10 Ridiculous Wrestling Gimmicks That Should Never Have Worked

Gimmicks and wrestling go hand-in-hand - the various personas men and women undertake to get employed in the industry can often be truly corny, but every so often a promotion or wrestler strikes gold with their creation. There have been many memorable characters throughout the years, but for every raging success, there's been ten miserable failures. Sometimes the writing staff simply don't get where a wrestler is coming from when pitching a new gimmick, or maybe it's the performers themselves to blame for not getting into the head of the persona they're handed. When Steve Austin initially envisioned the character of "Stone Cold", it was remarkably different to what the then-WWF creative team had in mind. Thinking more along the lines of cold-blooded serial killer, Austin received a truck load of gimmicked names on paper from the promotion, including the likes of 'Chilly McFreeze'. Had Austin not stood his ground, and added his own spin on the "Stone Cold" concept, the character would have simply been a flash in the pan, and never would have worked. And let's be honest, Chilly McFreeze would not have become a household name - at least not for the right reasons. Intriguingly, there are a ton of other examples of gimmicks that really shouldn't have been a success, but which were extremely popular with fans and often went on to generate an awful lot of money, not only for the company itself but also for the person fulfilling the role. And yet, for whatever reason some of these lucrative gimmicks really had a fight on their hands to make it.