10 WWE Stars Who Desperately Need New Gimmicks
Stagnation can be terminal in the world of pro wrestling; these superstars need a new lick of paint.
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00:00No matter whether you're a wrestler or just a normal human being, eventually you're going
00:04to need a new gimmick.
00:05For example, I often call myself the bald a-hole for obvious reasons, but eventually I'm going
00:10to go to one of those clinics, I'm going to grow my hair really long, and then people
00:14can call me the ponytail.
00:16Well I'm not going to say it.
00:17But if we do focus on WWE right now, I think it's fair to say there are a few people that
00:22could go through the personality car wash.
00:25Hello, my name is Simon from WhatCulture, and this is 10 WWE Superstars Who Are In Desperate
00:31Need Of A New Gimmick.
00:32Number 10, T-Bar and Mace.
00:34Somebody please explain this to me, because Retribution are done, and yet T-Bar and Mace
00:38still exist, and for some reason, WWE has one of them raw, and has the other one on
00:43Smackdown.
00:44I mean, that doesn't make any sense.
00:45It's almost like WWE doesn't have any plans for them, which is a little bit misguided,
00:50because Mace when he was Dio Maddin showed us that he had something, and obviously T-Bar
00:54is Dominik Dijakovic, and if you have seen Double D in NXT or the indie scene, you know
01:00at the very least he's capable of really good matches, so why don't we let him go do that.
01:05The shining light is that recently, Mace actually did team up with LA Knight on a segment that
01:09aired off the cameras on Smackdown, so let's keep our fingers crossed that something happens
01:13there.
01:14And as for T-Bar, well I have no idea, I mean he often just turns up on main event.
01:20I think we can do more than this.
01:229.
01:23Apollo Crews For a while there, Apollo Crews' new Nigerian
01:25royalty gimmick was actually okay.
01:27It was quite clear that Apollo was going to throw himself into this, it got him back onto
01:32television and he even became the Intercontinental Champion.
01:36This was far better than when he used to vanish all the time, but after a few months I think
01:39Vince McMahon got bored of this, and then we were back to this vanishing act.
01:44People soon forgot that he even held this championship, aside from when he was allowed
01:48to fight Big E 7,982 times, and recently he has just been used as a background figure
01:55in other people's segments, so it's time to shelve this and come up with something new.
01:59I also really don't see how the powers that be don't notice what they have with Apollo
02:03Crews, because once again, you can put him against anybody, and even though he's like
02:07super mega jacked, he will fly around the ring like a dove.
02:11So even if we have to give him some kind of manager, because you don't want him to talk
02:16for the love of everything, we need new bodies, and there's one.
02:20Really good run there.
02:218.
02:22Aaliyah
02:23A running theme on this list, where the hell did Aaliyah go?
02:26She was breaking fictional Guinness World Records at one point until she threw up on
02:30herself by accident, and ever since then she hasn't been allowed back on Smackdown.
02:34It probably didn't help that her whole gimmick was just smiley happy la la dancing lady,
02:39although she did have that thing with Ricochet for about one week, but once again we threw
02:42that by the side.
02:44So what we really need to do here, is we need to bring her back to TV and give her a personality
02:49that has some edge, so that when she does go up against the likes of Charlotte Flair
02:52or Becky Lynch, we at home the fan can sit there and go, well maybe, just maybe she can
02:56win, even though she'll still definitely lose.
02:59So the problem right now is that nobody is really buying her, and that's not Aaliyah's
03:03fault, you have to give her the tools in order to do her job, but at the moment let's face
03:07it, if she can even get a wrestling match, that'd be better than where we are now.
03:127.
03:13Xia Li
03:14What is the deal with this?
03:15Because apparently, according to the story, Xia Li is a superhero, but she only turns
03:20up to help somebody when she can be bothered, and I'm sorry, but that is a really crappy
03:24superhero.
03:25In reality all of this was tied into Aaliyah, who we have just spoken about, so when she
03:29was not being used, I think everybody also forgot about Xia Li, which is doubly upsetting
03:35here because at least she had the really cool entrance, could we not double down on that?
03:40The real problem is that she had only just debuted on Smackdown when this start-stop
03:43momentum started to happen, and you cannot do that when somebody first arrives, because
03:48we the fans, we get a little bit bored, because I'm not going to invest on you, because I
03:53don't know what you're going to do next week.
03:54I mean if you do continue this now, you have to explain one, why she actually wants to
03:58protect people, but what I would do is send her away for a little while, come up with
04:03a brand new idea, and let's try round two.
04:066.
04:07Mad Cat Loss
04:08And finally to one that makes sense.
04:10Because the Mad Cat Moss persona actually served a purpose.
04:13We teamed him up with Happy Corbin, they had an obnoxious act for a while, before Mad Cat
04:18had an epiphany and was like, you're not a very nice guy, I don't want to be with you
04:23anymore.
04:24They broke up, I'm going to assume Mad Cat Moss will eventually beat Happy Corbin, and
04:27then we're off to the races.
04:28I mean that is how you do wrestling, and the next step should be Mad Cat changing all of
04:33this so he can establish himself as a unique and individual star, and also if you do get
04:38rid of the suspenders, maybe, just maybe in the future, he could even be a big deal
04:43on a Wrestlemania.
04:44And he's got the chops too, because over the last few months he keeps winning people over
04:48as they go, well he is a little bit silly, but he clearly does have talent, and it is
04:52so nice to see it done this way.
04:54Get the most out of a character, use it to get to the next level, and then move on to
04:57something else.
