Often, professional wrestling fans see the beloved wrestlers from the past through rose-tinted glasses. Whether it is superstars from the Attitude Era or those from the Rock 'N Wrestling age of the '80s, the memories remain strong, even if those same WWE superstars have moved on and changed drastically over the years. Possibly, the saddest part of looking back at beloved favorites from the WWE yesteryear is to see how many of them have passed away since they were stars. Whether it is older names like Rowdy Roddy Piper and The Junkyard Dog or younger stars who passed too early like Eddie Guerrero and Test, there are many WWE superstars who are no longer with us.

As sad as that is, there are also a large number of WWE superstars from the past that have moved on in their lives and many of them are almost unrecognizable today from how they looked when entertaining fans in professional wrestling. Whether it is a former wrestler who has moved on to another career, a wrestler who battled demons and has started to turn his life around, or someone who has faced tragedies since they competed in the WWE, here is a look at 20 legendary WWE wrestlers who look totally different today. Personally, we think they look great!

20 KANE

One of the most shocking moves by a superstar from the Attitude Era concerns the man known as Kane. At Bad Blood in 1996, Glenn Jacobs made his return to the WWE as Kane, the brother of The Undertaker. After previously wrestling in the WWE as Isaac Yankem, an evil dentist, and then as the fake Diesel, the Kane persona was what made Jacobs a star. Over the years, Kane was a demonic presence, an evil character straight from "Hell" as announcer Jim Ross described him.

Kane even had one segment where he caught Ross on fire in an act of vengeance.

With such a storied past, it is almost hard to believe that the WWE took off his mask and put him in a suit to be a corporate figure working for Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. While the WWE moved him back to the mask in the last few years, Kane is now unofficially retired from the WWE. This is because, in the election to determine the new mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, Glenn Jacobs competed in the 2018 primaries and won the Republican nomination. At the time of this list's writing, he is attempting to become the most recent former WWE superstar to move on to a political office.

19 LEX LUGER

At one time, Lex Luger had the prototypical body of a WWE superstar. He got his start in the territories in the '80s and then became a main event player in the NWA when he joined up with the Four Horsemen. In 1992, Vince McMahon brought in Luger, made him the All-American and hoped he could replace Hulk Hogan as the top babyface in the company. That push failed horribly and Luger ended up finishing his career in WCW as a top player in the feud involving the nWo. However, after his career in WCW ended, things went bad for the Total Package.

In 2007, Luger suffered nerve damage in his neck and ended up paralyzed. He ended up in a quadriplegic state and was unable to stand again until later in 2008. It took a lot of work and dedication but Luger said in 2010 that he was finally able to drive again. Compared to the athletic Luger from the '90s, the former WWE superstar has lost almost all his muscle tone and is visibly smaller, but seems happier now. Luger said in interviews that he was very arrogant as a wrestler and his medical problems have humbled him, as he turned to Christianity to turn his life around.

18 "THE MODEL" RICK MARTEL

In the '80s, it wasn't just the WWE that ruled professional wrestling. There were three "major" professional wrestling organizations in the United States -- the WWF, NWA and AWA. The WWF hooked their company to the rocket that was known as Hulk Hogan. The NWA was run by the territories and was putting their stock in Ric Flair. The AWA didn't really have a big name on top, although Nick Bockwinkle, Larry Zbyszko and Rick Martel were the three biggest names at the time. After the AWA started to die, Martel moved on to the WWE where he repackaged himself as The Model.

Martel found his legs in the WWE as a villain who sprayed perfume in opponent's eyes to get the win.

After failing to really set the world on fire as a tag team wrestler in the Can-Am Connection and Strike Force, Martel found his legs in the WWE as a villain who sprayed perfume in opponent's eyes to get the win. His biggest match is still the blindfold match with Jake Roberts at WrestleMania VII. In 1998, at the age of 42, Martel retired due to chronic pain from years of wrestling. Martel said in an interview with WWE.com that his post-WWE career was spent with his family, something that many professional wrestlers sacrifice when they make it to the top.

17 "THE GENIUS" LANNY POFFO

Lanny Poffo had a tough career due to who he was related to. The son of Angelo Poffo, it looked like he could be a star in the professional wrestling industry but he was overshadowed his entire career by his more beloved older brother. Poffo, you see, was the younger brother of the late "Macho Man" Randy Savage. When Savage debuted in the world of professional wrestling, he was an immediate star -- with the charisma and talent to carry him to the top of the profession. However, while Savage was the main event superstar, Poffo himself didn't have a bad career on his own -- albeit on a lower mid-card level.

