Ever watch "Deadwood" on HBO? Yes, they used to do other TV shows before "Game of Thrones." I’m as shocked as you.
Anyway, it’s an amazing retelling of the old West legends with guys like Wyatt Earp and "Wild Bill" Hickock, and in the first season one of the featured players was Garret Dillahunt, who played Jack McCall.
McCall is famous for being the guy who kills Hickock over a poker game, thus making “aces and eights” the worst hand to be dealt. McCall exited the series in the first season as people often did in the old West, and that was that. Then in Season 2, Dillahunt returned playing a completely different and unrelated character, Francis Wolcott, and people were like “wut?”
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It was never mentioned why this new character looked exactly like the other character, and everyone watching was just left to their own devices to suspend disbelief and accept that the actor was just playing a different part now with no explanation.
This kind of thing happens all the time in wrestling.
We as wrestling fans just kind of accept it, writing it off as a part of the sport like it’s a quirk of a wacky neighbor. “Oh,” we say, “that wacky wrestling, at it again!” Sometimes it even gets lamp-shaded accidentally by the very people trying to pull the wool over our eyes, like when Vince McMahon tried to repackage Tony Atlas as African savage Saba Simba and Roddy Piper loudly declared on commentary “Hey, that’s Tony Atlas!” and killed the gimmick out of the gates. So here’s ten other times when the guy who was one guy suddenly became another guy and everyone just pretended like no one would know.
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The ground rules:
1. No someone-jumps-from-one-promotion-to-another-promotion-and-creates-a-new-character-for-legal-reasons stuff. When Scotty Flamingo went to ECW and became Raven, it was because WCW owned the previous gimmick, not because ECW was just trying to fool the fans.
2. No someone-turns-heel-or-babyface-and-tweaks-their-character-to-match-up-with-their-new-alignment stuff. For example, Hulk Hogan joining the New World Order and becoming "Hollywood" Hogan doesn’t count, because we as fans were supposed to know it was still the same character. Ditto for the Narcissist becoming “Made in the USA” Lex Luger.
3. No someone-changes-their-gimmick-as-a-part-of-a-storyline stuff. When The Ringmaster became "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in 1996, there was no attempt to pretend that it wasn’t the same guy. He just decided to call himself something different. Ditto for Billy Gunn becoming Rockabilly.
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4. No someone-puts-on-or-takes-off-a-mask-and-becomes-someone-different stuff. We’re talking about cases where it’s clearly and visibly the same person, so Jerry Lynn donning the mask as the mysterious luchador “Mr. JL” does not count. Sadly. It really killed me to leave that one off the list. However, we will accept cases where a masked wrestler becomes another masked wrestler, but with a different outfit.
5. No someone-leaves-for-years-and-then-returns-as-a-different-guy stuff. Yeah, we know Lord Tensai was just Albert with some fake tattoos on his face, but it was a long time between gigs and eventually they just admitted it was the same guy anyway.
Case No. 1: Demolition Smash becomes The Repo Man
Back in 1991, Demolition was suddenly plummeting down the tag-team ranks in the WWF, having lost the titles to the Hart Foundation months previous and then been relegated to ragdolls for the Legion of Doom. Bill “Ax” Eadie was written out of the promotion with “heart problems” because of legal disputes with the WWF, leaving Barry “Smash” Darsow to team with rookie Crush as the updated version of the team. This wasn’t such a great pairing, and soon they were broken up and Smash was turned into a singles wrestler.
After a couple of months of losing to everyone in that role, the world suddenly was introduced to Repo Man, who was an, uh, evil repo man. Clearly it was just Barry Darsow again, with a shorter haircut and a Lone Ranger mask, but I guess they figured that if it worked for every bank robber in silent movie history, it would work for him as well. He stuck around for a few more months and then left for WCW.
Case No. 2: Shinobi becomes Avatar becomes Leif Cassidy
There was a time, amazingly, when Al Snow wasn’t a complete buffoon in the wrestling world and was a hot property. Following an acclaimed run in Memphis and then Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1995, he was signed by the WWF in their quest to find more high-flying talent to showcase on “Raw." This gave the world a trilogy of famously bad gimmicks, starting with Snow’s introduction as the incredibly generic masked bad guy known as “Shinobi: The Black Ninja." He only got a couple of tryout matches with that winning gimmick before it was dropped, and Snow was suddenly introduced as another ninja character, "Avatar."
