10 WWE Gimmicks That Worked For One Wrestler (But Not Another)
5. Guitarist
Worked for: Elias
Didn't work for: Man Mountain Rock
In a classic case of turning chicken s**t into chicken salad, Elias is a rare example of a wrestler that flopped in NXT but flourished on the main roster.
Despite being a total stinker in NXT, his guitar-playing gimmick has gotten so massively over with the fans that he’s just released his own album. Though he's not exactly Seth Rollins or Daniel Bryan between the ropes, he is one of the more well-developed characters on the roster, and this alone has skyrocketed him into the upper echelon of WWE's talent pool.
That being said, the “guy who plays guitar in the ring” shtick hasn’t always garnered the same adoration.
In 1995, WWE signed somewhat-underwhelming WCW talent and rock guitarist Maxx Payne to a contract. They re-branded him as "Man Mountain Rock" and gave him a WWF-shaped axe (which, admittedly, was pretty damned cool looking) to play during his entrance. Sadly, no matter how hard he shredded, no one seemed to care about him.
On top of that, he was battling nagging injuries and drug addiction throughout his eight-month tenure with the company. After being released in October of that year, he retired and was never heard from again.