10 Stupidest Gimmick Changes In WWE History
4. Isaac Yankem To Fake Diesel
Sticking with the same era for a moment, 1996 could be considered the worst year in the history of the World Wrestling Federation. Not only were TV ratings and live crowds dropping but McMahon had also just lost Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to WCW.
When Hall and Nash appeared on WCW television portraying their former WWF personas, McMahon went ballistic and filed a lawsuit against the company. WCW wasn't exactly hiding that they were booking a WWF invasion angle and McMahon felt that violated his trademarks of Diesel and Razor Ramon.
On the advice of attorneys, McMahon decided to show he still owned the characters by casting new wrestlers to play the role. Rick Bognar got the honor of portraying an overweight Razor Ramon while McMahon had someone else in mind to play Big Daddy Cool.
Glenn Jacobs was stuck working as Jerry Lawler's evil wrestling dentist (no, seriously), Isaac Yankem, or I. Yankem for short. When Jacobs was tapped to portray Diesel, at best it could be considered a lateral career move.
Audiences crapped all over the ripoff characters and, despite being all over television, they failed to get any crowd reaction other than disgust. "Diesel" was taken off of television after the 1997 Royal Rumble and Kane debuted soon after.