10 WWE Superstars Who Gambled On A New Look
1. The British Bulldog Wears...Jeans
Not every Attitude Era star adjusted well to the times.
The Undertaker's Biker character divides opinion among fans, but critical consensus has it that he entered his most abject performances in the ring and on the stick in those halcyon days. "I don't sleep," he told The Big Show in a notoriously rancid promo, but he did a fair amount of it between the ropes.
The British Bulldog also failed to maintain his legacy in 1999, during which year he experimented with his own interpretation of the wider, 'realism' brief by jettisoning his old Blighty tights and instead wearing jeans. Unlike his endearingly awful cornrow look, this was simply awful, though it is helpful in retrospect. This version of the Bulldog was ravaged by injury, and really had no place. He cut a sad figure, but the sheer contrast in aesthetic allows us to demarcate the performer. This wasn't the Bulldog, not really, but rather a strange epilogue to a great and unheralded career. Perhaps he dressed like an ECW midcard act for that express purpose.
Amongst the knackers who care about this sort of thing - your writer, for example - Bulldog generated a proto, micro-Okada pop by once more wearing the Union Jack at Unforgiven 1999.