10 Wrestlers Who Visibly Hated Their Own Gimmicks
8. The Goodfather
It's such a shame, what happened to the Godfather; with that character, the man behind it had finally gotten over after years and years of ill-fitting gimmicks. He was massive, but hardly came equipped with the legitimacy or the physical aura with which to put that frame over. Kama didn't work in the ring; Papa Shango couldn't even find his way to the ring.
The Godfather - a fun-loving showman with carriages of catchphrases and a train of "hos" - was the perfect compromise. But the problem is that it compromised the WWF's public floating, and it was nixed under the new world of sponsor pressure.
In an enterprising character shift, complete with a trademark pun, the Godfather became the Goodfather: a man intent on atoning for his wicked ways under the clever umbrella of the Right To Censor faction, itself a tremendous means of folding the more controversial Attitude Era figures into this new paradigm. More cute than effective - many fans clutch to the faction as something worthy of a main event run, when really, they were positioned perfectly in the undercard - Goodfather was decidedly less enthused. He aimed for no-nonsense, but it just resonated as joyless. Which was sort of the point, but he could barely bring himself to act outwardly outraged at the moral morass around him.
He just looked very sad.