10 Terrible WWE Gimmicks That Were One Tweak Away From Perfection
The Nearly-But-Not-Quite Men.
The Hell In A Cell main event between Seth Rollins and The Fiend needed more than just a finish to salvage what was clearly a train careering off the tracks, but the collapse of the contest yet again highlighted a raft of internal fragilities.
Modern day WWE operates in spite of itself, with talent constantly skating on razor-thin ice thanks to the lack of metrics solidifying their standing. On her WWE Network 24 Special, Becky Lynch referred to 2019's 'Show Of Shows' as "my WrestleMania". She espoused this with beaming pride, but there was a subconscious understanding of the broken system wrapped within it - making it on the grandest stage wasn't going to cement her status the following year as it once might have done for Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin or, latterly, Roman Reigns. She was grateful for her turn but knew it was just that.
Characters and gimmicks aren't intentionally abused by the clunky creative machine, but they're so often hindered by the damaged mechanisms. WWE has failed enough times to show itself as an imperfect model, but there was a time when even the duds were earnest efforts.
In 2019, the company willfully hijacked the progress of Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins in that rancid main event in a way they'd never have done for some of the following accidental aberrations. Partly because they couldn't have sustained it, but also because the gimmicks themselves were surprisingly close to finding success...
10. Bray Wyatt (2013 - 2018)
Where better to start in times of tumult for The Fiend than with the man behind the mask that, at one point, really did have the whole wrestling world in his hands.
The Bray Wyatt that left NXT for the main roster in 2013, was every bit as sharpened as his unique vignettes suggested because the character was afforded the one thing it absolutely fundamentally needed to thrive - success.
Sounds simple, but Wyatt's persistent inability to simply just f*cking win did irreversible damage to a gimmick that's hard enough to sell in the modern age. 'The Eater Of Worlds' had - so we were made to believe - indiscriminate magical powers yet couldn't use any of them do hold a wrestler down for three when it mattered. For years it was all flexes and hexes until he was forced to front his inhuman abilities against superhuman pro wrestlers.
The likes of John Cena, Randy Orton, The Undertaker and virtually every other topliner that came into contact with him saw through his hocus pocus as entirely bogus, beating him with ease and robbing the mystique in the process. Yet, little changes - it appeared for months as if the same mistake wouldn't be made with The Fiend, but Wyatt could well be doomed yet again as the rebadged baddie.