Comedy gimmicks are a huge part of wrestling, but few wrestlers grew up with that as a dream. Most names wanted to play more nuanced or even serious characters to get to the top. WWE and WCW’s desire for well-rounded characters started the negative belief regarding overly serious wrestlers needing to show more life to get over.
Future companies like Impact Wrestling and AEW have followed that ideology with more changes as wrestling evolves. However, the history of serious wrestlers being forced to enter the comedic side led to mixed results. Each of the following wrestlers received comedy gimmicks after being viewed seriously for years beforehand.
10 Dean Malenko
WCW loved the serious character of Dean Malenko and felt that he fit perfectly into the cruiserweight division. WWE had the exact opposite approach when changing Malenko’s gimmick into more of the comedy heel side during his first year.
Malenko played a ladies’ man that cared about winning over women he was attracted to than winning matches. Lita was Malenko’s top WWE rival when the Radicalz feuded with Team Xtreme due to their tension of Dean flirting with her. Malenko was the foil to Lita in this angle, and it was designed to make her look more credible.
9 Akira Tozawa
Recent years of Akira Tozawa’s comedy work in WWE has fans forgetting or never knowing that he was among the best wrestlers in the world at his peak. Tozawa had incredible matches in Dragon Gate during his Japan career and even in PWG when working in the United States more often.
WWE even wanted him to play a serious character at first when they relaunched the cruiserweight division. That project failing led to Tozawa doing primarily comedic things like his ninja gimmick or becoming part of the weekly comedy segments of the 24/7 division.
8 Vladimir Kozlov
WWE initially pushed Vladimir Kozlov as a serious heel that was placed in big matches against names like Triple H, Jeff Hardy and Shawn Michaels. Kozlov’s size and intimidating presence had WWE wanting him to become a main event star with his serious side.
Fans unfortunately didn’t care about Kozlov during the push, and he felt exposed against top names. WWE eventually had Kozlov turn face for a comedy gimmick teaming with Santino Marella. This did provide more success with more crowd reactions, but Kozlov never panned out as expected.
7 Daniel Garcia
Daniel Garcia was known for being a serious technical wrestler when he joined AEW and had some matches that showed his skills. Many fans expected Garcia to join the Blackpool Combat Club since he fit their vibe, but he instead joined the Jericho Appreciation Society.
The new character of Garcia saw him acting like a sports entertainer more than a wrestler by showing new sides of his personality. Garcia’s dancing gets huge reactions every week and shows him on the right path since he still has stellar matches in between entertaining the audience with humor.
6 Damien Sandow
WWE once tried to make Damien Sandow a credible intellectual heel character. Sandow winning Money in the Bank showed they believed in him at one point before having him lose his title match to John Cena. The career of Sandow was in purgatory trying to figure out the right path to get over.
Sandow fully tapped into his comedy side when playing a stunt double gimmick for The Miz. Fans reacted with huge support when the newly renamed Mizdow did his antics copying Miz outside of the match. WWE dropped the ball pushing Sandow afterwards, but this showed his range as a talent.
5 Daniel Bryan
There was fear that Daniel Bryan would not get over in WWE since he was known for his serious technical wrestling in Ring of Honor. Bryan found a nice balance to become a respected WWE star, but his career reached new heights with a comedy angle.
Kane and Bryan attending anger management classes and having wacky segments as enemies becoming friends became a top WWE angle. Bryan’s Yes Movement rise started around this time as another big domino in his career. Team Hell No got Bryan over to a higher level by proving he could thrive at the comedy side.
4 Shane Helms
The career of Shane Helms was going in a serious direction after ending WCW as the top cruiserweight. WWE used Helms as a relevant member of The Alliance or WCW and ECW wrestlers. Steve Austin having segments with The Alliance members led to them all being placed in comedic segments.
Helms showed that side and stood out as one of the few WCW wrestlers that WWE trusted. Austin referencing Helms’ Green Lantern tattoo led to him playing The Hurricane. WWE made Helms into a star with the outlandish superhero gimmick being an all-time great comedy act.
3 Santino Marella
Most fans forget or had no idea that Santino Marella was meant to be a serious wrestling character. Santino’s background in mixed martial arts gave him a real fighting edge in WWE developmental. However, the role cast for him was not going to see those skills used.
Santino started off as a fan that defeated Umaga for the Intercontinental Championship. Fans turned on him as a face, so Santino turned heel and started delivering humorous promos. WWE doubled down on the comedy as Santino went for laughs for the rest of his WWE career.
2 Drew McIntyre
WWE saw the potential in Drew McIntyre from day one since he debuted with a huge push as a serious heel that had Vince McMahon’s support. McIntyre struggling with that instant push led to WWE not knowing how to use him for the rest of the run.
A huge character shift saw Drew embracing comedy for the first time as part of the 3 Man Band group with Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal. WWE placed them in a comedic group of enhancement talents that typically lost to others. McIntyre did his best to still have decent matches while in the funny rock band gimmick.
1 Lance Storm
WWE booked Lance Storm in a strange storyline that centered around everyone making fun of him for being boring. Storm used his stoic personality and serious demeanor as part of his heel character, but WWE turned it around with him being mocked for it.
Co-Raw General Manager Steve Austin even came to the stage and chanted “Boring” during his matches. Storm became a comedy character obsessed with trying to get over with outlandish moments like dancing or flirting with women backstage. Goldust and Val Venis trying to get Storm to showcase his personality unfortunately didn’t help him get over more.
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