10 Wrestlers Who Turned Their Backs On Former Gimmicks

8. John Tenta

Sami Zayn El Generico
WWE Network

"I'm not a shark. I'm not a fish!" blubbed John Tenta towards the vaguely indifferent crowd, as though unravelling some great pelagic secret. "I'm not an Avalanche," he continued. "I'm a man! John Tenta! A 500lb man!"

This was the moment when Tenta, having had half his hair - sorry, scales - shaved by Big Bubba in a savage beatdown a week earlier, renounced his fishy gimmick, one which had seen him paint a row of teeth on his face, cover his distinctive tiger tattoo with a selachimorphic effort, and stalk to the ring, befinned, to the Jimmy Hart version of the Jaws theme.

The Shark had somewhat sunk more than it'd swam; it's abandonment was WCW's latest attempt to make a virtue of a man whose talents clearly deserved better. Tenta wasn't the living embodiment of a natural disaster either, but he didn't list Earthquake amongst his repudiations. Let's say for copyright reasons, and not because it reminded his employers of their own ineptitude.

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Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.