10 Regrettable Wrestling Revamps
2. Terry Taylor - The Red Rooster
As far as drawing the short straw in wrestling goes, there aren’t many gimmicks that are quite as bad as Terry Taylor’s “Red Rooster”.
Before he made the jump to WWF, Terry Taylor was a successful mat technician in the NWA, UWF, and World Class. Like most successful mat technicians of the '80s, WWF gave him a dud gimmick and sent him out the curtain like a lamb to the slaughter... or, in this case, a chicken to the abattoir.
Crowing like a rooster during his promos, Taylor was certainly very successful in presenting himself as a c**k on global television. Unfortunately for him, it was more in the derogatory definition, rather than the barnyard term.
Needless to say, the gimmick bombed and Taylor left for WCW in 1990. After a successful two year respite to lick his feathery wounds, Taylor returned to the WWF in late ‘92; however, his first run as the “Red Rooster” was so disastrous that it even ruined his second run with the company.
As a result, “Terrific” Terry Taylor was never taken seriously and, with a career in the WWF seemingly dead in the water, 'The Rooster' would return home to...well, roost. Taylor retreated back to WCW where he would largely remain until they closed in 2001.