Now, Avatar’s gimmick was that he would do his ring entrance wearing a mask, and then remove the mask for the duration of the match, only to don it again on the way out of the ring. So you could clearly see it was Al Snow under the mask. Amazingly, this idea didn’t stick either, and the gimmick was dropped after only a couple of appearances.
Finally, Avatar disappeared completely and Snow surfaced one last time immediately afterwards, now playing the character of Leif Cassidy, the '70s-obsessed partner of Marty Jannetty in “The New Rockers." That one actually stuck for two years before Snow discovered that just being himself and carrying around a mannequin head could get him over with one-quarter of the effort.
Case No. 3: Leo Kruger becomes Adam Rose
One edition of ESPN'S E:60 series focused on the backstage lives of WWE and NXT stars, titled "WWE Behind the Curtain." Most of the viewers were introduced to him in NXT in 2011 as the big game hunter Leo Kruger, a thinly-veiled ripoff of the Spider-Man villain Kraven. Kruger was a solid midcarder at best but had no prospects for the big stage.Most of the viewers were introduced to him in NXT in 2011 as the big game hunter Leo Kruger, a thinly-veiled ripoff of the Spider-Man villain Kraven. Kruger was a solid midcarder at best but had no prospects for the big stage.
Then, literally overnight, Leppan came up with the rock star character Adam Rose, and suddenly went from creepy leopard skin-wearing stalker to wacky Russell Brand knock-off, complete with his own drug-fueled party entourage and catchy theme song.
Clearly it was the same person, but everyone just acted like “Adam Rose” was a new wrestler. This finally proved to be what he needed to get called up, at which point we all learned that what works for 200 college students in NXT doesn’t work for 15,000 wrestling fans on “Raw." Adam Rose was a complete bust on the main roster, and Leppan was fired — or quit, depending on who you side with — for violations of the company drug policy soon after.
Bonus item: One of the hallucinating goofballs in his entourage was kept around because he was big, and quickly repackaged into Braun Strowman.
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Case No. 4: The Master Blaster becomes Oz becomes Vinnie Vegas
Well, we’re finally off to WCW, who were typically the masters of this sort of thing.
Back in 1991, WCW President Jim Herd struck a deal with the Turner movie licensing department, which gave us an appearance from Robocop as a part of a “brand synergy” thing. Then the corporate side came calling again, wanting to do a tie-in with the newly acquired movie rights to "The Wizard of Oz." So the idea became taking rookie stiff Kevin Nash, who was known as “Master Blaster Steel” as half of a go-nowhere tag team, and turning him into The Great and Powerful Oz. He would have white hair, emerald green tights (just like the CITY, get it?) and most importantly, a very, very, very expensive and elaborate, corporately synergized entrance involving a castle and a monkey and lots of smoke — which lasted for all of two weeks before the elaborate entrance and castle and monkey were all ditched for cost-cutting reasons and we were left with a guy in green tights with white hair and no talent.
I know what you’re thinking: ”There was a time when Kevin Nash’s hair wasn’t already white?” I know, it sounded weird to me just typing it. Keep in mind as well, this was a guy they wanted to succeed and replace Sid Vicious as the top monster heel. Just think what they gave to guys they didn’t like!
But not to fear, because once the Oz character went down in flames, the next idea was to take the white dye out of his hair, put him in a bad tuxedo, and have him become a New Jersey hitman of some type named Vinnie Vegas. I know what you’re thinking: “Why is a guy named Vegas from New Jersey?” I have no answer that is likely to satisfy you, I’m afraid.
Regardless, Vinnie Vegas never got past the midcard and was even fired and re-hired on one occasion due to cost-cutting before finally being let go for good in 1993. And then no one in the wrestling world ever heard from Kevin Nash again.
Case No. 5: Isaac Yankem DDS becomes Fake Diesel
OK, I was kidding about no one ever hearing from Nash again. After Nash's run in the WWF as Diesel, he jumped back to WCW as himself and founded the New World Order, which you may have heard about once or twice before. Feeling that WCW was infringing on their trademark for the “Bad Daddy Cool” character, the WWF immediately filed suit over what they felt were stolen mannerisms and character traits. To bolster their case, Vince McMahon and the legal team came up with the idea of taking evil dentist Isaac Yankem, and dying his hair black as the new version of “Big Daddy Cool” Diesel.
