10 Genius Wrestling Characters That Happened At The Wrong Time

3. Waylon Mercy

Bray Wyatt is an awesome addition to modern-day WWE programming, and Windham Rotunda plays the character to perfection. It's of real credit to Rotunda that he managed to convince fans to pay attention to a program against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 31, despite there being no 'streak' hook to cling on to. Years before Wyatt would become a staple of the company however, there was another character who shared much in common with him. Dan Spivey was a veteran of the ring by the time he joined the WWF for a second time in 1995. Recast as the insane Waylon Mercy, the man was far too out there a character for the company at the time - sure, Goldust may have appeared shortly afterwards, but Mercy was way ahead of his time. It wasn't a great recipe for success, to be as truly sinister as Spivey was in his new role. Instead of aiding his cause, it's arguable that by being so good at his new character, Spivey actually hurt his chances of succeeding in the cartoonish World Wrestling Federation of the mid-90's. Various injuries would eventually take their roll, forcing him out of the ring, but it's hard to imagine that Waylon Mercy wouldn't be as successful as Bray Wyatt is now were he still around.