9) The Undertaker
The Undertaker is one of the greatest gimmicks in the history of professional wrestling. A character that has been a staple of WWE television for over 2 and a half decades.
The Undertaker actually had several gimmicks prior to finding his stride as the Deadman. He began his wrestling career as Texas Red in WCCW. He wore a black mask and sported red boots. After a few years, he would debut a new gimmick: The Master of Pain. He was an ex-con that was in search of violence. After that gimmick he was eventually repackaged, dressing as a biker and sporting a black mask. He would be known as The Punisher and eventually ‘The Punisher’ Dice Morgan.
The Undertaker would wrestle as “Mean Mark” Callous for WCW in the late 1980’s. Alongside ‘Dangerous’ Dan Spivey, they formed ‘The Skyscrapers’ tag team.
The Undertaker made his official debut at the 1990 edition of Survivor Series. He was first billed as: ‘Kane, the Undertaker’.
They dropped the name Kane from his name but they would put it to good use later. The Undertaker is a prime example of persevering through poor gimmicks.
8) Batista
Batista has had a fantastic career in the WWE. He has also found a ton of success outside of the wrestling business as an actor. It wasn’t always great for him though.
Batista began his career under the ring name: Leviathan in WWE’s developmental system.
He eventually made his WWE debut in 2002 as Deacon Batista, the enforcer of Reverend D’Von after the Dudley Boyz split up.
After he split from D-Von, he was assigned to the RAW brand and repackaged as just: Batista. He would join forces not long after with Triple H, Ric Flair and Randy Orton to become one of the most well-known factions in WWE history: Evolution.
Batista is a multiple-time World Champion with the company and has gone on to achieve mainstream success. Hard to believe that he started as a ‘deacon’.
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