10 Wrestlers Who Became Successful After Getting Repackaged

5. Kazuchika Okada

In 2010 and 2011, no one took this young kid seriously. Sent to TNA in the hopes of gaining experience, that excursion proved to be a dismal failure, and he was having just as many problems back at home in New Japan. Think Jack Swagger, who despite having a lot of legitimate wrestling ability, for one reason or another, failed to get over. Then, seemingly overnight, he transformed into arguably the biggest and best heel in recent memory, at least in New Japan. He was given the gimmick of a JBL-esque rich boy known as the €˜Rainmaker€™, complete with fake currency with his face on each bill, and his signature pose was to hold his arms out to his side, palms up and stare straight into the sky, which is probably the most basic pose ever. However, that still managed to turn him into an overnight sensation. Okada went from being the proverbial laughingstock of New Japan to arguably their #2 or #3 biggest star, which says a lot when you actually look at New Japan€™s roster. By the time 2012 came to a close, he was a sensation, and was named the MVP of all of Japanese Wrestling by Tokyo Sports. That€™s how good he became at both grappling and selling his gimmick. In the last two years, he has gone one to have great match after great match, has won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship twice, and has won the G1 Climax tournament twice. The best part of all this is that he is only 27, which means that he has an incredibly bright future ahead of him.