has 12 WWE Championship/WWE World Heavyweight Championship reigns, three World Title reigns, three United States Championship reigns, and two reigns each with the WWE and World Tag Team Championships over the course of a 12-year WWE tenure that's still running strong. Even if he quit today, that would still be 22 different title reigns under his belt, and that's not even counting other accolades such as his Royal Rumble wins, his Money in the Bank victory, or his closet full of Slammies. All in all, it's hard to imagine anyone doing better by following up on an anachronistic Halloween costume.