20 Wrestling Gimmicks That Got WEIRD Rip-Offs
17. The Undertaker (Mordecai)
In 2004, people on various wrestling message boards (pre-social media) commonly referred to Mordecai as the "White Undertaker". They weren't talking about skin colour, obviously. Instead, everyone was referring to his bleached hair, white outfit and blinding vignettes that seemed to position the character as a counterpoint to 'The Deadman' during his infernal semi-satan days before the 'American Bad Ass' revamp.
By '04, Undertaker had returned to his supernatural ways, so it wasn't outlandish for fans to wonder if Mordecai would be built as one of his main adversaries. That certainly seemed to be WWE's plan, but they weren't impressed by anything they saw from man beneath the gimmick Kevin Thorn. Promos debuted in April, he showed up for his first match in May, then the poor sap was sent back to developmental come July.
The Mordecai experiment lasted mere months before being binned.
He was supposed to be a religious zealot who was disgusted by everything he was seeing on the roster. Vowing to cleanse it, Mordecai would've finally bumped into 'Taker later on. In theory, he'd have met his match then gone on to enjoy the same sort of longevity Kane did. Sadly for Thorn, that didn't happen in the end.
His "White Undertaker" persona was cut short. In fairness, Kev was always a much better worker in-ring than the Mordecai gimmick showed off and didn't deserve to be judged on one match vs. Scotty Too Hotty at Judgment Day.
He was clearly told to be slow and exhibit early 'zombie' 'Taker qualities during his matches. That didn't translate well to the product in 2004, not when Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar and others were having bangers higher up the card.