Luna Vachon and Sherry Martel were the best at being crazy. I'm still afraid of those two

Rob Conway did the best Buff Bagwell impression in WWE

Thankfully WWE would learn from this and never do it again. Shows Cena and Reigns. "Yeah right!" LOLZ 😂

Sandman on broken skull sessions. Could be interesting

i gotta say the HHH and HBK did a pretty good Vince and Shane. "Look dad. Look at me im dancing.................SHADDUP!"

How about a list of gimmicks that didn't work the first time, but wwe still tried it again with a different wrestler. Off the top of my head there's the teacher gimmick (Shane Douglas and Matt Striker)

You forgot the MMA crossover athlete

Rob Conway lol. I never thought of Rob Conway & Rick Rude in comparison

I'm surprised "America Hating Foreign Heel" didn't make the list

Slam Master J's abs where impressive. He went from chubby to ripped in like 3 months. I still remember the scene where he showed his abs to John Morrison, and Morrison was impressed as well

I think a gimmick is only good when the wrestler doing it cares. I think Shane Thorne’s new gimmick will be good because it is something he came up with and really seems to be enjoying

Rick Rude also did so well is because he had Bobby the brain Heenan as his manager and that guy is a legend in that department

Why didn’t Man Mountain Rock work? Yeah, I don’t know either, dude.

I loved when Swagger had the ankle lock. I felt bad he never stayed a main eventer. I was happy he cashed in. It was awesome. I always felt bad for Luger.

I appreciate you referring to the gimmick as the "White Boy Rapper".

I know one thing for sure Rob Conway's entrance theme did him absolutely no favors

Rikishi -Worked Brodus Clay - Nah

waylon mercy was one of my favorite gimmicks, and when bray came about, totally blew my mind

I never really saw Dana as a Chyna analogue. Like Chyna was legit as big as some of the men and Dana is just a little bigger than the women she wrestles with. Poor Dana. Poor Chyna.

Hey Simon! I'm the original writer of this article. I've always hoped you'd get around to one of my pieces!!! Just wanted to say thank you :)

Daphne also did the “crazy woman” gimmick really well in her WCW days.

I would never say Rude and Conway had the same gimmick. They were completely different

I.R.S. in the classic Syracuse jacket is nostalgic

Really this is a list of gimmicks that could (and should) have worked twice or more, but didnt because of awful WWE booking. Its not rocket science.

How about the foreign heel?

John Cena not only liked rap, he practiced often and it showed. He could spit a few lines, but as a hip hop head I was always left unimpressed. The rerun of Cena I took with offense to. When Jesse did it, it was offensive to hip-hop fans.

Where do you come up with these ideas lol love them

You could do another entire list of football player to wrestler, and then another list on boxers, and yet another list on the other major sports figures who became wrestlers.

Max Cady was played by 2 actors Robert Mitchum in the original Cape Fear in the 1960's and Robert DeNiro in the 1990 remake .

Man Mountain Rock was the inspiration for Rick Boogs. It's so WWE to do a trope that worked for 2 minutes in the 90s.

The guitarist.......you failed to mention Rick Boogs, The Honky Tonk man, or even Jeff Jarrett.

That Ascension burial was just terrible. Thats when I got how bad the WWE was to their own people. I still don’t understand it. But it’s happened to NXT a lot since then.

Honorable Mentions: Kalisto copying Rey Mysterio - Brodus Clay copying Rikishi - And most recent fail Alexa Bliss trying to be the female Fiend

Gimmicks that worked for one wrestler but not another: RAZOR RAMON

Dana Brooke is so attractive to me. Mandy Rose is a little more so, you put the two of them in a tag team together and you have me glued to the tele.

The crazy woman gimmick worked for AJ Lee because she wasn't just a good wrestler, she was a good actor too.

" the white boy rapper " freaking hilarious

At #10, let's NOT for the Reflection of Perfection........Mark Jindrak with Teddy Long!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Waylon Mercy, ne Dangerous Dan Spivey, also teamed with the Undertaker in WCW as the Skyscrapers. Sid was also in that group too.

Oh wait! Elias? Man, now I remember on his vignettes for his return. The last one was weeks ago. Seems WWE has dropped that thing even before it has started.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:. When it came to Lex Lugar's second push - Wrapping someone up in the US flag doesn't automatically turn a guy into Captain America.

A list like this is all the proof you need that Vince's idea of Sports Entertainment and having wrestlers be interchangeable and play the characters his writers come up with, is just plain moronic.

I only commend to remeber the Beautiful Alicia Fox Northern light suplex. Its perfect.

Lex Luger was over as hell but Vince never pulled the trigger on giving him the title.

I can. The Latin American fan fave. It worked for Rey Mysterio, but they never captured the same magic with Hunico, Camacho, or Sin Cara. They tried having other Hispanic dudes do the flips, dives, and all-around cruiserweight senseless body destruction, but it never clicked the same way.

The masked Lucha Libre Wrestler. Since Rey Mysterio, WWE have tried many Masked High Flying Lucha Libre Wrestlers but no one got over.

The difference between Swagger and Angle is that Kurt had mic skills and charisma as well as wrestling skills...

You forgot James Storm(beer swelling hero) he was literally in a tag team called Beer Money and would go to bars and pick random fights he was and is low key the best beer swiller of all time.

Mordekai - Ministry of Darkness Undertaker Sin Cara - Mexican masked high flier Rey Mysterio Ryback - Bald bulky unstoppable Goldberg

Never forget K-Kwik and Road dogg are the original rapping wrestlers.

I WANT THE WWF GUITAR TOO SIMON!!!

