10 Wrestlers Who Visibly Hated Their Own Gimmicks
9. The Un-Americans
Just look at Christian's face in that promo picture. Lance Storm always looked like that, admittedly, but really look at Christian.
You can almost see his nostrils flare, like it's a GIF or something. This was a performer who had revolutionised WWE's stipulation overload era, and possessed the charisma to set him apart as a compelling midcard heel, if not more, and here he was packaged as something promoters would palm off on far more limited workers.
According to Bruce Prichard, there was a more sinister, unprofessional element to this visible frustration: Christian, Test and Lance Storm feared the xenophobic heat such an act ostensibly generated, and refused to commit in a post 9/11 climate. The Canadians all lived in Florida, identified as American, and allegedly complained to Prichard that any professional benefits were offset by the strain on their everyday lives.
Prichard credits William Regal with his conviction, but claimed on Something To Wrestle that the gimmick was short-lived because the Canadian trio "didn't give a sh*t."
Christian's promos support this (contested) take; his eyes shifted as he bemoaned the average American's ability to name Britney Spears songs over the bill of rights, but perhaps he was simply as bored with the derivative material as they were.