From the legal standpoint, this demonstrated two things:
- The mannerisms and costume trademarked for the character of “Big Daddy Cool” were being actively used by the WWF and thus in need of protection from WCW’s infringement.
- If WCW was ever foolish enough to call attention to the obvious WWF faker on their own TV show and claim to have “the real thing," then that would pretty much be an instant win for the WWF, since WCW would have admitted on national TV that they’re stealing WWF trademarks.
Enough with the legal mumbo-jumbo here, back to the important point: The WWF took Glen Jacobs, who is distinctive-looking at nearly seven feet tall, and tried to convince us that that guy who was just recently playing Jerry Lawler’s sadistic dentist was not in fact the same guy suddenly playing Diesel. The gimmick change was insulting enough to fans as it is, but he barely even bothered to grow his hair longer before revamping himself. And then a year later, he re-emerged again as Kane, but that’s under a mask, so it doesn’t count.
Bonus tidbit: The WWF won its lawsuit over WCW, and one of the notable terms of the eventual settlement in 1998 is that the WWF gained the right of first refusal to buy WCW should Turner ever sell the company. Everyone completely ignored this clause, thinking it would never come to pass, until 2001, when WCW was put on the chopping block and suddenly the WWF called in their long-forgotten legal agreement and bought the company.
Case No. 6: “Makin’ A Difference” Fatu becomes The Sultan
Here’s one that’s a test case for the various ground rules I laid out at the beginning. In 1994, the Headshrinkers tag team were split up when Samu left the company due to various personal issues and disagreements, leaving Fatu to team with replacement Samoan family member Sionne.
Sionne was just a repackaged Barbarian, but it was explained that they were the same person, so that doesn’t count. And then Fatu split off as a single, and suddenly instead of a cannibalistic savage who didn’t understand boots, he was a street-smart young mentor from San Francisco who was “Makin’ a Difference” and encouraging people not to do drugs or something. This also does not count because it was also established that “Fatu” was still the same character, but with a different motivation now. However, after a few months of “Makin’ a Difference”, it was clear that no difference was being made to the bottom line, so Fatu was repackaged again, this time as a totally different nationality.
Fatu was put in a weird Hannibal Lecter-style face protector, dressed like a sheik, and renamed The Sultan. He was apparently now of Arab descent instead of Samoan, because that’s the kind of thing that happens in wrestling all the time. Also, it was clearly the same guy, despite the addition of puffy pants, two managers, and a convoluted backstory that no one could possibly care about. The pinnacle of this character was losing to the maligned Rocky Maivia at WrestleMania 13 in an Intercontinental Championship match because Marc Mero blew out his knee before the show. Amazingly, The Sultan stuck around for almost a year, before being let go, and finally resurfaced as Rikishi and ended up in the Hall of Fame as a result.
Because, you know, wrestling.
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Case No. 7: Arachnaman becomes Fantasia/Badstreet
OK, time to hit a couple of “masked man becomes another masked man” examples. First up, perennial loser Brad Armstrong plays a character that ties into the recurring theme of this piece: WCW infringing on someone else’s trademark and suffering the consequences.
In this case, Brad was stuck into a spider-themed bodysuit and given webs to shoot into the crowd for the kids, dubbed “Arachnaman.” Well, Marvel’s lawsuit-sense was tingling, and they quickly sent a cease-and-desist to WCW. The version of that document that I always imagine just reads “Are you KIDDING me?” in big red letters.
So a couple of weeks after that flopped, Armstrong showed up again, wearing a black bodysuit this time as the mysterious third member of the Freebirds, dubbed Fantasia. It was obviously the same person, who moved the same and looked the same, but just no spider-theme. The idea was a play on the “Freebird Fantasia” catchphrase, but I’ll give you one guess which litigation-happy, mouse-based corporation sent legal threats for use of the word “Fantasia” without their permission.
So “Fantasia” was quickly repackaged a third time, now calling himself “Badstreet” because at least WCW owned the trademarks for that name. And then everyone got bored of that idea and it was back to plain old unmasked Brad Armstrong again.
