Which wrestlers have one great and one terrible gimmick?

 

There are many wrestlers who had terrible gimmicks before going on to achieve major success in the professional wrestling world, but the one example that always sticks out to me is none other than Glenn Jacobs, otherwise known as Kane.

Before playing the part of the “Big Red Machine” Glenn was known as Isaac Yankem, DDS in the WWF. He was an evil dentist. The whole character was ridiculous. Even the name was corny, “I. Yankem”.

As if the whole concept of an overgrown deranged dentist wasn’t cringey enough he was also given rotten teeth as part of the gimmick. Because hey, having a guy who can’t even practice what he preaches makes him an even bigger a-hole, right!?

Jacobs was clearly talented but the demented dentist character was never going anywhere. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Glenn as after he’d shed the bad dentist gimmick he ended up with another bad gimmick as he became “Fake Diesel” as the WWF tried to pass him off as the recently departed Kevin Nash.

Glenn would shortly end up with the character that he would make famous as he took on the role of The Undertaker’s masked brother, Kane. Much like The Undertaker gimmick itself the character was ludicrous and could have bombed but Glenn was perfect for the character and was perfect for the gimmick.

He was a talented and athletic big man who did a fantastic job of playing Kane as pro wrestling’s version of Michael Myers. The character caught on big time with the audience and has stood the test of time. Glenn quite recently found himself being deservedly inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.