10 Wrestlers Who Were REJECTED For Famous Wrestling Gimmicks
9. Moondog Rex
It's to the immense credit of Ax and Smash that Demolition so rapidly went from being shameless Road Warrior knockoffs to enormously credible WWE Tag Team Champions in their own right.
The Bill Eadie and Barry Darsow version, anyway.
Arriving on the scene in January 1987, the original team paired Eadie with Randy Colley, who had been better known to WWE fans as Moondog Rex before the ripped-off repackaging did away with his old incarnation and painted him up as one half of Vince McMahon's answer to Hawk and Animal. Known too well, as it turned out - even in an era where fans were substantially more forgiving of gimmick changes or simply not as hip to the room, Colley's performances in the early Demo outings were tarnished by "Moondog" chants he received.
He was ousted from the act and replaced by Darsow, who made the Smash moniker his own and rapidly erased any memories of a prior incarnation.