10 WWE Gimmicks Wrestlers Refused
4. Daivari W. Bush
At one point in time, WWE had the idea to give Shawn Daivari a gimmick based on US President George W. Bush. Well, to be specific, Vince McMahon had the idea to give Shawn Daivari a gimmick based on US President George W. Bush.
As Daivari told Wrestling INC back in 2017, Vince came up with the idea of an American patriot character who would be named George Bush. Despite it being Vinny Mac's idea, it was actually his daughter Stephanie who was responsible for pitching the idea to Daivari.
His response to this?
"It was Vince's idea. Stephanie's the one who pitched it to me and I said it was a f**king horrible idea. In half a second she goes, 'Yeah it is really bad.'"
Seemingly this was suggested as a way to repackage Daivari after the Muhammad Hassan character - who Daivari was managing at the time - was pulled off WWE TV in the aftermath of the 7/7 London terrorist attack. Instead, Daivari would return to TV as Kurt Angle's personal referee before then becoming the manager of the debuting Great Khali.
These days, Shawn Daivari can be found competing for IMPACT Wrestling and running The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling with his brother Ariya, Ken Anderson, Molly Holly and Arik Cannon.