In the WWE, Poffo started out wrestling as a jobber known as Leaping Lanny Poffo before getting the gimmick that finally defined his career -- The Genius. It was as The Genius that Poffo started reciting poetry in the ring before his matches as the fans rained down boos on him. Poffo even took his gimmick and made it a reality, publishing two books of poetry for young children with poems teaching them the dangers of addiction. Lanny Poffo was last seen on television when he inducted his brother posthumously into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015.

16 LITTLE SPIKE DUDLEY

When The Dudley Boyz were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at the 2018 ceremony, they thanked a lot of people but sent out a special thanks to one in particular -- Little Spike Dudley. Like the more famous Dudley Boyz, Spike got his start in ECW as part of the extended Dudley "family" and was the only one outside of the Dudley Boyz tag team to make it successfully out of ECW. When he made his way to the WWE, he worked with his "brothers" and ended up winning the Cruiserweight, European, Hardcore and tag team titles during his four years there.

Now, he is helping other people plan for their future.

Spike Dudley continued to wrestle on the independent scene for years after leaving the WWE. However, Spike, whose real name is Matthew Hyson, got married and decided he wanted to start a family, bringing a little girl into the world, and he chose not to wrestle anymore. Instead, Hyson told WWE.com that he decided to start working as a financial planner with MassMutual. Instead of having other wrestlers put him through tables or -- in his most popular moment -- have a wrestler throw him from the ring and into the crowd, he is helping other people plan for their future.

15 JESSE "THE BODY" VENTURA

When he was a professional wrestler in the '70s and '80s, Jesse "The Body" Ventura was one of the most arrogant and deceitful performers in the industry. His second career came in the late '80s in the WWE and WCW when Ventura worked as a color commentator -- arguably, one of the best in WWE history. He was someone who spoke the truth, even if he was cheering for the villains most of the time. It made sense that Ventura would choose a career in politics over the acting career that it looked like he was going to try to move into when his WWE career finally ended.

It appeared that Ventura was going to be a star in Hollywood with roles in Running Man and Predator but he chose to take another career path. He became a mayor in 1991 for a town in Minnesota, where he served a four-year term. In 1999, Ventura represented the Reform Party and shocked the world when he beat out the Republican and Democratic candidates and became the Governor of Minnesota. Since then, Ventura has returned to television for a  number of reality shows, many of which concern his specialty subjects: conspiracy theories and political news and views.

14 SCOTT HALL

One of the biggest cautionary tales in professional wrestling history is that of Scott Hall, who reached his first level of popularity in WWE as Razor Ramon before moving on to WCW and kickstarting the nWo. The WWE-produced Scott Hall DVD biography is fascinating, telling the story of how he had to take someone's life while working as a bouncer at a club before his wrestling career even began. It kind of put into perspective where his life went and the demons he faced in his life.

It is truly inspiring looking at where Hall ended up years later.

In the professional wrestling industry, Hall was a star. He was a multi-time champion in the WWE and WCW and was one of the biggest names in the industry. As a member of the Kliq, he also ruled the locker room for years. He also enjoyed partying a little too much when he wasn't wrestling and that led to his downfall. It is truly inspiring looking at where Hall ended up years later, after he considered taking his own life, and seeing him at the WWE Hall of Fame after Diamond Dallas Page helped him turn his life around. While Hall continues to battle his demons, he has come a long way since he reached the lowest of lows only a few years back.

13 TULLY BLANCHARD

When asking any hardcore long-time professional wrestling fan to name the greatest faction of all-time, their answer -- depending on their age -- would be either DX, the nWo or The Four Horsemen. Out of those factions, it was the Horsemen that really created the modern day professional wrestling unit, with four men all focused on winning different titles and working together to make sure that all four achieved success. While the greatest version of the Four Horsemen is up for debate, the three men that personified the faction are "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard.

