By Dan Pointer

Wrestling is weird isn’t it? Where else could you see a creature from the underworld vs. A stock broker (see the Boogeyman vs JBL) or men with unicorn horns dancing to a gospel choir?

It’s the suspension of disbelief that makes wrestling beloved by millions across the globe. It is the only place in the world where somebody can change overnight and nobody will bat an eyelid and sometimes, just sometimes, completely out of the blue, a gimmick change will be a huge hit with fans and completely revitalise a wrestler’s career. Here are five of the most extreme gimmick changes that worked.

5 

Broken Matt Hardy 

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When a gimmick can completely kill internet fans complaints about somebody you know it’s worked a treat and that’s exactly what happened with Matt Hardy in May 2016. His heel run with the TNA world championship had not gone down well with many fans referring to him as ‘Fat Lardy’ because of his stale persona and slightly out of shape figure. Then, overnight, he completely changed. He returned after being put through a table by his brother Jeff, now claiming he was broken and the rest is history. There are so many twists and turns to this storyline and so many different characters in the broken universe that it has done the unthinkable and put TNA back on the professional wrestling map.

4 

King Booker 

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King Booker was such a drastic difference from the Booker T we knew, that fans could barely believe their eyes. Here was a man who went from doing spinaroonie’s to wearing a crown and speaking in a brilliantly bad English accent. His obnoxious entrance theme and his wife Sharmell screaming “All hail King Booker” drew some amazing heel heat and he even went on to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Who’d have thought a cheap robe and crown could be so successful?

3 

John Bradshaw Layfield 

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Remember that stock broker I mentioned earlier? What if I told you he was once a bar fighting, beer drinking tough man with a thing for legitimately beating people up? That’s how JBL came about. He left behind his Texan roots and became, in his own mind at least, the king of Wall Street. This gimmick enabled JBL to become the longest reigning world champion in Smackdown history and one of the most despised wrestlers on the entire roster throughout the ruthless aggression era.

2 

Kane 

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You know the ‘Devils Favourite Demon?’ What if I told you he was once Jerry Lawler’s personal dentist? Before he was the Undertakers brother Kane was Dr Isaac Yankem, a dentist with a love of hurting patients and causing misery wherever he went. However, in April 1997, during a Hell in a Cell match between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker the lights went out and alongside Paul Bearer was Kane, a 7-foot-tall masked monster and the kayfabe brother of the deadman. Since then, Kane has been through almost every storyline imaginable but has stuck with the company in its darkest times and now nearly 20 years later, aged 49, Kane is still one of the WWE’s most reliable performers. I don’t think we’d be saying the same thing if he stuck around as a dentist, do you?

1 

Sting 

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Sting was once a smiling, brightly coloured warrior with a glittery cape and bleach blonde hair but in 1996 one of the greatest characters ever was born. He was darker, he wore black and spectated matches from the rafters and was seen as WCW’s only hope of stopping the New World Order from destroying the company from the inside. This former ‘happy go lucky’ superstar was now standing in the way of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hollywood Hogan and the whole army of NWO members. He was no longer seen as just another WCW wrestler. He was now the fans one true hope of taking down the outsiders and was viewed as WCW’s saviour. He may have now retired after a questionable WWE run but one thing is for sure, changing from Surfer Sting to Crow Sting was the best thing he ever did for his career.