5 Gimmick ideas for WWE Superstars that never made it to television
In the crazy world of pro wrestling/sports entertainment, the presentation of somebody’s character can make or break their entire career.
Former NWA, WCW and WWE star Terry Taylor, for example, spent over 20 years competing all over the world for various different promotions, but many people immediately think of his awful Red Rooster gimmick as soon as his name is brought up.
On the other hand, there are performers like Mark Calaway and Glenn Jacobs, who had limited success early on in their careers before going on to become two of the most captivating characters in the wrestling business when they were given gimmicks as The Undertaker and Kane by WWE in the 1990s.
No matter how good somebody is as an in-ring competitor, they must be able to develop a character that fans can connect with if they are to carve out successful careers for themselves in the cut-throat wrestling industry.
Every so often, a new gimmick can debut and everybody loves it. On other occasions, it debuts and fails miserably. And sometimes, an idea doesn’t even make it past the creative team.
In this article, let’s take a look at five gimmick ideas that were discussed for WWE Superstars but, thankfully (in most cases), never made it to television.
#5 Brock Lesnar’s stuttering problem
After mostly being used as a sidekick to Brock Lesnar during his first run with WWE, Matt Morgan was given a new stuttering gimmick upon his April 2005 return to SmackDown in an attempt to add some depth to his character.
The gimmick didn’t last long – Morgan was released three months later – and he recently revealed on Robbie E's "Why It Ended" podcast that WWE originally had plans to make Lesnar have a speech impediment.
The former Impact Tag Team champion said Vince McMahon had been looking for a “big, impressive, jacked-up dude” to have a stuttering persona and he had tried to give the gimmick to Lesnar a few years earlier.
It’s not known why “The Beast” didn’t end up with the gimmick, but let’s just be thankful that WWE went down “The Next Big Thing” route instead!