10 Times WWE Totally No Sold A Wrestler's Past
1. Goldust
WWE actually gave Dustin Rhodes a gimmick based on his legacy during a brief stint in 1990 and 1991, and later in his career the company embraced Dustin's heritage as the firstborn son of "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes. However, Dustin's 1995 return to the company couldn't have pulled Dustin any further away from the path paved by Dusty.
Dustin returned to WWE as Goldust, an overtly sexual cross dresser who'd modelled his look on an Oscar statuette. He famously agreed to the gimmick proposed to him by Vince McMahon after not understanding the term "androgynous," though it was mentioned several times throughout the pitch. The character was the complete antithesis of Dustin, and this led to an awkward adjustment period for the freshly crowned "Prince of Perversion." Rhodes recalled:
"I’m from Texas. I was raised kind of in the country, so I’m a country boy. I’m a redneck, and to do this I was just like scared to death to do that. But that’s when I realized when I finally did it that to make something successful, you have to step out of yourself, outside of the box, and you got to create some magic of your own. You can’t just be scared all the time. You got to take a chance."
Dustin Rhodes took the gimmick and became a star and one of the most recognisable entities in sports entertainment.