10 Wrestlers Who Couldn't Pull Off Interesting Gimmicks

1. John Morrison

Kevin Thorn Ariel
WWE.com

Johnny Nitro was mostly seen as a tag team worker prior to Vengeance 2007, but that all changed when he defeated CM Punk to become ECW Champion. He was now the centerpiece of the revived brand, and soon, despite reigning as titleholder, he was repackaged as John Morrison.

As Morrison, he was ostensibly supposed to be a takeoff on '60s rock icon Jim Morrison, vocalist and songwriter for The Doors. Morrison was seen by many as a poet, and the charismatic frontman became a legend before dying from a drug overdose at the age of 27.

Pretending to be Morrison was a tall order for Johnny Nitro, and suffice to say that he wasn't even as good an impersonator as The Honky Tonk Man. Despite his impressive gymnastic ability, Morrison never became a great worker. He was also completely devoid of charisma, which was exposed every time he tried to cut a promo.

Surprisingly, the Morrison character was a TV mainstay despite never connecting with fans - it lasted until late 2011, when he left WWE rather than sign a new contract. The whole time, he kept wearing the rock star clothes and continued to drop bargain-basement hippie wisdom into his interviews, but it was a long four years.

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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013