5 Wrestlers Who Overcame Strange Gimmicks and Achieved Success

It is rare that you find a wrestler who hasn't had a bad gimmick at one point in their career. It used to be a rite of passage and "green" workers would have to cut their teeth and work with a silly gimmick. Many of wrestling's biggest stars had terrible gimmicks. Steve Austin began his career as "The Ringmaster" and The Rock started out as "Rocky Maivia".

Sadly a lot of great talent has been wasted over the years with horrible gimmicks. During the late 80's and early 90's would saddle wrestlers with "occupations". For example, Bray Wyatt's father Mike Rotunda worked for WWE as Irwin R.Schyster (IRS) who was a tax collector.

It takes a truly great talent to overcome a bad gimmick and rise to stardom. Here are 5 wrestlers who have overcome a horrible gimmick and achieved success.

#5. Luke Gallows - Festus

In 2006, Andrew Hankinson debuted as "imposter Kane". That feud only lasted a couple of weeks and the gimmick was dropped. In 2007 Gallows debuted on Smackdown as Festus alongside his partner Jesse. Festus was mentally "slow" but would transform into a one-man wrecking machine when the bell rang. The gimmick showed promise but was hampered by too many comedy skits.

In 2009, he was repackaged as Luke Gallows. He was part of CM Punk's Straight Edge Society, but that ultimately went nowhere. He was released from WWE in November 2010. After working in TNA and on the indies, Gallows signed for NJPW in 2013 and joined the Bullet Club. He teamed with Karl Anderson and won the 2013 World Tag League and went on to become a 3-time IWGP Tag Team Champion.

Gallows returned to WWE in 2016 along with Karl Anderson and won the RAW Tag Team Championships. Gallows has had an interesting career and has been able to achieve massive success despite his horrible beginnings in the WWE.