Blanchard and Anderson even got the chance to wrestle in the WWE as The Brainbusters. However, while Anderson still works for the WWE behind-the-scenes and Flair is considered the greatest wrestler of all-time and is an ambassador for the company, Blanchard is out of the business completely. The son of promoter Joe Blanchard, Tully's career ended early in the major promotions due to substance abuse, but he continued wrestling in smaller indie promotions outside of small appearances here and there for WCW and ECW. Blanchard retired in 2007 and has since worked as a religious minister, traveling to prisons to talk to inmates.

12 "MR. WONDERFUL" PAUL ORNDORFF

When Hulk Hogan took the WWE by storm in the '80s, he didn't make it to the top by himself. The reason that Hogan was popular was due to the opposition that the WWE threw into his path. From Rowdy Roddy Piper and King Kong Bundy to Andre the Giant and Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff, it was the great villains that made Hogan such a great babyface.

Orndorff was also one of the first faces to turn heel and betray Hogan in the WWE.

As with many of Hogan's biggest enemies, once he finished with them and won the feud, their role in the WWE diminished. Orndorff stepped away from the world of professional wrestling in 1988 due to an arm injury. Orndorff returned to the ring in 1990 and competed in the indies before finishing his career in WCW. Orndorff last appeared in 2014 in the WWE in a backstage skit, as well as in the ring to celebrate Hulk Hogan's birthday. That was the moment where Brock Lesnar interrupted the party to call Hogan "grandpa" and Orndorff -- with the most magnificent mustache of all time -- laughed before taunting Paul Heyman as Lesnar and John Cena faced off to end the show.

11 BRET "THE HITMAN" HART

Bret "The Hitman" Hart is widely considered one of the best technical wrestlers of all-time. After breaking in working for his father's promotion in Calgary, Hart joined the WWE and developed a great tag team with Jim Neidhart called The Hart Foundation. After this, he went on to bigger success, winning the WWE world heavyweight title five times before leaving after the infamous Montreal Screwjob. Hart then wrestled for a short time in WCW, where he won two more world titles, before suffering a career-ending injury. That injury was a serious concussion following an errant kick by Bill Goldberg.

Hart retired from wrestling but then suffered a stroke while riding his bicycle and ended up partially paralyzed. Luckily for Hart, he was able to recover from that injury and eventually made amends with Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels, getting back into the good graces of the WWE once again. He entered the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 and even wrestled one final match in his legendary career at WrestleMania XXVI, where he defeated McMahon. Hart has since made random appearances in the WWE, mostly to support his niece, Natalya Neidhart, in random angles that she worked when feuding with Ric Flair's daughter, Charlotte.

10 HILLBILLY JIM

Hillbilly Jim was a surprise entrant into the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame induction class. Old-school fans remember Hillbilly Jim as one of the big on-screen allies for Hulk Hogan in the '80s. Jim was placed in the crowd as a wrestling fan who wanted to become a professional wrestler himself. When he got a chance to learn how to wrestle from Rowdy Roddy Piper, who wanted to prove he could make anyone a successful wrestler, he refused and said he would rather learn from Hulk Hogan. That started a storyline friendship that lasted most of Jim's WWE tenure.

Jim has remained out of the business with one notable exception...

Throughout his WWE career, he introduced his "relatives" in names like Uncle Elmer and Cousin Luke, and later was the manager of a new tag team in the '90s known as The Godwinns, who he managed until they turned heel in 1997. He retired after that, although he continued to work as an ambassador for the WWE. Outside of the random appearances to represent the WWE and autograph opportunities, Jim has remained out of the business with the exception of taking part in WWE Legends' House in 2014. Fans continued to follow Hillbilly Jim through other ventures, such as a radio show titled Hillbilly Jim's Moonshine Matinee, which aired on SiriusXM Outlaw Country.

9 TRISH STRATUS

Trish Stratus helped usher in a new movement for women's wrestlers in the WWE. While ladies like Sherri Martel and Alundra Blayze carried the torch in the '90s, when Stratus, a Canadian fitness model, debuted everything changed. She started as a manager for the tag team of T&A in 2000 before starting to wrestle in 2001. By the time she retired, Trish Stratus and Lita helped revolutionize women's professional wrestling. She won the women's title seven times and competed in the first-ever women's main event on Monday Night Raw against Lita.