04:58So of course, I now look forward to Mad Cat Moss being the exact same person in 12 months
05:04time.
05:055.
05:06Happy Corbin
05:08He could probably use a little bit of a shake up too.
05:10A man who does not get the credit he deserves, because you can throw any kind of idea at
05:14him, and he just makes it work.
05:16I mean like me personally, I would have liked to have seen Sad Corbin just go on for ages
05:21and ages, because he was actually getting some sympathy with this, but I would imagine
05:25that is why we killed it, because Vince McMahon was probably like, no, I want you to be a
05:28bad guy.
05:29Either way though, Baron just embraces all of this and absolutely smashes it, but when
05:33you do look at the Smackdown roster right now, something it is missing is serious people
05:38that could challenge for the World Championship.
05:41So given that Baron Corbin is absolutely massive, something else we forget about, maybe we could
05:46go back to this attitudinal adjustment and give him a big old push.
05:50I mean given how much people did get behind him when he was broken down on this luck,
05:54you could even go the other way, and I secretly keep my fingers crossed that we do go back
05:58to this, but ultimately it doesn't matter.
06:01Baron Corbin could turn up to work one day and you say, oh Baron, you're going to be
06:04a fish, and he would find a way to be the best damn fish you've ever seen in professional
06:09wrestling.
06:104.
06:11Rick Boogs
06:12This will be an interesting one, given that Rick Boogs just suffered a serious injury
06:14at WrestleMania, and as ever as we are talking about it, all that really matters is that
06:19he gets back to 100% health, wrestling comes in second.
06:23When he does return though, it may be worth switching things around a little bit when
06:26you start to think about his long term future.
06:29Because while I love his 1980s strongman gimmick, I actually think Rick Boogs has some kind
06:34of connection with the WWE universe, to the point, once again, if you did give him something
06:39more serious, well I could see him going to the top of the card.
06:43Also at the moment while he is super fun, his gimmick is basically, I love Qatar, and
06:48I love Shinsuke Nakamura, and that can only go so far.
06:51So if we could just bottle what he does have, but present it in a different way, I think
06:55this has a massive upside.
06:56I'm not saying he has to come back and change things instantly, you can plant the seeds
07:01and do it very subtly, but I tell you, keep your eye on Rick Boogs, he is going to surprise
07:07many of us.
07:083.
07:09The Viking Raiders
07:10Man, this one is tough.
07:11Because one thing that WWE definitely needs when it comes to its tag team division is
07:14really good tag teams.
07:15They have one on its books, signed away, and what they decided to do was treat them like
07:22literal Vikings.
07:24The real error was the name, and the fact that they get told to act like they fell out
07:27of a time machine as they eat meat right off the bone, and do you remember everything that
07:32happened in that Usos feud?
07:34If you don't, keep it that way, it does not make for happy brain time.
07:38If you need proof of any of this, just go watch anything they did in NXT or New Japan
07:42and you will realise that they can really go, and instead, in WWE, they have to pretend
07:49they're from the 9th century.
07:51It really is madness, because there is a gaping hole here that two giant dudes can
07:55absolutely fill, and as of me saying these words, they have barely been on television,
08:00I will shake my head till the end of time.
08:042.
08:05Ezekiel
08:06But not yet, because this is excellent.
08:07Because if wrestling is solely there to entertain, everything that the former Elias and Kevin
08:11Owens is doing right now, with Ezekiel, the apparent younger brother of Elias, is absolutely
08:16brilliant and entertaining, and I look forward to it every single week.
08:20Eventually this will run its course, because that's just the way with these kind of gimmicks,
08:24and it's why I really hope that WWE has a long term plan with this, maybe through Summerslam,
08:29because then Ezekiel slash Elias will have a brand new lease of life, and you can start
08:34to treat him a little bit more seriously.
08:36There's that word again.
08:37In a dream world too, what would happen here is that Owens would go absolutely nuts and
08:41get committed or suspended from the show or something, and then on the very next episode
08:45of Raw, Elias comes out with his guitar, ba-ling-ding-ding, and he shrugs like, oh, what happened?
08:50I don't even know.
08:52And I suppose there is a small chance of this happening.
08:55I would say I'll keep everything crossed.
08:57I'll do it with my toes.
08:58Number 1, Nikki Ash.
08:59We did give this a really good go, and bless Nikki Ash for going to Vince McMahon and getting
09:04this on TV.
09:05For a while it did really work, and it sent such a good message to kids, and you can't
09:10get mad at that, unless you are a sociopath.
09:12Certainly now WWE has turned her heel, and that has just led her to the 24-7 title picture,
09:18and for some reason, no matter the scenario, she always has to wear her superhero get-up,
09:24and that ain't helping anybody.
09:26Nikki Cross has also proven time and time again that she more than has a place on the
09:29main roster, so we just have to accept that this has run its course and come up with something
09:34new.
09:35But isn't it crazy that we had that awesome storyline with Nikki and Alexa Bliss, and
09:39now both of them are lost in the shuffle?
09:41I mean, the one saving grace here, if we're not going to change things around, is to do
09:45with Xia Li vs Nikki Ash storyline, where we have the good superhero vs the villain,
09:50but let's face it, there's more chance of me growing that hair than that happening,
09:55so let's just do what this list is telling us to do, and start again.
10:00Know of any other WWE stars that desperately need new gimmicks?
10:03Make sure you let us know in the comments below, and don't forget to like the video,
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10:16My name is Simon Whatculture, thank you for watching as always, you take care of yourself,
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