Dirty Eddie Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 In 1995 Scott Levy decided that he'd spent long enough playing similar (very generic) wrestling characters, across GWF, WCW and (sort of) in the WWF. Â Sure, the name changed a bit here and there, Scotty The Body, Scotty Flamingo, then later he was Johnny Polo in the WWF, a manager primarily, but ultimately the same smug, grinning jerk he'd always played. None of the name changes or wacky shirt choices had made him anything more than a lower/mid-card act. Â He didn't really have "The Body" to be Scotty The Body, and he wasn't really good looking enough to be the Shawn Michaels type pretty-boy antagonist. It seemed he was destined to be one of those average, middle-of-the-road guys who just plodded along in the lower/mid-card for a few years, like Tom Zenk, Scotty Riggs, Brad Armstrong, Terry Taylor etc... he (like them) was certainly talented, but without anything original or 'special' about them he was unlikely to move up the card. Â After flirting with the idea of moving into a backstage job (Levy worked as a producer on early RAW shows, while also being on screen talent as Johnny Polo), he decided that his in-ring career wasn't going to get much of a chance in the WWF. He'd been used almost exclusively as a manager and he wanted more! Â So in January 1995, Johnny Polo/Scotty The body was laid to rest and from the flames came the Raven..... Â From this... Â to this... Â Raven emerged in ECW, with a drastic new look and character. Raven took inspiration from the hugely popular Grunge scene of the 90s and created a completely new character. He looked about a thousand times cooler, entirely in-touch with the current pop-culture and he entirely re-invented his career. Gone was the cheesy grin, replaced by a detached, emotionless gaze. Out went the wrestling "bad guy" cliche, in came a completely unique and bizarre promo style, quoting poems and talking in riddles. Â The Raven character was a huge success becoming one of the iconic characters in ECW. He moved to WCW a few years later and (with his Flock) was one of the best mid-card acts at WCW's creative peak. Raven became hugely popular and if WCW had been sensible they would have tried to move him further up the card. Raven (like many others) eventually became frustrated with the WCW politics and decided to leave, but that shouldn't discount how much of a success he was in WCW. Not only was he super over, but the flock lead to Kidman and Saturn also breaking out as Stars. That lead to a second WWF stint (where his past ultimately caught up with him and backstage enemies kept him towards the bottom of the card). Regardless though, Scott Levy completely turned his career around and created one of the most memorable wrestling characters of the 1990s. Â Â It was a brave move for Scotty to ditch his old characters and try something completely new. It could have flopped on it's arse completely. Â These days whenever someone leaves WWE, they simply use a (non-copywrite infringing) version of whatever they did in WWE. Rikiski becomes Kishi, Eugene becomes U-Gene etc... Â You can understand why, obviously, they want to cash in on the fame they found while on TV. "Former WWE Star" helps pull in fans, but ultimately that will only last so long (unless you were a true Megastar). Would these guys be more likely to get another shot at the big time by working the same old gimmick they've been doing for years, or would a clever new character have a better chance of getting them another go around? Â It's not quite the same, because a) TNA isn't really an Indie, and b) they totally fucked it up, but The Pope D-Angelo Deniro is the best example of this recently. He forgot all about his name and character (what there was of it) from WWE and instead came up with a completely new look and persona. It worked a fucking treat and he got super over, until TNA balls'd it all up. Â Burke went from this... Â to this... Â So I guess what i am asking is, why don't we see more of this? Do you thing wrestlers should try to be more creative and come up with something new, or is playing it safe and collecting that pay-day more important? Â Would it lead to more Pope's and Raven's or would we get loads of shitty "Angelic Diablo" Matt Hardy's? Â Who out there could do with a character change now? Â Should Chris Masters drop the generic "Muscle Guy" gimmick and re-create himself as a character from "The Warriors" instead? Â Would Giant Bernard be more likely to get another run with WWE (or TNA) if he took on a crazy new gimmick? Â You get the idea. Feel free to discuss (or ignore).... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbo9292 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Well The Pope actually wanted to use that gimmick in the WWE and i believe he actually did for a dark match or show and then was fired (not because of the gimmick have you mind). Â http://wrestlingaddictedmommy.com/category...burke-new-look/ Â And then he ultimately worked well with that gimmick in TNA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moofasa Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 The best gimmick change must be Mean Mark Callous to the Undertaker surely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Eddie Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 That's right, I recall that now. Â Didn't he start answering questions with things like "Your black Pope says..." towards the end of his WWE run too? Not on TV or anything, I'm thinking on a website or something. Â Â Â Â --- Â Moofasa - Â I'm not really on about company enforced changes (WWF came up with the Undertaker and picked someone for the role), more cases where a talent had done it off their own back as a way of re-inventing themselves. otherwise this thread would just be about Vince signing WCW guys and changing their names/looks, which he did to loads of guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Eddie Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 sorry, double post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Halitosis Romantic Posted January 18, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Everyone that's not busy should get the same gimmick as Brodus Clay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted January 18, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Buh Buh Ray Dudley's original character looks like a career ender if you look at it these days. It says a lot about him how he could turn a stupid grinning, stuttering, dancing fat boy character into someone who had people jumping the guardrails to try and smash his face in. And he did it with three difference promotions. WWE could do with someone like him. He's been absolutely brilliant at working the crowd in the last year. He gets heat from the Impact Zone. Who else could do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Bellenda Carlisle Posted January 18, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Does HHH count as a guy who did it himself? His change from the big nosed posh Hunter Hearst Helmsley to the large nosed badass Motorhead fan HHH has got to be up there. Â *edit - Well DX was in between but you get the picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smegma Cake Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012  To    He had success in between with the Acolytes and APA but the JBL character was so far removed from anything he'd done before in WWF/E it was a real shock when he was thrust into the Main Events, a welcome shock it turned out to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Screen Up Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 "Stunning" Steve Austin into "Stone Cold". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted January 18, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Everyone that's not busy should get the same gimmick as Brodus Clay. Â That's a heck of a lot of mommas being called. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Halitosis Romantic Posted January 18, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Just set up a phone tree, like on a school trip - somebody better call Brodus' momma, and it radiates out from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Eddie Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Austin going from Stunning to Stone Cold and Bradshaw becoming JBL were certainly big changes, but not exactly what I'm talking about. Â The Raven example was given because he left the WWF, then came up with a completely new character (rather than trade off his WWF 'fame') and he took that character onto far greater success than he ever had as Johnny Polo/Scotty The Body. Â I appreciate there are very few examples, which is why I asked who else might benefit from it, and if people think it's a good idea in general. Â That Johnny Stamboli bloke had a go at it. After he was cut from WWE he came up with the masked "Redrum" character in Japan (I think) which then got picked up by TNA and renamed Rellik. Didn't last long mind-you, so that's an example of it not really working, though he did get a run with TNA that probably wouldn't have happened playing his old generic Italian bloke gimmick. Â Personally, I'd love to see some of the guys that get cut by WWE go on to think outside the box and come up with something clever and new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moofasa Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Oh, how about Al Snow could'nt get over at all as Leif Cassidy. But went to ECW changed his gimmick with guidance and went back to WWF with far more sucess. Never really left the WWE though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Eddie Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Al Snow is a great example. The fact he was on a continued WWF contract is rather irreverent, as he'd died on his arse a few times already in the WWF and it was his vacation to ECW (combined with going mental and finding a head) that gave him a second lease of life. Â I can't see any way that he would have lasted as long as he did in the WWF without that spell in ECW where he completely changed his persona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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