Stratus retired in 2007 as the WWE women's champion and never looked back. She did compete in a rare match here and there after that, but mostly remained retired from professional wrestling. Outside of rare acting appearances, Stratus has remained out of the public eye since her retirement. The WWE put her into its Hall of Fame in 2013, where Stratus showed up with her natural dark hair color and announced her pregnancy at the ceremony. Stratus now has two children and still returned, looking better than ever, to compete in the first ever WWE women's Royal Rumble match in January 2018, where she was one of the final five women eliminated in the match.

8 "THE MILLION DOLLAR MAN" TED DIBIASE

For years, Ted DiBiase built a solid body of work as a blue-collar wrestler in the territories. He worked for Bill Watts in the Mid South and proved to be a great villain, as he was in a tag team with Dr. Death Steve Williams, and a great babyface, as he was when Dick Murdoch turned on him before he was set to face Ric Flair for the NWA world title. That made his WWE debut as The Million Dollar Man strange for long-time fans. However, that role was the one that made DiBiase a star and he mastered the gimmick.

Some of the best promos in WWE history involved DiBiase proving that regular people will do anything for a price.

He created his own title, and while he never had a chance to be world champion, remains someone that hardcore WWE fans still look back at as one of the best of all-time. The greedy materialistic character is nothing like the real Ted DiBiase. Instead, DiBiase is a public speaker, preaching Christianity and taking bookings -- not as a professional wrestling entertainer -- but as a motivational and religious speaker. His son, Ted DiBiase Jr. followed in his father's footsteps as well after his retirement.

7 KURRGAN

Kurrgan is not someone who really made his mark in a professional wrestling ring. His debut in the WWE came in 1997 during the Attitude Era as a monster member of a faction known as The Truth Commission. The group was managed by Don Callis, who was known at the time as The Jackyl. The wrestler originally went by the name Kurrgan The Interrogator, as the faction was based on a militaristic strike force. After that group flamed out, he joined a comedy group known as The Oddities, where Kurrgan went from military attire to tye-dye shirts and dancing around the ring.

Kurrgan left the WWE after that group disbanded and drifted around wrestling in the indies. However, his real success started in 2007 when Zack Snyder cast him in the movie 300. That was the start of what became a solid career in movies. He took a role as a villain in Sherlock Holmes, opposite Robert Downey Jr., and ended up with a recurring role as a villain on the SyFy series Haven, based on the Stephen King novel, The Colorado Kid. In some interesting trivia, former WWE world champion Edge had a major role on Haven as well.

6 NIKITA KOLOFF

The career of Nikita Koloff was one steeped in tragedy and redemption. Koloff's birth name was Nelson Simpson and he is an American born in Minnesota. However, Road Warrior Animal discovered him when they were working out and convinced him to try out for a professional wrestling career. He impressed Jim Crockett, who owned the Carolina NWA promotion that would one day become WCW, and signed on with the company.

They had him shave his head and pretend to be a Russian -- the nephew of the legendary Ivan Koloff.

From that day on, Nikita Koloff performed as a Russian and took the gimmick outside the ring as well to really sell his character. He even legally changed his name to Nikita Koloff in 1984. In 1986, Koloff became a good guy when his in-ring enemy Magnum T.A. was paralyzed after a car accident. However, three years later, Koloff's wife died after battling Hodgkin's disease and Koloff chose to become a part-time wrestler. In 1992, Koloff saw his career come to an end after a match with Big Van Vader in WCW resulted in a herniated disk in his neck. Koloff now runs his own Christian ministry, has written two books, and has acted in some faith-based films.

5 MIDEON

Dennis Knight wrestled around the territories for a few years before the WWE took notice. He mostly worked a cowboy gimmick, going by the name Tex Slazenger. When he made his debut in the WWE, he kept the country boy gimmick as a member of the Goodwins tag team, which was managed by Hillbilly Jim, before they turned bad and became Southern Justice. However, Knight flipped everything on its head when he became the deranged Mideon, a disciple of The Undertaker, and a key member of the Ministry of Darkness during the WWE Attitude Era.

With his tattoos and Satanic symbols on his clothing and painted on his face, he became a very scary wrestler. Best known at that time as the partner of Viscera, they did everything needed to help Undertaker complete his evil plans. The most infamous time that Mideon was seen wrestling was as Naked Mideon, streaking across arenas wearing nothing but a fanny pack, boots, and a thong. Since his retirement from the WWE, Dennis Knight has done something Mideon fans might never have expected. He is a chef now at his home in Clearwater, Florida. He runs his own privately owned catering company called Dennis Knight Catering, which sees him cooking for private parties and special events.