Surprised no one mentioned Chuck Palumbos' biker gimmick as a copy of Undertakers American Badass gimmick

😂😂 Man Mountain Rock!!! 😂😂 Daphne and Crazy Nikki Cross were similar characters that worked

This is a solid list which is nice to see. The last few list were very lackluster.

Max Caster (though he's not a WWE guy) now doing the Rap gimmick. He has bars but I dunno if he can be as over as Cena in overall.

Hey simon!! Can we get a top 10 of gimmicks that were bad, but should be tried again a slightly different way with the wrestler that should try it?

John Cena can thank Mark Wahlberg for the swag in the beginning.

Steve Williams learned to be Stone Cold in ecw. Never wrestled and just went off on promos

Good video.. but I'm slightly confused as itndidnwork for the Sandman.. whether it was on a grand stage or not his gimmick was still a success 🤔

I remember man mountain rock

Lex Lugar as the Narcists was a good gimmick. It was just the Total Package gimmick with a different name.

Chuck Plumbo trying and failing at Undertaker’s “American Badass” gimmick

When you were comparing Chyna I thought you would have done Nicole bass.

Putting job guys under masks. Brady Boone (Battle Kat), Al Snow (Avatar), Barry "O" (The Zodiac), Brad Armstrong (Arachnaman, Badstreet), Jose Luis Rivera, José Estrada Sr (The Conquistadors). Who did it work for? Owen Hart (Blue Blazer), Chris Kanyon (Mortis) and Shane Helms (The Hurricane).

Just the opposite ... the "Undertaker" gimmick (creepy, undead monster heel from parts unknown) worked for both Mark Callaway and Glenn Jacobs. I mean Callaway was actually billed as Kaine the Undertaker in very early appearances of the gimmick. They got two all-time great characters out of one gimmick essentially.

I can't believe you mentioned Mickie, AJ Lee but didn't mention the first crazy woman Victoria

Whoa are we forgetting the rapping duo of Too Sexy 😂😂?

Elias was best he deserves to be multi time ic champion by now probably break Jericho record

To be fair, Cena wasn't the 1st to have the white boy rapper gimmick. Arguably, that started w/ Too Cool. It CAN be said that he was first to make it a serious gimmick, and not a comedy act (once his rhymes and promos improved).

The Road Warriors were the best tag team hands down

DAMNIT, I MISS FOXY!!!! 😢

I honestly think the narcissist muscle head at least had legs to stand on if not semi successful with Lex Luger and Chris Masters. Problem with Lex is Vince's boner for Hulk Hogan derailed his pretty much everything.

Slam master J ohh boy was that one a low point 😆

Simon is life

Thought that was matt lucas for a second in the thumb nail.

The underdog masked wrestler gimmick aka Rey mysterio push. I remember they tried to do that with sin cara and well yk how that turned out and then they tried to do it with one member of the Lucha party and yea that went to crap.

Simon, you of all people should know that there is a huge difference between being a bodybuilder and a fitness athlete. Dana was a fitness athlete. They're built similar, but smaller, than bodybuilders, but also need to show off their fitness. Bodybuilders just stand and pose. Alexa Bliss was also a fitness athlete after her 2nd bout with Anorexia (which was 24 hours away from killing her at 18).

You didn't even mention Nikki Cross under the crazy woman gimmick.

Who is the brunette in the right-hand side @03:15? Is that Celeste Bonin (aka. Kaitlyn)?

The Big Black Lover was a weird trope WWE did twice. It worked for Mark Henry ... kind of. Everybody remembers his Sexual Chocolate gimmick. But when Viscera did his "World's Largest Love Machine" gimmick, it just seemed like a retread of that. Only without a pregnant octogenarian who gave birth to a hand at the end. Ah, the Attitude Era, folks. Seriously, the flub was that about?

Big swing and a miss saying beer drinking didn’t work for Sandman

New Video Idea. 10 Gimmicks that worked for one wrestler and another.

Vampire worked out pretty well for Gangrel, Edge, and Christian. Not so much for Kevin Thorne

Best "amateur wrestler" gimmicks was the steiner bros and the varsity club

The racial stereotype gimmick.The guerreros did it well but then we had a knock off of it with the Mexicools,The Unamericans,etc.

Simon!!! Yes!

Do you think they will do the kurt angle gimmick for gable Stevenson?

Cena should never of gone the baseball player gimmick. Only works for Knuckleball Schwartz.

I’m digging Josh Alexander, kind of a hybrid of Kurt Angle and the Steiner brothers… Bron Breakerrr hold my beer…

The Supernatural Monster, Undertaker and Kane did this so well that no one else could ever replicate their success in WWE. The Fiend Bray Wyatt and the Demon Finn Balor were close but Vince McMahon and WWE fucked those two up.

Why does it feel like Simon is carrying whatculture? You just can't help but love em. I'll give this video an up!! (I love all of you at wc I'm just taking the piss)

They had to stop doing the "we the people" schtick because too much of what was being said was accurate and got a pop from the crowd

Oh, I've got a good one. Gimmick: Fan favorite underdog held back by corporate and not allowed to succeed Worked for: CM Punk, Daniel Bryan Didn't work for: Roman Reigns

The masked Luchador in american wrestling. I mena yeah - there are many great Luchadors, but Rey Mysterio is the only one who stood in major american companies for a long time and others trying to copy him like Sin Cara or Kallisto failed to ever get even close to his success in the US.

Tribal Chief = Modern Day Maharaja

Idk if that's so true and relative .most of these copy gimmicks were not meant to headline,etc

Shawn Michaels (Boy Toy) and Shawn Stasiak (Meat)

Creepy children’s show host: Worked for Bray Wyatt, not working for Alexa Bliss (if you can even say if it’s the same gimmick)

chuck palumbo was using takers biker gimmick

You forgot about Alexa Blisses gimmick from the Fiend