10 WWE Wrestlers Who Survived Awful Gimmicks To Become Huge Stars

3. Triple H

Awful Gimmick: No, Triple H wasn't always the ass-kicker we have seen on WWE television over the past fifteen or so years. No, before he was a ripped-to-shreds, sledgehammer-wielding tough guy, he was portraying characters which were decidedly more lightweight. During his cup of coffee in WCW, The Game worked as Jean-Paul Lévesque, a French aristocrat before making the switch to the WWE and playing a character that was very similar: Hunter Hearst Helmsley, the Connecticut Blueblood. He was, basically, a snob. The gimmick was going nowhere fast and Helmsley was left to languish in the midcard. How He Survived It: His first real break came as a member of D-Generation X, alongside best pal Shawn Michaels and girlfriend Chyna. He fully dropped the blueblood gimmick in favour of envelop-pushing, kayfabe-breaking humour. Triple H was riding Michaels coattails until HBK suffered a back injury and Trips stepped up as DX leader. With new recruits X-Pac and the New Age Outlaws by his side, Triple H was the star of the show and began to rapidly climb the leader. He reached the summit of the business in 1999 when he became WWE Champion and he's been on top ever since. Even when The Cerebral Assassin comes back for one of his rare in-ring appearances, it's almost always in a main event match. That wouldn't be possible if he didn't shed his anachronistic, heatless snob gimmick and develop some 'Attitude'.