4 SCOTT STEINER

In a slight change, this is an entry that shows how much a WWE superstar can change from the time he made his WWE debut until the time he wrestled his last match for the company. Instead of saying fans wouldn't recognize Scott Steiner now, the fact is that they might not recognize what he looked like when he was a tag team specialist. The Steiner Brothers made their names in WCW, winning the world tag team titles there seven times. They also made their way to the WWE as a tag team in 1992 and were successful as well, winning two world tag team titles while there.

Steiner transformed into an almost unrecognizable "freak of nature, "with bigger and bigger muscles as the years went on.

As the Steiner Brothers were dominating the tag team scenes, Rick was a shorter wrestler, wearing collegiate headgear while barking like a dog while Scott was a lean athletic superstar, with long black hair who could do high flying moves off the top turnbuckle. However, after the nWo invaded WCW, Steiner transformed into an almost unrecognizable freak of nature, with bigger and bigger muscles as the years went on, along with short bleached blonde and promos that bordered on incomprehensible. The one time super athletic All-American was now a Genetic Freak and the rest is history.

3 KAMALA

Kamala was a character from an era long gone. When James Harris started out his career, he bounced around NWA territories, taking on the persona of Kamala, a savage from Uganda, while wrestling for Jerry Jarrett in Tennessee. He was a headhunter that needed a manager to lead him through the territories and a handler to control him so he didn't get out of control around the fans and other wrestlers. His most famous manager at the time was General Skandor Akbar and his manager was known as Friday. When he arrived in the WWE in 1984, his manager was Freddie Blassie and later The Wizard, with a handler named Kim Chee.

As with most monsters in the WWE at the time, Kamala was there to set up to challenge Hulk Hogan, and he got a number of opportunities to work the main event scene with Hogan in 1987. He left for a short time before returning and finishing off his WWE career in 1993. He wrestled part-time for years after that until tragedy struck. In 2011, James Harris had to have his left leg amputated due to diabetes complications and then lost his right leg one year later.

2 JAKE "THE SNAKE" ROBERTS

Much like Scott Hall, Jake "The Snake" Roberts owes his life to Diamond Dallas Page. Roberts had suffered through some very public battles with drugs and alcohol over his life, but Page came calling to help his old friend get his life back together. Roberts is a second-generation star, the son of Grizzly Smith. He became a huge star in the territory system before making his way to the WWE where Vince McMahon gave him a giant snake and Roberts became a legend.

However, Roberts had his demons and after leaving the WWE, he started to fall deeper and deeper into his addictions.

The documentary Beyond the Mat showed a tragic Roberts at his lowest, as he was so lost in alcohol and drugs that he ran from a meeting with his estranged daughter. Add in some wrestling appearances that showed up on YouTube involving a messed up Roberts, and things spiraled out of control. However, Roberts helped Dallas Page break into wrestling and Page helped Roberts clean up and get his life back together years later. Roberts reunited with the WWE in 2014 for the first time in years and has since started to give back to the industry that made him a star, talking to young NXT talents about the dangers they face on the road to stardom.

1 MICHAEL P.S. HAYES

Before Rock 'N Wrestling brought music to the WWE and before the Four Horsemen became the biggest faction in the business, The Fabulous Freebirds revolutionized professional wrestling by introducing both concepts. Along with his "brothers" Buddy Jack Roberts and Terry Bam Bam Gordy, The Freebirds were the first major successful faction. Before everyone had their own unique entrance theme, Michael Hayes sang "Badstreet U.S.A." and proved that a unique theme could make all the difference in a crowd reaction to someone entering the wrestling ring. The Freebirds feud with the Von Erich boys was arguably one of the biggest feuds in professional wrestling history.

Michael P.S. Hayes was not the best wrestler in the world, but he was possibly one of the most flamboyant and a true rock and roll presence in the wrestling ring. No one will really call Hayes rock and roll now, but looking at how he dresses, he is as flamboyant as ever. WWE fans will see him every so often in backstage skits since he has worked as a booker, writer and backstage road agent for the company. In 2016, The Fabulous Freebirds were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and Michael Hayes celebrated by singing "Badstreet U.S.A." live one more time to celebrate at the ceremony.