Potential gimmicks mistreated By WWE (Part 1)
A 'gimmick' is a wrestling term used to describe the character of a particular superstar who is playing in the storyline. A gimmick is the heart and soul of a wrestler and can make or break their future in the industry in one appearance. Wrestlers are always careful while choosing their gimmicks, especially in the initial stages of their career as these end up being the first impression that people remember about them. They keep on experimenting with their character for improving it or for bringing something new to the table.
Over the years we have seen some potentially great gimmicks which have success written all over them, but due to mishandling by the management, these gimmicks never took-off and lost its uniqueness. Since there are many examples of such gimmicks, it can't all be included in one article. So, we are going to do it in many parts. Here are the four gimmicks from the recent past that lost its essence due to mishandling by WWE.
(The opinions expressed in the article purely belong to the writer and does not reflect Sportskeeda's stand on the subject.)
#4 'Heel' Booby Lashley
Bobby Lashley's return after Wrestlemania 34 was lackluster at best, as there was no hype generated for the returning babyface. WWE never bothered to book him as a serious superstar for whom everyone needed to watch out. He went feuds after feuds till the end of September without gaining any momentum. But, then WWE finally realized that Lashley works better as a heel ( because of his run in TNA) and they finally turned him into one in October when he attacked Kevin Owens after their match on Raw.
It seemed like the turn was a desperate move and was executed without any solid plan because the management never bothered to explain about his sudden character switch. One day, he was teaming up with the company's biggest babyface John Cena and then a couple of days later he was beating the hell out of his opponent.
Even after turning heel, Lashley never felt like a true dominating force like Drew McIntyre or Braun Strowman and was just used in different segments to generate unnecessary heat with the help of Lio Rush. Even in TLC, Elias beat him cleanly in the ladders match. Because of WWE's careless booking, Lashley just became another mid-card heel in Raw who at the moment does not have any direction.