Before being granted their release from the company, WWE – and especially Vince McMahon – wanted to repackage Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder, The Revival, as a comedy tag team complete with new gear, new entrance, and a new philosophy. While the exact details of the repackaging are still sparse, the idea of turning a talented pro wrestler into a comedy act– often as a punishment – is not unusual. While the Revival have escaped that fate, here are some examples from WWE’s past where wrestlers were given a terrible gimmick to punish them.
“Adorable” Adrian Adonis
Adrian Adonis came to the WWF in 1981 and teamed with Jesse Ventura and Dick Murdoch, becoming a singles wrestler after Murdoch left. Always burly, Adrian began to gain a lot of weight (he apparently weighed over 350 pounds at one time) and started to slow down in the ring. Company officials wanted him to lose weight, but nothing seemed to work.
In early 1986, Adrian was turned from a tough New York street punk into “Adorable” Adrian and started acting like an 80's caricature of a gay stereotype in what was clearly a punishment for Adrian’s failure to lose weight. It peaked at Wrestlemania III, where Adonis lost a Hair vs. Hair Match against Roddy Piper. He was released soon after and unfortunately died in a car accident in 1988.
Red Rooster
In 1988, Terry Taylor was one of the most promising young stars in pro wrestling. He was already a former NWA National and UWF Television Champion and wrestled at Starrcade 1985 and 1987. However, Taylor was not only good – he also knew it.
When he entered the WWE in 1988, the company allegedly thought about giving him the Mr. Perfect gimmick. But according to Bruce Prichard, Taylor didn’t hide his confidence in the locker room. Since he was new and acting quite "cocky," they decided to give him an intentionally bad gimmick to match – and the Red Rooster was born.
Managed by Bobby Heenan and presented as a nobody, the Brain claimed he would turn Taylor into a world champion. As expected, Taylor soon had enough of Bobby’s abuse. But instead of letting him be Terry Taylor again, he had to keep the Red Rooster name, make crowing sounds, and dye and form part of his hair into a red Mohawk like a cockscomb. Needless to say, the gimmick never got over and Terry Taylor left the WWE in 1990. His career never recovered.
Blue Blazer
In May 1999, Owen Hart refused to do an angle that saw him start an affair with Debra, who was the valet of Jeff Jarrett, Owen’s tag team partner. Hart felt that his young children would be confused seeing their dad on TV with another woman. Creative felt that Owen by himself lacked personality, so they restored his old WWF gimmick the Blue Blazer, which began as a masked, undercard high-flyer without much personality. But when Vince Russo got his hands on the superhero character, he turned it into an outright comedy gimmick.
On May 23, the Blazer was supposed to win the Intercontinental Title from the Godfather at Over the Edge in Kansas City. Before the match, Owen was in the rafters of the arena, ready to descend into the ring. He was supposed to release himself a few feet above the ring to take a tumble and look silly. However, things went terribly wrong and Owen Hart fell 78 feet chest-first onto the ropes. The impact caused internal bleeding and Owen Hart died shortly at 34 -years-old.
Perry Saturn and Moppy
Perry Saturn lost his cool in a spring 2001 episode of Sunday Night Heat in a match against enhancement talent Mike Bell and management wanted to punish him on-screen for his unprofessional behavior. After a beatdown at the hands of the APA, Perry suffered (storyline) head trauma and began to act weird. The "highlight:" he fell in love with a mop.
Intended as punishment, the gimmick actually got over with the audience, so management decided to cut the angle and had Raven and Saturn’s former valet Terri destroy Moppy. Saturn got his revenge against Raven at Unforgiven 2001, but was left without any storyline going forward. Saturn was left off television, partly due to injuries, and was ultimately released from WWE in November 2002.
Piggie James
Mickie James was probably the most popular women’s wrestler in WWE from 2006 to 2010. In the fall of 2009, WWE booked her in an angle against LayCool, comprised of Layla and Michelle McCool. During a match with Layla, Michelle McCool got on the microphone and started calling Mickie “Piggie” James. It was a tasteless bullying angle during which James beat McCool at the Royal Rumble 2010 to win the Women’s Title, only to drop it back to McCool a month later.
Why was this angle booked? Apparently, management was not happy with Mickie’s physique. Fans worldwide wondered why, and are still waiting for an explanation to this day.
Oddball Ryback
The former Nexus member was repackaged in 2012 as Ryback. A Goldberg-like winning streak got him so over that a lot of fans were actually disappointed when he lost to CM Punk at Hell in a Cell that year.
Much like Goldberg’s initial run, that first loss was the beginning of the end. Ryback was apparently difficult to deal with backstage, so in 2013 WWE turned Ryback heel. After feuds with John Cena and Chris Jericho, he began to act weird, bullying staff and wrestlers. The height of Ryback’s weird behavior came in January 2014 at an episode of Main Event. During three matches, The Big Guy came out, simply marched around the ring, and walked back. It was never explained.
The goofball image stuck. After an injury kept him out for a few months, he called off the tag team with Curtis Axel in a bizarre backstage segment where he compared them to other teams and non-teams of the past. Ryback stayed around until 2016, when he quit not only WWE, but wrestling full-time as a whole.