15 WWE Gimmick Changes That IMMEDIATELY Backfired

Some WWE gimmick change ideas were so foul that the paper they were printed on should've been burned. Then burn the printer. Then set fire to the building and evacuate just to be safe. Then, the person responsible should've hopped on a plane and vanished never to be seen again. Seriously, when you see some of the tripe served up here, you've really got to wonder.

What were they thinking?!

Vince McMahon took a lot of flak creatively for his latter day decision-making before being disgraced and shuffling out of WWE offices for good, and rightly so, but McMahon's worst didn't exclusively live in the modern era. The old boss came up with (or at least slapped a green light on) some of the most putrid character switches wrestling fans are ever likely to see.

Let's do a quick stock check: This list has sex addicts, racists, gimmicks that'd only be good for a few weeks every year, guys wearing crappy Halloween costumes pretending to be famous counterparts, stalkers, workers that are called outright dull (yet expected to get over?) and even someone "vertically challenged" who isn't actually vertically challenged at all.

Phew! WWE watched these gimmicks crash and burn in a hurry. They backfired instantly, either because workers playing the part didn't believe in what they were selling, or because crowds rejected what they were being force fed by woefully out of touch promoters.

You've seen WWE returns that immediately backfired, so now check out the repackage jobs that just shouldn't have happened. Ever.

Starting off hot. Or ice cold!

Picture this: It's In Your House 5 in December 1995, and thousands of fans in attendance are gearing up for the festive season by watching Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith work a gritty retelling of their SummerSlam '92 classic. Before that, emerging babyface Savio Vega hands out presents with someone dressed up as Santa Claus when the vile 'Million Dollar Man' appears and says his usual “everybody’s got a price” line.

Suddenly, Santa attacks Savio, then Ted DiBiase reveals that he's actually Xanta Claus from the South Pole. Instead of giving presents to boys and girls around the globe, he steals them. The crowd goes mild. Obviously, this gimmick (handed to future ECW star Balls Mahoney) had a shelf life. That shelf life being…Christmas.

Xanta would've meant nothing for the rest of the year, so lord only knows what Vince McMahon was thinking. The immediate backfire was that Xanta could only show up in December, and for a few weeks at that. Once the holidays were over and January's sales began, the WWF's very own festive character would be put back into storage. That was hardly going to be sustainable for Mahoney.

Balls.

Realising this, McMahon ditched the 'evil Santa' gimmick and ploughed headfirst into 1996 like nothing had ever happened. The knock on effect here is that Mahoney wouldn't get another shot at WWE fame until he showed up at the first One Night Stand in 2005 then joined the runaway ECW brand in 2006. Surely, even he knew that playing Xanta put an unwanted Claus (sorry) in his WWF contract.