9 Best WWE Attitude Era Gimmick Changes

Like the New Age Outlaws, Bradshaw and Farooq were two singles wrestlers that were going nowhere fast. Both men were well-liked by management and certainly well-respected backstage, but they're gimmicks were hindering them. They, like the Outlaws, needed each other.

Justin 'Hawk' Bradshaw's mountain man schtick was impressing nobody when he showed up in 1995. He wasn't pinned or made to submit on television for the better part of a year, but he wasn't exactly beating anyone noteworthy, either. The character lost a lot of steam and was old news by the end of 1996.

In early 1997, Bradshaw teamed up with veteran Barry Windham to form the 'New Blackjacks' but when big Baz's injury woes got worse, the team was quietly split up, with Bradshaw becoming a singles wrestler. He bounced around the midcard thereafter, until he was teamed up with another fellow drifter.

Ron Simmons, former NWA Champion, was brought into WWE as Farooq Asad, something of a gladiator figure (complete with ridiculous blue helmet). Understandably annoyed with having to don the silly garb, he then went on to form the Nation of Islam-inspired Nation of Domination, a black power stable that cut pretty close to the bone.

Unfortunately for Farooq, he was supplanted as leader by The Rock, who himself was finding his feet after a rotten run as blue chipper Rocky Maivia. Kicked out of his own group, he found himself teaming with Bradshaw not long afterwards. Now known as The Acolytes, they became members of The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness.

Once that angle had run its course, the Acolytes became the APA, a protection service for fellow wrestlers. They looked so much more at ease drinking beer, smoking cigars and beating people up for cash than they did performing under the lame gimmicks they'd been given over the previous few years.