Partial Credit for this piece goes out to “Brian Damage”, who wrote the original version of this article.
Sometimes the repackaging of a superstar is exactly what the performer needs and helps to get them over with the fans. However, there are times when repackaging turns the superstar into a laughing stock and that is the focus in this latest pieces as we look at some of the less than successful repackaging of performers.
The WWE has a pretty bad habit of doing something that at times…makes fans go nuts….and not in a good way. A large wrestler who may stand over 7 feet tall or weigh over 400 pounds comes into the company as a bruising monster heel. Maybe the fans don’t gravitate to this wrestler right away. What do you do? Do you continue trying to push said wrestler as a devastating beast who annihilates their competition OR do you go back to the drawing board and repackage the wrestler?
If the WWE decides to repackage you…BEWARE!!! More often than not….you are headed for a gimmick that will kill all of your credibility and make you a joke….literally! This piece looks at the once pushed monster heels that slowly turned into WWE comedy acts. Why? Vince seems to like larger than life wrestlers that can act goofy apparently. Nothing says wrestling ratings more than good old fashioned comedy…or so the WWE’s creative might think. It happens more than you’d think and it is a tell tale sign that the WWE just doesn’t know what to do with you. Let’s take a look….
Vladimir Kozlov
Vladimir Kozlov was going to be the “Rusev” of his era. He had size, strength and a martial arts background. It seemed that he would be pushed as a monster foreign heel and it certainly started out that way. Perhaps the fans just didn’t believe Kozlov as a bad ass…or maybe Vince McMahon saw something extra in him.
That extra something was pairing him with company jester Santino Marella and becoming a silly version of himself. I must admit…I liked the team in small doses…but the comedy act killed whatever chances (if any) Kozlov had to be a monster heel once more.
Kurrgan
Kurrgan was suppose to be a new era in wrestling giants for the WWF/E. They sold him as an unstoppable force with a devastating finishing move…the iron claw. Kurrgan was pretty agile for his size and while his physique might not have been what the WWE expected from a man his size…he had potential.
The potential was dressing him up as a hippy and dancing around the ring as a member of the Oddities. The group was originally intended to be a faction of monster heels…but quickly turned into a comedy act for the company.
Rosey
While his ring name was out and out silly…there was nothing silly about Rosey and Jamal as 3 minute Warning in the WWE. They were being pushed as a monster tag team when Jamal (the future Umaga) was fired from the company. So it was only natural to turn Rosey from a Samoan bruiser to a sidekick of the Hurricane, a “Super Hero in Training”. The abbreviation for that would be S.H.I.T.
The Big Show
When Paul Wight signed with the WWE…BIG things were expected from him. He immediately was thrust into the spotlight as a member of Vince McMahon’s Corporation. Without getting into all the sordid early history of Big Show in the WWE….when he appeared on Saturday Night Live and stole the show….he went from a giant to joke.
While he eventually recovered from this initial comedy run…he still never really sustained the giant monster persona for long periods of time.
Brodus Clay
Brodus Clay started out his WWE career as the bodyguard to Alberto Del Rio. That stint was short lived and he soon disappeared from our sight. Vignettes began airing with the promise that Brodus Clay would be a one man wrecking crew. What we got instead was a dancing dinosaur of sorts… A “Funkasaurus” if you will.
Lord Tensai
Speaking of Brodus Clay, his future “Tons of Funk” tag team partner…Sweet T wrestled briefly in his return to the WWE as the evil Lord Tensai. After multiple gimmicks and names in his first WWE run, he had a successful run in Japan as the Giant Bernard. His return to the WWE was meant to be a run on top as a monster heel, even feuding with John Cena. However, reactions were mixed for the Tensai character and before too long….he was dancing along with the Funkasaurus.
One Man Gang
So the One Man Gang comes in as a big bad ass from Halsted Street in Chicago and all of a sudden…turns into a white “black” man named Akeem?!? Unlike most other characters who changed gimmicks or went from “killers to comedians”, the Gang was actually given an entire vignette devoted to showing us the transformation of his gimmick. See Below.
The Great Khali
When the Great Khali started out with the WWE, he was immediately thrust into a program with the Undertaker. It wasn’t too long after that, that Khali went on to win the WWE’s World title.
Then, the WWE finally gave up on this project after they saw what they had. Instead, Vince saw more comedy than destruction in the Khali character and soon after…the Great Khali becomes the silly, goofy…Punjabi Playboy.
Sure, there have been plenty of others who went from monsters to jokesters like…
Kamala the Ugandan Giant going from savage beast to…. professional bowler?
Kane, the Devil’s favorite Demon…. graduates Anger Management.
Gene Snitsky… Baby Killer to…. Foot Fetish
John Heidenreich… Yet another monster who would soon battle back and forth between his love for poetry…
and his uncomfortable obsession with Michael Cole…
And once that was all over with, Heidenreich somehow managed a face turn where he introduced an odd march and invited children to join him.
It seems to be the last resort for all big guys when WWE creative can’t come up with anything else to get a heel over as the monster they pegged them to be.
Just imagine if they had done the same to guys like Andre the Giant or the Undertaker. That would be no laughing matter…