Case No. 8: The Brooklyn Brawler becomes “MVP”/Abe “Knuckleball” Schwartz
I suppose this one is iffy because the new character never actually wrestled, but it’s my list. In 1993, the impending baseball strike was the talk of the sporting world, and despite being stuck in the 1920s like Mr. Burns, Vince McMahon decided he wanted an edgy and hip way to cash in without actually having to do anything. So Steve Lombardi, the longtime jobber who wrestled as “The Brooklyn Brawler” and lost every match, suddenly underwent a character change one week on TV and turned up as “MVP." To really hammer the joke home, his face was painted like a baseball and he dressed in a baseball uniform. He still lost a lot.
After switching back to the Brawler persona with no acknowledgement of the sudden character change, the baseball strike kicked into full gear and Lombardi was suddenly a baseball player again, this time dubbed Abe “Knuckleball” Schwartz, who looked exactly the same as MVP but was now apparently an entirely different character. His whole deal involved showing up on TV with a sign that read “On Strike”, and losing most of his matches. But not ALL of them, so that was almost a push for him. Sadly, when the strike ended, so did Vince’s desire to push Lombardi, and he reverted back to the Brooklyn Brawler shortly after and remained as that character for the remainder of his career.
Case No. 9: Husky Harris becomes Bray Wyatt, Skip Sheffield becomes Ryback
This kind of thing doesn’t happen too often in the modern product, because typically guys are now workshopped in NXT and given characters long before they ever make it to TV, but the Nexus was kind of a weird one. The hottest angle of 2010 was clearly the Nexus invasion of WWE, with all the “rookie” wrestlers from the game show version of NXT attacking John Cena and setting up the SummerSlam main event in the process.
Two of the eventual members went in very different directions. Ryan Reeves, who was dubbed “Skip Sheffield” as a part of the Nexus, returned to developmental for a bit and resurfaced as unstoppable feeding machine — and motivational reader — Ryback, despite looking and acting exactly the same. But everyone just acted like it was a totally new character, which was kind of weird and awkward.
Another Nexus rookie, Windham Rotunda, debuted as Husky Harris and went nowhere as a henchman for Wade Barrett. He too went back to developmental after a couple of months of going nowhere, grew out his beard and hair, and developed a much more effective persona as Bray Wyatt, spooky cult leader guy. But during his debut match on “Raw,” fans immediately started chanting “Husky Harris” at him, so clearly this wasn’t fooling anyone.
Case No. 10: Brutus Beefcake becomes…well, a lot of guys.
And we close with the person who turned this sort of thing into an art form: Ed “Brutus Beefcake” Leslie.
- After years in the WWF as Beefcake and surviving a parasailing mishap that should have ended his career, Leslie signed with WCW in 1994 as the surprise opponent for Hulk Hogan at Starrcade. He couldn’t legally be the Barber, so he started out as Brother Bruti, before turning heel as the Butcher. Now, this was all supposed to be the same person, so it’s not part of the list.
- However, once the Butcher gimmick flopped as a main eventer, he was quickly repackaged into the amnesiac Man With No Name.
- When that shockingly didn’t work, he became schizophrenic Zodiac Man as a part of the Dungeon of Doom, and we were likely supposed to think that it was a totally different person because his face was painted now.
- And then that flopped, so he suddenly became disco-dancing babyface The Booty Man in 1996, pioneering the gimmick of “guy who likes asses” three years before Billy Gunn.
- When that flopped, they made up a story where Booty Man was actually sent undercover into the Dungeon as Zodiac to infiltrate them, but that’s just STUPID. So it doesn’t count.
- He was repackaged yet again, still supposedly a different character, as The Clipmaster, who loved cutting hair but not so much that the WWF’s legal team could claim trademark infringement, and that one was about as successful as you’d imagine.
- Finally, he re-emerged one last failed time, as Hulk Hogan’s biker buddy The Disciple in the nWo, with a full beard and leather gear. That one seemed like it was going to stick, but then they turned him babyface and paired him with the failure that was the Ultimate Warrior as “One Warrior Nation” and that was pretty much the end of his career. Thankfully, these days when he does indy shows, he can just be Brutus Beefcake again with the blessing of the WWE legal department.
Good thing, too, because it was getting too hard to keep track of all his gimmicks.
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