10 Weird Gimmicks You Forgot WWE Wrestlers Had

We’ve all gone through phases in our past. Chopper Pete was a parkour expert, Oli Davis once sold used socks out of the back of his dad’s Morris Marina, Laurie once killed a guy, and Luke found great success under his previous gimmick, multi-Academy Award Winner Hilary Swank.

Pretty much every WWE wrestler you can name has a weird alter ego tucked away deep in their closet, John Moxley was British in Puerto Rican wrestling promotions for some reason, The Rock’s initial name was Flex Kavana, replete with THAT HAIR, and season’s greetings Kane, no one is going to forget the Christmas Creature.

Mostly though, when wrestlers make it to the Big Dub that is when they finally find themselves, carving out an identity that will become forever linked with their name.

Mostly. Here’s looking at you Scotty Goldman, whoever you went on to be. It’s time to open up the history books as we share 10 Weird WWE Gimmicks You Forgot Wrestlers Had.

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10. Evil Rugby Player – Cesaro

For a man who never had enough personality for WWE to award him a sustained push, Cesaro sure has a lot of nicknames and gimmicks, huh?

The King of Swing, the Swiss Superman, yodelling, saying things in five languages, Aksana, being a James Bond themed strippergram, but did you know his starting gimmick was as an evil rugby player?

Antonio Cesaro debuted in April 2012 (against his future partner in headphones Tyson Kidd no less) to kick ass and cuck Teddy Long and he’s all out of ass.

Wearing tape around his thighs, which was the rugby custom at the time, according to Michael Cole, Cesaro was a former rugby player who was expelled from the sport for excessive aggression, before Big Chez starts laying into Kidd with stiff punches to the gut and headbutts.

Like most of Cesaro’s gimmicks it was eventually left behind, until all that was left was his current schtick, the best wrestler in WWE to have never won a world championship.

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9. Like, I Want To Say… Jewish Deadpool? – Colt Cabana

Colt Cabana is one of the greatest independent wrestlers of all time, not necessarily because he’s the best in the ring, he’s very good, but mostly because he was one of the first major names to prove that you COULD make a living on the independents.

Because he certainly didn’t make one during his brief few months on SmackDown as Scotty Goldman. Despite wrestling as Colt Cabana in OVW and being TV Champion, he was rechristened Scotty Goldman once Vince McMahon found out he was Jewish.

It really hard to pin down what Goldman’s gimmick, like he has biff pow sock explosions on his tights so maybe he was a comic book nerd, he would hit people with the Rearview so he was a goofball, he did the Dusty Rhodes leg wiggle and hit the bionic elbow so he’s Cody’s dad and the only times he was allowed to speak on camera he interview a paper bag dressed as The Great Khali and also one time drew attention to the face he was in a picture in picture interview and tried talking to himself in the ring, so maybe a weird fourth wall breaking schtick?

Weird stuff and Goldman was set packing after less than six months with a win record of 0%

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8. Incestous Twin – Paul Burchill

Oh no. Pirate Paul Burchill is one of the most cherished weird little footnotes in wrestling history.

His finisher, the C4, was rad, his entrance, swinging down to the ramp on a rope, was rad, and the one time he made William Regal dress as his pirate wench was… well it’s not all gold.

But while most hardcore fans can well remember Pirate Paul, how many of us managed to scrub from our minds Weird Wants To F**k His Sister Paul. WWE is just your average family-friendly company that has on multiple occasions, literally flirted with onscreen incest.

Mark Henry had a sexual experience with his sister which he admitted to on camera, Vince McMahon was floated as the father of his daughter Stephanie’s baby, the Beaver Cleavage character desperately wanting to boink his mom, and then there’s this.

From 2008 to 2010, Paul Burchill appeared sporadically on WWE TV accompanied by his kayfabe sister Katie Lee and from their very first promo it was clear where WWE was going.

Katie was stroked his arm, talked about how beautiful her brother was and how whatever Katie wants, Katie gets, and apparently what Katie wanted was that pirate D. After WWE went PG in mid-2008 a few months later, the incest angle was dropped leaving Burchill will pretty much nothing to do.

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