5 WWE acts who made goofy gimmicks work
The WWE Universe met a new version of Nikki Cross on the most recent episode of Monday Night RAW and universally, no pun intended, hated it.
The former WWE Women's Tag Champion has already had quite a successful run on the main roster, and has even challenged multiple times for the SmackDown Women's Championship. Seeing such a weird shift in tone left fans of Crazy Nikki worried, even though it's been confirmed that this was her idea.
If you're still nervous about how this could play out for Nikki Cross, maybe it's time to take a look back at some of WWE's greatest characters. I mean, for God's sake, The Undertaker was one of the greatest superstars of all time and he was an undead mortician. It doesn't get much goofier than that, does it?
Need more proof? Okay, let's count down five WWE acts that got goofy gimmicks over.
#5 3MB featured two future WWE Champions
When Drew McIntyre, Heath Slater, and Jinder Mahal formed the 3 Man Band in 2012, fans lost their minds. McIntyre went from "The Chosen One" to a goofy fake rockstar? Heath Slater was an original member of Nexus and now he's doing this? Jinder...well up until that point he hadn't done much, but still.
It seemed like a waste of talent and potential...until they became one of the funniest acts in WWE. Genuinely, it was hard not to smile when these three were on camera.
For the first year, the group always acted better than they really were, often going after the biggest fish in the lake. There was this great moment in 2013 where they thought they were on the same level as The Shield that was...just hilarious.
That was pretty much the joke for two years, and while sometimes you can run the risk of a joke going stale, Heath Slater and the Three Man Band, baybay, always managed to get a pop from the crowd.
They're also responsible for, and I kid you not, one of the greatest TLC matches of all time. 3MB would eventually adopt Hornswoggle as their fourth member, and helped him out in the famous "Wee LC" match against El Torrito.
A few years back, WWE brought 3MB together to watch the match back, and it was great to see them react to it.
In a Q&A on Twitter last year, Drew McIntyre even said he'd had no regrets regarding the group.
Neither do I, Drew. Neither do I. Both Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal went onto capture the WWE Championship after first being released in 2014. Hopefully one day we can see Heath come back to complete the trifecta, which would make 3MB one of the greatest stables of all time. Who's laughing now?